Cellophane flowers of yellow and green

Days 45,46,47, 48, and 49 (Wow its been a crazy busy week)

Weight- 2lbs 5oz now!  Growing up so big!

Disposition-fashionable

This has been the busiest and best week yet.  Let me start from the top.

Prudence finally got to wear clothes!  Oh my goodness you have no idea how excited I am that I can finally see my daughter wearing cute little girl clothes! Part of the reason they make us wait until over 1000 grams is her temperature regulation.  Babies have to be a certain weight before they start trying to get them to regulate their own temperature.  She used to wear a temperature probe at all times and the bed adjusted its temperature based on hers.  Now her bed is set on one temperature and we monitor hers every four hours to make sure she is not getting too hot or too cold.  So far she is doing well.  

Also the PICC line came out.  She finished up her antibiotics and has been doing well for the most part.  She is still having apnea episodes.  A few are ones she is fixing on her own, a few are ones that she has to get a spanking for.  But for the most part, she is bright eyed and bushy tailed.  Hopefully in the next few days we can start trying to feed her a small amount of food orally!  Thats a big step on the way to home!  And a huge shout out to all the NICU mommy's that have cared for Prudence.  You guys are my heros.  Almost everyone of you is in my thoughts and prayers since I feel as many of you are almost family at this point.  I am sure Prudence thinks she has a lot of aunts out there.  

We had a photo shoot as well with Capturing Hopes, the NICU photography organization that provides free professional photography for NICU parents.  We were asked to allow our photo session to be a part of a story that the local paper is doing.  And we couldn't have been happier to participate.  We can't wait to read the story of these wonderful people doing such a wonderful service.

"Awww! Poodence"

On the home front, Lucy has turned 2!!!  So today for the first time ever, I had both of my girls in the same room at once.  It was such a beautiful happy moment in time.  Of course it was short lived since Lucy is such a busy body.  But knowing that Lucy has seen Prudence in person makes my heart happy.  Today we did a very small birthday party and made Lucy the center of attention.  She loved all her presents and her tinker bell tutu that Auntie Megan made for her.  It was such a wonderful day.   Our sweet baby girl is growing up before our eyes and becoming a little lady.   

What bath time is complete without lady bug headband time........

I also got medically cleared by my doctor and finally got answers to some of my questions.  My doctor determined that my early delivery was because of a placental abruption.  Basically, my placenta was tearing away from the uterus and Prudence and I could have bled to death if left unattended. We are lucky on so many levels that I can only thank God for the blessings he has given us.  Now I am being worked up for clotting disorders because my doctor thinks that a clot might have precipitated the abruption.  But the even better news...I can still have more children in the future!  I know people are thinking...how can you think of such things with such a handful in these two little whippersnappers already.  I have always wanted a decent size family though and even if I could not have any more biological children, Juan and I would have sought to grow our family eventually.

Eating the icing on the birthday cake!

Mostly we have just been trying to keep our heads above water still.  Our schedule is so jam packed, especially since I returned to work.  The impending holidays and the constant struggle to balance all this on one jam packed tray is just exhausting.  Sigh.                                                                The rewards are worth it.  So many fantastic memories from this week.  

Good night and sweet fairy birthday dreams from micropreemie world!