Thursday, November 22, 2007 - Update

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!! We went over to my brother and sister-in-law’s house. . .many of you know them as Izzy’s parents. It was an absolutely fabulous meal and I hope they know how wonderful it was. Ryan and I were the first in line, pigged out and then went back for seconds. You’d think we hadn’t eaten in years! We don’t eat too well anymore since we’re at the hospital every night. Today, Olivia got a Christmas blanket, cap and booties from her great aunt, Sherri and a gift card from her great aunt, Cheryl and great uncle, Terry. Plus, she received all kinds of fun things from Grandma and Grandpa. She also received a whole bag of clothes that Izzy has outgrown. The events of this year made us realize what we have to be thankful for. I’m thankful that we have a God who is merciful and who blessed us with the most amazing daughter in the world. I’m thankful that I have a husband who really meant it when he said, “For better or worse.” I’m thankful for friends and family who have supported us through the most difficult days of our lives. I’m thankful that there are so many people who truly care about Olivia. I’m thankful to have the memories, although few, with my sweet Logan. I’m thankful for the neonatologists, RTs and nurses who, with God’s miraculous touch, have saved my daughter’s life. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

I have a few milestones to tell you about today. Olivia broke the 2000 gram mark yesterday and now weighs 4 lbs 7 oz! I’m scrambling to make sure she wears all of her preemie outfits before she outgrows them. Tomorrow, she gets to wear her ‘My First Christmas’ outfit (at least I waited until after Thanksgiving!) Today, the blog reached its 10,000th visitor who happened to be someone in Connecticut. Olivia has people from all over the world check up on her (U.S., Canada, New Zealand, England, Panama, etc.) I hope she knows how special she is! She continues to do well, but has had 3 As and Bs today for some reason. She hasn’t had many of those lately, so we don’t know why they’ve become more frequent. We also noticed that her blood work came back yesterday with an elevated GGT, which is a liver enzyme. We know that the doctors have been watching it, but are not sure what it really means. The normal range extends to around 160 and hers is 503. Hopefully, we’ll find out more about that when we talk to the doctor. Please continue to pray for her strength, growth and healing. She hasn’t really wanted to breastfeed lately. When we have her out, she either wants to sleep or be playful. Tonight, she wanted to be cute and playful and was smiling at her mom and dad. My heart just melted. They really aren’t expecting her to feed orally right now. . .or at least not until she is at least 36 weeks. Right now, we are really just concentrating on bonding and for Olivia to become accepting of objects in her mouth. She is almost 3 months old, but you have to remember that she shouldn’t really be out of the womb yet. Just think about all she has had to endure when most babies are still snug inside their moms. Every day (not just today) I am so thankful for my Olivia Paige.