June 25, 2009

Father's Day

My wild eyes =)

We are overwhelmed once again at the wonderful love and the mighty healing hand of our Savior. We just let the eye doctor and were told that Sam's blood vessels from the optic nerve had grown correctly to the retina and crossed the plain properly!! No more blood vessel check ups. Dr. Thompson really took his time and explained R.O.P. to us once again. Sam had ROP because of his prematurity. When he was delivered at 31 weeks, his development that was taking place in my womb came to a hault. In this hault, Sam's eyes stopped where they were. Usually the vessels properly grow and attach to the retina around 38-40 weeks. With Sam it has taken much longer but they are there now! God has continued to shower us with His blessings each day. It is so exciting to see Sam grow a little more each day. I can't believe that it has been 12 weeks since he so quickly came into our world and he is 4 weeks old from his due date. He is around 7lbs 8oz now. We've been able to take him more places which has been a little easier for me during the day. It was so exciting to be in church with him on Father's Day. Jeff and I never could have imagined the joy that having a child brings you. I continue to thank God for the simple things that we experience with Sam each day. I may be sleep deprived but that's much better than visiting the NICU all day, everyday. I'm thankful for things that some first time parents might not think about like being able to get him up out of his bed when he's crying or giving him a bath or even changing his clothes whenever I want. ( Sam might not be so thankful about the clothes changing) At 3am when he is wide-awake and sometimes crying and I'm trying to figure out what to try next, sometimes I sing to him, usually Jesus Loves Me and he calms right down. Singing that song to him sometimes brings tears to my eyes. Especially when Sam looks up at me with those beautiful blue eyes and looks so happy. When I sing the words -little ones to Him belong, they are weak but He is strong - it melts my heart because I know just how true those words are in Sam's life. When Sam (and Sam's family) was the weakest, our Lord provided strength and healing in his little body. At the eye doctor today, the nurse and dr continued saying how strong Sam was (as all 3 of us were trying to hold him down for the eye exam). I'm amazed at the strength of this little guy. He holds his head up and turns it without any problem. The other day when he was on his tummy he began grunting, I'm thinking this grunting was in relation to messing up a diaper, he began pushing up with one of his hands and his legs and if he could've moved the other arm out from under him, he would have rolled over. :) I know that we still have a long journey with Sam full of excitement, worry, and even fear at some times. I also know that our God is still holding Sam in His hand and protecting him which provides me with a peace about all of the things we might face in the years to come. Thank you for all of your prayers during the past 3 months. We wouldn't have been nearly as strong without the persistent encouragement and support from our family, church family, and friends. Please continue to check Sam's blog for updates and prayer requests. I'm trying to get better about posting updates. I want everyone to know how God continues to work in his little life and our family. Also, continue to pray for Sam to develop properly. We have another pediatric drs. appt July 1st and an eye appt with the opthamologist in 3 months. I'll let you know how it goes. We love you guys!

Sam's newborn pics are online for viewing. go to http://www.studioenvogue.com/main.html
click on proofing - the password is 033109 they are only up until July 4th Check them out, enjoy!

June 23, 2009

I love sleeping when my aunt Cori is holding me.

Naptime on Nonna's Couch!!

Sam is still growing. We weighed him the other night at home and he weighed 7 pounds! He is getting big fast. He likes to keep us on our toes by changing things all the time. He likes to drink different amounts each time and only sleep during the day (bc he's on his tummy). Even though he keeps us wondering what's next, we are very proud of him. We go to the eye dr. Thursday. We are just praying that we will get good news. :)

May 17, 2009

Sam actually stayed asleep through part of his bath. We found it very entertaining. We are still trying different bottles to see what works best. This bottle holds 8 oz and looks as big as Sam does. :) We had a better night last night. He stayed asleep between the feedings. I said a prayer of thanks this morning when I realized I had actually gotten a little bit of sleep between the grunts and feedings.


Sam loves Aunt Cori and his mama loves when she spends the night! :)

May 16, 2009

Our little guy that was born 2 pounds and 12 ounces is growing fast. We have a digital scale that we bought to kind of track his weight gain. It is not as accurate as the Dr's office but it lets us know whether or not Sam is gaining or losing weight. Last Thursday night Sam weighed 6lbs 0.5oz! Tonight he weighed 6lbs 9oz. He has been eating like crazy which is good but very tiring for me. :) His daddy calls him the milk monster (like the cookie monster). It is weird for me to look at someone else holding him and see how big he is really getting, but very exciting. Sam was getting a little better with his night schedule but just blew it the last two nights. When I say he stayed up all night, I mean that! He didn't go back to sleep after his feeding at 11 until 4am!!! I am very sleepy after two nights in a row without sleep. I'm not sure if it's a phase that he's going through or if he is just a stinker, but I'm hoping that our nights will get better very, very soon. We went to the morning and evening service on Sunday. He is still grunting a lot and I think it is rather disruptive in a church service. Sunday morning he even began passing some gas. He sleeps during the music pretty well but he wakes up to distract Bro. Richie as he preaches. I'm glad some of our church family is getting the opportunity to see the baby they have been praying for since March. We have our next eye exam Thursday the 25th. Please continue to pray for Sam's eyes. I'm also praying that his nights will get better and he will be able to sleep at least 3 -4 hours between each feeding time. That would probably help the headache I have right now. :)

June 9, 2009

Sunday morning

Sam has been a very busy little boy the past several days. Saturday he went to my church baby shower. Sunday he went to a church service for the first time and did pretty good. He began grunting early on but he went right on to sleep once his Pawpaw got him. Monday he went with me to the school for a short visit. It has been nice being able to take him a couple of places. We are still being very cautious with where we go and being around children - things like that. We don't want him to get sick. He is getting bigger and bigger each day. Sam is drinking almost 3 oz when he takes his bottles. His sleeping at night has improved a little bit but we still have a long way to go. :) My family and I have heard a new cry from Sam in the past couple of days. It happens when it's feeding time. He now has a cry that says - " I'm extremely mad because you haven't fed me yet!" It's kinda funny once he stops screaming. I believe he is getting a little bit of a temper. We don't go to the dr again until July 1st and his eye appointment is in Dothan at the end of June. I believe around the 25th. We are still praying that everything will continue to develop and grow correctly especially those beautiful blue eyes.

Sam's hand next to his uncle Debo's hand (uncle Brandon)

June 4, 2009

Sweet dreams.

I like my new bottle, I can hold it too.

This is my thinking face.

We had our visit to the eye dr today. Sam was not as quiet during the exam this go around. I would scream too if they put those metal clips in my eyes. The dr said that everything is still looking ok and we needed to go back in 3 weeks. We can rejoice in the fact that there are no visible problems so far and continue to pray for those little vessels to grow and attach correctly. We do get to go to someone in Dothan next time instead of Montgomery. Thank you for your prayers.

This is Sam's sad face....we think it's pretty cute.

Check out my kicks!

June 1, 2009

5 pounds 5.5 ounces!! Sam has gained almost an ounce a day since his last drs visit. The dr said everything looked good and to come back in a month. :) We will be going to Montgomery Thursday for the next eye appointment.

May 31, 2009

My due date was Friday, so Sam is 2 days old now. :) He is still growing and eating more. He especially likes to eat at night. You know, instead of the sleep thing you should do at night. He thinks we should eat at 11 pm sleep for an hour or maybe two and then have a little snack and diaper change and then stay up until the 5 am feeding. Very tiring but he is really cute while he's in the process! I believe he is having some tummy pains pretty often. He grunts a lot, not just a little cute "I'm in the room grunt" it's more of a "please make this gas go away" grunt. He turns red, balls up his fists, and even chokes himself sometimes when he has a really bad one. Wish I could push the gas out of him or that's what I think it is anyway. It's crazy how that line you always heard your parents say in painful situations. Something like - I wish it were me going through this or I wish it was me it happened to - takes on a whole new meaning when you are watching your own child making faces that look really painful. He might have me fooled for some extra kisses and attention. :) We go to the dr here in Dothan tomorrow (Monday, June 1). I'll post his new weight and updates from the visit tomorrow night. We also have an eye appointment on Thursday in Montgomery. I can't wait for the day when we can take him somewhere other than the drs office. It will be a good, but scary day. I'm not sure that I'm ready to have people breathing all over him and touching him or his seat without scrubbing their hands or using sanitizer. Sounds crazy huh?

Please pray that Sam's tummy pains and grunting will begin to let up and he can be a little more comfortable. Continue to pray for Sam's little eyes. They seem to be getting a lighter blue. (more like his daddy's) We are still unsure about his sight. We will see what the dr says Thursday. Hopefully he will say everything looks great!?. I'll keep you posted.