Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Home Sweet Home

Sweet Grey Danelle,
There is nothing greater than being your Mommy.  I seriously cannot imagine my life without you, my sweet daughter.  I stare at you all day and never cease to be amazed at how God could bless me this much. Being a Mommy is more wonderful than anything I ever dreamed.  You have filled my heart and hands with love that spills over and over.  Every part of you is wonderfully made.  You are gorgeous and leave me speechless.  
Grey, I know God's plans for your life are beautiful and perfect.  I know He is going to bless you and you are going to change the world in a precious way.  I love you more than I can ever say. 
My heart is full.  
Mommy


I still cannot even find a word to describe how lovely motherhood is.  I was born to be Holden and Grey's Mommy.  Getting to have Grey here to love on and hold is almost more than my heart can handle.  


19 months ago we left a hospital with an empty car seat.  It was the most difficult and heart crushing moment, as well as entire drive to Snyder.  On Monday, we left the hospital with Grey sitting snugly in her car seat.  It was a moment I will vividly remember forever.  I cried several times that day, thanking God for His restored hope in our lives.

Being home with Grey is the best feeling in the world.  Everything has changed.  It is overwhelmingly awesome.  It is also overwhelmingly exhausting - and worth every minute of sleeplessness.  Grey is the best baby!  I kiss her a thousand times a day, and can never tell her I love her enough.  

I wish I could write down each precious moment every day, but I can't stop loving on Grey long enough to write anything.  I am going to try to recap some of the moments from Saturday night through today with phone photos.  I have uploaded these to Facebook, but I want to upload them to our online family journal as well.    

Saturday Night:
Daddy and Grey.  My heart melts.

Sunday:
 Holding her paci. She always has a hand holding her paci in.  
What a blessing!  NO tubes!  We removed the feeding tube and were thrilled to watch her do wonderful without any tubes.  

Monday:
We found out we could go home on Monday (what a HUGE BLESSING from the Lord) if Grey passed some tests.  Her bilirubin levels were still higher than we liked, but not high enough to keep us from heading home.  I was discharged Monday as well, so it was perfect timing.  We loved all of our NICU nurses and Dr. S. while we were in NICU, so I knew we would miss all of them!  Chet and I learned a lot about parenting a preemie from the NICU nurses.  The hours of sitting with Grey and talking to her nurses were a very special time of bonding for our family.
Getting our hearing test.  Passed!
 
 Just looking pretty in our Grey Danelle onesie (check out Couture Blessings on Facebook)!
 Grey had to sit in her car seat for one hour to take the "car seat test".  Passed!
One of the most wonderful moments in my entire life.  Leaving the hospital with a full car seat.  She might have only been 4 lbs. 14 ounces, but she FILLED that car seat with love! 

We carefully made the trek from Lubbock to Snyder.  I had not been home in two weeks, so it made it all even more surreal.  We arrived at home around 6pm.  Tisha was home already, with dinner on the stove.   Many friends made our arrival even more amazing (chalked driveway, tree planted in our front yard, balloons, welcome sign, etc.).  

I held Grey the entire first night.  I could not put her down.  We found out she could roll completely over, so that made it even more clear to us that she would not be able to leave my arms.  :)  

Tuesday:
Our first full day at home was amazingly beautiful.  We established a schedule and started to put all the stuff away from the hospital and past two weeks.  Tisha was (is) our life saver here!  

 Grey is a great sleeper!  Isn't she precious?!
Middle of the night smiles!

Tuesday evening we took a walk in the beautiful weather to meet our sweet neighbor friends, who have loved and prayed for Grey for the past 8 months.  Grey is still very fragile and small, so we are limiting a lot of visitors until she is stronger, but we loved getting to meet the O. family!

Wednesday:
Today was such a big one for us!  Grey had her first doctor appointment with Dr. G. in Lubbock.  Oh boy - we packed what seemed like 10 days worth of luggage for the hour and a half drive.  ;)  
 More middle of the night sweetness!  Thanks to Diana, we actually slept a couple hours, since she taught us how to make a "nest" to keep Grey from rolling over.  
 Headed to the doctor!
 We LOVE that Aunt Carrie is our nurse at the doctor!
 Grey did not love getting weighed, but Mommy and Daddy were so proud of her weight gain!  Grey weighed in at 5 lbs. 1 oz.!  She is nearly back at her birth weight!  One thing I stressed over a lot was that Grey would gain the right weight.  She is doing wonderful.  She got a clean bill of health, and did not even need to get pricked or prodded.  Dr. G. and Aunt Carrie are awesome!  
 Me smiling after I found out our little angel would not need any pricks.  
 Tisha's collage of Grey's adorable expressions.  She looks so much like her Daddy, I laughed out loud when I saw this!  Chet makes all those faces! lol
 Tisha had an impromptu photo shoot with my sweetheart.  This was what she looked like after the exhausting shoot.  I am SO excited to share her photos soon!!  They amazing! 
 Cuddling with Tisha after her photo session.
My little thank you card helper.  My view can't get any sweeter.  

It's late and my husband is telling me I should sleep.  :)  Hoping to better keep up with photos on here, but no promises since Grey keeps my hands and heart a little occupied!

He is your praise, and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen.  Deuteronomy 10:21

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