3 Days Old....

I can't believe I have a 3 day old. It's crazy just how much she has changed and grown in the last 3 days. The first time I saw her, I didn't get to see her face. She had on a CPAP breathing machine that covered her nose completely and was attached to her hat so I didn't even know if she had hair. A feeding tube in her mouth and goggles over her eyes. The only exposed part was her mouth....and it was a cute mouth!

Now she only has the feeding tube and a nasal cannula. She actually looks like a little baby. We are now able to hold her pretty much when we want. I go in every 3 hours for her feedings and hold her while she gets them. Today we even attempted putting her on the breast and she did amazing! She had her first poop today which is very exciting.  To be on the safe side they went ahead and had done an X-ray and some labs to make sure there was nothing clinically wrong and everything came back normal.  Now she is pooping up a storm. She is just proving that she does things on her own time. She has been so alert and awake today and it is so nice to get to see her eyes open and really get to talk to her.

There are 3 other babies in the NICU with her, 2 boys and a girl.  The nurses were joking that one of the boys was making eyes at Claire and was hooking them all up today and it was making me smile thinking about what a sweet little family the NICU is. Everyone is so warm and you really start to bond with everyone, even the other parents.

Carly and Clay came up to visit today and we got to show them some good pictures of Claire. I am not going to let them meet her for a while. Probably not until we get closer to being discharged so it is fun to show them her progress through pics.

On another note, I have been thinking a lot about God's plan and just how amazing he works. Even down to the simple things....

1. The fact that I had already done my maternity pictures the week before makes me so happy.  I know it is not a big deal but I would have been devastated if I didn't have any pictures of me pregnant with her.  Again crazy that I even did them... if my mom hadn't been moving I never would have.

2. I had just cleaned my whole house and did all the laundry and put it away on Monday when this all happened. I never put the kids laundry away. I normally leave it on the landing of the stairs and live out of it for a few days because I am too lazy to carry it up the stairs but for some reason I put it all away right after I folded it.

3.  A little over a week ago I got out all the newborn clothes and washed them and brought them all downstairs and in our room and organized them.  Then I put together the play pen in our room.  Seriously who does that over 2 months before their baby gets here.  I didn't even do that with the other two, I waited till I was like 2 weeks out. I never had this strong pull I just did it because I was bored one day.

4. Dylan and I were going to wait until much closer to her due date to get a new car. We had an Explorer and couldn't fit 3 small kids in car seats in it. We decided at the last minute to get it before our annual trip to Galveston at the end of May so that we would have it for the long ride. If we had waited like we initially were going to, Dylan would be car shopping without me and that wouldn't have been a good thing! haha

5.  Most importantly I found out today that the transport team at Dell Children's had been called to come get Claire and take her to Dell but after she was born the NNP felt that she could manage her here so they were called back. I seriously want to go give that girl a hug, the fact that she was confident enough to keep her here meant that I didn't have to be separated from her for 3 days while I recovered.

God is good and Claire is proof of that. Big things come in small packages and she is going to be a little firecracker! Nervous about our journey the next 2 months but can't wait for each day to see what she will accomplish.