On a Saturday in late December, I happened to be out and about while NPR’s Car Talk with Click and Clack was on, and I was intrigued by the weekly puzzler, which involved re-arranging matchsticks to get a particular sum. So when I got home, I laid out the problem for Amy, and she got it right away. I submitted her answer and then forgot about it. I haven’t listened to Car Talk since.

So today, one of my former students emails to ask if “Amy Jensen of Arlington Texas” is my wife. Because apparently her (correct) answer won the puzzler! (I’m guessing that it was a re-run that he heard, since the winner should have been announced on the first episode in January.) Did anyone else hear this? Is it in fact true?

Of course, my wife is amazing for reasons mostly unrelated to her ability to solve puzzles. She works so hard; she’s a great cook; she helps keep me organized and motivated; she’s a remarkable encourager; she’s my best friend. And she’s a really good mom!

Update 2/2/2010: We have the audio clip! . . .

Becca now weighs 6lbs, has graduated from her plastic bin to a little crib, and is occasionally put in a swing by the night nurses.  We’re still waiting for Becca to get the hang of bottle feeding. The NICU staff has tried several methods (different bottle nipples) to help Becca have successful bottle-feeds. Currently they’re adding thickener to Becca’s milk in hopes that it will keep her from choking when she bottle feeds. The nurses keep telling us that one of these days everything is going to click for Becca and she’ll be home in a jiffy. Thanks for your continual prayers.

18 inches long and 5 lb. 9 oz.!

Many people assume that 5 lbs. is the magic number for leaving the NICU, but this is not the case. Technically, Becca only had to weigh 4lbs to come home. After she hit  the 4lbs mark, the only thing that keeps her in the NICU is her oxygen support and tube feedings. Becca came off her nasal canual on Friday and has been doing an excellent job breathing without any additional support since then. Currently, the only thing that is keeping her in the NICU is her feeding tube. In order to come home Becca must take all her feedings through the bottle. Though she had a great start, right now Becca isn’t doing too well with her bottle feedings and we’re expecting that she’ll being the NICU until sometime in February.

We continue to be pleased with Becca’s progress and good health and are thanking the Lord for working on her behalf. Thank you for your continual prayers.

This past weekend, Josh and I enjoyed our 2^nd annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day getaway. We traveled to Dallas and stayed at the Magnolia Hotel. The Magnolia Hotel is the former Mobile building (i.e., Exxon Mobile), and it was built in 1910. At the time it was the tallest skyscraper in the city and was the first to have air conditioning. We stayed in a corner room on the 24^th floor – the “historic” floor – and enjoyed our view of the city. Once again, our vacation was sponsored by credit card points. (Rent and tuition really help the points add up during the year!)

At the Magnolia, we enjoyed soda during their “happy hour” and a milk, cookies, and coffee snack at the late evening cookie bar. For dinner, we walked to a little Italian restaurant. The hot breakfast in the morning was great.

Our little vacation was relaxing for us both, especially after the events of the past 10 weeks. Josh started back to school on Tuesday and has an exciting semester ahead of him. Our next big event will be Becca coming home!

A picture from today…notice anything missing?

This week I was surprised with a “shower in a box.” My sister-in-law, along with other friends and family members, organized a special shower for us all the way from SC. Josh informed me that he had a surprise for me this week. So after coming home from school and taking my nap, I was invited by my husband into our living room to see my “surprise.” I overwhelmed to see our living room full of gifts from friends and family. (See video below!)

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After eating our angel food cake with strawberries, Josh and I enjoyed opening our gifts. As of this evening, we’re only half way through opening everything. I’ll post more pictures once we finish opening all the gifts.

The shower means so much to me. With everything going on with the unexpected early arrival of Becca, I keep thinking how I’m missing out from all the “events” surrounding one’s last three months of pregnancy (some might say that’s nice — but I was looking forward to experiencing pregnancy all the way through). It means so much to me to actually open up presents, instead of buying everything with gift cards. I know it was a lot of extra work for Ashleigh to pack and ship all the gifts — and we appreciate all that went into planning and preparing our shower. Thank you to all who helped making our shower so special!

This photo is from a couple hours ago. Holding Becca is Jennifer, her day nurse today.

Becca’s weight today is a whopping 2230 grams — that’s 4 lb 14.6 oz! She’s not getting the suck-swallow-breath thing too well, but she’s still negative 5 weeks old, so we’ll give her a break.

Amy’s working on another post to follow this one shortly.

From last evening . . .

Yeah, no posts since Becca’s last birthday. Sorry. As you may know, this is Amy’s second week back teaching, so she’s crazy busy (and tired!). Last Thursday and Friday I was at a linguistics conference in Baltimore, where it was almost as cold as it was here in Texas last week. This week I’m gearing up for my semester, which starts next Tuesday.

Becca’s weight yesterday was 2120 grams, about 4 lb 10.8 oz. She’s being fed every 3 hours, which comes out to 8 times a day. As of today, they’re giving her 42 ml per feeding. Every day for three of the eight feedings, they give her a bottle. After 20-25 min of bottle feeding, they pour the rest down her tube so as not to wear her out too much.

Sometimes she does better with the bottle than other times. Yesterday afternoon she took almost the whole bottle (all but 5 ml). Last evening, she didn’t want to wake up, and she only took about 15. This afternoon, she was awake, but she choked a few times and maybe got discouraged. She took about 25. So the big developmental prayer request right now is that she coordinates her suck-swallow-breathe routine better — on a consistent basis. Once she does, they’ll move her to bottle every other feeding.

To reward you for reading all this, here’s another photo I like from last evening:

Today is Becca’s 6-week birthday! She started out this week (Sunday) by coming out of her incubator and is now wearing clothes and working on learning to take her feedings from a bottle. Once she learns to take all her feedings through a bottle, she will be released to come home! So far, Becca takes one bottle during the day-shift and one during the night-shift. The occupational therapist works with her bottle-feeding during the day, and Josh has been able to go in during this time and learn all that goes into bottle-feeding a preemie!

Becca’s current weight is 4 lbs. and 4 oz. We’re very pleased with her progress. Thank you for your continual prayers for our little girl!

Hint: it’s one of the pretty girls in the photo. . . . Okay, here’s another photo to help you figure it out:

This evening we called the night nurse to find out her daily weight, and Becca’s reached 1800 grams! Tonight they may see how she does outside the incubator in a crib — with just clothes (!) and blankets. She may not be ready yet to hold her body heat without help, but it’s a positive step forward for her nurse to try the crib. Probably next week they’ll try her on a bottle, too. At her gestational age, she may not have the coordination to suck, breathe, and swallow all at the same time, but again, it’s great that they’re ready to try. (I have trouble myself with breathing and swallowing at the same time.)

In the photo above, you can see Becca getting a bath last night. It was the second bath Amy and I have given her (with supervision, of course).

Tonight we called the nurse instead of going in to the hospital since it was date night. After dinner out, we played 3 rounds of Memory (another gift from Aunt Cindy). Guess who won two out of three rounds?

We wrapped up the evening by reviewing last year’s goals and setting new ones for 2010. Now it’s bed time.