This week Becca is starting to smile more, and we’re loving it! Though our attempts to get her to smile are not always successful, the reward of seeing her smile is always worth it. Her “smiley” times are usually when she’s playing on the floor or right after she eats. We’re looking forward to the weeks ahead as she progresses in her ability to respond to us.

On Tuesday, Becca and I ventured outside to meet Josh as he walked home from school. Becca seems to enjoy the stroller, though she isn’t too sure about the wind or sun. We’re looking forward to taking Becca outside more, once RSV season is over. Becca will be allowed to leave the house — and be in places where there are more people — by the middle of April. We’re looking forward to taking her to church with us.

Sunday, some of Josh’s fellow classmates came to visit with Becca. So far we’ve had several local guests come  to see Becca. Debbie King was the first, then Micah and Anna Martin (not pictured), YiLing, Pastor and Shawn Lutz, and Josh’s classmates. Everyone has been very careful not to visit if they are sick, and we appreciate their thoughtfulness and look forward to seeing them when Becca is allowed out.

Saturday is Josh’s birthday, and we’ve decided to celebrate by giving him presents all week. We want to make sure he knows that he is the best husband and daddy in the whole wide world. On Sunday, we gave him a card – Monday, we made him cinnamon rolls – Tuesday, we gave him a can of Pringles – Wednesday, we gave him a box of Cheez-Its – today, we gave him a box of snack packs, and you’ll have to wait until next week to find out what the rest of the presents are.

Both Josh and I are working on our proposals and are finding creative ways to watch Becca while we write. I love using her as an excuse not to write, and we both love having her with us. She’s a wonderful distraction and great break from our research. We continue to enjoy being parents and are thankful for the many ways the Lord has kept our little girl safe.

On Saturday, Josh and I went out on our first date since Becca has been home. Debbie, another Ph.D in Linguistics student in our church, offered to watch Becca and we took her up on her offer. We think Becca was pretty good for Debbie, though she didn’t sleep the whole time, as I’d hoped.

Josh and I went to an Indian restaurant and then walked around at a park. The weather was gorgeous and it was nice to be outside. While walking on a trail, Josh spotted a little mouse, and we saw lots of fish and turtles at the pond. We’re looking forward to taking Becca with us to the park, when she’s allowed to leave the house.

After my outing to the mall yesterday, I’ve decided that I need to get out more for I did two things uncharacteristic of my usual mall trips. My goal was to get to make a return and run to the grocery store in between Becca’s feedings. While I met my first goal of making the return, I also made 3 dollars by testing two hot dogs and filling out a survey about them, and I got a free makeover at a make-up store.

This week Becca celebrates several birthdays: she turns 17 weeks today, 4 months on Friday, and her “adjusted” age hit 1 month this past Monday. She now weighs 8lbs and 12oz. Yesterday Becca rolled over, from her tummy to her back, for the first time.

We’ve been working on tummy-time with Becca. When she came home from the NICU, Becca loved being on her tummy and hated being on her back. But since she had to sleep on her back, Becca now loves being on her back and only tolerates her tummy for a little while. We have tummy play-time each day and work with Becca’s tracking and practice lifting her head. Becca continues to enjoy doing things with her mommy and daddy. Last night she helped me make her daddy’s lunch.

This week Grandpa and Grandma Jensen came for a visit. Becca enjoyed spending time with her grandparents. I was hoping she would spit-up all over Grandpa J; she instead saved all her spit-up for when her grandparents were at church

According to Weather.com, Arlington got 0.57 inches of precipitation on the first day of spring…but not the kind of precipitation you would expect for this time of year!

When people ask me Becca’s age, I’m never sure what to answer. Today she is 16 weeks old, but her “adjusted” age puts her at 3 weeks old. So we have a 16 and 3 week-old baby in our home!

Nothing new to report this week; Becca continues to do well and is keeping us entertained. You might notice that Becca is shirtless in the pictures of me bottle-feeding her. Becca is quite the little spit-upper. She usually manages to spit-up all over her clothes…and sometimes she manages to spit up all over my clothes!

Josh is on Spring Break this week, and we’ve enjoyed having him home with us. Tomorrow Grandpa and Grandma Jensen fly in for a weekend visit. We’re looking forward to visiting with them both.

Yesterday marked a month since we brought Becca home from the NICU, and we celebrated by saying “bye-bye” (as our pediatrician said) to Becca’s monitor. For the first time ever, we have a cordless baby! It’s so nice to be able to pick up Becca and carry her around our apartment, without having to worry about tripping over the cord or carrying the monitor – I love it! We even walked Daddy partway to class last night.

Yesterday, Becca also got her first set of shots, and today we went to Cook’s Hospital to get her Synagis injection. Besides the initial screams when being pricked with the needles, Becca has done great with all her shots.

Becca’s weight is 8lbs and she’s 19 inches long, and the doctor is pleased with her progress. We continue to enjoy having our little girl home with us. I love watching Josh with Becca. He’s working with her on learning to count in Jarai. Josh also found some interesting ways to watch her while he works on computer. I found out this week that I don’t have to be back at school until April 20th. This is an answer to prayer and I’m grateful for the extra time I’ll have at home with Becca.

Happy 14-week birthday, Becca! Monday, Becca had her follow-up eye appointment and passed with flying colors. The blood vessels behind her eyes stopped multiplying and are considered ordinary for a newborn. We don’t have a new weight to post for this week. Tomorrow Becca has her OT appointment and they’ll weigh her there. We’ve had a nice week and are enjoying our little girl. Becca enjoyed helping Josh enter students’ grades this week, after her bath-time with me.

Yesterday marked the 3-year anniversary of the day Josh asked me to be his girlfriend. I’m delighted that we transitioned from the girlfriend/boyfriend stage to husband and wife and have enjoyed dating my husband these past 3 years. I am blessed to be called Josh Jensen’s wife.

97 days ago, Josh and I were given some new jewelry to wear from Arlington Memorial Hospital. Our bracelets gave us the privileged to enter the NICU and visit our precious baby girl. 21 days ago, Becca left the NICU and our jewelry was no longer needed; however, we both had become so used to our bands that we never cut them off.  This past Monday night, we decided to officially end our NICU era by cutting off our hospital bands. I don’t think either of us will miss our bands, and we’re hoping the next time we wear such jewelry it will only be for a few short days!

Three months ago today, our little Becca decided she couldn’t wait any longer to meet her parents and was born 13 weeks early. It’s hard to believe all that’s taken place over the past three months, as we’ve watched Becca outgrow the spoon. We’ve very thankful to have a healthy little girl living with us. Happy 3-month birthday, Becca!

Our little Becca-bear is celebrating her 13-week birthday. Yesterday Becca’s pediatrician, Dr. Raine, decided to take Becca off her caffeine.  Lord-willing, this will not affect her breathing or heart-rate (indicated by the monitor), and Becca could be off the monitor within 2 to 3 weeks. Becca was taken off her supplementary formula and is now working toward emptying our freezer of all mommy’s milk, when she bottle feeds. Becca’s current weight is 7lbs & 5oz and her length is 19.5 inches.

We’re praising God for answering our prayer request concerning Becca being off formula and continue to pray that she’ll be a good little nurser. Thank you for your prayers!

As of today, we officially have a newborn in our home! Based on the doctor’s prediction, Becca’s due date was February 22, so now Becca’s adjusted age is one day old. Becca is enjoying her life as a newborn, including being carried by Daddy in the mobi and having  nap time with Daddy.

Now that Becca is 12 weeks old, she is becoming a very accomplished young lady. My university piano teacher made Becca a sweater, hat, booties, and little animal (I had no idea that Dr. Wilson could do this!). We decided that Becca should wear Dr. Wilson’s gifts while she had her first piano lesson. Maybe someday Dr. Wilson herself can give Becca a piano lesson!

Becca is enjoying being home with her daddy and mommy, and we’re both delighted to have her home with us. The second day Becca was home, we had a significant amount of snow for this area of Texas. Though Josh and I were unable to go out in the snow together, we both enjoyed walking around our apartment and stomping around in the snow a bit. Maybe next year, Becca will be able to go out with us and play in the snow.

It appears that Becca’s colitis is clearing up. She has a follow-up appointment with Dr. Raine next week to make sure the colitis is officially clearing up.

Josh and I enjoyed our Valentine’s Day. I am so blessed to be married to the world’s most wonderful man.

Here’s a few pictures of some of the week’s activities for Becca. Thank you for your prayers for us. We are praising God for His continual working in Becca’s life and are so grateful for His protection on her life.

Becca’s first visit with Dr. Wilfred Raine, her pediatrician, was originally scheduled for this Thursday. But because of some bloody stools Becca has had, the office moved her appointment up to this afternoon.

After looking closely at a couple diapers — one we brought in from an earlier changing, and one that Becca prepared for us in the waiting room — Dr. Raine determined it wasn’t an anal fissure producing most of the blood (though an examination revealed that she does indeed have one); there was too much blood, and it was too dark for that. Instead, he thinks it’s colitis, inflammation of the large intestine. He’s pretty certain that it’s being caused by an allergy to the cow-milk proteins in the formula that the NICU gave us to supplement Becca’s feedings. So he gave us lots of (samples of) a hypoallergenic formula. He expects the problem to clear up in about a week. Just in time for Becca’s next doctor’s visit!

Dr. Raine was highly recommended to us, and we really like him. (Today was the first day we’d met him, as well.) He spent a lot of time with us, and he’s committed to getting Becca off the formula and the monitor as soon as her progress justifies. He didn’t make a secret of his dislike for both the monitor and baby formula — but they’re necessary evils for now.

On an unrelated note, here’s a couple photos we took playing at my computer on Sunday.

Hopefully when Amy gets a chance, she’ll post some other photos — including Becca’s first piano lesson.

Happy St. Valentine’s Day to my beautiful wife and cute little baby! I love you both (and especially you, Amy!).

After 76 days in the NICU, our little Becca is finally home! Our rooming in experience went well and they released Becca yesterday afternoon to come home with us. The pictures show our hospital room, which was right next to the one I spent 11 days in before Becca came, and Abbie, Becca’s nurse for the day. One of the last things Becca did before leaving the hospital was to christen Abbie.

Becca loves her swing and is getting used to her new bed. It’s so wonderful to have her at home with us. We’re all adjusting to our new schedules. Becca requires 3 medications plus vitamins, and she eats every 3 hours. Becca has to wear a heart and breathing monitor 24/7, so she always has a cord with her. So far we’ve only had false alarms go off. We’re praying that she will do well and be taken off the monitor soon.

We’re praising God for bringing Becca home. He has answered so many prayers concerning her life. Thank you to all of you who have been praying for our little Becca.

We got the call this morning, and tonight is the night. Sometime late this afternoon or early evening, we’ll go in to the hospital and spend the night taking care of our daughter in a private room (probably in postpartum). Before that happens, we will . . .

• Fill Becca’s prescriptions at a local pharmacy
• Stop at the local police station to have our car seat installation inspected for safety
• Get training on the heart/apnea monitor that we’ll take Becca home on
• Get training on giving Becca all her medications

If all goes well, we can bring Becca home tomorrow. If Becca decides she’s not quite ready (by doing really poorly at her feedings or having apnea events, I suppose), then she’d get some more time at the NICU and we’d try again later.

Thanks everyone for your prayers. We thank the Lord for bringing Becca to this point, and we’re excited about the major life changes that start this afternoon!

It’s hard to believe that our Becca is now 70 days old – she’s made such progress since her birth on Thanksgiving Day. Becca’s current weight is 6lbs and 4.5 oz. She’s doing well with her bottle-feedings and and might be home within the next week. As of Wednesday, Becca became the oldest baby in the NICU and now holds the title “Princess of the NICU.” We’re looking forward to having Becca home this month. Thank you for all your prayers!

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.