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.

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: