Innocence is a beautiful thing.

I got these pictures of Addie last night while we were getting her ready for bed.  I absolutely love how pure and innocent she is... 

How can you not love that face?!

I'm pretty sure we have a picture of Abbie that is similar to this one... I will have to find it and compare. :)

Sweetie...

See?  She is precious even when she cries!

:)  Love.

Lovin' it!

Can I just tell you how much easier life is without our daily drive to and from the hospital?!  We have been home for a little over a week, and we are finally settled in and loving having Addie at home!  Are we tired?  Yes.  Are we weary?  Yes.  
Do we love every minute?  YES! :)

Addie went to her first pediatrician appointment last week and he is very pleased with her progress!  She weighed 5 pounds, 13 ounces and she was 19 1/4 inches long!  Woohoo!  We are working hard to put some more weight on her so she can catch up a little bit... we'll go see Dr. Huss again in a couple of weeks to see how she's doing. :)

As for life at home, Addie is really a good baby... we're learning what her cries mean and what she needs to be comfortable.  We have to remember that she's technically not even supposed to be born.  Crazy!  That gets hard sometimes when we want her to do certain things like put herself to sleep or learn to play.  We also can't really start looking at all of those charts and such until she's a lot older.  No biggie.  We can wait.

Naturally, I have a lot of pictures from her homecoming day that I want to share:

Sweet baby changing into her coming home outfit!

A bittersweet day for our fave nurse, Carly :(  We miss her already!

All dressed up and ready to go!

Our hospital family :)

Itty bitty baby in a big ole car seat!

Addie did very well during her first car ride!  She loves it!  We may have to drive around on nights that she can't get to sleep. :)

The Jackson 3 at home at last :)

Waited nine weeks for this picture...

More pics to follow soon.  I've got a baby to feed and Jack Bauer to watch. :)

Much love to everyone for your continued support and prayers.  
Y'all mean the world to us!

There's no place like home...

No words could be more true.

Soon, I will post more pictures from our homecoming weekend... but right now I must go because I have a baby AT MY HOUSE who needs to be fed!! :)

Happy 2 months, Addie!

Well, folks... our baby girl is 2 months old! :)

Addie has had a busy few days!  She has been rockin' out on the bottle!  She is almost finished with her two month vaccinations, and, as you can see from this picture below, she passed her car seat test!

 We were so excited to see her in her car seat when we got to the hospital on Sunday!  She looks so tiny in that big ole thing!

Keep in mind that she has the "snuzzler" inside of the seat, and she still has a while to go before she fills it completely!  Sweet little thing...

 She's practicing her peek-a-boo skills. :)

Addie weighs 5 pounds, 5 1/4 ounces now!  I love this picture of her little diaper booty!  That is a preemie diaper even though it looks more like Depends. :) This was actually the day before her birthday, and she weighed 5 lbs, 4 1/2 oz. that day.

Addie is 18 1/2 inches long, too!  Here's a great shot of her all stretched out on the scale!  She has crazy hair... Mommy had just given her a bath. :)

 Here is the little angel on the scale next to her 2 month sign!  It's fun to see how much she's grown since her 1 month old pictures! :)

Addie is eating 40 mLs of Mommy's milk every three hours.  She's been taking all bottles for the past few days (which is a big deal!).  She is very close to coming home... we are praying she continues moving in the right direction this week!

Addie is still very, VERY adorable! :)  This is one of my favorite outfits!  The good news is that it's a newborn sized outfit!  She has outgrown some of her preemie clothes... sniff! sniff! :( ...so we've moved on up to some newborn clothes!  I am very glad she's growing so well, but I am kinda sad that she'll never be that small again. :(

Sweet Addie,

You are the light of our lives, precious girl!  We have loved watching you grow and learn so much in just your short two months.  We can see your personality coming to life, and it is so sweet!  You make us smile every single day!  Hopefully, we'll be rocking you in our arms at our house soon!  You're going to LOVE your room! :)

We love you more than you'll ever know!

Mommy and Daddy

8 weeks

This is about how we feel around here.  We are tired.  We are weary.  We are mentally, physically, and emotionally drained.

Yet, all the while, deep down in the deepest parts of our souls, we are thankful.  We have discovered more about ourselves in the past 8 weeks of Addie's life than we have ever imagined.  Here are a few of the lessons we have learned:

-True love.  We know a certain kind of love with each other (Eric and me), but loving your child is a whole other kind of love!  I've heard that from so many people through the years, but experiencing it for yourself is an experience like no other.  I still catch myself looking at her and thinking, "Holy cow!  She's ours!  We get to keep her!" :)

-God is amazing.  He has blessed us beyond belief in the past, and He has helped us grow closer to Him through this season of our lives.  We have no clue why Addie came early, but we've learned to rest in knowing that He's got a plan.

-It's okay to cry.  I can't tell you how many times I've broken down over the past 8 weeks.  I have good days and not-so-good days.  I've been through a plethora (love that word :) of emotions... elated, overjoyed, exhausted, angry, sad, depressed... the list goes on and on.  I've learned to not hold everything in... I feel so much better after a good cry. :)

-Patience.  I will be the first to admit that I'm not very good at this one.  It's been especially hard these past few days.  This past week was by far one of the most difficult.  We are so close to bringing her home... we pray for patience over and over each day.  God has renewed our strength today (thankfully), and we are content in waiting for His perfect timing.

There are other things I could bore you with (ha), but instead, I will show you some pics of our sweetie!  Way more exciting!  She has changed a lot lately... getting cuter if you ask me. :)

Ah, the bottle.  We have struggled with this little thing.  Thank the Lord she is catching on here lately!  We are praying the trend continues so we can bring our little girl home with us! :)

Addie is growing like a weed!  She is up to 5 pounds, 2 3/4 ounces tonight!  We measured her right after we took this picture... she is close to 19 inches now. :)

Her little face is adorable!  Her cheeks are filling out and she makes cute faces from time to time!  We know she probably doesn't have much control over her face muscles, but they sure are precious! :)

We could look at her all. day. long.  Enough said. :)

...and she smells so, so sweet!  Sometimes when we get home from the hospital, I can smell her on my clothes.  Makes me melt... and miss her. :(

She is so kissable!  We kiss her at least a thousand times when we are there! :)  ...and somehow it's still not enough!

She is a major cuddle bug!  After she eats, she loves to curl up on our chests and fall asleep.  Can't wait to do that all the time when she's home with us!

Addie is just amazing.  That's all there is to it!  We are so thankful she's ours! :)

Thoughts

Tonight I'm thinking of my little girl...

I'm wondering what she's doing right now.

I'm wondering if she is missing us like we're missing her.

I am dreaming of the day that I won't have to wonder how she is.

I'll just walk into the next room or look over to her bassinet and see how she's doing.

I actually can't wait to have sleepless nights with her.

I look forward to warming bottles and washing clothes and changing diapers.

I'm looking forward to her cries waking me up in the wee hours of the morning.

I can't wait to see her little booty in her own little bed.

I am looking forward to not having to drive to see her each day.

If I don't see I-65 North for a few months (or a lot of months), I will be just fine.

I'm excited to not have to fill my car up with gas every couple of days.

I will miss the lady that sits in the booth that leads to the Mid-State Parking Garage.  

Well, okay, I'll be okay without her each day... I'll send her a card.

I'm watching a show about lottery winners.

If I won the lottery, I would build more NICUs so people didn't have to travel very far to visit their preemies.

I certainly wouldn't mind filling up the gas tank in my car.

Now I'm thinking about this precious baby again.

Our "coming home day" is so close I can taste it.

I want to put her car seat in our car so badly.

I actually feel a little jealous when I see mommies walking around with their babies.  Is that bad?

Then I am convicted.  God reminds me that I am SO blessed to have Addie.

The jealousy goes away.

Now I'm thinking about my little girl again.

My little pea in a pod. 

And I'm smiling. :)

A Day in the Life...

Today, I've decided to participate in a blog that I've followed for a while... Kelly at Kelly's Korner has "Show Us Your Life" on Fridays, and today she has asked us to tell what our typical day is like.  

So this is a typical day for a Mommy with a baby in the NICU. :) Keep in mind, none of our days are the same, but this schedule is one of my favorites that we've had during the past 50 days in the NICU.

7:30-9

Wake up, pump, eat breakfast, watch GMA :)

9-10

Shower, get dressed, maybe throw a load of laudry in the wash

10-10:50

Travel to the hospital in Nashville to see Addie

10:50-11

Find a spot in the parking garage, get scrubbed-in to the NICU

11:00 feeding...

Take Addie's temperature, change her diaper, feed her, and cuddle :)

12-12:30

Pump again

12:30-1:45

The NICU closes for lunch, so we head out to grab a bite, too.

1:45-2

Back to find a spot in the parking garage, and scrub back in to the NICU

2:00 feeding...

Temp, diaper, and food for sweet Addie... and some extra cuddling and watching her sleep :)

4:00

Pump again

We stay in the NICU until her next feeding at 5:00... just watching and loving on her as much as we can.

6:00

NICU closes, and we head back to the house.

7:00

Dinner time (sometimes brought to us by sweet friends and family!)

8:00-11:00

Run errands, watch a little TV, clean up around the house, etc.  Sometimes it feels like our day starts when we get finished with dinner...

11:00

Pump again.. then get ready for bed.

Usually around 11:30 or 12

Lights out.

We sleep pretty well each night so that we are ready to start it all over again the next day.  This schedule may not sound like much, but it's pretty draining!  No matter how hard it is, though, we wouldn't do it any other way.  You do whatever you have to do to see this sweet face each day:

I can't wait to start our own schedule when Addie gets to come home with us!  Hopefully, that will be in the next couple of weeks! :)

Prayer works.

Since the days I was in the hospital before Addie's birth, I have been AMAZED at how many people have shown support through thoughtful words, phone calls, emails, cards, gifts, dinners, gas cards, and prayer.  We're never going to be able to thank each and every person in the way they deserve, but rest assured, our hearts are overflowing with thankfulness for each one of them!

I can't wait for the day that we can sit with Addie and show her this blog... I want to show her how much prayer means and how much it works!  We have heard from so many people who are praying for a little girl they have never even met!  It humbles me to think that they care so much for our baby girl.  I can't wait to tell Addie about how awesome God's power is even during the most difficult times in our lives.  My prayer is for her to realize that God had plans for her even when she was such a teeny tiny little baby in the NICU... and that He has even bigger plans for her as she grows!  All she has to do is let Him take control. **

I decided to create a couple of maps to show her where all of these prayer warriors lived while she was in the hospital... here's what I have so far:

The hot pink states are the ones where people are praying for Addie... that's a lot of states!  ...and that's a lot of praying for our sweet baby! :)  Makes me tear up just thinking about it...

I also have a map that shows some other countries where people are praying.

  

The purple countries show where we have sweet friends and family praying.

If you happen to be in a place that I've not highlighted, please let me know.  Also, if you check in on Addie, please become a follower of our blog so that one day she can see all of the people who care about her. :) Just look in the right column of the blog... under the "Followers" header you'll see where you can click "follow." :)

Thank you again for loving our little girl... we are going to see her tonight, so I will take some new pictures to post!  Her little face is filling out and it is SO precious! :)

**I heard an awesome quote at church this past Sunday...

"Even when things seem out of control, God is still in control."

Amen?! :)