Halloween!

Hannah's costume stayed on roughly 2 minutes before she started losing peas from her pod. She stayed at Grandma Lisa's house while Cassie went to a party and the rest of us trick or treated. Holly most definitely caught some attention and scared many small children! Christian was a great pirate, but refused to wear the clip-on gold hoop earring that came with the costume!

Summer's Last Boat Trip!

September was the season's last boat trip and also marked Hannah's first! She slept through most of the fun.

Homecoming

Hannah came home today. The drive home was a little unnerving. I think Grandma Vilas sat in the backseat and stared at her the whole way home! Holly, Christian, and Cassie were at home fighting over who got to hold Hannah first. Paul finally had to make the decision of Holly going first and Christian and Cassie had to pull pretzel sticks to decide. Very official!

Leaving the Hospital!

Hannah was moved out of the isolette and into her very own crib on June 5th. She weighs 3lbs, 14 oz. She has started nursing well, but still takes a bottle from the nurses. Her feeding tube finally came out! We get to go home tomorrow on June 13th, but first Hannah has to pass her first exam. She must stay in her carseat for one hour with no changes in her vitals. Then we will be cleared for takeoff!! The Medical Center said that she was still too small to be in their regular nursery, so Vanderbilt said we could take her home with us instead. Mom and I packed up our stuff from the Ronald McDonald House and stayed the last night with Hannah in the hospital. It was a very rough night with all the babies beeping and buzzing. I will be very glad to get the tubes and wires and alarms off of her and just get to go home!

A Little Hannah History

Our little Hannah was born on May 22nd, 2006, 2 months early due to a nasty bout of pre-eclampsia on my part. She weighed just 3 pounds 4 ounces but was otherwise healthy. She was known in the NICU for her squirminess. Unfortunately, she is so squirmy that she pulls her IVs out and had to have a PIC line installed. We just had to wait for her to fatten up. She has a feeding tube that allows her bottle of breastmilk to go straight to her tummy. She burns too many calories trying to suck a bottle. She is eating 1/2 ounce per feeding. Her big brother called her "chicken legs" and this made her so mad that her heart rate skyrocketed!! She spent 4 weeks in the NICU at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital while the other kids waited patiently for their little sister to come home. I stayed (with Grandma Vilas) at the wonderful Ronald McDonald House in Nashville. Just blocks away from the hospital. Every four hours we got to go into her room and change her diaper, take her temperature and feed her with a tube until she learned to suck. Every other feeding I was allowed to hold her longer.