Getting Big

Sara has been busy growing  and weighed 9 lbs and was 23 inches at her doctors appointment last week.  She has nearly doubled her weight since birth and is doing great. Since she was so small the doctors had us adding a high calorie formula to her breast milk several times a day but she is growing so well that we don't have to supplement anymore.  She seems big to us but Ellis reminds me that some babies are born this big. Sara is in the 25th percentile for weight and the 90th percentile for height by her adjusted age. The adjusted age is her age from her due date, instead of her birth date, which is typically used for the first year for premature babies.  By her actual age she is below the 5th percentile for weight and around the 60th percentile for height.  The pediatrician is very happy with her progress. 

I also had a follow up appointment with OB last week and finally got a completely clean bill of health. I had somewhere about 30 doctor's appointments not including my 9 days in hospital and surgery after delivery.  Needless to say, everyone in that clinic knows me pretty well.  The receptionists were very sweet when I checked out and didn't need to make another appointment.  They congratulated me on my "graduation". The clinic also grave Sara a 1st Christmas ornament.  We feel very fortunate for the care we received during this pregnancy. It was a long journey but in the end we have a healthy baby and mom.  We will very likely have similar issues with any future pregnancies but at least will be able to take more preventive steps earlier now that we are aware of the challenges. 

Below are some more pictures from the last few weeks. 

Sara and Mom enjoying an evening at the dog park

 Sara and Dad enjoying a nice evening in the backyard

Serious Sara or as a friend said her soulful face

Sara and I went to the local used baby store to buy her a bouncer chair .  We found this cat hat stuck to the bottom of the chair when we got home.  You can't see it very well but it has a sleeping cat face on it.  Bogie of course had to be in the picture. Sara wasn't sure about it as a second after this picture was taking she started to cry. 

Sara has almost outgrown her newborn clothes so we went shopping for the next size up.  It was her "back to school" shop since she will be headed to day care in a few weeks. 

Sara has started to really make eye contact and follow your face.  

Night Time Fun

Sara moved to her big girl crib in her own nursery this week and has started to sleep 4-6 hours at night.  It is quite a luxury to get so much continuous sleep. Its also great timing as I head back to work in a few weeks.
Sara wasn't always such a great sleeper at night and most of her first month she liked to hang out for a few hours at night.  So sometimes we had a little fun in the middle of the night. I know she looks asleep in all these photos but she really was awake.

Sara wearing her wubbanubba as a hat

Moxie and Sara cuddling

Sara with a Beattle hair do. You can see she still had just a big of jaundice in this photo

And last but not least a video of Sara, the Composer.  Perhaps this is a future career option?

Celebrations

A few weeks ago we had a big BBQ and invited over all our friends who helped support us the last few months.  We were blessed to have friends come visit in the hospital and at home on bed rest and also bring over dinners.  The visits during my 3 hospital stays and 8 weeks at home on bed rest made a huge difference to my sanity.  The BBQ was a small way for us to say thank you.  We feel very blessed to have found such a great group of friends in the 2 years we have lived in Idaho. 

I'll have to get better with pictures as I didn't get any of the BBQ but we had some friends snap a few of us. 

Our friend Rocky was "car sitting" his dad classic Studebaker and he drove it over to the BBQ. 

Our friend Alina caught this one of Sara making a C and helped us edit it.  I love it. 

This 4th of July we had a great day with our friends Becky and Rocky and their son Rex.  We all went to the 4th of July Parade and then had a BBQ at their house.   We did not make it to the fireworks.  Considering it doesn't get dark in Idaho until close to 11pm we were all pretty tired after our big day out.
I couldn't resist dressing Sara a little festive and wanted to have her wear her blue jeans because what is more american than blue jeans.  Even though they are newborn sized they were huge.  We rolled them up to make jean capris but they slipped most of the day because the waist was about 1 inch too big.

At the Parade

Grandparents Visit

All of Sara's Grandparents have come to visit her since she was born.  We had great visits with the grandparents. We are lucky that both grandma's brought their cameras and got some great photos.

Grandma Susu, Grandpa Greg and Great Grandma Donna came out mid-June. We went to the farmers market, ate great Grandma Donna food, but mostly we just hung out with Sara. Sara was sad when they left because she wasn't held all day. 

4 Generations of Cunninghams

Ellis, Grandpa Greg, Grandma Susu and Sara -  You can see who gets all the attention 

With Great Grandma Donna

Susan took some great photos of our little family.  I love these. 

A few weeks later Grandpa John and Yiya and their 4 dogs came to visit.  We were expecting a bit more chaos with 6 dogs in the house but all the dogs were good and got along.

Yiya, Grandpa John and Sara

Fun with Grandpa -  I love this photo, she is so alert. I like to think its a smile but its likely a cry

Grandpa shared his hat with Sara so she was out of the sun.  It was a little big.

Proud Grandpa

On both visits we caught both Grandpas sleeping   

1st Post

I was a little unsure about starting a family blog but I have some good friends who blog and I love reading being able to read about what they are up to. Especially now that we are in Idaho its becoming more of a challenge to keep everyone up to date on our lives so this will be my attempt to keep everyone up to date.  I hope you enjoy.

Catching Up on Sara

I thought I would start this blog with an update on the newest Cunningham, Sara Reed Cunningham. Sara was born May 11th at 7pm at 4lbs 12oz.  Sara was 5 1/2 weeks early. Although she was early we feel very blessed she wasn't even earlier as it was a challenging pregnancy.  At 25 weeks, I had signs of early labor and its only by the grace of God, a good ultrasound tech and doctor that we caught it. I spent a week in the hospital followed by 8 weeks at home on bed rest. It was a long few months but it was worth it as it gave Sara another 9 weeks to grow.  Thankfully we had amazing support from friends and family to help us during this time. 

Sara spent 10 days in the NICU which was much shorter than we initially expected.  She spent a few days on oxygen to make breathing easier for her. She had a feeding tube and an IV to help hydration and nutrition while she got strong enough to eat on her own.  She also spent most of her time in UV light to help with jaundice.  Its sounds like a lot but mostly she just needed a little time and help to get stronger.

I've been hesitant to share many NICU photos because many photos look intense but I've included a few to show brand new Sara. 

Sara the day after her birth

Glow bug baby in her UV light

Since coming home, Sara has been doing great.  She gets bigger everyday and is just like any other baby.  She is just over 8 weeks old and is around 8lbs.  She seems big to us but is still little considering she is two months old. We are having a great time with her. She gets more alert each day.

Bogie and Moxie are great with her and watch over her.  If anything, they might be a bit too affectionate. 

Moxie supervising tummy time 

A few more photos from the last 2 months

3 weeks old

4 weeks old

 7 weeks old - Dancing

Sleeping

Smiling

Out to lunch

That is a quick update on Sara Reed.  I'll include some additional posts on our activities from the last two months.