It's beginning to look alot like Christmas!

And Mia is ready with her Santa hat. These pictures are from Saturday. Annemarie , my mom and I spent the afternoon with Mia. Annie helped give her a bath and the nurses had been busy with their Christmas crafts. Below is Mia's Christmas card--those are her footprints making up the branches of the tree! The nurses love to do crafty things for the babies.

Mia is in her own room in the transitional nursery. It's really only because I was the only mom in the nursery when they were moving babies-they asked if I'd like to have the only private room and I jumped on it! I'll have to take a picture to lend a little perspective..... Anyway, that's why it's so dark in the bath picture. We were able to turn all the lights down and the red glow is from the "french fry lamp" that keeps Mia warm during her baths. Annie got to help this time and I think she really liked it....as for today's (or more like this week's...sorry!) update--Mia is progressing well. She is up to 3 lbs., 6.5 ozs (and yes, that .5 ozs is important!). Today, we were able to nurse for the 10am and 1pm feedings. She took in 11cc at 10 and 6cc at 1! At first. it sounds like nothing, but the nurse, lactation consultant and doctor thought it was GREAT!! So, it is!! :-) It's amazing how quickly she's growing, too. There is one preemie sleeper that she has actually grown out of! But, I think that it's mostly because it's a hospital sleeper and has been washed a thousand times in hot water and has just shrunk! Her other preemie sleepers are still rather big! She got her 2 month immunizations this weekend and did great. A little fussy after, but nothing like we expected-no fever or anything. They took her pulse ox off (the monitor that measures the oxygen saturation in her blood) and discontinued her caffeine (which helped her brain remember to breathe). She was on a nontherapeutic dose of caffeine so it wasn't really doing much for her anyway! She has only had bradycardia spells (slow heart rate) so the only wires she has is her NG tube (feeding tube) and her EKG leads. It was nice to hold her without all the other wires! She's up to 29cc every 3 hours for her feeding-almost a full ounce! They will start doing one bottle feeding at least every shift including the nursing we do every morning. So, she should start packing it on! The temperature in her isollete is at 29.5 degrees and she just needs to get to 27 to move into an open crib....so not too much longer-we hope! Tomorrow she will be 35 weeks! Again, hard to believe. I hope we're getting to the end of this part of the journey. I know that we're far from the end, but if we can just get her home....! As always, thank you to everyone for your continued love, support and prayers. Our church observed the Lord's Supper for the first time last night. What an incredible service! It was awesome to come together and remember what Christ did by sacrificing His life to save each and every one of us. It was Annemarie's first time to participate-she had many questions, naturally, but seemed to at least understand the importance of the service. Thanks again and we love you all.......