She's Home!

Lauren finally got to come home today, and we are soo excited! It's great to just be able to spend time as a family and not spend our days driving back and forth from the hospital. However, we are very thankful that everything has turned out so well and that Lauren didn't have to spend even more time in the hospital.

Big Sister Elle

Elle actually got to meet her baby sister a few days ago, and she was really excited. She wanted to point out all of Lauren's body parts and give her lots of kisses. She tries to copy most everything I do with the baby and even wanted to wear the breastfeeding pillow and hold Lauren. Elle doesn't quite understand that Lauren only cares about eating and sleeping, so she's already been showing her all of her toys. And, of course, Elle now wants to copy Lauren also and has started stealing her pacifier (even though we could never get Elle to take one as a baby) and loves to wear Lauren's hat. I can't wait to see how much she will interact with Lauren as she gets a little bigger!

An Update on Lauren

Here are some more pictures of Lauren from the past few days. She had weaned down to room air yesterday, and today, she is completely off oxygen! So now, we're just working on getting her feeding well and gaining weight so she can come home! She is such a peaceful baby, at least when we're there with her, although the nurses have said that she gets pretty fiesty and mad sometimes. Thanks again for all the prayers from family and friends--we've really appreciated all the support and well wishes throughout this whole process!

Little fingers

Daddy and Lauren

The thing in her nose is a nasogastric (ng) tube, and she gets some of her milk through that,
since they don't want to tire her out too much. She's nursing for the other feedings.

You can't tell that well in this picture, but she has really
light hair, especially in the front, and lots of it!

Snoozing in her isolette

Our First Angel

Here are some pictures of Elle taken over the past few weeks. She has been such a good sport through this whole situation with baby Lauren, especially since she had never been away from me overnight beforehand. We have such good friends here who pitched in to take care of her, and she, of course, loved spending time with Nana and Papa. It's still been hard for Elle, since we have to leave so much to go back and forth from the hospital, but we're trying to spend as much time with her otherwise, and she's done so well.

Anyway, these first few pictures are from the first two UGA football games. Kyle's mom (Elle's Mimi) brought her this adorable cheerleading outfit, and she's already gotten a lot of attention in it!







This picture and video is from our last trip to the mall. The video explains it, but she just had to get all fixed up to go shopping!

Lauren Grace has arrived!

So, most of you who look at this blog have probably gotten an e-mail update, but I just wanted to post the pictures and all in here so they'll be up.

Lauren Grace Young was born at 1:24pm today (Friday, September 12th), and she weighed in at 4lbs. 1 oz., so a little smaller than the ultrasound estimated, but still a good size for being 33 weeks. She came out screaming and looked very pink, so all good signs. Everything looks good so far, and we're just hoping that she continues to do well over the next few days and weeks. So, thank you all for the thoughts and prayers, and please keep praying for her as you think about it!