Julia and Emily's World

Emily continues to get stronger. She has been off the oxygen supply since 9am this morning and has been sustaining normal levels since. At noon they started to give her real food (milk). She started with 6 mL to make sure she could tolerate it. She did so they have been gradually increasing it. Her 9pm feeding this evening was 15mL. We are excited by her progress. Emily is almost back to her birth weight. She is around 2175 grams (with her wires). Her birth weight was 2180. I'm sure as the feedings continue she will gain weight quickly. We are able to hold her for a short period. I was the lucky one tonight that got to hold her while she fed. She looked very peaceful and slept most of the time. Mommy was discharged today so tonight is the first night separated from Emily. It is tough but we know she is receiving excellent care.

With or without Mommy and Daddy, Halloween goes on for Julia. Julia's Halloween festivities started at school with a walk around Daddy's work and continued with in-class activities. I look forward to seeing Julia in her costume with her classmates and was sad to miss it this year. In the evening, Julia went trick or treating around Grandma's house while back at our house, Julia's other Grandma and Papa gave out the candies. Grandma and Papa stayed over for the whole weekend and just went home this afternoon. They were a BIG help. Julia enjoyed their stay. She especially enjoyed having Grandma sleep in her bed! I myself enjoyed having my grass cut, weeds picked and bushes trimmed by Papa. The neighbours think we're rich...a cleaning lady AND a gardener!

Emily continues to make us proud. Despite her weakened state it is clear she has a strong will. Early this morning they found that she was having trouble keeping her oxygen staturation levels up. As a result they have moved her to an incubator with oxygen rich air supply. They had her like this since 2am. Earlier this afternoon they let her breath normal air to see if she can sustain O2 levels on her own. She went around 2 hours but now she is back on the oxygen. They are holding off feeding her normally (formula and milk) for now because it adds stress to her system. She is on an IV feed. They don't know yet why she is having this trouble. They are giving her antibiotics in case it is an infection. Chest x-rays haven't revealed anything abnormal. Heart sounds healthy. Her blood work results will be in on Tuesday which may tell us more. It is heartbreaking seeing her like this and not being able to hold her or even touch her. We know she will gain her strength and ...

Well the blog now needs a new name. On Halloween night, Julia became a big sister to a tiny little sister. Little Emily came very quickly Halloween night. Sheryl was scheduled to be induced on November 1st but Emily couldn't wait. After mild labour pains during the day, they decided to induce a day earlier since things were already progressing. Once the real contractions started things moved very quickly. It wasn't even 30 minutes from the first serious contractions to the birth. In fact it happens so quick the doctor wasn't even present. Luckily there was a mid wife there so I didn't have to catch Emily myself. Sheryl did great. It was very fast so no time for an epidural. She is making a very speedy recovery. Little Emily is indeed LITTLE! At birth she was 4 lbs and 13 oz. Definitely small for a full term baby (37 weeks 5 days). This was the reason for the scheduled induction. This issue was discovered in an ultrasound on Oct 30. Aside from being tiny,...

Here are this years jack-o-lanterns. 3.5 hours of work! One is a Disney hottie and the other is Ariel.

On Sunday we went to Nathan's birthday party. Nathan is now 4 years old. The party started at the bowling alley. The kids had fun doing some 5 pin bowling. Jacob looks like he is going to be a natural! After bowling we went back to Nathan's for some playtime, dinner and cake.

What great weather this weekend! Today we took a drive out with Grandma to get some pumpkins. Julia picked out a couple of nice ones. Unfortunately for her we nixed her picks because they were so large I could barely pick them up! We picked a couple of nice normal large pumpkins. She had fun exploring the "pumpkin patch". (The last picture is from 2 years ago...time for a new coat!)

We had the family over on Sunday for Thanksgiving dinner. Papa came over early to do some gardening (thanks!). Here are a few pics. Like usual, I didn't get a group picture at the table.

Mama (Julia's Great Grandmother) is 91! We went to her house to celebrate with the family. We tried to get a picture will all the great grandchildren. It didn't quite work out. Earlier in the day we went to Uncle Osamu's one year memorial service.

Julia lost a second tooth already! This one was lost at school in the playground. Julia didn't know exactly when she lost it so we couldn't find it. No worries. We wrote the Tooth Fairy a letter and told her where to look for it. She found it and Julia got another two bucks.

I know I'm a bit late with this post. Uncle Bob turned 40 and had a big party. Lots of kids, lots of food, lots of fun. Of course the Jumping Castle was set up.

Julia got a new bedroom set. New bed, dresser, night table and lamp. She just finished getting all set up.

Julia lost her first tooth today. It's a bit early (4 years, 7 months) but she did get her first tooth early too (4 months). It has been really loose for a couple of days and today she bit into a dinner roll and knocked it out. At first she thought that she was biting into a hard piece of bread! Good thing she didn't swallow it! It is now under the pillow waiting for the tooth fairy. Julia is expecting $7. Julia is going to be disappointed.

On Sunday, Julia, Mommy, Grandma and Auntie Weezie went to Leamington for the day. They attended two Showers. A bridal shower for Deanne (cousin Joel's bride to be) and a baby shower for Uncle John's granddaughter Jackie. Uncle John has a motel/trailer park on the lake so that was fun for Julia. It was a long day of driving (6 hours!) but Julia made it without too much fussing.

On Thursday/Friday we went to Niagara Falls and Great Wolf Lodge with Selena, Mya and Jacob. We went on the big ferris wheel and the Maid of the Mist. We got soaked on the Maid of the Mist. Mya and Julia really enjoyed being so close to the Falls. Next stop was Great Wolf Lodge. It was our first time there. Julia was very nervous of the water slides. It took a lot of tears and crying before she went on the bigger slides (with the help of Mommy pushing her down the slide!). We all had a great time there and I'm sure we'll be back for another visit next year.

Today we went to the Heart Lake Conservation Area . It has a new splash pad that we wanted to checkout. Overall it's a fairly standard splash pad and certainly not worth the price of admission. The splash pad was only $2 per kid but adults have to pay $6 to get into the park. I guess it's ok if you were to go fishing and hiking. Julia says she had fun but I'm not sure.

Julia started JK today! Mommy went with Julia for her first day. Julia is still at the same school at my work but she is now in a new room with new teachers. The best part is that now when I join her for lunch I don't have to sit in little mini chairs around a mini table.

Happy Birthday Mya! 5 years old. Wow! Yesterday went to Mya's birthday party. The weather was kind for once. Everyone had a great time. Uncle Bob's jumping castle was a huge hit again!

On Sunday, Auntie Linda invited Sheryl and Julia to Kitchener for a visit and took them to the Waterloo Children's Museum. It sounds like they had a great visit! Here is a few pictures. Sheryl didn't know how to use the flash so these are the only ones that turned out.