In clothes!

Monroe got a cute little outfit last night, but she has been swaddled up ever since so we only really get to see it at diaper changes which she doesn't love so I haven't had out the camera. Luckily the nurse got a picture of her in her first outfit. SO cute! And with her eyes open too!


Yesterday the Schwemmlers got to stop up for a quick visit to see Monroe for the first time since my family celebrated Christmas with them. She slept the whole time but I'm certain she was happy to see them. Grandma and grandpa visited too.

This is how she is resting today, with her Iowa Hawkeye blanket on. Funny that it was a coincidence that Hawkeye fleece was donated and it ended up in Monroe's bed. Jill was of course super happy about that.


This is the product of my first week in the NICU, a little blanket from some fiber that was gifted to me by my friend Kathryn and I spun up into yarn. It's super cute and wool is so much warmer than fleece, I can't wait until it's dry and I can snuggle her up in it.



Last night we talked to the doctor about some reasons her breathing was a little less consistent yesterday, which sometimes causes her heart rate to drop. One thing they were thinking was possibly low hemoglobin since she has had blood drawn several times and possibly was not producing blood fast enough to make up for it. Her hemoglobin was a little low, but not low enough for a transfusion. Her breathing is better today, and her heart rate is staying up much better which is great. The doctors and nurses all assure us that this is normal preemie behavior, we just got lucky the first week that she didn't really give us too many alarms on her machines. The CPAP was turned back up to 5, there's a chance she just wasn't ready for it to be turned down to 4 and she got tired out from working so hard to breathe. Several of the nurses have told us that they would rather keep the CPAP up a little so her calories can be put toward growing, not breathing.

They also started fortifying her breastmilk today, so she'll start getting 10% more calories from the breastmilk that she is getting. Her cheeks are starting to fill out. Rumor has it her butt cheeks will fill out next. She'll be thrilled someday that I posted that here. We're reassured that everyone keeps telling us she is doing great. Growing day by day and making us love her more every moment.