Busy day

Yesterday was a busy day for Macey.  Her friend, Lauren Lopez, was playing in a soccer game at the park behind our house, so we headed out there to watch her in the morning.  Lauren had a great game and scored a couple of goals.  Macey was awake most of the time enjoying her very first sporting event!

Then we came home and "played football" with dad.  Some of you may call it tummy time, but in our house when we are playing on the floor we are playing football.

Then finally, at the last minute we decided to take her church.  Kevin had to work in preschool during our ABF hour, and our ABF was having a potluck so we packed her up for her first trip to church.  It was a bit rushed, but she was perfect.  She was quiet the entire time, and slept through most of it...as you can see by the picture.

Did someone ask for more Macey?

Or maybe I just wanted to show you some more!  As I mentioned before, she changes daily so here are some recent close-ups.

This one was taken with Grandma Charlotte right before she had to go home to California! :(
And here is another extra cute pose sitting by herself.

Some more pictures!

We took our first walk with Macey yesterday.  She was quiet the whole time, we're pretty sure she will enjoy being outside.

Here is how we have been trying to stay on top of the jaundice that she had.  Kevin will sit near the window with her in the morning for a few minutes.  The jaundice is under control, we are just trying to help it as much as we can.
We had a small photo shoot with her in this sweet little sleeper.  It was a gift from the Swansons and she looks so cute in it.  I think you can see how much she has changed in the short time that she has been here.  I guess it is our first glimpse of just how fast she will grow up.

trying to upload a video...

so this will have to do for now.

More Macey pictures

I can't imagine that anyone is tired of looking at pictures of our sweet baby, so here are some more! I took these pictures this morning while I was enjoying my morning coffee.

This picture is quite dark, but I didn't want to wake him up, sorry if you can't see it.
I just laughed out loud because these pictures were taken within seconds of each other.  See the resemblance?

Now for the update.  Macey was sent home (on Tuesday) with a phototherapy blanket for her jaundice, and we used it on Tuesday night and Wednesday.  After her first pediatrician appointment on Wednesday it was determined that she was improving enough so she didn't have to use it anymore!  She has been eating like a champ, not needing any assistance like they thought she might.  They gave us special bottles and warned me that feeding may be difficult, but they didn't know Macey. :)

Thank you Uncle Jason and Aunt Seana for my new Seahawks clothes! (Now we just hope they do something good this season)

Finally home

We left the hospital today at 3:23 PM today, exactly four days after Macey was born.

We are very relieved and grateful.

The Crossroads

We had a rough feeding last night at 8:30, but I think that is because Macey was not hungry yet.  We had to go back at 11:30 because mom would not sleep without knowing Macey was ok.  She did better last night, but was wide awake.  Dad wimped out at 12:30 and went to bed, but mom stayed until 1:45.  

They tried to get another IV into her at 6 AM today, but they couldn't get it in, so she is now off of IV.  This means that she really has to eat well today to keep her weight up.  She was 5 lbs. 13 oz. last night.

This morning she ate 45 mL, which is not only the most she ever has had, but also the maximum she is currently allowed to have.  She is a strong girl and a fighter.  It looks like we are going to move the feedings to 3.5 to 4 hours just to make sure she is hungry.

Today is a big day for Macey, so please pray that she will keep improving.  

Macey update

Macey is continuing to eat well, although she does not always keep it all down.  Mom has asked for your prayers for her to continue to improve.  At this point, we may be staying here a little longer if we can get transferred to a special care room.  In the special care room we will be able to stay with her.  Hopefully, we will just stay a couple of extra days.

Since yesterday Macey has been eating when we go see her, and then back to sleep so she can have enough strength for our next visit/feeding.  We visit her every three hours, but somehow we are barely in our room for an hour at a time and we end up resting for about 15 of those minutes before scrambling back across the building to go see her.  Allison and I slept extremely well last night and Allison is feeling much better.

The NICU doctor said she is doing well, but he doesn't completely trust her.  My assessment is that she is doing good, but the doctors want to make sure she is doing great before she goes home with us (and I can't argue with that).

I meant to post a blog this morning, but the day has just flown by.

A special thanks to everyone who has and will continue to pray for Macey's health and our peace, because those prayers have been answered.  Another thank you goes out to my good friend Aaron "Crawdaddy" Crawford of Bryan, TX who told me to wear comfortable shoes.  Sometimes that guy is smarter than he seems! 

Macey is gaining strength

I just spoke with the NICU nurse who said that Macey is continuing to improve.  Her last meal at 2:30 PM, she ate 35 mL.  The two previous meals were 15 mL and 10 mL.  She is getting the hang of eating.

If she continues to improve in eating, holding it down and builds her strength, then she will be out of there sooner than what they told me this morning.

We will go back to feed her at 5:30 PM (real soon).

Wish her luck.

What a beautiful couple.

Macey again.

I just checked on Macey, and she is resting well.  Our friends Aaron and Priscilla were able to see her in NICU.  Macey seemed to be partial to Priscilla.  I will be able to check on her throughout the night.

The cleft lip is on the left side, but Macey is kinda shy, so she covers it with her hands just like she did during the sonograms.  Her palate appears to be good, which will reduce the amount of surgeries.  Her lip is very fixable, but unfortunately for right now, her left nostril is partially closed, which makes it sound like she has a cold when she breathes.

She seems to be a trooper and is doing well.

I had to add the picture of me and Ethan, I just thought I looked smart in my scrubs.  I should have put on my glasses, and I could have fooled some people.

Macey Charlotte McNeely

6 lbs. 2.4 oz. and 17 1/2 " long

Macey is in NICU for precautionary measures, but she is stable.  Mom and dad are doing well.

Tomorrow!

TOMORROW!  It is really strange to be able to say that tomorrow our baby will be born.  I realize I am not the only one with a scheduled c-section or induction, but it is still weird.  So many people say "Well, any day now I can have this baby."  I am saying "Tomorrow, we will have a baby!"  WOW!

Anyway, enough of my weird thoughts.  My surgery is at 3pm (Texas time).  Most of you will get phone calls from various family and friends, but if you do not, check here for pictures and the latest info Friday evening.  Since so many of you cannot be here to see our little one we want to make sure you get some of the first glimpses of him/her.

I wanted to thank everyone one more time for their prayers.  My pregnancy has been VERY easy and enjoyable.  Even though we have had a few bumps in the road, we have enjoyed watching my belly grow (not so much the rest of me!) and are filled with anticipation all that is about to come with parenthood.  Thank you is not enough for all the encouraging words we have received from you.  We know we (all three of us) have been bathed in prayer this entire time and we know that will not stop.  There are so many unknowns, not just with parenthood but with the special circumstances that we have been dealt.  However, our God is bigger than any circumstance and we know He is holding us in His hands.  

"You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb. I will praise you because I have been fearfully and wonderfully made." Psalm 138:13-14.  

Labor Day weekend

We decided to go camping for the Labor Day weekend.  We wanted to take the trailer out to see if everything was in working order, since we just fixed most of what we thought was broken.  Kevin had Friday and Monday off, so it was an extra long weekend for him.  Anyway, we loaded up Friday morning and headed out.  

We were pretty nervous about the refrigerator.  It seemed pretty simple to install, and that is kind of what scared us.  We also weren't sure just how cold the AC would be.  Since it was forcast to be a very hot weekend (about 98) we were nervous.  We chose only to go 1 hour from home (partly because of the trailer, partly because I am very pregnant) so we knew we could head home quickly if it was bad enough.

Well, to make a long story short the refrigerator worked great!  And the AC unit was SO cold we actually had to turn it down!  SUCCESS!  So we were able to enjoy the weekend.  In fact, I hate to say it, but there were times we were bored.  We figured something would go wrong so we would have to be fixing something, but that did not happen.  Kevin did a lot of fishing (not so much catching) and I read and tried to enjoy some quiet.

As you can see, we took Maggie with us.  We had taken her camping one other time, and it was pretty successful.  Well, this time was questionable.  She really likes to be outside, but we don't really trust her if we aren't out there.  Since it was so hot, we spent most of our time inside, and she was restless.  We went on lots of walks to try to wear her out, and it worked pretty well, but we're not real sure when we'll bring her back.

This is a picture of Kevin talking to our realtor.  We signed our portion of the closing stuff last Monday, and the buyers were supposed to finish up on Wednesday.  Well, there were some minor issues (which I won't explain because it will only make me mad again) so they rescheduled for Friday afternoon.  To make our mini vacation even better we were told that they signed and we got our money!  YAY, it is over!  One less thing to think about.

And lastly, here I am at 36 weeks.  Is that better for all of you who said I wasn't big in the last picture?  I wanted to post this, but also give a small explanation of a slight change of plans.  I won't go into all the details, but my delivery date has been moved up.  Our baby will now be delivered, via c-section, on September 12.  It is about 1 week sooner than we had thought, I will be 38 weeks at that point.  I am fine and the baby is fine, it is really a complicated story, but were all fine.

So, September 12th at 3pm we will have a baby (unless, of course, it decides to come earlier, but we are really trying to avoid that).  Please pray that this baby continues to grow.  Because it will be here two weeks early, it could be on the small side.  We just want a healthy baby, but this mom would feel better if this baby was a little chunky!