Another Good Update

Sarah continues to do very well. Her bile level is good so she no longer needs time under the lamp. Sarah will stay in the incubator, but now she can come out for longer snuggle periods with just Joella and I. The nurses give us a warm blanket to put over her and we get good bonding time with the skin to skin contact. Joella was able to hold her for over two hours today and Sarah was sleeping great the whole time. I came by around lunch and read her a quick story so she could go back to sleep. Mommy says that Sarah seems to open her eyes up more when she hears my deep voice, but eventually she gets used to it and falls back to sleep.






Unfortunately you will be subjected to more pictures of my hairy chest because this picture from yesterday was just too cute.

More Cute Pictures

Joella and Sarah continue to be doing very well. Joella really enjoyed sleeping in her own bed last night and the doctors are still very impressed with Sarah's daily progress. As I promised, here are a bunch of pictures for your enjoyment...

Our first family picture.

Mommy watching over Sarah.

Mommy getting a finger squeeze from Sarah. She will be under the lamps for at least a few more days in order to get the bile out of her system. Sarah has a cool little sleeping mask to wear, but she would rather just snuggle with mom while she sleeps.

Bright-eyed while mommy feeds me dinner.

Kangaroo snuggle time with daddy on Sunday night.

Snuggle time with mommy on Monday night.

Wearing her cute pink hat sleeping on daddy's chest.

Her itty bitty diaper.

Meet the Video Star...

Sarah continues to be doing very well and has started to eat a small amount of milk and formula through a feeding tube. Joella was even able to use a syringe to put the milk into Sarah's feeding tube this morning and afterwards even changed her itty-bitty diaper. Joella has been able to hold Sarah for about 1/2 hour the last couple of days and daddy will get his first chance tonight.

Joella is doing great and she will be released from the hospital after lunch today. Thanks again to everyone for your prayers and good wishes.

Welcome to the World, Miss Sarah Elizabeth Sommerhauser...

Sarah Elizabeth Sommerhauser was born at 7:26 am this morning and entered the world at 2 lbs, 12 ounces and 14 1/2 inches long. She now shares the same birthday as Uncle Kurt and she can't wait to celebrate a future birthday party with him. Sarah was born at about 27 weeks and is doing remarkably well so far, but she will be at the hospital for several more months. Joella is also doing great and has been able to catch up on some sleep since she was having strong contractions all last night.

Sarah started out this morning on low oxygen and the ventilator, but by early afternoon she was only on room air and the ventilator. We took these pictures this evening right after Sarah came off of the ventilator for the first time. Sarah is being such a strong girl and Joella and I appreciate all of the love and support that we have received over the past several days. We definitely feel the love, and this support has enabled us to stay strong just like our beautiful Sarah.

Update on Joella

First, for those who don't know already, Joella's water broke this Monday afternoon while we were at the hospital for a routine meeting. Joella's doctor verified that her water had ruptured and immediately referred us to St. Luke's Hospital on the Plaza which has a Level 3 NIC (Neo-natal Intensive Care) unit. We drove to St. Luke's Hospital and Joella has been on bed rest ever since then. There are no current signs of infection and Joella has passed the first 48 hours with flying colors. At this point, Joella is actually off of 24/7 monitoring and no longer needs a constant IV so things have really stabilized. Joella has experienced very few cramps so we have just began a wait mode. The hospital is ready to handle anything and they will let the baby decide when it wants to come...maybe in one day, one week, or one month. Chances are, the baby will want to stay in the womb until there is some point of infection or irritation, then the body will know that it is time to get the baby out. Joella is past 27 weeks now and the hospital has assisted babies younger than that, so we are certainly in good hands.

Thank you so much for your support everyone and keep praying for Joella and the little one!

The New "Member" of the Family

A couple of weekends ago we purchased a used minivan from a couple in Sedalia. It is a really nice 2003 light blue Honda Odyssey with leather, automatic sliding doors, a factory DVD player, and lots of other goodies.

We are trying to sell the Camry and transfer its plates to the minivan, so the Honda is just hiding out in the garage for a little while. Everyone is asking why we need a minivan for just one baby...well, we must have room for the puppies too.

No Weather Damage for Us in Kansas City

The storms a couple of nights ago blew through town and really spooked the dogs, but we were fortunate not to get any damage where we live in Lee's Summit. A few small brances came down on our river birch tree, but that is about it. Spring is definitely here and it is great to see everything green up and bloom, but you have to deal with the thunderstorms that come too.








The bradford pear and weeping cherry bloomed well this year in the back yard, but this spring will probably be the last time for the cherry tree because its roots are growing too close to foundation. We will see if I can get that tree cut down and hauled off before the baby comes. Notice Mollie by the fence scoping out bunnies in the neighbor's yard. She is still way too chunky to catch them, but she will never stop trying. In the front, I chopped down the ugly dogwood and planted a saucer magnolia sapling. Maybe in a few years it will look like my neighbor's magnolia...





Last weekend we had a great trip to St. Louis although Mollie and Lucy didn't get to see Uncle Kurt because he was away at a conference all weekend. The dogs got to sniff around for both squirrels and bunnies in my mom's backyard which is always a treat since we don't have many squirrels in our neighborhood. The puppies also got to finally meet and play with Clementine at Uncle Stinky's (Matt and Mia's) house so they had a pretty full weekend, especially once you add in all of treats that Grandma fed them. My mom was also happy because she finally won a game of Skip-Bo (I lost the lead at the very end). At least Joella was getting crushed in Phase 10 before we finally quit and went to bed so I didn't have to hear her gloat. Good luck to Lisa too...we wish the best in finding a new job as soon as possible so you can get out of that current place!