4 Months of Penny

That face just shouts, "hey, I'm really excited to be here, no, really."

Rosco the protector.

Penny cuddling with her stuffed monkey.

This was supposed to be a pic of just Penny, but Rosco is playing the role of the curious squirrel/camera hog.

She's even more excited to be taking a picture with daddy. Those have to be tears of joy, not tears of hunger and dirtiness. They're tears of joy b/c daddy spent 2 weeks with her w/o working.


Here we find ourselves 4 months into this joint venture that we call Penny. She is still growing acceptible, she now weighs 8 lbs 1.5 oz. and is 21.5 inches long. That would make her close to the size of a normal newborn, but to us she is starting to look so big. She has started to outgrow her newborn clothing and is beginning to wear 0-3 month stuff, we're still wrapping her in newborn diapers, but don't really know for how much longer. All is well in the land of Penny.

3 Months

Penny laying in daddy's fire helmet

Penny's first trip to the fire house, once she

gets older (upper teens) I don't know if I will

allow these trips anymore, but I love them now

Penny's first trip to the lake

Penny and daddy napping at the lake

Penny loves her mommy

Today Penny turned 3 months old and the last month has been one of many first. She is excelling at home and has finally started packing on the pounds. At her doctor's appointment today she weighed in at 6 lbs 7.5 oz, that was up 12 oz in 2+ weeks. Now, if only she would sleep through the night we would be chocolate bars and candy canes.

Meeting the Grandparents @ 10 weeks

1st pic is a 5 generation pic with her great-great grandpa and grandma Reed, great grandma Flynn, grandpa Nichols, daddy, and Penny

2nd pic is 4 generations of Nichols

3rd pic is 4 generations with her great grandma Scott, grandma Nichols, daddy, and Penny

For those who don't know, Penny's great grandma Flynn and great grandpa Nichols had a daughter named Penny Nichols who died at age 5 of leukemia. We named our daughter to honor her memory and we feel blessed that they were more than happy to let us use her name.

Homecoming

After an arduous 9 1/2 weeks, we are finally home with our precious little girl. Penny and her parents are very grateful to everyone who has been praying for her and her development. She also would like to thank a few exceptional nurses she met at Clarian North; Emily, Marcy, and Jeannie, who always went above and beyond their job description. We can't thank them enough for all they did to help us along our way. Honestly, if we could've had a constant rotation with the three of them we would've, but we know they need time off too. So, from the bottom of our hearts we thank you for all you did. That isn't all to say most of the other nurses weren't great also, we just really connected with those three and they made our time at the NICU at least a little more comfortable.

2 Months

Our little Penny is 2 months old today, and as of 2 nights ago she had doubled in weight to 5 lbs. 4 oz. However, she lost a little yesterday and was down to 5 lbs. 2.7 oz. She is passing all her exit exams, eyes look good, hearing is great, heart is perfect. We are only waiting on her to start taking all her feedings via mouth. We would ask for prayers that the feedings just click and she starts taking everything by mouth so she can come home soon. We would also like to ask for prayers for strength for Emily and I as this past 9 weeks has been emotionally, physically, and spiritually draining. We really need her home ASAP because Emily has to go back to work starting July 6 and we want as much bonding time together as possible before that happens. We also miss our little Rosco and can't wait to have our family together at home for the first time.

Penny's almost 8 weeks old

Dinner time, bath time, and nap time. Penny's getting bigger and starting to take more and more of her feeds orally. She now weighs 4 lbs. 13.5 oz. She loves taking baths, and eating, when she's awake, but most of all, she loves having mommy and daddy hold her (we kinda enjoy it too). Hopefully, she'll be home within the next week or so, as far as I'm concerned, 8 weeks is waaaaaaay too long to not be able to bring my precious little girl home, but it's for her health and safety.

6 weeks

Penny turned 6 weeks old yesterday and weighed 4 lbs. 7 oz. The top pic is our first family picture all together (and it only took us 6 weeks). We can't wait to bring her home, hopefully in the next couple weeks.