Flashback Friday!

Since we just celebrated Jaida's birthday, I thought I'd flashback to the pictures of her birth, and some time spent in the NICU. We were only in there 7 weeks, and at the time it felt like the longest 7 weeks of our lives. We know we were truly blessed with a miracle! We also had a wonderful family support system, and couldn't have gone through any of it without you!

Here she is at 1 day old!

Tiny little foot, and Eric's thumb.

Eric's finger holding her hand.

The traditional picture by the $1 bill.

Great Grandma Robison in awe of all this. This type of technology was never around back in her day.

A little cry or a yawn, I can't tell.

At about 3 weeks, they discovered that her head was starting to swell. She would need to have surgery to drain off the access fluid. She had grade 3 hydrocephylus caused by a blood clot in each of the ventricles in her brain. Here they are getting her ready for the surgery.

It took several of them to transport her and all the machines they would need.

This was one of the scariest days of my life!

Here she is after surgery, which went really well. The doctors had to drain the fluid for a few days through a shunt, and then things magically started to work on their own. They told us that there was a 90% chance she would need a permanent shunt for the rest of her life. I guess we were in the 10%. About 6 months later when she was much bigger and really healthy they went in and removed the shunt (which was called an Omaya Reservoir). We have never looked back since.

It wasn't long after that that we could finally take her out and hold her for small periods at a time.

Eyes wide open! She finally felt like saying hello to the world.

Great Grandma Wittick came to visit.

And Grandma Saul.

Still needing lots of rest!

Mom getting a much loved snuggle!

And soon, we were on our way home!

Aunt Celia decorated the front of the house.

And Jaida looking very content!