This Time of Year

Since Jayde and Kanyon's birthday in March I am almost constantly thinking back to what we were doing this time 2 years ago. I have driven to the hospital several times in the past few weeks for appointments and stuff and it feels all to familiar. The weather is the same, the road is the same, I'm just so glad there's not a pump beside me in the car and a baby waiting for me in a NICU. As we near the coming home celebration time of year, I thought I'd post some pictures of specific things I've thought about and in a weird way missed this time of year. Not miss in the sense that you want to do it again or you wish it was still that way, but that WAS a time in our life that has made us who we are, so there is some sentimental feelings attached to it. Maybe that makes some sense. Just for the record, these first few pictures are taken off either my blog or my sis in laws. I obviously wasn't with it enough to have my camera the first few days so I have none on my own computer. Please excuse the poor quality, but enjoy the sweetness.

Kanyon on Day 1 with Kory's hand. The whole ring fitting on his arm (and being very loose by the way) gets more amazing to me as time goes on. He was covered in saran wrap because he couldn't stay warm.
Jayde holding my hand. I have very few vivid memories of those first couple of days, but this is one. I remember being so proud of her that she had the reflexes to grasp my finger.

Nurse Jim moving Jayde to the other side.

Even though the bruising looks worse in this picture (NICU lighting isn't always the best) this is one of my favorite pictures of Jayde.

Going to visit. The nurses were so great to let my brothers come in while Kory's parents were on their way (and then they let Kory's brothers come in too) Here we are looking at Jayde. As scary as it was, notice the smiles on our faces.

Holding Kanyon. I was 100% scared and 100% happy. He was 100% cute. This was also the intro to the plaid pearl snap shirt.

Kory's first hold. Unfortunately, that was at least a month later.

You're never too tiny to be cool.

Holds became a little more frequent and I became a little less nervous. Kanyon remained very comfy!

We looked forward to the notes "from Kanyon" the night nurses wrote to us. They weighed and measured at midnight so they always left us a report.

Trip to Children's. These were dark days. 2 weeks.

My first Mother's Day. I spent it at Children's in Dallas, then the next year I spent it at Baylor for Feeding Camp in Dallas, so this year was my FIRST Mother's Day NOT in a hospital!!!

Hitting milestones. He hit 4lbs. and got to move to an open crib and wear clothes!

I remember this day because it was the day I decided I liked baby blue. I thought I was anti-baby blue all preparing to have a boy, but then I walked in they had him all wrapped up in this blue and he looked so cute.

We miss his Nurses. This is Kathy. We miss them all, but don't get to see her since she moved hospitals.

This is a little out of order but I got REALLY good at doing things through the isolette. i used to watch the nurses take care of other babies through those holes and wonder how in the world they did it. You really do figure it out pretty fast.

Growing hands.

Diaper rash trouble. I walked in one night and they said "he's back on oxygen" and I was so disappointed! Then I walked over there and they had the oxygen mask on his little hiney so it could dry out the rash. hahaha!

Our anniversary. We also spent the next one at Baylor so this was our first in 3 years NOT in a hospital!

klp's first bottle! I'm still mad at him for tricking us into thinking he was going to be a pro eater. I also loved this outfit. Martha, its from you. It was actually a preemie outfit that fit. It was tiny and so cute.

My little joey kangaroo was outgrowing the shirt. By the way, I did WASH the shirt, I just took it right back so I always had a button up shirt there.

This was when things started to get a little more fun. We were seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and things were moving smoothly.

VISITORS!!! When we moved to IMC our friends could actually SEE Kanyon! Here are the Pruitts!

Once the Oxygen was gone, we could hold him up on our shoulders like a big boy. I am also reminded of the bubble. That was the temporary shunt draining.

This was the first night we were in IMC and our friends jumped and ran to come see Kanyon!

One of my FAV pictures. This was also another favorite little outfit.

More fav outfits.

This is hard to see, but one day I came to visit and rang the doorbell and KANYON answered it. Look really closely and you can see Nurse Melissa holding him up. By this time we were days away from going home and the nurses just played with him all day!

We came in one evening to visit and they said, "Y'all need to go somewhere! He's about to come home!!! " so we went to Beaver's Bend for a short little get-away and enjoyed ourselves before bringing our baby home.

Well, that should about cover it. Just a few weeks we'll celebrate the Phillips Phamily Independence Day!!!!