Jeff and I decided that we needed to make Christmas as normal as we could for Mr. C. He has been such a good boy through all of this. We felt like while she was one on one with the nurse and still in the CICU being monitored so closely that we were okay to leave.
Jeff and Mr. C spent Christmas Eve making cookies and writing a letter to Santa. Mr. C was so excited in the morning to see if santa had left anything. He told us he had been a good boy, and he has been such a good boy! He was really excited to see that he got his Transformers and spinning toothbrush just like he had asked for. When he comes down to the hospital he has been playing with dinosaurs that they have in the waiting room, so he received some dinosaurs from his sister to play with while he is at home. He likes getting our camera out and taking pictures, so Jeff and I gave him a little digital camera of his own. People have been bringing gifts by our hospital rooms for Gracelyn so we let him open all of those as well.
After we left our house we went to Grandpa and Grandma Hales' house to open more gifts. He opened a bunch of clothes for his little sister and him and then he opened up his toys. He got some new playdoh, a Toy Story memory game, building blocks and a big boy bike. He was so excited! Aunt Camee and Kurtis gave him a playdoh alphabet set that he can stamp letters out of the playdoh.
After that we all came down to visit baby sister. She was looking good, but still really red and swollen. The nurse said she still had about 7 oz. of water in her. When they weighed her in the morning she was at 7 pounds 4 ounces. She had more of her lines taken out and they said she should be moved out of the CICU in the morning. The lines that were taken out were keeping us from being able to hold her. The nurse asked if I would like to have a great Christmas present and be able to hold her. I was so excited to have her in my arms again!
We ended up with several great "Christmas presents." The wonderful charge nurse, Tracy, let Mr. C come back in again. He brought his Christmas present in that he picked out for her and opened it for her.
She has had a feeding tube in, but they decided that she was doing well enough with food in her belly that we could try to bottle feed her. I was able to do that for the first time. She choked a bit, but did quite well. They will feed her every three hours and up the amount every six hours.
Jeff, Cole and I left the hospital to go to Brian and Cami's to spend some time with Jeff's family. Grandpa and Grandma kept an eye on her while we were gone. Uncle Jared also came down to visit for a bit.
We had a good time getting together with Jeff's family. We were able to google chat with Jeff parents while we opened all the presents. They are missed during this time, but we know that they are where they should be.
We hope everyone had a great Christmas! This is such a special time of year and though it has been hard to be away from family and friends we are very grateful for all that we have. We are so grateful for our special Christmas baby. We are grateful for her and the fight that she has in her to be okay and healthy. We are grateful for the blessings that she has already been given in her short time here. We are grateful to have such a wonderful little boy who has had to be without mom and dad for so long. He is a huge blessing in our lives. We couldn't ask any more of him that he has given. We are especially thankful to have such great family to be able to help out as we have needed so much help these past 10 days. We could not make it without our family. We are grateful for all of the prayers that have been offered on our behalf. We know so many of those prayers have been answered. We are grateful for our Savior and his birth.
Merry Christmas!
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