Happy Birthday, Katherine Grace!!! :)

Katie


Daddy picked out this darling, little dress that Katie is wearing in the pictures. :) He also picked out the balloons to match. Didn't he do good? :) I just love that little dress. :) It is so cute how it puffs out at the bottom. :)


"I'm 1!!!" :)


The Birthday Girl!!!


WOW!!! I can't believe that our little Katie is already a year old!!! :( It just doesn't seem possible. I am amazed by how much she has grown and how far she has come in the past year. :( Today, as I was holding her, I was reflecting on the journey of her pregnancy and how we were told that this precious, Baby girl would most likely not survive and that if she did, she would most likely have "problems." We were told that there was something "definitely wrong with her" and that we wouldn't know what it was until she was born. I can remember praying hard for her during the pregnancy and asking God if I could just hold her and rock her in the rocking chair, snuggle with her and read her stories. I remember learning how to just be thankful for each day I got to be pregnant with her. Each little kick and little move within me was a precious gift that I treasured as I learned not to take a moment with this blessing for granted. I remember just savoring the miracle each and every day. I remember all the struggles I had during her pregnancy and how God answered so many prayers for her. I am still absolutely amazed by the outpouring of loving prayers that came from so many wonderful family, friends and even people we have never met. It still touches my heart in a way that words could never express. I will always be so thankful for all of those prayers that were said on Katie's behalf. I will never forget. In fact, I still to this day, think of that and know I could never thank people enough for all their prayers for our, sweet, little one. God is amazing and we feel truly blessed each and every day by his Grace. That is one reason we chose her name, which means "pure grace." :)


Katie spent her 1st Birthday still getting over being sick. :( She just didn't feel good at all today and was so sad most of the day. We are planning to celebrate next Saturday so she can hopefully feel up to celebrating and having some cake. :) We did try to get some Birthday pictures today, but she was so upset every time I sat her down. She cried in EVERY single picture......Poor, little Sweetie. She just wanted mama to hold her. I don't mind the crying pictures. She still looks precious to me. :)
Look at these:




I can't believe that when we brought Katie home from the hospital, she weighed only 4 pounds. She was such a cute, little Peanut. :) The girls had fun making me try Build-A-Bear clothes on her when she was 2 and a half weeks old and they fit. :) We have TONS of pics of her in princess outfits, hula outfits, cheerleader outfits, you name it. :) Now, she is 17 pounds, which is still pretty tiny. :) She is our little sweet pea.





A couple of weeks ago, Katie started walking!!! :) We LOVE to watch her walk. She crinkles up her little toes and marches all around while she holds her little arms out. :) It is adorable!!! :) Here are a couple of pictures of her walking:



I actually found an old e-mail message from after Katie was born and thought I would post it today just to reminisce. :) I was SO EXHAUSTED when I wrote it. I really was sleep deprived because I didn't want to miss out on Katie at all so I was constantly in the NICU..... as often as they would let me be in there! :) We are hoping to make a trip in to see her Perinatologist next week, when Katie is feeling better.

Here is the e-mail:
Subject: Katie is Here!!! :)

I want to apologize for how late I am sending out this message. It has been a very LONG couple of days and the baby and I have each had a lot of issues to deal with in regards to recovery, so I haven't had much time. I am so sorry. I have felt terrible about not getting something out sooner.

I want you all to know how much we have appreciated your continued prayers for Katie. We have always believed and continue to believe that your prayers have all been heard by God and He has answered each and every one of them. We continue to feel so blessed and amazed by all of your prayers and kindness. We thank you so much with all of our hearts. :)

Here is a little Birth Update on our sweet, Katie.....

Our Midwife started inducing labor at 5:45am on Friday morning. I will spare all the men the details of the labor. :) Everything progressed very quickly and Katie was born at 10:35am. She was tiny, 4 pounds 7 ounces and 17.24 inches long. She is just a precious, little bundle from Heaven.

You all know how the entire pregnancy, we have wondered why she was so tiny, why she had calcifications early on and also why she had low amniotic fluid. Many times, I would pray and ask God these questions. I just wanted to know. I wanted Him to assure me that she would be OK. I didn't want to wait for answers, but I knew that the Lord would reveal that to us someday. Well, He immediately revealed the answers to those questions and more the minute of her birth. John and I, along with the Midwife, nurses and the NICU team that was there to evaluate her immediately after birth, were absolutely amazed by witnessing such an amazing miracle!!! As soon as I delivered Katie, our Midwife showed us the umbilical cord, which had a section that was tied in a big double knot!!! It was pulled really tight. (When the Midwife started undoing the knot, it looked like a pretzel)!

Our Midwife called the Perinatologist to let her know about the knot. The Perinatologist said that just seeing a baby survive with a single knot in the cord rarely happens. She said that usually, in situations like this, baby's do not survive. (Just writing that down has me in tears)! She also mentioned that would definitely explain the cause of the calcifications, and her tiny size! Remember when she had mentioned in the beginning of all of this the possibility of her having a one time trauma early on? This is would definitely fall under that category! I haven't had a chance to speak with our Perinatologist yet, but all the doctors and nurses and our Midwife agreed that Katie being here was a miracle from God. He is truly amazing!!!

As of right now, Katie is in the NICU. It is completely normal for tiny babies to struggle initially with stabilizing their blood sugar levels and body temperatures. Right now, it is 2:00am on Sunday morning and I visited Katie last in the NICU at midnight. She weighed 4 pounds 7.1 ounces, which is great! She is maintaining her body weight. :) She is really trying to nurse, but we have some work to do. :) They are trying to wean Katie off from the IV that she is on right now. She is down to 2.5 CCs right now, which is way better than where we started on Friday. We were at 6.5 then, so she is improving. Once we get her weaned off from the IV, then she has to show she can maintain her sugar levels for 24 hours just on feedings before we can bring her home. They will be kicking me out sometime today and I am so sad. We have spoken to the nurses and they are trying to get us a NICU Room to stay in, which is up in the air. It depends on how much room they have and how busy they are. If they don't have any available, we can rent a little place across from the hospital for a couple of days so we are still close. We're not sure what we will be doing. It just all depends on how our little one does. She proves to be a fighter and I have a good feeling she will continue to be full of surprises. :) She is such a sweet, little baby and as sad as I am that she isn't getting to room in with me in my hospital room right now, I sit here just praising the Lord that she is here on earth and that he has blessed our family with her. What an amazing gift she is and I thank you all more than words can say for helping to bring her here into our lives. You are all a huge part of her story and we are so thankful for each one of you. Thank you!!!

I hope this all makes sense. I have been wanting to take my time to write a good update and explain everything really well and just try to write from my heart, but I am so exhausted that I can barely form a sentence right now. I am so sorry. As I mentioned, it is after 2am and I have probably slept a total of 5 hours in the past 3 days. They have us on a plan where I go in to the NICU every 3 hours and try to nurse the baby. We stay with her after that to just enjoy her and try to help our nurse as she finds things for us to get to help with, then I come back to the room and have to pump for awhile, then a meal arrives, I eat and have a few minutes before we start the cycle all over again.

We are going to be praying that Katie's blood sugar stabilizes so we can bring her home within the next couple of days. I am very hopeful, but it is up to Katie. I am not really sure what to expect. I do know that God has her in his loving hands and as you all know, this brings us peace that is beyond words. We still just stand in awe of His miracles and blessings and don't even know how to begin to thank him for His gifts.

Oh.....The girls ADORE their new sister! They got to see her and hold her before she had to go into the NICU. They can't wait to get to see her and hold her again. My parents have been truly amazing through all of this and we are just so thankful for all of their help with the girls and running me to so many appointments.

Thank you all again. I will try to put together some photos soon to send out.
With Love and Blessings!
John, Amy, Kaylee, Karissa,
Kyla, Khloe, Karly and Katie


A few Photos in NICU:

This is one of my favorites. Tam took this one of Katie holding John's hand. Thanks, Tam. I LOVE this!




Getting to rock my sweet, little one.....an answered prayer! :)