Harper Grace - 1st Year in Pictures

• Today we celebrate a year of firsts and a year of MIRACLES!  Thanks be to God for giving Harper Grace the strength, courage, and the fight to live even though she had so much to overcome right from the beginning! I could not be more in awe of this little girl.  Thanks to all of you for your continued prayers over our precious little girl!

April 23, 2011 Born 4 months early at 24 weeks. 1 lb 6 oz
1 month old. Still tiny at 1 lb 11.69 oz, but off ventilator and on cannula for breathing support. She was switched to CPAP on 5/17, and then to cannula on 5/21. This is what finally helps her start gaining weight - while working so hard to breathe, she just couldn't gain.
2 months old! No oxygen support at all since 6/15! 3 lb 3.3 oz and wearing clothes and breast feeding.
3 months old - and going home today! 7/23/2011 - one month before her due date, 4 lb 13 oz.
4 months old up to 5lb 14 oz! So happy and thriving at home! Her corrected age here is newborn -this pic is when she was due to be born.

5 months old, 7lb 1 oz! Getting bigger, slow and steady wins the race! 1 month corrected age.
6 months old, lots of smiles. 8lb 7oz. Such a big girl and such a happy baby! 2 months corrected age, can you see the huge improvements she made from 5 months to 6 months?


7 months old! Hard to believe this is the same baby as the first picture, isn't it? 9 lb 8 oz here. 3 months corrected age.
8 mos old, 10 lbs 6 oz. Finally hit 10 lbs! And this is when she finally started sleeping through the night- yeah for Mommy! 4 months corrected age.
9 months, 11 lbs 4 oz. 5 months corrected age.
11 months - so sorry my 10 month old picture will just not upload to the blog, and short of starting over, I do not know how to fix it. And having spent an hour preparing this blog, I am not starting over. I am so sorry to skip a month, but this will have to do! She is a BIG 12 lbs 2 oz now! Crawling, standing, pulling up, sitting up - always on the go and very happy! 7 months corrected age.






Our Big 1 Year Old! She is just doing amazingly well! I still can not believe she is one, or that she started at just 1 lb 6 oz and a year later you can not even tell she was a micro preemie. We are so blessed with this precious miracle. She is around 12 1/2 lbs (She goes to the dr this week so I will update exact weight then). She is saying a few words, bye-bye, momma, dadda ( Well, kind of. They all may just be Freudian slips, but they seem like real words to us. The jury is still out, though). Her corrected age is 8 months and I feel like she is right on track developmentally for her corrected age, maybe a little ahead. She definitely has the mental ability of an 8 month old, maybe even a 12 month old, but her physical capabilities hold her back a little and this really frustrates her at times. I am certain by the time she is 2 we will no longer be able to tell she was a micro preemie at all. She will always be small, she isn't even on the growth chart yet and may never be, but we always knew she was going to be small, even if she hadn't been so early. Thank you for your love, prayers, and support since her miraculous birth this time last year. Without God and the support of our friends and family, we would not have made it. But look how far she has come - it was all worth it!

Determined

Making faces at Blue, who likes to come over and give kisses to Harper through the net of the pack-in-play.
She was so determined to stand up in her pack-in-play, even though she is tiny and there is really nothing to pull-up on. Here she is standing there.
All smiles in her stroller at the eye doctor. Clean bill of health on her eyes. Dr. Gitchlag even said if he didn't know she was a preemie, he would not be able to tell by looking in her eyes.
On her tippy-toes, peeking over! Very determined. I am sure she will start working on climbing out soon! This just cracked me up. She is really about two inches shorter than the top rail of the pack-in-play. She should not be able to stand up in there, and yet she can! I really hope she doesn't figure out how to crawl out any time soon - if she does, there will be no rest in our home ever again!

Life's a Beach!

Harper is pulling-up now! She will not lay down in her crib - as soon as I set her in there she stands up! She crawls every where, there is no keep her still, and as soon as she gets to where she wants to be she finds something to pull up on and stands. It is very cute and very exciting, but does make it a challenge to get things done! She is very busy all of the time!
The sun making it's arrival!
The sun just barely showing, can you kind of see the large crowd?
Fun in the sand!
So happy under her umbrella!
Billie on the last night of our trip.

We took the girls to the beach for Easter! It was amazing and wonderful for all of us. We really needed to get away. We went to a sunrise service on the beach, right out from where we were staying and it was so special to see so many people come together at such an early hour, and on their vacation, to worship and celebrate the ultimate price Jesus paid. And when the sun did rise it was amazing. He has risen indeed! Beautiful. Some how I feel closer to God at the beach. I don't know if it is because the ocean is so huge and amazing and beautiful that it just makes it easy to see how mighty God is, or if I feel like it is the "end of the Earth" and God is just on the other side of the ocean, maybe it is a bit of both. I wish I could do that every Easter.
The weather was great after the first day, which was cold and rainy - only 58 degrees! It was 10 degrees warmer at home that day then it was on the beach. But we just relaxed at our condo, and then took the girls to Build-A-Bear and out to dinner that night. The next two days were sunny and warm, around 72, and perfect for playing on the beach. Billie built sand castles and Matt buried her in the sand (one of her favorite things to do, not sure why). Harper loved the sand and the water, but didn't like the wind. The first day on the beach she was able to nap in my arms under a towel, but the second day she just got tired of it and wanted her bed. We all got to take a run or two on the beach, too, which is the perfect place to run in all the Earth, if you ask me.
We are planning Harper's birthday party. It is so amazing to look back over the past year and see how far she has come. I think I take it for granted a little bit until I see the pictures of how tiny she was. I have an awesome blog planned for her birthday, so check back her next Monday (if I am on top of things, it will be up on time.)