And the scale says...

Kaelyn is doing AWESOME! We went to the pediatrician today and our little 1 pound 11 oz micro-preemie baby weighs 8 POUNDS-6 OUNCES!! She has been packing on the pounds like no other. She has almost gained 3 pounds since we brought her home....just over 1 month ago. They weren't kidding when they said she would do better at home. We're so glad she was able to get well enough to make that happen.

We also met with Early Intervention today and she said Kaelyn looked AWESOME! She has made progress in just two weeks since we met with her the first time. We're working on strengthening her neck muscles, so tummy time. She doesn't absolutely love it, but she's a great sport. We're also working on getting her to follow things with her eyes. She is sleeping really well, she'll eat her bottle at 10:00 pm and then sleep till 6:00 when I wake her up to feed her. I give her 2:00 am feeding via gavage. That way I don't wake her up and she can get her much needed rest.

As far as her heart goes, she's doing really well. Her oxygen needs have not gone up at all and she's even on less oxygen at home than she was in the hospital. We will be back to the cardiologist in a few weeks. They want her to be at least 12 pounds before they do her surgery, but if she continues to do well they will probably let her get as big as possible....whatever that means. :)

So I have a funny story. A lot of the time when I try to get her to look at me she will look away, and when I try and get in her view she continues to turn away. Its a fun little game I play and it always makes me laugh. So last night I was getting ready to go to bed and Wayne was like, "Ah, get that" as he pointed to something under my feet. The look on his face told me it was a critter, so I totally flipped out and then looked down and saw a big BEE on the floor right between my bare feet. I hopped around like a crazy lady and then finally killed it with my shoe because Wayne was sitting on the floor holding Kaelyn, so I knew I had to do it. So after I got my wits about me I look up and of course she is staring at me with this look on her face that said, "Really mom, really?" In which I replied, "Little Missy, you're not suppose to see me like that...now you know what a sissy I am". Needless to say it was a pretty entertaining night here at the Bonner house.

P.S. There are lots of new pictures on the picasa page. I just have to take pictures of her in all her cute outfits since we don't get to go out and show her off.

Here's what 8 lbs - 6 oz looks like.

Check out our matching bracelets Polly made us...she thought it was something to suck on if you can't tell

Notice anything different? She got to go without oxygen while mom changed her stickers. Her eyes just get bluer every day!

Perfection

I borrowed this from a blog friend. It brought tears to my eyes.

"As a small group of political and church leaders look on,

Jesus lifts a mentally handicapped child out of her high chair, kisses her and sits her on his knee. He dips a crust of bread in wine and feeds it to her, morsel by morsel.

As he does so, Jesus says:"I know what you are thinking. You need a sign. What better one could I give than to make this little one whole and new?

I could do it; but I will not.

I am the Lord and not a conjurer.

I gave this mite a gift I denied all of you -- eternal innocence.

To you she looks imperfect

But to me she is flawless,

Like the bud that dies unopened or the fledgling that falls from the nest to be devoured by ants. She will never offend me, as all of you have done.

She will never pervert or destroy the work of {my} hands.

She is necessary to you.

She will evoke the kindness that will keep you human.

Her infirmity will prompt you to gratitude for your own good fortune...More!

She will remind you that every day I am who I am, that my ways are not your ways and that the smallest dust mote whirled in the darkest space does not fall out of my hand...

I have chosen you.

You have not chosen me.

This little one is my sign to you.

Treasure her!"

The Sunday after our 20 week ultrasound, after we knew that there were problems with our baby, but before we found out it was Down Syndrome and a heart defect, I prayed so hard that everything would just be okay. That there wouldn't be anything "wrong". In church that day one of the speakers talked about the women with the issue of blood that touched Jesus's robe, and was healed. I remember feeling like I had enough faith for my daughter to be healed. After we found out for sure it was Down Syndrome, and let it settle in, I knew everything would be okay. I had the thought that she wasn't just okay, like I had prayed, but she was perfect. She has already taught me more about life and love than I had learned in the first 25 years of my life. I am so thankful that I am so blessed to be her mother, what an honor.

Kaelyn

Okay I guess I need to clarify a little more on how to pronounce Kaelyn. Its like Caitlin, but without the T. The biggest thing is there is not a pause between the Kae and the lyn. The emphasis is on the A not the Y. Hope that helps :)

Whats in a name?

I've been tagged by a couple friends to do this post, so I better get it done. It was to write about how you came up with your children's names. So here's a little background. I've been coming up with names for my daughters since elementary school. I had a little yellow piece of paper in my desk where I would write them. At the top of my list was ALEKSEIA. I came up with it when I was 12 years old. I was watching the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and my favorite male gymnast, Aleksei Namovth (SP) was competing. He was Russian. So I decided I wanted to name my daughter Alekseia, after him. Of course the first time I hung out at Wayne's house I saw a picture of his niece and nephews, and his niece's name was Alexia. I remember thinking, "Dang it, if I marry this guy I won't get to use my favorite name". Don't worry, I have another use for my favorite name, it will just have to wait. It was a price I had to pay to marry THE MOST AMAZING GUY in the WORLD! Well worth it.

So now to Kaelyn. For the longest time I couldn't remember where I came up with it. It has been our number one name for a few years. Then it came to me after I was tagged for this post. When I was in College I was a nanny for a 15 year old girl and a 12 year old boy. It was the best job ever! We just hung out every day and I trucked them to all their soccer practices and games. One of the girls good friends at the time was Caitlin. Also at the same time I was coaching club volleyball and there was a girl that played for our club named Kayla. I love that name, I still think about using it for a daughter but then I have to remind myself that its way to close to Kaelyn. So one day I was sitting in a college class doodling my future children's names (does anyone else do that?) and I combined the two names. Kaelyn - Pronounced Kaelyn, NOT Kae-Lyn. I figure if we wanted people to say it right we should have spelled it with an I, but I just thought a Y was more feminine.

Kaelyn's middle name is Ruth, after my Grandma Ruth. She is the most amazing person I know. A little story about how we decided to use her name. March 11 we went in for our 20 week ultrasound. That is when we found out that Kaelyn had a heart defect, fluid on her brain, was measuring small for her age and most likely had something genetic going on like Trisomy 21, 18 or 13. That whole experience completely caught us off guard and was one of the hardest days...up to that point...we had ever experienced. I could barely talk on the phone to tell my mom what we found out, my heart was broken. I had seen Grandma Ruth a few days before and told her that I would be calling her to let her know if we were having a boy or girl. Of course after all that I didn't feel like talking to anyone. I found out later that while my Grandma was working in the temple, at the very moment we were in the hospital, she had a strong impression that something was wrong and put our names on the prayer role. After a few days and me never calling her she started to get really worried. My dad came over to visit her and she told him that she knew something was wrong and that she wanted to know what it was. It was just so comforting to know that Heavenly Father was watching out for us and got the prayers rolling right off by letting Grandma know we needed help. After I heard that story and had talked to my Grandma, I knew we needed to use Ruth as Kaelyn's middle name.

Then a few weeks after Kaelyn was born I looked up the meaning of her name. It is "Pure Friendship". I thought that was just perfect for our little girl. Already at 4 months old her life has brought more friends to us than we could have ever imagined. Thank you all for your support and love. We are forever changed by your kindness.

We're still here :)

We are still loving life. Wayne went back to work this week so its just been me and the little lady during the day. I even got really brave today and gave the her a bath all by myself! She wasn't as pleasant as she was when we tag team it, but it worked. We went back to the cardiologist Monday and they said her heart is looking just fine. She's also been putting on the pounds....or ounces I should say. She now weighs 6 lbs 10.5 oz! We even weighed her twice at the doc today to make sure. She sleeps A LOT...from about 12 am - 11 am...I wake her up to feed her a couple times. She's definitely a night owl like her Dad. Now for the pictures.

Little missy scrumptiously clean after mom's solo bath.

This is our little buddy Jaxon and his mom. He was Kaelyn's first roommate at Primary Childrens. They brought Kaelyn the SWEET deluxe swing below. She loves it!

Cousin Mckinley had never seen a baby girl swing before so we just had to show her.

She likes to squirm on daddy's chest, proof on the next picture.

Check out her cute cupcake bow, Max's mom Kristen made it for her.