beautiful ivy

having ivy in our home the past month and a half has been fabulous. she really is the best baby. she eats well, she sleeps like a champ, and she is so content all day regardless of where she is. violet is in heaven with her- mothering her like she was her own. admittedly, it is a little much sometimes, but ivy never complains. she puts up with it knowing that cade or i will step in any minute to regulate those smothering sister kisses. she is such a good baby, in fact, that it has led to some embarrassing moments for cade and i as parents. the other day, we had a meeting with some leadership in our church. we brought ivy along and left violet with a neighbor. the man we were meeting with was running behind so we sat in the waiting area chatting with one another as usual. when it was finally our turn to go in, cade and i suddenly realized that we had left ivy in the car this WHOLE time! cade rushed out to the car to get her- only to find little ivy happily waiting for her parents to come back for her. it made me feel like the parents in the movie matilda. ivy is just SO quiet and content that we need to pay attention to where she is at all times!

since violet had such a rough start with her illness when she was first born, it has been difficult for me to gauge what is "normal" for an infant this time around. now that ivy has had some problems as well, it has made it even more difficult to determine. luckily, i have decided to throw all the "normal" talk out the window. neither of my babies have had a "normal" start so i am learning to adjust to whatever they are doing and call it normal for them. with ivy on oxygen, she has been a very sleepy baby. normal? i dunno- but that is normal for her. slowly she has been becoming more alert and we are loving the time we get to have together. she is even starting to give big, beautiful smiles and i am loving every second of that.
ivy's oxygen dependency has been an adjustment. she has been hooked up to a main line here at home, and whenever we leave, she would be hooked up to a portable tank. at first i thought we would never leave the house. too much equipment. a few days of being homebound, however, changed my mind and we were off! we learned to just embrace all the equipment- it really wasn't that bad. we spent the first few weeks at home living outside. we went to the park and on walks and on picnics. ANYTHING to get out. it really helped violet and i stay sane and ivy was content no matter where we went. while we were out and about, people would always ask to see her so i would lift her seat cover for them to take a peek. without fail, every person would look at me with a sympathetic expression and say how sorry they were.... like ivy was dying or something. don't let those tubes fool you, people! this is one healthy babe! she is already over 12 pounds and lifting her head! it will be nice to have the tubes gone so people can see ivy for the beautiful baby she is instead of focusing on such a temporary ailment.

this last week or so we have been testing her oxygen levels to see if she can finally get off. we have had THREE overnight tests done- but the first two were done with broken machines. ya, you read that right: broken. it has been quite frustrating but we JUST heard back today that she passed her test! NO MORE OXYGEN! after seven, long weeks of waiting, that really is big news for us.
really, this babe couldn't be more of a blessing to us. already, i can tell that violet is patiently waiting for ivy to be big enough to play. lately, she will run around ivy and i and yell for us to "watch" and then she will pause long enough to run over, kiss ivy's head and say, "hi honey!" violet is teaching ivy all her tricks- and i am sure these sisters will be little play buddies in no time.