We Miss Emily!

Tomorrow will be 6 months from when Em passed away, and Tueday is Emily's 5th birthday. It's a rough few days. I thought I'd put some pictures on from when Emily was born. I don't like thinking about that time too much, because it was really, really hard.

Emily was born full term at 5 pounds, 8 ounces. We didn't know anything was wrong, but I had a gut feeling something was when I was pregant. Em had a hard time breathing, and we shortly discovered that she had heart defects. We also had a nasty doctor who told us all the things Emily might never be able to do. We've always said that we need to sent a picture of Emily to her. She was at Utah Valley in Provo in the NICU, and at 10 days old they sent her to Primary Children's Hospital in Utah and she ended up on a ventillator for 3 weeks. We were told there that she had a stroke and would most likely never be able to come off the ventillator. Oh, how she proved them wrong! And that's what she spent her life doing. She came home from the hospital after 7 1/2 weeks, on September 12. She was on oxygen and had a NG tube in her nose because she had a hard time drinking. I discovered that if I bounced her and rocked her back and forth all at the same time that she was able to drink, and we were able to get rid of the NG tube after she had been home a month.

Emily came off oxygen at 5 months. She just needed less and less, until eventually she didn't need it anymore.

This is one of the first pictures of Emily. She's I think 3 days old in this picture. It's her first outfit.

Emily's first bath. She was very content!

I love this one. She was just so cute and tiny!

This was when Em was 9 days old-the day before she ended up in Salt Lake. She was a daddy's girl from day one.

This was one of the top 5 happiest days of my life-the day she came off the ventillator. She's wearing bipap, which looks worse than it is! It was the day that we knew she was going to make it. I can't even describe that feeling. My sister said it was the first time she saw me smile in a month. Mom went home this day, but I was so glad she got hold Emily before she left.

This one below is our first happy family picture. Emily was getting close to coming home, and Robby and I went up to see her before going to a BYU-Norte Dame football game. We weren't allowed to stay at the hospital, so we would go home around 5:00 every day and come back in the morning.

Emily really seemed to like this bunny. It was so great to see her using her eyes!

This was the day we brought her home. We posed for a picture to put on the NICU wall. I used to see all the pictures on the wall of the babies who got to go home and hated it, because I knew that some babies didn't get to go home.

This was right after we got home from the hospital. Janica came over with Ryan and Kacey. Kacey's taking the picture.

This was Em's first bath. It was tricky to do with all the chords, let me tell you!

Robby's mom came and helped the week Em came home from the hospital. Emily looks more like Grammy than anyone else, which is why she and Lily look alike-they both take after Robby's mom.

This was our first Sunday home from the hospital. We didn't take Emily to church, but I really wanted to dress her up! This dress was mine, and Lily wore it on her first Sunday, too.

Emily checking out her crib, her first day home.