Early entrance 1-30-10 :)

First of all, these pics posted backwards, Lol...As we all know, or most of us anyways, Lauren came into this world at 5:44pm on January 30th of this year. She was 12 weeks early, I was 28 weeks and 1 day. I had an incompetent cervix but I was too far along to have a cerclage put in...I spent a good part of 4 weeks in the hospital on bed rest, beginning New Years...She was born at 2 lbs, 3 oz and was 14 inches long. She was in the NICU at Winnie Palmer for 63 days and we brought her home on April 3rd! The day before Easter. She was 37 weeks gestationally. And she weighed 5 lb 4 oz, 17.75 inches long. Her health has been amazing since the day she was born. Her lungs were in great shape. Part of that was due to her being a girl, making it to 28 weeks and having 2 steroid shots 3 weeks before she arrived. She did not need a ventilator. She was on room air through a nasal cannula for several weeks...And lots of wires and testings, etc. This experience has been a life changing, eye opening experience. We met so many great people and the care she received was just beyond...I will forever be grateful for those doctors and nurses. Amazing, truly...We are loving having her home. It was so scary that first day or two...but we quickly adjusted! I was feeling pretty good by day 3. She is growing like crazy and was just seen by her pediatrician on Monday. She was 7 lb 15 oz!! And 19 inches long! I can't believe how much she has changed and how strong she is. Developmentally she is a week and a half old, my due date was 4/23. Her immune system will take awhile to build and catch up, therefore we cannot bring her out in public or have kids around for awhile...Every day it seems like she is doing a little something new that she wasn't doing before, or that just shows me she is growing. She is a strong one and a fighter and we keep getting the same answer from all the docs...that we will never know she was a preemie in a couple of years, if not sooner...Enjoy the pics. I've probably left out a ton of stuff...but for most of you, this is not new anyways. I will try to continue to blog and post pics as often as I can...I hope you enjoy! Thanks so much everyone for all the support through the months...Take care. :)