its the littlest things...

I know I said in the last post I would write more because I was too tired well apparently I am still tired because I am just now getting to it. Sorry for the delay.
So let's see where do we start. On Sunday Avery celebrated her one month birthday. She also hit the one thousand gram mark which means....no more gloves. I must say that Monday morning when I did her first care without gloves it was amazing. She has the softest baby skin ever and holding her little hand skin on skin is so much better than with those silly gloves. I must say that without a doubt the ONLY thing I will miss about those gloves is the smell. This may sound weird, but even after getting home from the hospital my hands would still smell like the gloves and I connected that smell to Avery. I won't miss that smell enough to want to start wearing the gloves again and if I do miss it, Bill accumulated a nice little stash over the first month that sits on his dresser.
Avery has also double her birth weight. Check that. As of tonight she has more than doubled her birth weight. She is now up to a whopping 2 pounds 5 ounces. She is a growing machine. The bigger she gets the stronger she gets. Both physically and with other things like her breathing. I my non-medical opinion, I think if she keeps it up, she will be off the cpap and strictly on the cannula in no time.
We are now back to 2 holds a day and they are letting us hold her for longer each time. Today I held her for a total of almost 2 hours between the 2 holds (Bill has pool on Tuesday, so I get both holds :)). While I wish I could hold her for hours longer, 2 hours feels like infinity compared to not getting to hold her at all.
She also had her one month head scan today and more good news--no bleeds! By now the chances of her getting a bleed are significantly less since she hit the one month mark. Yea! And the little spot they saw in the previous 2 scans has not grown and they are now saying it may be part of "normal growth development" but will continue to watch it.
Avery's first Halloween was a huge success. I made her a hula girl costume and she was super adorable. The nurses all got a good kick out it and she even made the picture wall. It was fun having her be part of the day even though she was in the NICU.
Today I was reminded that it truly is the littlest things in life that matter. Avery was having some trouble with her feeding tube and needed to have it replaced. I just happened to be there for her care time when this happened. They decided to change out the duaderm on her chin at the same time and for the first time I got to look at her chin. I know this may seem silly, but at that moment when I was looking for the first time at her littlest chin, I saw the littlest dimple and realized she has the littlest version of her daddy's chin, something we didn't know for the first month of her life. And that little chin gave me the biggest moment of joy. It was an adorable, recognizable reminder that in these crazy days the little things are so important.

Our first hand hold w/out gloves

Sucking her thumb.

Avery's first Hula-ween :)