Summer Lovin II

   Part 2 of 3 of reflecting on Emma's first two months at home (in May and June 2018), after spending most of the first year of her life in the NICU due to being born with a type of primordial dwarfism called Meier-Gorlin Syndrome as well as having severe tracheobroncomalacia.
   This little shoot was done on May 11th, 2018 and I plan on doing another one around the same time this year since I still have the flower crown. I love doing side by side photos over the years to see how much she has grown. I will probably even do a third one next year (if I remember)! The second photo has been on our fridge for a long time.

   My first real Mother's Day, with a baby to hold in my arms. Mother's Day 2017 I was still pregnant with Emma. I just asked for tulips and photos, but Michael also made me a really great card.

   ❀ ❀ ❀

 ^^ More photos using my Mother's Day flowers before they died. ❀

 A few photos of Emma on May 30th (1 month at home!!) with two different dresses on over her trach and ventilator circuit because I just wanted to see what she would look like as a "regular" baby.

 ^^ Personalized ABC blanket given to us by Michael's older brother's wife's mom, Mrs. Kim! :)

  ^^ I posted this photo on Instagram, which shows Michael (aka Dr. Daddy) on June 4th, 2018 listening to her stomach after Emma's G-tube popped out again. He had to push some air in while listening through the stethoscope to make sure he had put the G-tube back in to the right spot. That happened a lot because of her prolapse (the opening kept getting so stretched out that parts of her insides could be seen coming out), even after we took her to the hospital to get a bigger G-tube put in on the morning of May 20th. She finally got a surgery done in August 2018 to get a new placement for it & the new hole has been great since then! We later learned that most parents take their kids to the hospital when that happens, but it happened so often for us that we had to learn to do it ourselves. Plus we really didn't want to have to take her back to the hospital every time. It came out 3x one day!
   But for the caption on that photo, I wrote, "Without us knowing it, God turned in our applications to Winnie Palmer Medical School in May of 2017. After Emma was born, Michael and I followed through and began getting our "medical degrees" mid June. Almost one year later and we're continuing to put them to good use. Still waiting on those paychecks though!" ;)

   Celebrating Mommy's birthday (mine), which is the day before Emma's! Now we always will have a full week to celebrate ~ one day for me, one day for her, and then her party a few days later, depending on which weekend I have off from work around that time. This year her party will be June 15th.

   First at home visit from Uncle Parker, Michael's younger brother. Then Michael's mom and grandma came down for a few days while we celebrated Emma's first birthday with my parents! Last year's birthday photos from Emma's 1st party will be in the next post! :)