May 11, 2010 by Jen.

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April 25, 2010 by Jen.

Here are some shots of Juliana in her baby dedication dress. She looks like a little Victorian doll in one of the shots. That dress (and bonnet) is what my sisters and I each wore for our own baby dedications.

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April 7, 2010 by Jen.

Easter weekend was quite full. Grandpa and Grandpa Minner and Ansley accompanied Juliana and me on her first excursion to Washington DC, where we saw the cherry blossoms in full bloom, and Juliana had her first glimpse of the White House. (Well, I’m not sure she even opened her eyes.)

Our new camera has been very fun. I am learning the settings and playing around with different techniques. Stay tuned for many more fun pictures!

Also, the developmental specialists came to evaluate Juliana yesterday. She weighs 9 lb 4 oz, and she is now 21 inches long! They were very impressed with her. She is functioning right where she should be, according to her adjusted age of nearly 2 months. There are some areas where she is ahead, mainly in her social skills. She makes a lot of eye contact and follows people and voices. She has also started smiling a lot more. We look forward to some more coos and giggles in the weeks to come. Another goal for her is to increase her neck muscles and hold her head up for longer periods of time with more stability. We will be doing a lot of playtime on her tummy to help with this. We are also going to start working on rolling over. We will be helping her learn how this feels, and then hopefully she will start to do it on her own. We are very proud of her progress, as usual. She continues to be a super sweet baby who doesn’t cry very much and smiles more and more.

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April 5, 2010 by Jason.

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April 1, 2010 by Jason.

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February 25, 2010 by Jen.

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February 22, 2010 by Jen.

We had a lovely weekend visiting with Megan and Katie. Juliana hit the 6 lb mark last week, and she continues to demand food regularly. She has even started growing out of her preemie-sized clothing. Amazing!

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December 27, 2009 by Jen.

Juliana had a lovely visit with her family on Christmas Day. She was thrilled to put on her Christmas outfit (a gift from Aunt Megan) and pose for her photo shoot.

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December 17, 2009 by Jen.

When we walked in to see Juliana today the nurse and resident were beaming. (We really appreciate how much the doctors and nurses get excited over our baby’s milestones. They are all very supportive of us!) Juliana had just been moved from CPAP to nasal cannula. This little oxygen tube has prongs that go into her nostrils. However, they had to cut off the ends of the prongs because her nose is still so small. She had a few bradycardias throughout the day and some desaturations, but they think she will do okay with this new oxygen delivery system. She may switch back and forth between the CPAP and nasal cannula for the next few days. We’ll see. Her Fentanyl is slowly decreasing and her feeds have gone up to 6 ml/hour now, with additional calories. Her TPN (the intravenous nutrients that we call “Baby Gatorade”) will be discontinued tonight and she will begin to receive all of her nutrition from the breast milk. That’s a big step! She may also have her PICC line removed tomorrow, if she continues to do well with her feeds. She seems to be gaining about an ounce every day or so; the breast milk is really doing its work. She now weighs 2 lb, 9 oz.

We also continue to be very excited over her stools. She had two more today without suppository help. It’s great to know that her stomach and intestines are processing everything properly.

I (Jen) got to hold Juliana for about two hours, during which time she looked around wide-eyed and then settled in for a long nap. She seemed to be very comfortable, and we both really enjoyed the snuggle time. Near the end of her nap the Howes got to come in and see her for a bit, so that was a nice end to the day.

Juliana likes to open her eyes and look around (often while waving her arms), especially during her cares when the lights are bright. Here are some photos of her awake time today and yesterday. (Hint: click on the small photos to view larger size.)

And a very special thanks to our visiting photographer Stephen Herr for the following photos:

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December 12, 2009 by Jen.

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