Photography Session for Brooklyn

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Password: miracle

Go to the above website and type in the password to see more pictures of Brooklyn.

Cardiologist Report: Great News

Brooklyn went to the Cardiologist on Thursday for another check up. The doctor said she looked and sounded great. She even got to stop taking her Lasix and Sodium Chloride!! Yeah!! NO more medicine!!! We are down to just her daily dose of vitamins now. Our kitchen counter is getting a little less cluttered now that we were able to take down one set of plastic drawers that contained her medicine and Simply Thick for her bottles. Brooklyn is getting so big. She now weighs 13.07 pounds and is 23 3/4ths inches long. Her head size is 39.5 cm.When she was born her head size was only 9 cm. Wow!! What a difference!! She also turned 7 months old on Friday. She is actually 4 months adjusted. After our Cardiologist visit we decided to take her with us to lunch at Quiznos.  This was our first official outing as a family to a restaurant. It was a late lunch (2:00) so nobody was at the restaurant. Brooklyn slept the whole time so she never even knew we had left the car. But it was still fun.We are slowly starting to inch out into the world .We are still having fun going on our morning strolls around the block. We have ventured from our street to the block now. Brooklyn has a floppy hat she wears when we go for a walk.

 Brooklyn wearing her floppy hat for our morning strolls.

 Brooklyn in her outfit she wore to the cardiologist and for our trip to Quiznos.

Brooklyn's Debut into the World

Brooklyn made her public debut yesterday. She went for her first ride in her stroller. We went for a family walk down our street for the first time yesterday morning. It was very sweet pushing Brooklyn in her stroller. She seemed to really like it as well. We are starting to make our morning walk part of our daily routine. We have waited a long time to take her out for a walk. Here are some pictures of our first stroll.

Father's Day 2011

We had a great Father's Day!! Brooklyn got to celebrate with her daddy and grandpa. Grandpa and Mimi came over for a dinner celebration. After dinner we got some great pictures of Brooklyn with her dad and grandpa.

 Brooklyn and Grandpa ( April's Daddy)

 Brooklyn and her Daddy on their first Father's Day together.

Swallow Study Success

Brooklyn had her follow up Swallow Study today. When she was in the NICU it was determined that she needed to have her milk thickened in her bottles because she was silent aspirating in her lungs a little bit. It has now been almost two months since she was in the NICU and it was time to recheck. Thankfully she is not silent aspirating anymore and she can go back to having her milk without thickener in it. We are extremely thankful for this improvement. We are also thankful for the progress she is making on her eating skills. She is doing much better. She is bottle feeding four times a day and is able to take all of her 85mls at each feeding. It has been so fun spending the summer break with Brooklyn. Each day seems to go by so fast. We try and savor every moment with her. It is hard to believe we spent 5 long months in the NICU and each day felt like a hundred days. Now of course the days fly by when you don't want them to. Next week we go back to the cardiologist for another check up on her heart. Hopefully we will find out if she can stop taking her meds. That would be great but we will see what the doctor says. Matthew has been busy repainting old Tonka Trucks. He made one for Brooklyn and painted it pink. We of course had to have a picture taken with her in it.

 Brooklyn and her pink Tonka truck her daddy painted for her. 

 Brooklyn sitting in the pink Tonka truck wondering if it will drive her around the house.

 Brooklyn doing tummy time. This is her least favorite activity.

 Brooklyn in her Pebbles Flintstone dress.

 Brooklyn and her friend Sweet Pea.

 If  I'm quiet enough she might go away.

 Brooklyn smiling big for the camera. 

More Great News at the Six Month Check Up

Brooklyn had her six month check up last Thursday. She got a clean bill of health!! She also got another round of routine vaccinations.She was not happy about those shots. More thing had three bandaids on her little legs. She now officially weighs 12 pounds and 7 ounces and is 23 inches long.  That is 11.57 pounds more than her birth weight and 10 inches longer!! We are so proud of all of her progress. The doctor decided to increase her bottle attempts to four times a day. So far she is taking all of her four bottles, Each bottle has 85 mls which is 5 mls shy of being 3 ounces. We are still doing the continuous feed at night and then one pump feed during the day now. We have been cleared to take her for short walks in our neighborhood and then by the end of the month we should be able to start venturing out in the world. Here are more pictures of the last few days.