Nearing Normal

"Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.

Worship the Lord with gladness;

Come before Him with joyful songs.

Know that the Lord is God;

It is He who made us, and we are His;

We are His people, the sheep of His pasture."

-Psalm 100:1-3

Today felt like one of the first "normal" days for Celia.  Julya put it best when she said "It feels like we should just be packing up to take her home from the hospital now."  Looking at her peaceful face as she sleeps swaddled in a fleece blanket sucking on a big blue pacifier, you'd never know what little Celia has been through these first few weeks of life.  She looks like just any other baby.

As the recently dubbed "Star of the NICU" or "Miss NICU," Celia still regularly receives attention from the hospital staff, but nurses and doctors don't always need to check on her anymore.  Their immediate attention has turned to newly admitted babies who need more monitoring than she requires at this point.  The only thing they are watching for right now is a smooth transition off of pain medicines.  Please be in prayer that Celia will not experience withdrawals.  

Another sign of "normal" is that Alex and Julya can freely hold Celia whenever they want.  She has less and less wires and tubes hooked up to her each time we visit.  The last of these, the big one, is the TPN line that we pray will be rendered unnecessary very, very soon.  Please continue to pray for the healing of Celia's intestines.  We want her to be able to eat as soon as possible so Alex and Julya can take her home.  She will begin to be fed Pedialyte in the next couple of days, and if she handles that well, she can have milk....and if she handles that well they can FINALLY pack up :).

(I promise there are some pretty great pictures to accompany this post that will be added SOON!)