What, two months already?

Today Clara and Wilson are two months old. However, we were a little apprehensive about this day arriving because the 17th hasn't exactly been our lucky day this summer. Clara and WIlson were born in a surprise delivery early in the morning on June 17th and we totaled Chris' car (which required Chris to have hand surgery for a severed nerve and severed artery) on July 17th. When August 17th arrived, we were nervous about even leaving the house. We're back home now but the day isn't over yet, so we're not taking anything for granted :)

We planned on taking a picture of Clara and Wilson with their birthday hats on the 17th of every month until their first birthdays. Wilson was still subjected to an embarrassing photo but Clara will get a pass until she is out of the MRSA ward. We are not allowed to take anything into her isolette that we want to bring out, so she'll have to wait until she gets home for her next official birthday photo.  Although we can't use too many cliches to describe how this feels (because time hasn't flown by and the first two months didn't get here in the blink of an eye), it is amazing to see how much Clara and Wilson have grown in the past month. They're growing like weeds! (And there was the obligatory "we can't believe how much they've grown" cliche) 

  

Unfortunately this evening wasn't all birthday hats and fun pictures. Clara's oxygen was increased from 28% to 35% and her heart rate and respiratory rate skyrocketed around 8:00 p.m. We talked with the doctors and they ordered another blood transfusion for Clara to calm things down. This is bad for three reasons: (1) Clara is not producing enough hemoglobin; (2) her anemia makes her work harder to breathe which increases the oxygen she receives and burns extra calories; and (3) it is more dangerous for her to have intravenous lines with MRSA possibly colonized on her skin. 

We hope this works and Clara will not need another transfusion, but one thing we have realized over the past two months is that this is out of our control. One of the doctors told us early on preemies require God and time. We believe both are on our side. Although it is still very difficult to watch Clara suffer - Chris left the NICU in tears again tonight - we remain thankful for her progress and hopeful that this story will have a happy ending.