Anniversary Surprise

Tim and I celebrated our five year anniversary on June 11th. Luckily we had family here, Papa Cox and Mama Cox, to keep Sophia so we could slip away for a couple of hours. (They were a HUGE help by the way..THANK YOU!) I had no idea what Tim had planned..He just told me that he would be wearing dress pants and a tie. Oh great, I had no idea what to wear..so I threw on a dress to be safe. We drove to a restaurant in downtown Annapolis (which is picture perfect). It was a fancy little local italian restaurant. The manager led us through a locked door to our own private table. When I walked in the manager said, "Happy Anniversary Mrs. Rice". Sooo Tim had been planning...haha. It was very sweet. On our table sat an arrangement of pretty flowers and candles. Tim had a local florist deliver the flowers about half an hour before we arrived. He's so thoughtful! A few minutes after we sat down, he started a sweet speech, that made us both tear up of course (sorry Tim). And THEN to my SHOCKING SURPRISE he pulled out what looked like a ring box! I was speechless. Tim had upgraded my wedding ring! I couldn't speak..i had no idea what to say! I was so surprised!

See, five years ago we were 19 and had NO MONEY..therefore he was forced to take out a loan for 400.00 for my first ring! Which we laugh so hard about now when we realize how far we have come. I love my wedding ring and will always wear it (until i give it to Sophia someday) however, I LOOOOOOOVE my new ring. Tim explained, "five diamonds for five years". It's so big! I don't even feel like I can wear something this nice! But I will quickly get used to it, haha. I'm actually picking it up today from being sized. I cannot wait to wear it proudly. Thank you so much my love! You are the greatest thing thats ever happened to me.

So I had to post a picture of it, which does not do it justice!

I also found our first family photo in the NICU. My poor baby. But she's doing great now. This past tuesday she weighed in at 7lbs 9ozs. We go back in 2 weeks for another weight check. Also we go for a follow-up head ultrasound in a couple of weeks. This is because her first head scan in the hospital came back questionable. The Dr. said there was possible hemmoraging (bleeding) in her brain after birth and also the scan showed an englarged ventricle. It sounds bad, however, the Doctor assured us that he would not send her home if he thought it was dangerous. So he sent us home from the hospital with instructions for a follow-up head scan to make sure everything looks ok. Please pray that everything checks out.

Sophia hasn't quite mastered sleeping through the night yet. Tim went back to work this past Thursday so i have been taking all the night feedings. I get about 2 hours of sleep at a time. I hope she steps it up soon! For those that know my sleeping habits, knows that lack of sleep to this extent has been extremely hard for me, haha. But i'm loving every minute of my time with Sophia. We hang out all day at the house and wait for Daddy to get home around 5pm...then i'm off to run errands and gain some sanity, lol.

Pops, Nanadee, Aunt Melo and Aunt Katy arrive tomorrow (Tim's parents and sisters). We can't wait for them to meet Sophia!

We love you all!

Aren't they adorable??

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SHR

So Haleigh and I are officially falling in love with Sophia here in our home. She reallyis being a good baby. Her fussing and crying is minimal and she has eating quite well lately. We bought a jogging stroller and have taken her on several walks already. As luck would have it, just as soon as she feels the stroller in motion, she falls asleep. It's precious.

David, Tresa and Zach left earlier this afternoon (notice I'm up feeding Sohia at 3 am, so I guess they left yesterday now), and we had blast with them. Lots of games with Zach and company, and David and Tresa proved quite helpful with the house and babysitting. Hal and I were able to go and celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary. We had a great time.

Now it's just the three of us until my parents and little sisters come to visit on the 20th or so. We're really looking forward to spending time with them, and I understand they're pretty excited about meeting Sophia. Then again, who wouldn't be??? :)

God bless everyone. Thank God our girl is home.

Sophia is HOOOOOOMMMMEE!!!!! thank God almighty, Sophia is home at last! (pics to follow soon)

So this is Sophia chilling in her swing. Our friend Banu brought us an outfit from Turkey when she visted last, and Sophia wore it home from the hospital. Isn't that hat hilarious?!?



And here is the onesie (sp?) that Uncle Dave got her. Ha ha ha... Sorry, these iPhone pics are too small. The shirt says "Hey Obama, I could use a change."

My name is Sophia, and I'm (no longer) an addict.

Sophia is off the morphine!! The docs discontinued it this morning after weaning by 2-hundreths of a miligram every day. She had minimal withdrawal symptoms towards the end, so she's no longer on narcotics!

Poor Haleigh is exhausted yet determined to run off of adrenaline. We learned yesterday that she has an infection, Mastitus, so she's taking anti-biotics for that.

We're a lot closer to bringing Sophia home. We have to have her take every feeding by bottle, whereas currently she takes every other feeding by her feeding tube. Also weight gain is an issue, as she has been going down by an ounce or two over the past few days (which basically means she is burning more calories by being forced to take a bottle than the amount contained in the bottle itself).

Please keep Haleigh and Sophia in your prayers, as well as Bradie Cook (and family) and Trey Sutton. God bless.