RJ update

I know it has been a while since I did an update on RJ, but here you go. Here seems to be doing great and is taking a bottle starting today!

From Holly:
R.J. has continued to progress faster than most have expected. He hit the 4 lb mark on Monday night. There was a correction. The nurse said he was 4.3 that night, but the night before she said 3.14. That would mean he would gain 5 ounces in one day, now, we know our boy likes to eat, but my momma didn't raise no fool! I asked three times if that was correct and she said she measured 3x. So, I took her word. Sometimes the scales mess up as well. His correct weight for Monday night was 4 pounds even. Tuesday and Wednesday nights he weighed in at 3 pounds 1 ounce. His temperature and breathing continue to maintain. He will start with one bottle tomorrow. If he does fine with that, then we will steadily bump up his feedings to 8 bottles a day over the weeks to come. To come home: many have asked this question. .. answer: we are never given a date or expected date since every baby is different. Depending on how well he does on the bottle it could be early to mid July. It could be earlier or later all depending on progress or lack there of. 2 things R.J. has to maintain to come home with us. He has to breathing and feeding on his own with no spells for 5-7 days straight. Spells? Spells are when his heart rate or breathing drops down or bottoms out or he just forgets to breathe. Preemies do this all the time. He had one spell last night, but recovered on his own without having to be stimulated by the nurse. His breathing is fine on his own. So one down and one to go. We will start the bottle tomorrow. Pray that R.J. learns to suck, swallow, and breathe all at the same time to take his bottle and pray that we have patience to help him through it. I don't know who's more excited about the bottle more. .. Mommy or R.J. I'm sure it will be him since he has been going to town on his pacifier lately! Love to all. Continue those prayers! God continues to hold this little guy in the palm of His hand! Praise Him!

Father's Day 2011

We had such a wonderful day yesterday celebrating Matt's first Father's Day. We got up and did presents. Matt got a book of comics that completed his "Wondermark" collection (I think it completed it), this book about cool projects for Matt, Ruthie, and our future children to do together, and then the coffee mug (below the book) with Ruthie's picture and the date of Matt's first father's day.


Then we went to church and taught Sunday school. Then off to Tony Roma's and Orange Leaf for lunch and dessert. It was delicious and Matt really enjoyed having ribs for lunch. Then we went home and enjoyed a nap and just resting the rest of the day.

I am so happy to share parenting Ruthie with Matt Stout! He is such a wonderful daddy and loves Ruthie and me so much and it is so evident in the way he cared for Ruthie and me and wants to be with us all the time. I really love being a stay at home mom, but would love to be a stay at home mom and dad, but that can't work so we will just enjoy our time together in the evenings and weekends! Thank you Matt Stout for loving us and providing for us! You are amazing! I love you and so does Ruth and Mags!

Pictures of Ruthie from hospital that I never posted

Ruthie turns 5 months old!

Today Baby Ruthie turned 5 months old. She is growing so much. We have moved up to 3-6 month clothes and she is able to sit up with little support. She is also (from our measurements) weighing in at 12 lbs and 15.5 oz. and is 23.5 inches long. That puts her in about the 16th percentile for weight and the 8th for length. We are slowly making up for lost time with the lactose intolerance issue. I don't think she looks like she needs to gain weight she is just as healthy looking as she can be!
Here are the pics from her 5 month photo shoot!
These first few were before she had her morning nap
Gnawing on those fingers
Hanging out with T-Rex
She gagged herself here
And here she is chewing on the burp cloth that I used to clean up her spit up. She loves to chew on cloth and started crying when I took it away so I gave it back!

She had a breakdown, so to the crib for a nap
Then she woke up and is much happier as you will see in the next pics where I got lots of smiles! I just love my smiley baby!
Hanging out with Cinderella
close up- oh and a Thanks to the Maddocks family for the cute outfit

Silly face!

Mom, back off
Seriously!
Thank you!
High 5 for Cinderella

I'm done momma!
And this is a picture that we found from last weekend on our camera. It is a great picture of Papa Stout and Ruthie- Happy Father's Day Steve/Dad/Papa! We love you!
Look at that happy face, she loves her Papa Stout!

This month:
Ruthie finally really rolled over. Matt went in to check on her b/c she was screaming and she had rolled over from her back to her stomach. Still no rolling from the stomach to the back and she still HATES tummy time.
Ruthie loves to babble. Today we were driving down the road and she was just talking away. We wonder just what is she thinking when she talks away like that. She does it a lot.
Ruth has also started mimicking our sounds, bats things with her hands, and is great with eye contact.
She is still loving getting a diaper change. It is her second favorite activity besides swinging which is still her favorite.
She is sitting up really well with very little support. I hope by next month she can sit up all on her own.
Ruth is now eating cereal at least once every other day and usually once a day. She also took a bottle again so hopefully she will continue with that one!
Finally, Ruthie is cutting her first tooth. Her gums are swollen and you can feel the tooth cutting through. Therefore, we have had some issues with sleeping and eating like normal, but that is to be expected.
I think that is about it. Can't wait until next month when we introduce veggies and fruits! I think she is going to love that and I am hoping for an adventurous eater just like her mommy and daddy.

The Perfect Iced Coffee

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/06/perfect-iced-coffee/

This is a recipe from The Pioneer Woman's website. It is amazing. It is a coffee concentrate and is better than any iced coffee I have ever made from hot coffee that I put in the fridge for later. The coffee concentrate is made not from hot coffee, but from coffee that you steep in warm water for 8 or more hours in a bowl. I made half the recipe b/c the original recipe makes 2 whole gallons! Next time though I will make the whole 2 gallons b/c it is that great! Check it out and make it b/c you will love it if you love iced coffee. I'm sure you could also mix it up in the blender and make it more like a frappe. I will try it sometime soon and let you know how it turns out.
I recommend that go out and get a whole lb of coffee and make it tonight so that you can have it in the morning with your breakfast/brunch!

Hummm...

I was thinking about doing a post that didn't involve Ruthie or motherhood, but seriously it just seems to consume my/our life. I just can't help but share all the pictures of her and really we are boring and she is cute.

Today, Nana and Papa Stout came to visit and Ruthie thought that Nana was hilarious when we were at dinner. I really wish I had a video of her laughing b/c it was a really loud belly laugh! I hope I can get her laughing like that on tape soon!




I can share with you that we have 2 important dates in the next few months. July 17th will be Ruthie's baptism/christening at our church here in Wilmore and on Dec 9th Matt and I are going to graduate from Seminary. All are welcome to attend both, just let us know. Those 2 events are pretty exciting for our little family of 3. This also means that the campus ministry job hunt is on. Prayers are appreciated! I guess after that we also have Ruthie's first birthday, but since she isn't even 5 months yet (next Saturday she will be) we won't even talk about that yet.
Also, right now Matt is busy-ish with work and I am busy with class and we are both busy with parenthood. I am also now addicted to Sudoku and Matt is addicted to some games on his Ipad. See we are boring. I promise to write about something exciting if that ever happens, but to tell you the truth I am ok with our boring life and just enjoying my baby girl every second I can.

Also, Maggie is still here and loves Ruthie! Maybe I should post about her too.

Finally, if you are still reading by now, any moms want to tell me about their opinions on disposable diapers? All opinions welcome, but Ruthie cannot wear Pampers Baby Dry and we have tried Pampers Swaddlers and Huggies and we like the Swaddlers best. Let me know what you think and if Luvs or store brand work for you or if we Pampers Swaddlers is the way to go.

ok, I'm finished with the rambling...

Hanging Out with the Bff, Sophie

First, here is Ruthie with Sophie. Sophie, her mother (Missy), and our friend Susan come over once a week for lunch and it just so happen that this week the girls were dressed in the same colors so we had a photo shoot.

They kept grabbing at each others dresses
BFFs holding hands
Sweet Sophie
Happy Ruthie
"Mom and Mom why are staring at us and insisting on taking all these photos?"

Just a cute shot of Ruth
"Do you hear that?"
Ruthie's Robot shirt that Daddy made her
Ruthie in her stylin sunglasses (yes my 4.5 month old has 2 pairs of sunglasses)
Sitting in the farm animal jump-a-roo for the first time and enjoying herself!

That's all for now. nothing special going on here at the Stout home!

Ruthie Videos 2

Here are the last of the videos and now I know how to embed them!

Ruthie Videos

Enjoy these videos. We have a few more on the camera, but here are the 3 we have so far!







I can't figure out how to get the videos loaded on the sight. They take too long so here are the links to Youtube.

May 31/ June 1 update on RJ

From Holly: "We've been near the hospital all weekend, so I haven't been around a computer, my apologies! We have had a whirlwind of emotions from the weekend. He weighed in at 2lbs and 12 ozs on Saturday. Which was his heaviest yet. His oxygen was going down slowly. The secrections from the tummy continued so the doctors had the surgeons come down to evaluate him. They wanted to run tests on R.J. to rule out certain premature diseases. I was crushed, but knew it was the best for him. He had an enima dye test run Sunday morning which came back negative for anything they were looking for. They said he did great and had a great bowel movement after the test that should have removed any blockage if there was blockage after that. We returned to the hospital Sunday afternoon after crying sad tears at church. We walk into the nurse saying, by the way we are feeding him 3mL now. I said excuse me feeding what? Well, milk, Momma. I cried and cried tears of joy. For three weeks we had heard maybe tomorrow if the tummy is okay, well maybe the next day we'll feed. I stopped asking because I was tired of let down. So, to walk in and hear that our son was receiving milk for the first day of his life, was overwhelming with joy! We prayed and prayed that his little tummy was strong enough to accept the milk. Sunday was a milestone for little R.J. We went up to the hospital on Monday and his little tummy was not only accepting milk, but was doing great with it that they bumped him up to 5mL of milk. He weighed in at 2lbs. and 14 ozs. on Monday. We were standing over our child's incubator just in awe of him sleeping so peacefully. The nurse said you ready to hold him now or when he wakes up. My husband and I look at each other and at him. Smiles beaming off of our faces. No cameras with us whatsoever. You better believe we said we'll let him sleep and come back this afternoon to hold him. That afternoon we were fully loaded with camera phones and bought a disposal camera for the milestone moment. To hold our son for the first time in three weeks and two days, there is no explanation and no words to describe the joy that overfloweth from our hearts! Nothing else compares! We slept peacefully Monday night after holding our son for the first time, absolutely in awe of the weekend that God blessed us with our son. Feeding him milk and getting to hold him in our arms. I've learned to stop asking when can we hold, feed, take home because every baby develops differently, so when that time comes it is a complete surprise and gift wrapped up for us from our Heavenly Father Himself! Today, Tuesday, the nurse said he was maintaining his weight of 2lbs. and 14ozs. They bumped him up to 8mL of milk every three hours today. So, he'll be getting a little over 2 ounces of milk a day. He is getting there. She said he is not in the critical stage anymore and moving toward the growing stage. His oxygen is down to 2 liters and when he gets down to 1 liter. . .out comes the nose tube and his little nose will be free from tubes just like his mouth is. He is working hard on his pacifier now to get going on a sucking motion. He's been doing fabulous! We are so proud of our little fighter. The doctors call our son, Houdini, because no matter how many times they tape down his nose tube to his face, he magically finds a way to rip it out. Oh, Lord, when he gets home we are in trouble! Thank you for your continued prayers and support. We continue to marvel at our Deliverer and special surprises to us this weekend with our child. For Jesus taking care of all three of us, we are simply and greatly blessed!"