Just hear those sleigh bells ring-a-ling ....

The last week has been CRAZY!!! Things were moving along just fine (Charlotte was even starting to drink a little bit from a bottle), and then on Friday morning she got ANOTHER infection and they had to put the ventilator back on. She just can't get a break. This one came through her IV line just like the last one, so they had to take it out and put another one in a few days later. One of the nurses explained to me that the blood infections are usually caused by bacteria that live on her skin, however, when those bacteria get into her blood stream her immune system is too immature to fight them off. An adult's immune system is typically advanced enough to handle that little amount of bacteria. Hopefully in a few days her feedings will have increased enough that they can remove that main IV line and there will be one less source for infection to enter her body.

Now that's she's "older" (we just passed the 35 week mark gestationally, meaning she's still 5 weeks premature) Charlotte is treated like any other newborn that gets a fever and an infection - meaning they had to give her a spinal tap to see if she had meningitis. Luckily everything came back normal on that culture.

But there is a happy ending to this saga. Brian and I got a call last night around 7pm and Charlotte pulled out her tube on her own. They weren't even planning to try and extubate her until later in the week, but Charlotte knows best. I went to see her last night and she seemed pretty tuckered-out, but she looked great and more content than she had been over the weekend. And *yay!* today I get to dress her, and love her and squeeze her and call her George (if you haven't seen that Looney Tunes episode then don't worry)!

On Friday, Charlotte received her first haircut due to a failed IV attempt. It sounds horrible, but it's actually quite common. You can see in the photo how her head is shaved a bit on the side. The other side is shaved as well, so she now has her first mohawk. It's never to early to express yourself.

I'd like to send a shout-out to the folks at Ecolab for all the wonderful gifts you sent over! Thank you so much for all the diapers, wipes, outfits, blanket, pillow, bibs, gift card - we appreciate everything you did. Although, I'd like to apologize for my husband who neglected to open the gifts in front of everyone. I told him that he denied everyone their chance to oooh and aaah. But he's a man, so we need to cut him a little bit of slack. In the summer, when Charlotte can get around I will definitely bring her over to the office.

I hope that everyone had a great Christmas and that Santa was good to you. My parents got me a jogging stroller so that Charlotte and I can run around the neighborhood next summer. It even has speakers and a hook up for my MP3 player. wow! My best gift of all was being able to hold Charlotte yesterday even while she was on the ventilator. It's amazing what some snuggles and kisses can do for you.

On Christmas Eve my family came to my house to enjoy our traditional Christmas chop suey. Later that evening Brian and I went to the hospital and read a bit to Charlotte. That is until daddy fell asleep. He gave the nurses quite a giggle.