Moved in!

These are unpacking in progress pics!




























Thanks to my mom's unpacking help...the kitchen is completely unpacked...at least all of the boxes I can find. I'm convinced we are missing one or two.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Early intervention

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Birth Announcement

Thank you to the wonderful and amazing Rebecca Marr for designing the birth announcement for us! She is so good to us!

1: Feb. 3-Mommy’s first visit with Hannah Kate in NICU

(photo by Brittany Richmond)

2: Mar. 8 in NICU;

3: Apr 18-(photo by Rebecca Marr Photography);

4: Feb. 2-Rachel & Leah (photo by Brittany Richmond)

5: Apr 10-at "home!"

*I have had these announcements printed since the end of April, but I’ve been too busy to mail them! See updated pictures on our blog! ~DS

We are proud to announce the birth of our daughters!

Thank you for the love, support, and prayers that you have shown us over the last several months. God has blessed us with an amazing church family and group of friends to help us through this experience. Thank you for loving us, visiting us, checking on us, and telling us how cute Hannah Kate is!

We are thankful for the few hours that we had to spend with our Rachel and Leah. They were laid to rest on April 16^th about 30 minutes from our home. Hannah Kate spent 64 days in the NICU at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital. We were blessed to have some wonderfully special nurses and great medical professionals who made our stay much easier. We are thankful for the medical teams who worked to keep Hannah Kate growing and healthy!

We came “home” on April 4^th to Papa & Nana’s house (Wesley’s parents) since our remodeling wasn’t quite complete yet.

Hannah Kate is doing great! She is growing everyday and looks big and fat to us! At 4 ½ months old (6/16/11), she weighed 10 pounds 7 ½ ounces! What a porker! God has given us a living example of the power of prayer that we get to see each day.

For that, we are extremely thankful.

We want you to know how special each of you are to our family. We will never forget the love you have shown to us during a time when we needed it most!

We hope to see you soon. Until then, you can keep track of us on our family blog!

Love,

Wesley, Denise, and Hannah Kate Skelton

I just scared my poor husband to death! I woke up to feed HK & picked up a pillow beside the bed & there was a huge black bug on it I threw the pillow & screamed/gasped a huge scream/gasp. Wesley sat straight up in bed & I immediately started apologizing & telling him it was a bug. Our comforter is black, so after not finding the bug--the comforter is crumpled up in the floor just in case. Ugh. Hope we don't get eaten alive :(


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Moved in!!!

We have finally (!!!!!!!!!!!) moved in! Pictures coming soon :)
Sunday night Dave & Christy & the boys stopped by to see us. Christy held HK while I ate the yummy Wendy's they brought us. When they left, she thanked me for letting her hold HK & Mikey (5) said, "thank you for letting me LOOK at her!" :)



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

First & Second Trip to Church Services

Wednesday, June 1st, was Hannah Kate's first opportunity to go to church services. We were SO thankful to be able to go as a family instead of Wesley and me taking turns!

I saw a sign similar to this online and decided to make my own. I know people LOVE babies but sometimes they get a little too "handsy"-we are so more cautious about this now after having Hannah Kate. I would have been careful with a full term baby, but with a preemie-you have to be even more careful. Thankfully, everyone has been very understanding and doing their part to help keep Hannah Kate healthy and safe!

In the car!

On the pew!

She did not last long in the car seat :/

After services. Hannah Kate made it about 7 minutes through the lesson. She was fighting sleep and was being a little vocal about it, so we stepped out.

Maggie thought she needed her picture taken too (of course she was right!).

On the way home-she fought sleep until we were in the car....then there was nothing she could do!

Sunday, June 5th, was Hannah Kate's first opportunity to attend Sunday morning worship and Bible study. She wore this beautiful dress made by my grandmother's friend. I need to take close up pictures of the dress because I loved it so much! I was "saving" the dress for the first time she went to worship and it's a little tight around the neck now! BUT, we made the most of it when she wore it and got some pictures! Everyone loved the dress!

This is her "Heisman Move"-for about a week, she did this every time we put her down especially when we were going to change her diaper. Hilarious.

Wide eyed!

Hannah Kate did great in class with us-then I had to take her out to give her a bottle right after communion. We made it back in just in time for the closing song.

This one was from her second Sunday :) This dress was made by the same lady and was a gift from the congregation's "Dorcas Group"-they are so sweet to make things for new babies!

She did much better on her second Sunday (maybe a week of VBS was what she needed?!)-she finished up her bottle before time for communion and then slept like a champ through the rest of the service.

We are so thankful to be able to attend worship services as a FAMILY and are prayerfully training Hannah Kate on how to conduct herself during worship. I have already learned that she sounds way louder to me than anyone else! Wesley held her during services Sunday night and did great-he was much more patient than me at helping get her to sleep and dealing with her noises as she did that. She stayed in the auditorium the whole time. :) ..... well, until the end of the lesson then it was time to for her to eat!

Picture Overload-June 2011-Four Months Old!

Hannah Kate wants you to know that June is Dairy Month :)

Cousin Sarah came to visit on her way back to school and brought us strawberries!! :)

Hannah Kate's 2nd Imagination Library Book!

Hanging out with the horsie from Aunt Bonnie

And the Hereford heifer from Pa and the Grammy formerly known as GiGi.

Here are Hannah Kate's FOUR Month Pictures! It is hard to believe she's four months old (in some ways). It seems like she has grown SO fast, but it also seems like so long ago that she was born and hanging out in the NICU. She has now been OUT of the hospital longer than she was in! That's a big deal!

Look at this girl's fat belly!

Shots with Wesley's wedding ring-now it only fits on two fingers!

I love this little lamb mat that she has. A friend on Facebook has a new baby and he has the giraffe version. Since Wesley has determined that giraffes are Hannah Kate's favorite animal, she totally needs it too! :)

Do you remember how tiny she looked on the lamb when we first came home?

This is her "you woke me up" look!

I think this is a new favorite. :)

Okay, so when she turned one month old, I was a good mother and decided to write about what she was like at that age.....then months two and three came and went and I don't know what happened! So, here I am trying this again:

Things Hannah Kate does not love:
Hmmm......
~being put on her belly unless she is sleepy.

~being ignored-by that I mean, if she 's awake and we aren't playing with her, talking to her, etc. (that's going to be a hard one to break!)
~going to sleep if she's past her "sleepy point"-she's become very good at fighting sleep-just in time to take her to church services-awesome! She cries out (not a regular cry) & waves her arms. The only way to calm her then is to let her hold your fingers or pat her & rock her.
~nursing-but we are working on that!
~being in her car seat if it's not moving-she can be sound asleep and we will bring her in from the car and put the car seat on the floor while we get situated and she's awake within 2 minutes. Seriously!

Things Hannah Kate does love:
~Her mommy & daddy (of course!!)-She even had me buy her a onesie yesterday that said so!
~Smiling at her mommy & daddy. Wesley makes a silly lip smacking noise at her and she smiles every time.
~Jimmy the Giraffe-her giraffe paci-Wesley named him Jimmy and I made a song about her loving Jimmy the Giraffe. Wesley says my song writing skills are lacking, but Hannah Kate knows he's wrong!
~Sleeping ON our chests......(awesome and thanks to Wesley for teaching her that one!)
~Looking around-she's becoming so alert! It's pretty fun! We just have to watch and pay attention for when she starts to get sleepy during her "awake time.".....otherwise, see the "fighting sleep" section above!
~She loves when we sing her songs. At least once a day during her awake time, I try to do a good portion of singing, reading books, etc. to her and she loves it! She just stares at me with her big eyes and smiles! Sweet!

Fun Facts:
~Diaper size 1
~She weighed 9 pounds 6 ounces and was 22 3/4 inches long on May 31-3 days before she was 4 months old. We are going back for a weight check tomorrow because she has been nursing more and I don't want to starve her. Her doctor was fine with waiting until the end of the month, but I just want to check to be safe.
~Clothing size: most things are newborn-she has a few newborn things that she has outgrown, but she's still too small for 0-3 month clothes.
~She has great head control! She can also push herself up with her arms and hold her head up (when she's on our chests.....if she's on her belly on something else she just gets upset!)
~I think she wants to crawl--at least army crawl! If she's on her belly and not asleep, she is usually kicking her legs and moving her arms-she can move!
~She has officially outgrown the "newborn napper" part of the Pack n Play and is back in the bassinet (as of last night). I was nervous that she wouldn't sleep as well, but I guess she's more comfortable with leg room!
~She's so stinkin' cute!
~I love her fat little legs and the dimples on the backs of her hands. Her cheeks are chunky too!
~She's super pumped about hopefully moving into her new home this weekend!!!!!!!!!!!! (as is her momma!)

Hope you enjoyed this blog post! More pictures coming of her first time at church services!

Picture Overload-May 2011

I would like to say that the reason I haven't posted any non-iPhone pictures of Hannah Kate is because my computer was broken......that is partially true! I spilled water on it a few weeks ago and it had to have time to dry out (and for Sarah to take it to the Apple store so it would work completely fine when she arrived!). But.......these were taken in May before the computer incident....I just hadn't posted them. Oh well.
Hannah Kate is modeling her finest "this is the closest we had to a horse outfit" outfit in honor of Kentucky Derby Day. This is her 3 month shots with Wesley's ring.

VBS/Early Intervention

(Monday night)


HK has enjoyed vbs so far this week! By enjoyed I mean she's slept through it well! She can't go to the nursery or the nursery class for quite awhile longer due to kid germs so we are staying in the adult class. If/when I have to take her out, we go the opposite direction of the nursery to either our buddy Kyle's office or to a desk right beside the auditorium. That's my first pick because there are minimal distractions & I can still hear the lesson. So far HK has done well & stayed for all of the first two nights' lessons!

(Tuesday night)







We just finished HK's weekly early intervention time-the lady comes to us each week. HK was actually awake this time & we played & played. Mrs. Diana keeps talking about how great HK is doing! You'd never know she was a 28 weeker! I'll try to take pictures when she's here sometime. :)


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

4 months

Well.....my idea to post a weekly summary didn't work so well huh?! Here's the past two weeks :)
It's hard to believe she's already four months old!

A sleepy girl gets ready for a bath.





We went to JC 2 weeks ago to pack up my classroom. HK ate in the back of the van :)





After spending the morning in my classroom with myself, Mindy, & 3 teacher friends, HK went to stay with Wesley. He said this is what "chatty women" do to her. She never moved when he changed her diaper.





When I got back to Mindy's after packing, she was still snoozing!





I keep telling Wesley he needs to be more proactive about taking pics of HK with her momma! He keeps saying, "that's what you say...."







Do you notice a sleeping trend?






Cabinets in our house!!!!





She is awake more these days, I promise. :) she's started fighting sleep which is not fun. She's also gotten into a habit where she has to hold something or is waving her hands like crazy when she can't calm down or is past her sleepy point. If I hold her hands & her paci in her mouth, she will do a deep sigh & then relax.






See her awake face! Thanks, Brandi, for the onesie!!







A paci is soooo helpful when it's pointed down.







4 month check up with Dr. T! & shots :( she doesn't have to go back for a whole month! He went on & on about how great she's doing! Early intervention has also been coming to the house & will do so every week. She went on & on about how she never expected a 28 weeker to look as great as HK!





She had her first visit to worship/Bible study this week! More pics coming!






Cousin Sarah came to visit on her way (sort of) back to UT.






HK had her first picnic.....well she attended her first picnic!









Yes......typed alllllllll on my phone because I spilled water on my MacBook. :( :( :( I have camera pics to share when I have a working computer!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone