I did what?

I think we bought a house today. Or at least agreed to a price and closing date. hmm... more to follow on that...

Emma is doing well, she is gaining some weight on her ablib program. She is currently taking medicine for reflux (which appears to be helping some). The doctors are still a bit concerned about her getting enough nutrition... luckily one of the doctors at Meriter is well respected worldwide (or so i've been told) on premie nutrition. They are working together to design a nutrition program for her.

Hopefully Emma will be home before easter.... that being said, I'd hate to count up all the different times i've estimated on this blog when Emma would come home...

Big Day / Sink or Swim

I feel like a musician releasing a double album - we had two big days in a row, and I'm combining them into one post. Unfortunately, just like the double album, the combination of the two posts will not be as good as if the two posts had been released separately. Better than one post, but not as good as two. Onto part I of our two part post...

Big Day

Yesterday was a big day for us... March 21, the first day of spring, also known as "Emma's due date." It was kind of a strange day. It was a day we looked forward to for so long, yet turned out so differently than we expected. However, we have had some great experiences over the past 4+ months, met some great people, and got to know Emma sooner. It was still hard though, especially since we had kept the due date in our mind as a date when we thought Emma might be home by.

Other than that, Emma did well yesterday. She ate when she wanted to, per her motis operendi. She gained weight (now up to 3074 grams, or 6 pounds 12.5 ounces). She looked great and was a happy baby.


Onto part II.... Sink or Swim.

Aptly titled if I say so myself.

Today the doctors decided (after Liz, the nurses and I all kept suggesting it) that we let Emma set her schedule. No more waking her every three hours to feed. No more "you have to eat X ml per feeding." And, no more feeding tube. We are disconnected (aside from the oxygen). Emma now only gets what she eats (for now... this is only a trial at this time). This morning at 8am, Emma ate 21ml... a far cry from her normal 56ml. However, Emma woke up early at 10:30 (instead of 11) and ate 46ml... that's a good sign.

We talked with the doctors, and they said that for now, they want Emma to eat at a minimum 80ml every shift (8 hours) just to keep hydrated. They'd prefer she didn't lose weight or if she actually gained, but one step at a time. Plus, this is a meds day for Emma so she'll probably lose weight. No big deal. But, the responsibility is now all on her... if she does well, she'll be home soon. If she doesn't... well, it will be harder on Liz and I than Emma.

On a side note, the Pulmonary team came to visit Emma today. I didn't stay for their visit (I do have to go to school at some point), but I'll take a look at what they found / decided later tonight. I know that they were going to reevaluate her lungs / oxygen setup and her current medication and dosage. Hopefully everything turns out well.

No pictures today (because I haven't uploaded them yet... Liz has the camera at this moment). Maybe later though...

Pictures?

Ok... I've posted pictures. Sorry for the long delay.

Emma is getting bigger. And by bigger, I mean 3 kilograms (or 6 pounds, 9.8 ounces). She keeps growing more and more and more.

Emma is currently eating 55 ml (almost 2 ounces) of 24kcal milk every three hours. That is a lot. Emma keeps on trying to eat as much as she can, but the strict three hour schedule they have her on is a bit much for her. Liz and I are hoping that we can trial for a day or two and just let Emma tell us when she wants to eat and how much. I understand that the docs don't want Emma to lose weight because she is still growing and her lungs are still healing. But, we really want Emma to come home soon.

Emma's lung continue to do well. She is currently at 1/8 of a liter of 100% oxygen (which results in about 23% oxygen at her lungs). This is the last step she takes before no extra oxygen. We hope that she continues to do well and maybe she can start trying to breath w/out any oxygen.

Emma had another eye exam yesterday, and it went well. She is scheduled for another appt. next month.

Other than that, Emma has been more active and having longer alert times, which is fun (however, it makes the every three hour feedings an annoyance). She continues to grow, and she is definitely a curious little girl (she loves to look at everything).

Well, enough of words... onto the pictures (all taken within the last day or so).

Emma Update

Hello everyone!

Emma continues to do well... she is up to 6 pounds 5 ounces (that's a gain of 5 pounds for those of you counting) and she keeps on putting on the ounces. She is as spunky as ever, and continues to develop her own personality.

Currently Emma sits at a comfortable 1/8 of a liter (or litre out there for our british audience) of straight flow (100% oxygen), which means that Emma is currently getting ~ 23% oxygen in her lungs. She is doing well at this setting, and we are hoping that Emma might even be able to get rid of the oxygen before she comes home.

Overall Emma is doing great. Her physical therapist is impressed with her progress to date. I believe that she will be having another eye exam soon. The only thing keeping her in the hospital at this time is that she still doesn't eat all of her food by bottle. Some days Emma does great... 80+%... others, closer to 35%. The nurses keep saying that Emma is doing fine and that one day she will just "get it", but it's hard to just wait by... oh well.

Other than that, everything is going well. Liz is enjoying her maternity leave and is getting to know how to take care of Emma very well from the nurses.

Back Again

Well, Emma continues to do improve. While she is still on meds (which will hopefully be over tomorrow), she looks great. Today we noticed how much more "with it" Emma has been, especially today.

Emma had a great day, and you can tell by two things: First, Emma's lungs are doing better, as she is now where she was before she got sick (1 lpm @ 45% oxygen). Second, Emma is continuing to be able to eat more and more out of a bottle. Today she finished a full bottle for the 5th time in the last 8 days. Actually, so far today Emma has eaten more than half of her food through a bottle rather than via a feeding tube. So, we are making progress!

On a side note, Liz started maternity leave today. Oddly enough, she went to school today to get some stuff done. So, she is now all caught up with her school work and will hopefully not have to do anymore schoolwork until she goes back in May.

Sorry, no pictures. Hopefully tommorow or Saturday.

100 Days

Welcome back!

Well, Emma hit a milestone today... 100 days of life! Truthfully I was hoping that we would be well out of the hospital by the 100 day mark. That, and I have already lost the "when will Emma come home game..."

Emma has been doing pretty well lately. She is still on nasal canula, and is currently ~2600 grams. That's right, she has quadrupled her birth weight. A couple days ago I saw a baby that was tiny, and I asked the nurses if Emma was every that small. Turns out, the baby was ~950 grams... or ~350 grams more than Emma when she was born. It seems like only yesterday that I was looking at the 5lb baby and thinking it had to weight at least 10 pounds... now, we have the huge baby.

Over the past couple weeks Emma has started eating out of a bottle some... So far Emma has eaten 3 entire feedings out of a bottle. I'm lucky enough to claim that I was responsible for holding the bottle for two of them. She is still working on the eating thing, although once she gets that down we'll be homeward bound (or pretty close at least).

Emma did have a little setback this weekend, when she came down with an infection and what appears to be a common cold of some sort. The doctors put Emma on meds, and while they seem to be helping, it did derail Emma from some of the progress she was making (not to mention that she went back on nasal CPAP for all day Saturday). Friday night Emma wasn't doing real well, so we stayed at the hospital... Liz didn't really sleep, and given how I felt after I got up, I can't say that I really got any good sleep. that is neither here nor there though.

Today Emma continues to improve and grow. We are hoping that she continues to heal so we can work towards coming home soon.