Sullivans' Travels: Asbestos Filled Easter Bunnies

Happy Easter!

Hmm... It's been a while. I'd like to say that I've been too busy, but it doesn't take that long to post. I guess it is a more of a question of motivation...

First, Emma continues to do well. She is up to ~ 7 pounds 7 ounces, and is growing like a weed. She is still on 1/8 of a liter of oxygen (although we are confident that she can go w/out it). She is being force fed 55ml (24 kcal / oz) milk every three hours. And by force fed, we mean force fed.
We were told last weekend by the doctor on call that Emma would be home this past week, and then two things happened. First, they checked Emma's vocal cords... which looked good, but she has some flappy skin in her throat which causes her to make sounds when she breathes. It's not that uncommon, and often babies grow out of it. Unfortunately, the UW / Meriter hospitals decided to let all the pediatric ENTs go on vacation this week. Good planning guys. We're hoping she can get seen on Monday.

The other reason she didn't come home is that a new doctor came on for a week. This is a common occurrence... there are 5 doctors (and a fellow) that work in the NICU. They all have different ideas on how to care for premies, which can result in the doctors looking at things in different perspectives. or, as is today, one doctor can have a seriously different idea of how to care for a premie. The current doctor feels that Emma needs to be gaining 1 pound a week (yes, i know i said one pound a week). At this time, this doctor is only on for a couple more days, and then a different doctor will be on. Hopefully that means we can go home soon.... but, who know.

Emma has been progressing well. She continues to engage people more, will entertain herself while in her chair or crib, and will stay up for hours at a time. Emma's favorite time to be up is from 8pm - 11:30pm... the nurses say we trained her this way because we always come in for 8pm cares. Her muscle tone continues to improve, as her ability to hold up her head, prop herself on her forearms, and her ability to put up a little resistance with her legs when we stand her up.

Overall, Emma is doing well... we're just getting anxious to get her home.

Next... The house! It is a beautiful house in a great neighborhood. It is a three bedroom, two bath house with a full basement. The main floor has two bedrooms, living room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom and sun room. The floor are all hardwood with original hard wood trim. The upstairs is the master bed & bath with storage. The basement is half quasi finished, and the other half unfinished. There is a decent sized "oak park backyard" (aka, it's small), with the leaning garage of pisa. Here are some pics, and i'm sure i'll blog more about it in the future.