Week 1 at Home

Wow! This past week has been a whirlwind. I can't believe a week has already gone by. So far so good. Chloe ate pretty poorly her first two days at home so I actually took her to the pediatrician because I was worried she was sick. (Also, her temp was hanging low - a sign of sickness in tiny babies.) She said Chloe's fine, though, and we'll go back in two weeks. We also got the ok to try a faster flow nipple on her bottles. She was just having to work WAY too hard to get the thickened milk out of regular nipples. We got a cool adjustable nipple from Avent and can just rotate the bottle to increase/decrease the speed. It's great because we can start her at slow speed when she first starts eating, the milk is still really warm and viscous, and she's all cylinders. Then we can just turn our wrist to switch to a higher flow when she slows down and the milk cools/thickens. It seems to be working. She doesn't take an hour to finish a bottle and I think that's good. An hour at work on a bottle is way too long for her.

We also seem to have her pooping under control. We had to give her two glycerin chips, to make her poop, when she first got home. Sticking something up Chloe's bottom wasn't exactly the homecoming I'd envisioned for her but ya' gotta do what ya' gotta do, right? Since then I've been sneaking straight (thickened) breastmilk into her diet when she seems stopped up. It seems like she only needs 3 bottles of breastmilk every three days or so to keep the poop coming. Theoretically, straight breastmilk might hinder weight gain because it has fewer calories than her breastmilk/formula recipe but she eats much more after a good poop so I'm hoping it will actually assist in weight gain and not hinder it.

We saw the pulmonologist today. I really like him a lot. He has a super cool African (big continent, I know, but that's as good as I can do) accent and made silly baby noises for Chloe as he examined her. He was tickled when I said I "hated" the pulse-ox monitor because he'd rather we watch Chloe than the monitor. I thought that was interesting since he was supposedly the one who ordered it but he vehemently denied that and said he doesn't like parents to use them because he'd rather then watch the baby. The monitor is supposed to beep when Chloe's oxygen levels or heart rate drop below acceptable levels. It goes off all the time, though, telling me that my pink babies has a 55% (for example) blood-oxygen level or it's not picking up at all because she's kicking her legs. Crappy monitor! It works sometimes, though, so I think I'll keep it on when Chloe's alone sleeping or when we're in the car and I'm not watching her. He's concerned with Chloe's growth, though (join the club), and is NOT impressed with her weight gain since leaving the hospital. (He said 11grams per day but I came home and did some math and came up with a higher number.) She needs to grow new lung tissue and weight gain is an indicator of that. Anyway, no changes for today. We can expect her to stay on oxygen at least though the winter and that's fine with me. Come back in two weeks. He might consult the nutritionist and increase her calories if she hasn't gained sufficiently by then. Yikes!


CUTIE PATOOTIE

Having Chloe home creates many more photo opportunities. She's SUCH a doll! Is it possible that she's even cuter now that she's at home BECAUSE she's at home? I've taken to kissing her a lot lately, too. Being in the NICU creates an extreme sense of germ paranoia. We're still very germ conscious. We keep antibacterial gel all over the house and I have to sneak into Solana's room at night to lotion up her hands because they're getting so dry from all the gel. (She squirts herself every time she wants to touch Chloe, poor baby.) Anyway, I never really kissed Chloe in the NICU. That sounds so sad all of the sudden - 5 months before kissing my baby properly. :-( Anyway, It's like I've found this new joy and she seems to like it too! I don't kiss her on the mouth or anything - more like her cheeks near her ear and neck. She just stared at me in fascination when I was doing it over and over last night. And I swear she was trying to kiss me back afterward (either that or she was just hungry and trying to eat my cheeks.) Whenever I would go in for another nibble at her ear she's open up her little mouth and plant one on my cheek. I LOVED IT! In fact, I can't wait for her to wake up so I can go do it again! Hehe.



Isn't she gorgeous. Look at how tiny she looks next to Dave's hands. Can you just imagine if Leila were here? Oh my gosh - that would just be a ridiculous amount of beautiful babyness!

We were trying out headbands. She can totally rock a headband but I like to keep a hat on her because her temperature's been a bit on the low side since she's been home.

This is our gorgeous Australian Shepherd, Bluebell (yes, I miss my Blue Bell ice cream). She is the best dog! And she has decided that Chloe is her baby. Ever vigilant she's always by Chloe's side. She loves Chloe. Her herding skills will come in handy when Chloe gets mobile. Oh, funny story. I lowered a swaddled Chloe so that Bluebell could sniff her and Chloe farted right as Bluebell started sniffing her. Bluebell immediately started licking Chloe's bootie area as if she were a puppy. So cute!!!

Playing with Daddy. Note Bluebell in the background...

I really do hold Chloe sometimes...

TUMMY TIME!

Chloe enjoys herself some tummy time! This was taken right at the beginning - before the screaming and crying began. I always feel so bad for her during tummy time :-(

Super Girl! She has yet to roll over for us (the nurses swear she did it three times in a row for them a couple of weeks ago) but she's gotten pretty close.

Here Dave is giving her some moral support. It seemed to work. She got busy right after that.

SISTERS

Solana adores her sister. Of course, we've already witnessed a tiny bit of acting out. I'm torn between maintaining a firm hand with her and letting it slide since she really has been neglected the last few days. If you know me at all you've probably already guessed that I've chosen the "firm hand" option. (With a side of obscenely excessive praise for praise-worthy behavior.) :-P Hopefully, we'll get back to a reasonable amount of "Solana time" really soon.

I love Solana's expressions in these pictures.

I think Chloe kind of resembles Solana in this picture. I never really thought that before...

Look at how she looks at Chloe. Love them!

Well, that's it for this week. I definitely will not be updating every day anymore. I'm lucky if I brush my teeth before noon! (And yes, I do believe I had brushed teeth in the above picture. Definitely no makeup, though!) Blogging is definitely going to fally by the wayside. It's been wonderful to read all the joyous comments of our friends and loved ones the past few days. It's so fun to hear Chloe's cheering squad in full force. :-D

Chloe's NICU Video

Check out this amazing slideshow Angela made.

http://www.photodex.com/sharing/viewshow?fl=3161454&alb=0

You have to download an ActiveX Control to watch the video and then click on "January 18..." under the title to start it.

Little note: My mom flew to Ohio from Houston the morning after my water broke. We expected her to help out as I began my hospital bedrest. Instead, she was there for my labor and emergency delivery. She, Dave, and I had the opportunity to spend lots of time saying "hello" and "goodbye" to Leila after the girls were born. When it was my mom's turn to hold her she sang "Jesus Loves Me." It was so sweet and perfect. It makes me tear up just thinking of it. I'm not sure if Angela remembered that when making the video but...well...you'll see/hear.

Home at Last! She's Home at Last!

This has to be really quick. Chloe has, indeed, kept us on our toes these past few days. She's doing well, though, and we are sooooo thankful and blessed to finally have her at home with us where she belongs. I want to share so much of what we've experienced over the last few days but I'm still trying to figure out a way to function with our new addition. Let's just say I didn't do too well the first day. I spent two out of every thee hours feeding Chloe and pumping. Chloe can't really leave our bedroom because we only get 20 feet of tubing for her oxygen (they say that longer tubing won't work with such a low flow [1/8 Liter]) so I rarely leave the bedroom. I've reduced her feeding time to 30-45 minute increments and I'm only pumping every 5-6 hours now. We'll figure it out. We're just glad to have our little angel home and doing well. Home for the time being, that is. We have a deluge of doctor's appointments coming up: We've already been to the Pediatrition (I thought she was sick but she's not), Pulmonologist, Surgeons follow-up, Opthamologists, Feeding Therapist, and the Help Me Grow people already want to come and assess her for the HMG program (a state run program that will assign us a case worker who will follow Chloe until PreK and make sure she's developing and making milestones). This ought to be interesting. We're entering a whole new world of premie development. I'm not even close to ready for this (I've only had 5 months to prepare myself but...whatever..) But we'll figure it out along the way...

By the way, my bff Angla went with us to the hospital on Monday to photograph. She said she took over 700 pictures! I won't upload all... She also made an amazing slideshow of Chloe's NICU time that already made me cry twice. I'll share the youtube link as soon as I get it.

Day 148 - Takin' Care O' Buisness

We have a lot to do. Chloe should be evicted tomorrow.

Day 145 - Puttin' on the grams

Chloe put on 36 grams yesterday - the first day she was allowed to be a big girl and control her own feeding schedule. 36 grams may not seem like a lot but it's a pretty good amount for Chloe. She gained 8 grams the night before and didn't gain anything for 5 days before that. As it turns out, she's really hungry around dinner time and likes to sleep more at night. I'm sure not complaining! She's now 5lb 10.5oz. As my friend, Bev, says, "Praises!"

I can't wait to visit Chloe during Solana's Pre-K today. She's usually super alert during the day for me. I only got to visit her yesterday evening and she was fighting sleep really hard. She finally lost her battle and pretty much snoozed the whole time I was there. She's gorgeous when she sleeps so I'm certainly not complaining but I do love those eyes! Besides, I was simultaneously enjoying her beauty and cracking up at the dad who seemed to be participating in a log sawing contest a couple of bed spaces away. Everyone was laughing at him, poor guy. If only his wife had been there to kick him in shin... Hehe.

By the way, I've completely given up on being cool about Chloe's "eviction."

Please Pray for Ayden

Our NICU has two "old timers." Chloe and cutie pie named Ayden. Ayden is actually older than Chloe. He was born on August 5th at 23 weeks gestation. His parents are super sweet, super involved, and super young. I just adore them and I pray for them constantly. Ayden and Chloe have had a lot of the same problems. (They were even both in Michigan at the same time.) Only, Ayden's medical problems are much worse. Yesterday they got more bad news. I just wish I could wrap my arms around them and make it better.


Will you please pray for baby Ayden with me?


His mom recently started a blog for him and summarized the past five months in her first post.

http://aydensjourney.blogspot.com/

Day 144 - Avoiding The 'H' Word

Chloe's still doing pretty well. She still doesn't want to eat at night but seems to be eating pretty well during the day. They've switched her to ad lib ad lib feedings. This basically means that she can eat as much as she wants whenever she wants. And instead of waking her every 3 hours at night they'll only wake her if she hasn't eaten in 4 hours. Plus, the nurse practitioner said she's no longer concerned with the exact quantity that Chloe eats every three hours (or even over a day). She's more concerned that Chloe is having good quality feeds and that she's gaining weight. (She didn't gain weight for about 5 days while we eased her back to full feeds). She has gained puny amounts the last couple of days so we'd really like her to start putting the grams back on.

I've taken great pains to avoid asking about the 'H' word. It was too disappointing when they said, "maybe before Christmas" and then "maybe before the new year" and neither of those happened. (It might have also had something to do with the fact that those were holidays.) I decided I'm much happier in blissful ignorance - I just want to go in for a visit one day and see Chloe sitting in her car seat and ready to go. OK, maybe that's not so practical but you know what I mean...

Anyway, I was talking to the nurse practitioner yesterday about Chloe's progress. She said, "All Chloe has to do now is keep up her eating enough to stay hydrated and gain weight over the next few days. If she does well this week she could go home on Monday. Would that be a good day for you?" Here's how I feel about that statement:

"Oh Crap! I didn't want to know! Now, I just can't get too excited because that might not happen." / "Monday!?! Yippee!! Hooraay!! I can't wait for my little Princess to come home!!"

Well, at least Chloe is blissfully ignorant...