She's home!! :)

Day # 19 - 4lbs, 10.6oz

We have a NICU nurse coming to the house to check on Emerie tomorrow and a pediatrician appointment on Wednesday for a weight check.  It probably won't be on a daily basis, but I'll try to keep posting to the blog with pictures and updates as much as I can. 

Day # 18 - Going Home!!

Day # 18 - 4lbs, 8oz

Emerie did great with her bottles over the last 24 hours and as long as she passes her "carseat test" tonight, we get to take her home tomorrow.  Premature babies sometime have difficulty breathing in a carseat because they don't have enough head/neck control to keep their airway open.  Therefore, every baby born before 37 weeks gestational age has to pass a carseat test before leaving the hospital.  I brought in Emeries carseat this morning and left it at the hospital.  At some point tonight they will strap her in, put a pulse oximeter on her to measure her oxygen level and let her sit in the carseat on the floor of her room for 90 minutes.  As long as her oxygen levels stay normal during the 90 minutes she passes the test.  Most babies do well in the carseat test, so hopefully it won't be a problem.

Coming tomorrow....  Pictures of Maddy and Oliver meeting Emerie!!




Andy and Maddy left this morning for Camp Thunderbird.   They are camping tonight with the Y Guides.  It's eight kindergarten aged girls and their dads.  I'm sure they'll be getting a lot of sleep....

First activity of the day.....

Day # 17 - No more NG tube!!

Day # 17 - 4lbs 7oz; 2020 grams

Emerie had a great day yesterday and finished all of her bottles.  She did so well that they took out the NG tube and changed her feeds to ad lib.  This means that she will still get a bottle every 3 hours but they'll put a little extra milk in the bottle and let her eat whatever amount she wants to eat.  They'll then look at her intake over a full 24 hours as well as whether or not she gains weight to determine if she is eating enough.  If she does well with this and "behaves herself" as her doctor said, she'll get to come home on Sunday!!  Very exciting!!

Boppy came to visit today!

Emerie's nurse Jean.  She took care of Oliver when he was in the NICU too. 

Day # 16

Day # 16 - 4 lbs, 6.2oz; 1990 grams

Emerie enjoyed her first night in the bassinet.  She didn't have any trouble maintaining her body temperature out of the isolet.  She finished 4 of her bottles and came close to finishing the other 4.  She has to finish all her bottles for 72 hours straight and when she does, she gets to come home.  When Andy gives her a bottle she always finishes it and he's starting to get a little cocky about his bottle skills.  If he keeps bragging, Andy is going to be on bottle duty every night when Emerie comes home!! 

In other big events, the nurses asked us to go ahead and bring in her carseat so they can do her carseat test (more on this later).  This mean they think she's getting close to being ready to go home!

A little perspective on how little Emerie is

Emerie's new bassinet

Two weeks old!!

Day # 15 - 4lbs, 3.4oz; 1945 grams

Emerie was 2 weeks old at 12:59 this morning.  She gained a little more than an ounce yesterday which is great!  In other good news, we're down to one cord.  When she was in the NICN she had at least 4 cords, the PCVC, pulse oximeter, telemetry (heart rate and respiratory rate monitor), and periperal IVs.  She got rid of the PCVC and IV about a week ago and yesterday they took off her pulse oximeter.  So now we only have to deal with the telemetry cord and NG tube.  It makes holding, dressing, diaper changes so much easier!!

Emerie made the big move to the bassinet today!!  Exciting for us, but she didn't seem to notice.


 
Maddy sent in "Monkey" to keep Emerie company.  When I got to the NICU this morning, Emerie's nurse had put Monkey beside her and she was lying there awake smiling at him. 

Day # 14

Day # 14 - 4lbs, 3oz;  1910 grams

Emerie now weighs 10 grams more than her birth weight!!  She did not do well with her bottles overnight, but today finished all 3 bottles that Andy and I gave her.  Hopefully she will continue the trend during the night tonight.  She is not out of the isolet yet.  It is on the lowest settings possible and she is maintaining her temperature, but since she wasn't doing very well with the bottles last night, they didn't want to place another stress on her by moving her out of the isolet today.  If she continues to do well with her bottles overnight, she will move to a bassinet tomorrow.

It's still going to be a while, but we started the discharge planning today.  This includes a class on "How to care for your baby."  News flash...you should not leave your child unattended in the bathtub.  I also got to watch two DVDs.  I can't remember the names, but the theme of the first is "don't shake your baby" and the theme of the second is "put your baby on it's back to sleep."  So now that we have receive the appropriate education on child care, we're one step closer to going home!!

 Oliver accompanied me to my follow-up appointment at the OBs office today.  The high was 70 degrees, but he insisted the hat was necessary.  He was quite the hit with the nurses and scored Oreos and a lollipop.

  

Day # 13

Day # 13 - 4lbs, 2oz

Emerie has now become the boring baby in the NICU which is a good thing.  She's what they call a "feeder and grower."  She is up to 36 mls of milk at each feeding, so basically we're just waiting for her to get big enough that she has the stamina to take all of it out of a bottle and not have any put down the NG tube.  She did pretty well yesterday.  She took the majority of her bottles, but had to have some portion of 4 of them put down the NG.  She is also almost ready to come out of the isolet and into a regular bassinet.  They have been weaning down the temperature on the isolet over the past several days and today they turned the warmer off.  If she is able to keep up her body temperature on her own, so should be in a bassinet within the next few days.


As you can see, its a rough life in the NICU.........

Day # 12

Day # 12 - 4lbs, 0.3ozs

Aunt Anna came to visit Emerie today.  Emerie showed her enthusiasm by pooping and then sleeping through the entire visit, so we called it a success.  :).
Emerie gained weight again today.  She did have to get another NG tube last night, but that was pretty much expected.   She completely finished 4 of her 8 bottles and had to have some portion of the other 4 put down the NG.  Today she is getting 34 mls at each feeding and tomorrow she'll go up to 36 mls which is her goal.  They're also going to start adding liquid protein to her milk in addition to the other fortifiers...yum!!

Emerie got a certificate and hat as a gift for graduating from the NICN.  I think 3 of her heads could fit in the hat right now.  

Day # 11

Day # 11 - 4 lbs, 0 oz

Emerie made it back to 4 pounds today!!  She pulled out her NG tube yesterday afternoon, but finished all her bottles overnight so they haven't had to replace it.  If she keeps eating well, she won't need another one.  If she starts to have trouble finishing her bottles, they'll have to put in another NG.  The doctor also decided to stop the caffeine today since Emerie hasn't had any episodes for about a week.  She has to be off of caffeine for 7 days with no apnea episodes before she can go home.  Hopefully from here on things are going to be pretty boring, just waiting for Emerie to get the stamina to consistently eat enough to continue to gain weight.

Emerie is VERY excited about Halloween!!

Day # 10 - Happy Halloween!!

Day # 10 - 3lbs, 15oz

Sorry for the late update.  I was a little jealous at all the attention Emerie was getting being the only Shaw in the hospital, so I decided I wanted to be in the hospital too.  I was admitted overnight on Thursday for postpartum preeclampsia and had to get 24 hours of IV magnesium.  Apparently, IV magnesium gives you really bad blurry vision and it's difficult to post to a blog when you can't read the computer screen.  The good news is I'm feeling much better, seeing much better and should be discharged later today. 
Emerie had a good day yesterday.  She is still gaining weight and they are increasing the volume of her feeds and well as the calories.  Normally breast milk has 20 calories per ounce.  The milk Emerie gets is 23 calories per ounce because extra fat, protein and vitamins and minerals are added by the "feeding fairies," as the nurses call them.   I leave the milk in a special bin in her room, it's picked up by the feeding fairies and returned with the proper supplementation.  What each baby gets for supplementation is different and the feeding fairies do this for every baby in the NICU.   Emerie also spent yesterday off the bili lights.  The plan is to check another bilirubin this morning. 

As promised, here are some pictures from "dinner" a few days ago.  I'll have Halloween pictures tonight.  We'll be celebrating a day late since I was in the hospital. 

Day # 9

Day # 9 - 3lbs, 14.8oz

Emerie had a good day today.  She gained a little weight yesterday and took all of her bottles overnight and most of her bottles today.  She's up to 27 mls at each feed.   Her bilirubin was 9.7 today which was down a little from yesterday.  So the plan is to take her off the lights tomorrow.  Hopefully for good this time.  Since she's tolerating her feeds so well, they stopped the TPN today and took out her PCVC.   So now we just wait and give her time to get bigger.

For some reason I can't get the pictures to upload tonight, but tomorrow I'll have pictures of tonight's "dinner" and Emerie's first Halloween costume.

Day #8 - Graduation!!

Day #8 - 3lbs, 13.4oz

Last night, Emerie graduated from the Neonatal Intensive Care Nursery (NICN) to the Neonatal Progressive Care Nursery (NPCN).  The NPCN is basically the NICU for less sick babies.  It's great!  The rooms are a little bigger, there is more privacy and it has a much more relaxed atmosphere.  Emerie's doctor, nurse practitioner and nurse in the NPCN today all took care of Oliver 2 1/2 years ago when he was there. 

In other good news, Emerie gained weight yesterday.  She has been taking her bottles so well that they're going to go ahead and increase her feeds to 21 mls today and 23 mls tonight so they can go head and start fortifying the milk.  Her bilirubin did go back up again, so as Andy says, she gets another "day at the beach."  They will check another bilirubin again in the morning and hopefully she will only need to be under the bili lights for one or two days.   

Our new digs. Take note of the window! :)

One advantage of being a NICU baby...if you're on constant cardiac and respiratory monitors you're allowed to sleep on your stomach.  

Day # 7

Day # 7  3lbs, 12oz

Emerie gained 10 grams yesterday.   Yea for small victories!  She took 2 bottles overnight and got the rest through the NG, but the doctors seemed pleased that she was able to take the two.  They're continuing to increase her feeds and she should go up to 19 mls tonight.  Some fun premature baby trivia I learned is that if Emerie was the size of an average adult she would need more than 10,000 calories a day in order to gain weight and 50% of those calories would need to come from fat.  That's a lot of pizza!!  Anyway, the point of all that is in the next day or two she will be eating enough that they can start fortifying the milk with the extra fat, protein, vitamins and minerals that she needs to grow and gain weight.

This is what I found when I got to the NICU this morning...a rare moment of wakefulness.  :)

Day # 6

Day # 6 - 3lbs, 12oz

Emerie didn't lose any weight yesterday which is great!   Hopefully tomorrow she might even gain some weight.  This morning her bilirubin was down to 7.9, so no more bili lights.  Which means we can now hold her as much as we want!  Emerie's done pretty well with her bottles.  She up to 11 mls every 3 hours right now and they'll increase that to 15 mls tonight.   She was able to finish the whole bottle on half her feeds.  The other half of the time she wasn't able to finish so the nurses had to put the rest of the milk into her stomach through her NG tube.  We were hoping she would be such a good eater she wouldn't need the NG, but it's pretty unusual for premature babies to have enough strength to eat as much as they need to eat in order to grow.  So until she's stronger she'll get a bottle at every feeding and whatever she leaves in the bottle will get to her stomach through the NG.

The other bonus of being off the bili lights is that she can now model the latest preemie fashions.  :)



Emerie's first outfit, thanks to Boppy.

 The NICUs most popular accessory.  The NG tube. 

A little Halloween fun with Maddy and Oliver.....

Day #5

Day #5 - 3lbs, 12oz

Emerie did great yesterday.  No apnea episodes since starting the caffeine.   She was able to finish all 7mls at each feeding, but seemed to get tired towards the end.  Starting tonight she will get 11mls at each feeding.  Her bilirubin was down to 8.9 this morning, so I got to hold her for a couple of hours.  She is going to stay under 1 bili light today and as long as her bilirubin is down tomorrow morning, they will take her off the last light.  We've been able to hold her very little since she started with the bili lights because it is so important for her to spend as much time under the lights as possible.  It will be wonderful to be able to hold her as much as we want!!


Maddy sent "Monkey" to the NICU for Emerie. 

Here's what has happened so far...

Babies born at 32 weeks gestation are expected to have difficulty maintaining their body temperature, remembering to breath, and learning to eat.  Therefore, shortly after she was born, Emerie was taken to the NICU and placed in an isolet that helps to keep her warm.  She was put on monitors to follow her heart rate, respiratory rate and oxygenation and had an IV placed keep her hydrated.

We were able to hold her for the first time mid-day on Wednesday and she spent most of that first day sleeping.  She wasn't allowed to eat her first few days because premature babies intestines are not fully developed and if they have too much food too soon they can develop something called Necrotizing Enterocolitis (NEC) which can be life threatening.

Day #2 - 4lbs, 0oz
Emerie had a Percutaneous Central Venous Catheter (PCVC) placed.  This is a special IV that is put in a vein in her ankle, goes through her body and ends in the vein that runs into her heart.  Since she couldn't eat, the PCVC enables her to get Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN) which is IV fluid that contains glucose, fat, protein, vitamins and minerals, basically everything her body needs to function. On her soecond day, Emerie was jaundiced as well.  Her bilirubin was elevated to 8.9 so she was started on bili lights to help her body metabolize the bilirubin.  She also had two apnea episodes.  Basically, this is when she just forgets to breath.  This causes her heart rate and oxygen levels to drop.  Babies usually "self-resolve"and just start breathing again on their own, however sometimes they need to be stimulated to remind them to breath.  Emerie self-resolved with one of these episodes and had to be stimulated with the other.

Day #3 - Food!! :) - 3lbs, 14oz
Emerie's bilirubin was 13.6 in the morning so she was started on "triple photo therapy."  This involved 2 bili lights shining down on her and a bili blanket that she lies on top of.   They started her on caffeine through her PCVC which is supposed to help prevent the apnea episodes.  She also got to start eating.....a whole 3mls of milk every 3 hours!!

Day #4 - 3lbs, 14oz
Emerie was able to take all of her feeds from a bottle without any trouble so she was increased to 7mls of milk every 3 hours.  Her bilirubin was down to 9.8 which is great.  Day 4 of life is when the bilirubin usually peaks so she stayed on all 3 bili lights to make sure the level keeps going down.

She's going to have the best tan in the family........

October 22

Emerie Claire was born at 12:59am on October 22nd weighing 4lbs 3oz and measuring 17 inches long.  She was born 7 1/2 weeks early so she will be in the NICU about 3 weeks before she will be ready to come home.