Rikr's baby adventure!

Gilae - Mom's doing quite well. Today she was feeling bad, and didn't want to go up there for fear of getting the baby sick. She really wanted to go today too. We've had lots of poop discussion so far. Is she going poop, Poop consistency, new poop after a fresh diaper put on, large poop for such a small baby. The poop talk has been great! RE: Milk. Yeah our freezer is full of milk. It has to be done though. LOL. And yes have another child Gilae. I always said I didn't want more than two. Now I'm on the fence. What to do? What to do?

Vex- I have not ever witnessed a projectile poop. I hope I'm at work or doing something in the yard when one of those happens. 🙂 Although, when our boy was 2ish, he was sick at both ends, and we put him in a cool tub one night to help with his fever, and he created an oil slick in the tub. That was fun.

Roz & Laschae- I can't wait for her to come home. I'm so ready for the cuteness and the dresses etc. Steph always talks about how much funner it is to buy girl stuff. Come to think about it, girls DO have cooler stuff to buy. I'm not gonna lie. I wanted an easy bake oven when I was little. I liked the idea of making a cake in my room whenever I wanted to.

Edit: Ready to put her in her TAC outfit I got the other day. If I put her in it today it would look like a blanket. She has a couple months before she can fit into it. 🙂

Sarah- I appreciate your thoughts and prayers. Thank you for thinking about us. It means a lot. 🙂 Every day I see Alexis, I think about the people that pray for her and let us know they are thinking about us. It really helps get through the days.

So glad to hear that your lil one is getting better. I hope she gets to come home soon. =)

And the projectile poop convo scares me...*cringes* lol

David didn't projectile poop...though I did get hit in the face with pee a couple times and screamed bloody murder...scared the poor child to death. But I made the mistake of putting him naked down on the carpet after he had made a mess on the changing table and he pooped on the floor. Good times.

Roz, did I tell you that I had always planned to name my first born girl Katherine Elizabeth or were you just guessing based on the fact that we are psychic soul twins?

Don, that baby will grow into those clothes so fast and out into the next size it will make your head spin. The first time I cleaned up David's closets/drawers of his infant clothes I sat on the floor and cried cause he had grown so big already. I just know I'm going to wake up one morning and he'll have moved out already, or worse married some bitch who hates me and dresses him funny, and taken off to Europe with her.

Elizabeth or Ella would have been this one had she been a girl. You give me my brain and beautiful hair back!

We can't wait for you to get her home, Don. Did you register online anywhere, by the way? Is there anything y'all still need? Give us LINKS!

We had one baby shower last weekend and another one this weekend. (2 sides of the families decided to have one due to the size. One would have been too big.) Yeah, we're registered at Babies R Us..I don't know the link.....but most of the stuff she can use or wear, will take a few months for her to fit in them anyway. hehehe We have a bassinet that will convert into a play pen, and we have the stroller/car seat thing, that matches the bassinet, its brown / pink cherry blossom. Supposed to get a crib from my brother, and I'm going to paint butterflies and stuff on her walls. Gonna try to get creative there. 🙂 If it turns out looking ok, I'll post pics....if not, I'll just pretend I didn't even mention it. lol

She's been doing ok. Some reflux issues, and mucus buildup in her nose and throat, since she doesn't know how to swallow just yet. She makes an awful lot of boogies though. They get sucked out regularly. This makes me sad that boogies and reflux affects her breathing sometimes. They are things she should grow out of though.

They did blood work on her and her red blood cell counts came up a little from the other day, which means she is producing some red blood cells. They say she should out grow her anemia...that her count going up today was a good sign. She will still most likely have a few more transfusions before its all said and done, but the increase is a good sign that she will out grow it.

She needs to gain more weight than she is gaining. They up her ml of food per hour, because they have to, and if her reflux gets worse they will give her reflux meds. They are also saying they might bump her added calories from 24 to 26 to help her gain weight. One good thing is they said they were going to try to start introducing the bottle to her in about 2 weeks. Hopefully this goes well. This is one of the last steps before she will be cleared to come home.

She has to be able to feed either from breast or bottle, maintain her body temperature and breathe on her own. They keep saying overall she is doing well, even with her current issues. I've been looking at it half empty instead of full lately. The NICU alarms on all the babies going off make me a nervous wreck. I just want her home. I think that in about a week, that we'll be about halfway there.

Oh yeah...She will be 1 month old tomorrow!!!! (Currently 31 weeks corrected age). We're getting there. Slow process...*sigh*..

I think I'm going to start a journal. My stepmother suggested it. I think it would be a good idea. Helps me when I type a bunch of update stuff. Would like for her to read it one day. Anyway I'm starting to ramble and get bummed.

Oh Rikr, I'm glad she is starting to out grow some of her issues. I think the journal idea sounds wonderful. You can get everything out, not to mention document this for her to learn about later in life.

Can't wait till you get to bring her home. Good luck and my thoughts are still with you guys.

Hang in there Rikr...she sounds like she wants to come home just as bad, and is working hard to get there. I'm still keeping you all in my prayers.

The mucous thing reminded me of those nasal aspirators I used on my daughter when she was little, and couldn't 'blow' her nose. Man I thought those things were godsends. Evidently my daughter wasn't overly fond of them because I remember the day she pushed my hand away, when I was going to use it, and blew her nose with all her might. Snot went everywhere :P

Alexis has been having a pretty good couple of days. She's still slowly gaining weight and today she should weigh at about 2 lbs. 13 oz. So in a few days she should be at the 3 lb. mark. This is good news. The nurses told us that at about 3 1/2 lbs, babies can usually maintain their body temperature. If she can prove to do so she will be moved to a crib! This is great news, but I'm not going to get overly excited yet until she gets there. And we may have ups and downs there too maybe having to go back to an enclosure. But we'll see when we get there.

What I've learned so far...
1. She does not like baths.
2. She does not like poopy diapers. (I don't either. It gets very uncomfortable with poopy down there.)
3. She loves being held by mommy and daddy.
4. She likes her pacifier....most of the time.
5. The nurses are growing attached to her and have affectionately gave her the nickname "Peanut". (My friend has a dog named peanut...)
6. She likes to pull the hoses and the tape, and then get pissed because pulling the tape doesn't feel good.
7. She likes being on her tummy when she sleeps.

Picture update:

Me and Alexis during Kanagaroo Care....she is passed out.


Alexis waking up a little in her bed.


Very close up of Alexis. Mommy got too close. But I think she wanted a pic of her big pretty eyes 🙂

Aww, she looks like she's getting bigger!

Yeah she is getting bigger. Just about all of the nurses have told us that they don't believe she ever weight 2.5 pounds, when she was born. They said the scale had to be off. She was a lot smaller a month ago. We're getting there though. This is too slow of a process. 🙂

Wow...how incredibly sweet those pictures are. And isn't it a wonderful feeling, having them sleep on you like that..talk about bonding. *sigh*

Awww I miss David being little when he used to sleep on my chest and I'd sleep too. He was happiest just being near me or his daddy. Now if I bring him into bed with me he kicks me in his sleep and steals my pillow and he prefers to sit on my stomach and jump up and down rather than sleep peacefully. This weekend he head butted me trying to get comfortable on my pillow and split my lip.

She's definitely looking bigger...if it wasn't for the shot of the hospital hat being so big, I'd say she doesn't look much different than David as a newborn. Of course I think all newborns (mine in particular) look a bit like Roswell aliens...all eyes and long skinny fingers. More kissable though...and no spaceship.

Oh she is just adorable. She is definitely getting bigger and I know you are ancient to get her home. You are all in my prayers.

She's so pretty Don! I'm so glad she's getting bigger and doing well. My girls think she's the cutest thing they've ever seen and Beth, my oldest, put her in her prayers last night. It was so cute.


*huggles*

Thank you very much Sarah! Please let your girls know we appreciate their thought's comments, and prayers, more than I can express in this post. 🙂

Hope your little one is doing well! =)

She's been doing ok. They've started moving pretty quickly with her these past few days, which I don't necessarily like, but the doctors and nurses both seem confident this is the way to go. Her air pressure was at 2 liters just a few days ago, and yesterday they dropped her to 1 liter. She had desaturation in O2 levels. More than I like but it's their way of prodding her to start to work on her own without assistance. I understand but I hate it.

Today they dropped her to 1/2 liter of O2. The next step is no air pressure assistance. This obviously is a good thing, but her desats I feel will happen more often, until she learns to make sure to do it by herself. And they've taken her off of the constant feeding 2 days ago. She is now being fed every 3 hours, at about an ounce at a feeding. Tonight Stephanie went up to try to give her, her first bottle feeding. The doctors and nurses don't anticipating this going over very well with her, but they have to start sometime. They try it once a day. Hopefully she picks up on this quickly.

A lot of big steps all at once. Makes me nervous. I was doing fine when everything didn't change, now that things change and I see her levels go up and down again, and all the alarms again; I can't handle it very long before I have to leave the NICU.

I'm painting a very negative picture I'm sure, but overall things are still going well. These are just the growing pains and the things she needs to start learning to get to come home. Still about a month to go I guess, so hopefully a couple a weeks, and she will be breathing without desat issues, and big enough to maintain her body temperature, then a couple of weeks of eating and no issues so we can all come home.


Edit: Oh I forgot she is over 3 pounds now. Last weight I heard was 3 pounds 2 ounces. She should be close to 3 pounds 4 ounces by now.

Its always gonna be painful when you see your little one suffer, even the smallest bit, the downside to being a parent. But she sounds like she's making great progress 🙂.
Hang in there...we're all still praying and sending good thoughts.

🤗

So far she is progressing normally at 1/2 liter of pressure. They tried to take her off caffine, but they found she still needs it (helps her not fall "too" asleep. If she falls in too deep of a sleep she forgets to breathe.)

They tried to bottle feed her last night and she didn't do so well. She figured out how to suck, but didn't know what to do with it afterwards. She spit up and coughed and it came out her nose a little bit. She hasn't really been "hungry" with a constant feed for so long.

I think they feel she should be a little further along than she is, but they say she hasn't had any major issues so they are happy. She happens to be one of the babies that is just a little slow moving to next steps. A nurse told Stephanie that her doctor likes to push the kids to see what they can do, and if they can't do what he wants then he backs off. Some would think that is bad, but I guess I'm glad he does it. She needs a little prodding, or else she will become dependent on the assistance she's getting.

Usually nurses won't say, won't guess, won't give any kind of answer, but one nurse told us, she would guess about 4 more weeks of progression and she should be in ready to come home. I'll add a week to that and guess about the last week of January, instead of mid January.

They turned her temperature down in her bed, because of her body temperature and put a small shirt on her. She is too small to put her in a crib. Hopefully by next week she should be moving that direction. So she's getting close there. Next is breathing and then the biggest hurdle, eating.

We're getting there....slowly but surely.