Archives for October 2011

Sofie was doing great yesterday, her weight was down just slightly to her birth weight, 1lb9oz, and she had a limited amount of Brady’s and Apnea’s. Most of her A’s and B’s were “self resolved”, meaning she pulled herself out of them and there was no need for the nurses to provide stimulation. These are the kind of Brady’s we want to see if any. She’s practicing the strength to keep herself going! Good job strong little girl. 🙂

I spent the day with her solo since this is was the last day Daddy would be working strictly from home. he goes back to handling local claims which means that he has appointments around Raleigh and I have less opportunities for access to the car considering it too made the trip to Florida along with the rest of our worldly possessions. I kangarooed with my little snuggle bug and may or may not have taken a nap with her. I feel like our routine is slightly better than it had been but it still needs a little tweaking here and there. The pumping every 2-3 hours is definitely a wrench in the daily spokes.

Each session is about 30-45 minutes with pumping, hand expressing and clean up. Some even run into the hour long range. If I pump every 2 hours, this gives me about 1 good hour before I need to start again. So, if I pump when I wake up and I eat breakfast and shower, I have to pump again. Then, I blow dry my hair, get dressed and I’m 20 minutes shy of my next session. This is barely drive time to the hospital. Needless to say I’m officially attached to this pump ALWAYS. I’m looking forward to the chance to have her close to me and I get to feed her directly, look into those big eyes of her and touch her little cheek, instead of this emotionless relationship I have with the big blue appliance. Sigh.

Mommy-daughter day!

Sofia’s first Alphie is ready for Halloween too!

In the tough times in life you get support from the least likely of places. Today Jonathan and I met with 2 local girls I befriended from The Bump on a chat board of ladies all due in January birth month. The January 2012 board was always an amazing support system during my pregnancy for answer from ladies who have kids, a sounding board for moments of hormonal instability or even just a general understanding that when you want vanilla ice cream with colored sprinkles…a preggie NEEDS vanilla ice cream with colored sprinkles.
Well today these ladies took that support to a whole new level! They took up a collection amongst 50 or so women and threw us a web version of a baby shower since they knew we had to cancel ours. It’s in this type of moment where you are really able to see the good in perfect strangers. I just hope one day to be able to pay forward the kindness and generosity these ladies have shown my little family. I feel blessed beyond words and hope to never forget how this kindness has warmed my heart. <3

In the tough times in life you get support from the least likely of places. Today Jonathan and I met with 2 local girls I befriended from The Bump on a chat board of ladies all due in January birth month. The January 2012 board was always an amazing support system during my pregnancy for answer from ladies who have kids, a sounding board for moments of hormonal instability or even just a general understanding that when you want vanilla ice cream with colored sprinkles…a preggie NEEDS vanilla ice cream with colored sprinkles.
Well today these ladies took that support to a whole new level! They took up a collection amongst 50 or so women and threw us a web version of a baby shower since they knew we had to cancel ours. It’s in this type of moment where you are really able to see the good in perfect strangers. I just hope one day to be able to pay forward the kindness and generosity these ladies have shown my little family. I feel blessed beyond words and hope to never forget how this kindness has warmed my heart. <3

So, this new Mommy has been having a tough last few days. On Day 11, Sofia had her Neural ultrasound, it came back negative, which showed no indication at this point of a brain bleed, yay!!! That morning I went in to get my flu shot and my DTAP (Tetanus and Pertussis) vaccine, picked up her birth certificate and went for my early visit to the NICU. That night on the way home from the NICU I started to feel a little achy but thought nothing of it. The morning of day 12 I woke up feeling a little off so I figured I’d wait to see how I felt before going in to see Sofia. By that afternoon I was running a fever of 102 and was therefore, banned from visits till 24 hours after my fever broke. Apparently, the Pertussis vaccine can cause fever, especially if you had whooping cough as a child…which I had. Fantastic to find out after the fact!

On top of feeling terrible from the fever, yesterday was my cousins’ funeral. He passed away unexpectedly this past weekend. My whole family went down to Florida and I really wish I could have been there to be with them and to say good bye. Sitting in bed all day gives you too much time to think sometimes and last night the emotions of the entire day hit me like a ton of bricks. It feels like as a family we’ve had a lot of tough times the last year and a half.

Here we are on day 13 and it wasn’t until late this afternoon that my fever finally broke. I’m thankful for that but totally bummed that I still can’t see Sofia until tomorrow night. It’s her 2 week birthday tomorrow and I do intend on see her at some point on her birthday. So all my updates on my little Sweet Pea are from call-ins to the nurse or the visits that my husband has had with her in the evening after work.Can’t wait to see her tomorrow night and get a chance to get a little Kangaroo time in!

Day 11: After the transfusion. “This is such a rough life, ugh!” or “Mommy, no more pics please.”

So, this new Mommy has been having a tough last few days. On Day 11, Sofia had her Neural ultrasound, it came back negative, which showed no indication at this point of a brain bleed, yay!!! That morning I went in to get my flu shot and my DTAP (Tetanus and Pertussis) vaccine, picked up her birth certificate and went for my early visit to the NICU. That night on the way home from the NICU I started to feel a little achy but thought nothing of it. The morning of day 12 I woke up feeling a little off so I figured I’d wait to see how I felt before going in to see Sofia. By that afternoon I was running a fever of 102 and was therefore, banned from visits till 24 hours after my fever broke. Apparently, the Pertussis vaccine can cause fever, especially if you had whooping cough as a child…which I had. Fantastic to find out after the fact!

On top of feeling terrible from the fever, yesterday was my cousins’ funeral. He passed away unexpectedly this past weekend. My whole family went down to Florida and I really wish I could have been there to be with them and to say good bye. Sitting in bed all day gives you too much time to think sometimes and last night the emotions of the entire day hit me like a ton of bricks. It feels like as a family we’ve had a lot of tough times the last year and a half.

Here we are on day 13 and it wasn’t until late this afternoon that my fever finally broke. I’m thankful for that but totally bummed that I still can’t see Sofia until tomorrow night. It’s her 2 week birthday tomorrow and I do intend on see her at some point on her birthday. So all my updates on my little Sweet Pea are from call-ins to the nurse or the visits that my husband has had with her in the evening after work.Can’t wait to see her tomorrow night and get a chance to get a little Kangaroo time in!

Day 11: After the transfusion. “This is such a rough life, ugh!” or “Mommy, no more pics please.”

So, this new Mommy has been having a tough last few days. On Day 11, Sofia had her Neural ultrasound, it came back negative, which showed no indication at this point of a brain bleed, yay!!! That morning I went in to get my flu shot and my DTAP (Tetanus and Pertussis) vaccine, picked up her birth certificate and went for my early visit to the NICU. That night on the way home from the NICU I started to feel a little achy but thought nothing of it. The morning of day 12 I woke up feeling a little off so I figured I’d wait to see how I felt before going in to see Sofia. By that afternoon I was running a fever of 102 and was therefore, banned from visits till 24 hours after my fever broke. Apparently, the Pertussis vaccine can cause fever, especially if you had whooping cough as a child…which I had. Fantastic to find out after the fact!

On top of feeling terrible from the fever, yesterday was my cousins’ funeral. He passed away unexpectedly this past weekend. My whole family went down to Florida and I really wish I could have been there to be with them and to say good bye. Sitting in bed all day gives you too much time to think sometimes and last night the emotions of the entire day hit me like a ton of bricks. It feels like as a family we’ve had a lot of tough times the last year and a half.

Here we are on day 13 and it wasn’t until late this afternoon that my fever finally broke. I’m thankful for that but totally bummed that I still can’t see Sofia until tomorrow night. It’s her 2 week birthday tomorrow and I do intend on see her at some point on her birthday. So all my updates on my little Sweet Pea are from call-ins to the nurse or the visits that my husband has had with her in the evening after work.Can’t wait to see her tomorrow night and get a chance to get a little Kangaroo time in!

Day 11: After the transfusion. “This is such a rough life, ugh!” or “Mommy, no more pics please.”

Every day in the NICU brings it’s steps forward and it’s steps back or even sideways. A childhood friend referred to it as the NICU shuffle and that is definitely a great description. Last week we battled high sugar levels and raised white blood cell counts. This week it’s blood transfusions and neural ultrasounds added to the regular bradycardia episodes and the standard micro preemie issues.

Bloodwork this morning showed that her blood levels were low and she was reading anemic, all indicators the need for a blood transfusion was rearing it’s ugly head. Because babies this small require daily blood draws this can affect their blood levels pretty quickly. Day one this was something that was brought up as a potential need. Luckily, Glama Fox, is a universal blood donor (YAHOO!!!) so, we set up a directed donation even before she went home to Florida. Although, this is standard practice, this Mommy was still a bit uneasy about having Sofia go through this. As with any procedure the potential risks always seem to ring louder than the benefits. Luckily, everything went well and she is on watch for 24 hours to make sure that she is releasing any additional fluids that she has from the transfusion. So that’s one thing down and one new issue to go….so far.

Tomorrow night she is scheduled to have a neural ultrasound to see if any bleeding has taken place in the brain. This is the most nerve wrecking of tests so far for me. She has not shown any developmental indications of a bleed but the fact that they need to check for ANY reason is such a scary prospect. It’s one of the first complication that is brought up during preterm labor and facing the potential of having a micro preemie. This one will have me on edge until we are given the results, no doubt in my mind!

The other things we are dealing with are the “typical’ preemie issues such as Bradycardia and Apnea (A&B’s) episodes. Everyone keeps reiterating that this “normal preemie behavior”. A Bradycardia is when a baby’s heart rate drops very low and subsequently they stop breathing. Typical for preemies? Sure. Typical for a new Mom or Dad to be holding baby when she stops breathing, then, needing to rub her back to stimulate and remind her to breath again? Umm, yea, pretty much makes your heart skip a beat, or two, or three. The not so funny part is I’m actually getting used to it now. As soon as the monitors alarm sounds, give her a second or two to pull it up on her own and if not, start the back/belly rubs! Although, Sofia if you could have a few less of those a day this would make Mommy much more happy. I think Mommy needs a beer…which is evidently good for milk supply, so BRING IT ON!