I think Olivia is just wanting to wait for her sister. The girls will be 8 weeks old Thursday (which is 37 weeks gestation). Olivia is so close to coming home but just isn't real interested. All she has to do is drink 8 bottles in 24 hours and she would rather sleep. On Sunday she took 5 full bottles. The past two days she has not done as well. She will come in her own time and that is obviously not now.
Emma is staying the same. I know I should be grateful that the girls are not getting worse but I'm wanting them to take steps forward. I want them home. I know it will not be as easy as having them in the NICU together but I'm willing to give up easy to have them home and get to know them. I guess I'm just frustrated today. I'm frustrated that I have to gown, glove and mask to be with Emma. I just want to touch her hand without a rubber glove. I want to touch her head. Wearing all that stuff makes you really hot too. I want to hold Olivia at home on our couch where we can both be comfortable. I want to put her own clothes on her. She had an outfit on today that just made her look so drained and pale. That sounds petty but you should have seen it. I want Emma to be off the ventilator. I can't imagine having that thing in my throat all the time. I know I need to be patient but I'm having a hard time with that today. I'm ready to feel like their mom - holding them and kissing them. I still haven't held Emma. Maybe tomorrow she'll be well enough. I can't believe they're almost 8 weeks. I feel like each day they are there, I'm missing a part of their childhood. Someday I'll have them home and will be able to give them their first bath with me and see them smile at me. I'm sure tomorrow I'll feel better. Today I'm just frustrated.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Here are some new pictures...
Emma has an IV in her head - just to let you know what that is. They are both growing well and holding strong. Enjoy!
Monday, July 14, 2008
A nice break...
What a nice, relaxing weekend! We spent 2 days in Grand Haven, MI camping with family. My brother and his family flew in from CA, my sister and her family drove up from Cincinnati, my sister and her family came from St. Louis and my parents came up from Indiana. There is just something about being out in nature away from the busy life where you can just sit around a campfire and take in the smell of the pine trees, sit on the beach and watch the waves crash, watch your daughters play in the sand or eat the sand (Loren). : ) We love to walk out to the lighthouse and watch the boats come in. When the girls are better, we'll go back and spend a week there.
Before we left Friday, we found out Emma had an infection. When the tests came back with the specific infection we found out she had a yeast infection. It was in her tracheal aspirite which means it was probably in her lungs too. It was not in her urine or blood so that is good. They had to switch her to other antibiotics because the two they had started would not work for that specific infection. She seems to be holding strong. They caught it very early. She also pulled out her ventilator tube again and they had to reintibate her. Lovely! Emma Grace is growing well and is now 3 lb. 10 oz. She is getting so big!!
Miss O. (as her primary nurse calls her) is doing well. She is now 4 lb. 7 oz. She had a little bit of trouble over the weekend. They ran out of my breast milk and had to supplement with formula. I was in MI and couldn't get them more. She was pukey on Saturday and some on Sunday. We don't know if it was because of the formula or not. They are not concerned because most babies spit up some and she is not acting sick. Mike and I took in 50 bottles last night so we'll see if she is still pukey now that she is back on my breast milk. She did take 3 bottles yesterday and she took all 36 ml. of it. That is really good!! We have to get up to 8 in a 24 hour period.
Mike and I have our monitor and CPR training tonight. I'm anxious to get this ball rolling!
Well, that is all for now.
Until tomorrow...
Love,
Bethany
Before we left Friday, we found out Emma had an infection. When the tests came back with the specific infection we found out she had a yeast infection. It was in her tracheal aspirite which means it was probably in her lungs too. It was not in her urine or blood so that is good. They had to switch her to other antibiotics because the two they had started would not work for that specific infection. She seems to be holding strong. They caught it very early. She also pulled out her ventilator tube again and they had to reintibate her. Lovely! Emma Grace is growing well and is now 3 lb. 10 oz. She is getting so big!!
Miss O. (as her primary nurse calls her) is doing well. She is now 4 lb. 7 oz. She had a little bit of trouble over the weekend. They ran out of my breast milk and had to supplement with formula. I was in MI and couldn't get them more. She was pukey on Saturday and some on Sunday. We don't know if it was because of the formula or not. They are not concerned because most babies spit up some and she is not acting sick. Mike and I took in 50 bottles last night so we'll see if she is still pukey now that she is back on my breast milk. She did take 3 bottles yesterday and she took all 36 ml. of it. That is really good!! We have to get up to 8 in a 24 hour period.
Mike and I have our monitor and CPR training tonight. I'm anxious to get this ball rolling!
Well, that is all for now.
Until tomorrow...
Love,
Bethany
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Depends who you talk to...
I'm learning that it depends who you talk to on the subject of what is going on. I was kind of panicking because one lady I talked to thought Olivia could be home early next week. So I was putting some effort into cleaning my house and getting it ready. It's pretty intimidating to go from a clean/sterile environment to my house of two children and dust. Then I start stressing because I haven't really been doing enough with Olivia to feel comfortable. I've been letting the nurses feed her the bottle because she is still in the learning process so I figure it would be better for them to do it, than have her fail with me. I didn't want to hold her back. I haven't learned how to prepare her medicines. I haven't learned how to prepare her bottles. I haven't watched the videos, etc. Anyway, so I called the nurse and spoke with her. She thought I had a good week before Olivia came home. I felt better with that. Plus she said that I would room in with her one night before she came home. Again, good news. So my goal is to get in there as much as I can next week and get familiar with my girl. I talked to the discharge lady on the phone and she said that she could also write orders for a nurse to come by the house and just check on us, weigh Olivia, etc. if it would make us more comfortable. It's nice to know that is an option. Once I room in, I know I'll feel more comfortable. I did with Alyssa. I have fond memories of getting up every two hours and feeding her watching Mike sleep soundly since he had to work the next day. :)
The nurse also suggested that we didn't bring her home the following day after rooming in but to go home and get a good nights sleep and take her home the next day. Sounds good to me.
Both girls are pretty much doing the same. They found the start of another infection in Emma's tracheal asperate so they have her on antibiotics to head it off.
I'm off to bed.
Love,
Bethany
The nurse also suggested that we didn't bring her home the following day after rooming in but to go home and get a good nights sleep and take her home the next day. Sounds good to me.
Both girls are pretty much doing the same. They found the start of another infection in Emma's tracheal asperate so they have her on antibiotics to head it off.
I'm off to bed.
Love,
Bethany
The discharge nurse called...
Hello Everyone!
Yes the discharge nurse did call today about Olivia. Mike and I are taking the CPR course Monday night. The monitoring company is supposed to call us today to set up a time that we will meet them in the NICU for training at Olivia's bedside. She is taking 1/3 of her feeds. She has to get to full feeds. I think we will probably be bringing her home next Tuesday. Cray to think about!!! I'm in some serious nesting though trying to prepare.
Emma is doing really well. I'm so proud of her. She has come so far. She is feeling better every day.
Well, this is short and sweet so I'm going to go clean. : )
Love,
Bethany
Yes the discharge nurse did call today about Olivia. Mike and I are taking the CPR course Monday night. The monitoring company is supposed to call us today to set up a time that we will meet them in the NICU for training at Olivia's bedside. She is taking 1/3 of her feeds. She has to get to full feeds. I think we will probably be bringing her home next Tuesday. Cray to think about!!! I'm in some serious nesting though trying to prepare.
Emma is doing really well. I'm so proud of her. She has come so far. She is feeling better every day.
Well, this is short and sweet so I'm going to go clean. : )
Love,
Bethany
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Excited and nervous at the same time...
I have a million things running through my head....
First of all, Emma is doing well and still tolerating everything. They didn't change anything today. They just let her adjust to the changes from yesterday. That is good. She is so very sweet! You look at her and she is so swaddled up that she looks like she weighs 15 lbs. and all you see is the top of her head. I guess she is cozy. : )
Olivia graduated to an open crib today like her big sister Emma. She seems to be doing well holding her temperature. You know, you want them home so badly and then when the time comes it's overwhelming and I think you go through a little panic mode. That is how I'm feeling today. The nurse told me that they have made orders to get us into a moniter and CPR class. So right then I knew we were looking at a week, give or take. She told me that Olivia will go home on caffeine so she will need to be on a monitor. At this point, Olivia is on caffeine, Lasix and diarell. I don't know if she will go home on all those meds. But the nurse said that they will teach me how to give her her meds. So I need to learn that. I also need to learn how to make her feeds since they add a fortifier to the breast milk. They will replace the fortifier with formula. So I need to learn that. I need to watch some DVDs before I go home. I can watch them right there in the NICU while I sit with the girls. I guess my to do list just grew and maybe that overwhelms me.
So I came home tonight from seeing the girls with all that on my mind and then Loren decides that she is going to climb onto the kitchen chair and then onto the table. She is my climber!!!! aughh!!!! How am I going to do this? (is what I'm thinking). I know....very carefully. Anyone that is helping watch Olivia has to take a CPR course. I'm not sure about the monitor class. I know we can have up to 6 people in the class with us but I don't know if that is something we can teach people on our own. I'll probably feel more prepared as we get closer. Oh...also Olivia has to pass a car seat test. If she doesn't pass, she'll use this car bed they let you rent from the hospital.
I'm going to give my mind a rest and head to bed.
Goodnight!
Love,
Bethany
First of all, Emma is doing well and still tolerating everything. They didn't change anything today. They just let her adjust to the changes from yesterday. That is good. She is so very sweet! You look at her and she is so swaddled up that she looks like she weighs 15 lbs. and all you see is the top of her head. I guess she is cozy. : )
Olivia graduated to an open crib today like her big sister Emma. She seems to be doing well holding her temperature. You know, you want them home so badly and then when the time comes it's overwhelming and I think you go through a little panic mode. That is how I'm feeling today. The nurse told me that they have made orders to get us into a moniter and CPR class. So right then I knew we were looking at a week, give or take. She told me that Olivia will go home on caffeine so she will need to be on a monitor. At this point, Olivia is on caffeine, Lasix and diarell. I don't know if she will go home on all those meds. But the nurse said that they will teach me how to give her her meds. So I need to learn that. I also need to learn how to make her feeds since they add a fortifier to the breast milk. They will replace the fortifier with formula. So I need to learn that. I need to watch some DVDs before I go home. I can watch them right there in the NICU while I sit with the girls. I guess my to do list just grew and maybe that overwhelms me.
So I came home tonight from seeing the girls with all that on my mind and then Loren decides that she is going to climb onto the kitchen chair and then onto the table. She is my climber!!!! aughh!!!! How am I going to do this? (is what I'm thinking). I know....very carefully. Anyone that is helping watch Olivia has to take a CPR course. I'm not sure about the monitor class. I know we can have up to 6 people in the class with us but I don't know if that is something we can teach people on our own. I'll probably feel more prepared as we get closer. Oh...also Olivia has to pass a car seat test. If she doesn't pass, she'll use this car bed they let you rent from the hospital.
I'm going to give my mind a rest and head to bed.
Goodnight!
Love,
Bethany
I spoke with the nurse...
I spoke with the nurse this morning and Emma's 6:00 a.m. blood gas was good. She is anywhere from 45%-60% oxygen. Her pressure is now 28. I don't know what the doctor's plans are for her today - they hadn't rounded yet when we talked. So we'll see...
The nurse told me after Olivia had come off of the oxygen not to be surprised if she had to go back on it because she has been breathing fast. But so far, she is still off which is good. She took 2 bottles last night and was able to drink all 16 ml. in 15 minutes. That is very good! We'll just keep on watching her too.
I'm trying to get packed. We are making a 3 day camping trip this weekend and I'm very much looking forward to it. I'm dying to get out there with nature and just drink it in. We'll see the girls Friday before we leave and Sunday when we get home.
Have a great day!!!
Bethany
The nurse told me after Olivia had come off of the oxygen not to be surprised if she had to go back on it because she has been breathing fast. But so far, she is still off which is good. She took 2 bottles last night and was able to drink all 16 ml. in 15 minutes. That is very good! We'll just keep on watching her too.
I'm trying to get packed. We are making a 3 day camping trip this weekend and I'm very much looking forward to it. I'm dying to get out there with nature and just drink it in. We'll see the girls Friday before we leave and Sunday when we get home.
Have a great day!!!
Bethany
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