7lbs

Brielle is 7lbs! So hard to believe! Shes definately came along ways from her 1 lbs 6oz! Were still battling the pooping issues! Had to give her glycerin yesterday & in a matter of minutes its coming out the sides of her diaper! Im glad it works atleast! So hard to see her struggle like that! I think she is trying to poop again because she is just cranky and fussy!! We have a pretty mellow week this week which is nice!! No appointments!

Same Old Same Old

Well its 6am. Up for the morning feed! Then off to work at 7. Not too much going on in our lives! Just alot of sleeping (Brielle not mom), feedings, diaper changes a7 alarms! Tom from Thedacare at home was over yesterday to down load her monitors and he was the one that taught us the CPR. So I was able to thank one more person off our list! He said he was glad we learned it but sad we had to use it. Us the same! Brielle is not gaining weight as she should be nor is she eating like she used to. She has a goal of 400ml a day and she is anywhere from 320-400. The nurses come 3x a week and say she looks and sounds good so not too sure what her deal is. Shes been stuck at 6lbs 13oz for 3 days. Shes too sleepy to eat. We try everything it just doesnt work. So they were talking about uping her caloris if she doesnt gain weight at todays visit. Well I have to wake dad up now to take over the feed as I type 1 handed so I can go to work. Have a great weekend everyone!!

Original Due Date

So today is the date the twins were planned to arrive!! Of course they had plans of their own and came 16 weeks early!! Its hard to believe she is considered "Full term" and a "newborn" now. All the talk of "when shes full term" she will do this and that. Well its time Bri!! Your day has come! Now do big girl stuff!! Of course not!! She will do that on her own time and will as well :) As I look back (only 3 months, 2 weeks, and 4 days ago) Alot has taken place, good and bad in our lives. The changes have been incredible! I have longed to be a mom and I am a mom finally! The exhaustion has set in, but I am never too tired to jump out of bed and turn off that alarm. And feed her of course! The best part of my day is when she looks up at me and gives me that smile, that really is just gas! She makes us laugh all day! She will rumble your leg and then have a funny grin on her face! She will go from a face of smiles to a face that wants to belt out a cry! We could sit and stare at her all day!

My blog has a "Stats" tab that I can look at. I was AMAZED at the numbers!!!
Here are the numbers:
Pageviews today 55
Pageviews yesterday 88
Pageviews last month 3,715
Pageviews all time history 12,049

I knew quite a few people are following but I did not know that 55 people atleast looked at the blog today :) and 12,000 since I started it alittle over 4 months ago! Makes it all worth the few minutes I take to write a little blurp! And I'll admit! Its kind of relaxing for me!

Thursday when we brought her to the Dr. she weighed 6lbs 10oz. So now being Sunday Funday I'm sure she is around 6lbs 13-14oz. Hard to believe she should reach 7lbs this week! Their goal is for her to put on an ounce a day. So every 16 days she should gain a pound! But my little chunker surprised me!!! I fed her 60ml (2oz) at 4pm and between 4-6pm she ended up taking 4oz total (120ml) That is impressive for her!!! She just couldnt get enough! We didnt even force her to eat she got so mad when we took it away! But speaking of eating, Little Miss must sense I'm talking about her and she wants to eat now! Motherhood is calling...............

Dispatcher Visit

So today we took Brielle to the Dr. after a home nurse visit. She thought Brielle was breathing to shallow and gained too much weight over night (3oz) so she thought she was retaining fluid & she was so fatigue & needing a few more Os. So we went into Dr. Kraniks office right away for a chest Xray and exam just in case. And as I suspected, She was just wore out and eating like a champ! She was SOOO crabby yesterday and was working on a big poo alll day she barely slept at all! So she just wore herself out! But like Dr said, it was better for us just to come in and check it off rather just say "We know its Brielle, and shes just tired" He figured that too but shes not like a "normal" baby. Shes more "fragile" as he says. She needs the little bit of extra monitoring and care. He said that as Nicu graduate parents we have a "Free Pass" He will fit us in his schedule any day we have concern. he does not want to see us back in the NICU as well as we dont want to go back!! But dont ask Brielle her opinion!! We tried telling her that she can just cooperate but like Dr. Kranik said, he has already learned to "not trust" her and hes only met her 3 times. Boy O Boy does she make an impression quickly!!! hehe

We went to meet our dispatcher that helped us save Brielle a week ago today! Her name is Jennifer Echols. She was so happy to meet Brielle and told Josh and I how great of a job we did that night! She said if she would have had to calm me down to talk to her Brielle might not be here. I also learned a quite scary statistic. She is nominated for a "life saver" award. In 7 years there have only been 3 issued. You read right THREE!! When anyone goes PNB (patient not breathing) they are usually too far gone and dont get revived. So when a dispatcher helps revive a critical patient they are honored with this life saver reward. It was honestly pretty shocking to hear how close Brielle was to death. And hearing it from a complete stranger that deals with it day in and day out really hit us hard! Josh was speechless and couldnt even utter a word! I'm greatful for all the quick responses we got that night and greatful for the outcome! We are going to send a thank you card also to the Freedom First Responders that were on scene so quickly!! We can not thank everyone who has touch our lives in some way shape or form unfortunately! I wish we could! We have our miracle that we love sooo much! From the OB nurses and Dr. Ramsey. To the NICU Drs Katie, Abe and Debbie. To the MANY NICU nurses! To now the at home nurses, Dr Kranik and now the first responders and Gold Cross ambulance. The list is HUGE!! And they all contributed some way to give us our precious little miss Brielle!! Thank you!

Brielles home AGAIN

Brielle came home today around 4pm. She is now on caffeine once a day. Shes soo much like her dad! She needs her morning mt. dew!! Just like Dr. Debbie says...She looks like her mother and acts like her father :) She is on 1/16 of oxygen which is pretty low! lowest we've been able to get her yet! Her sats are 98 but her heart rates been low all day. Its 120 right now. Shes usually like 150s. She was that way in the hospital so they didnt seem to concerned about it. But I dont want to wean her oxygen too fast and make her crash. So we will just leave her for awhile and let her get used to being home. She was swinging in her swing when we got home and she liked that for awhile! Then I just layed her on the couch to sleep and she liked that even better. The dogs are crazy all over trying to get used to her. Think they've never seen her! Daddys enjoying snuggling on the couch right now with her. Tonights spa day! Were trying to settle back into our routine as "A family".

Another Episode

Well Little Miss is still in the NICU. She decided to stop breathing again last night for her nurses. Her heart rate dropped to 60 and Thurs it was down to 42 so not as low but they said she was still blue last night so they were worried bout her. The Dr decided she needs to get back on caffeine. So that takes 2-3 days to get the caffeine level so she is going to stay til atleast tues-wed. She got the caffeine around noon today and when I got there at 12:30 she was wired!!! I had her sitting on my lap and she looked left, right, left, right, left really quick we laughed hysterically! She was so awake and wouldnt cave to go to sleep! She was wrapped in the hospital blanket so I took her soft plush blanket from home and wrapped her up in that and she fell asleep almost right away. She just likes the nice soft blankets!!

Still in the NICU

Well Brielle is going on her third night in the NICU now. They are still holding her hostage til she poops and gains weight. She pooped after she got her enema. I do not believe she lost weight because when she was in the ER they didnt take the 2 heat packs off her leg and arm. And they are pretty big and add some weight. When we got to the NICU the admitting nurse didnt weigh her because she was just weighed in the ER. So I do not think she lost any weight. She is 6lbs .1oz tonight!! Finally hit the 6 pound mark! of course she had to do it in the NICU! We tried telling her if she missed her nurses that much that we are welcome to go visit and leave! But its unacceptable to make that big of a drama fest over missing her nurses :) Everyones been great!! I was under the impression Thursday she would be coming home Friday. Then Friday came and it was Saturday which I was okay with. Then today Josh tells me at work she cant come home and I broke down. I think I reached my breaking point today. It was a VERY emotional day for me to say the least. I feel so bad that she was so constipated and in pain and then had that horrible freak mom and dad out moment! And then she had to be readmitted to the NICU which was my worst nightmare from the day we left! And now its going on 3 days not just overnight like originally planned. I just couldnt handle it! I know its in the best interest of Brielle! I really do! Its just she came home and wasnt supposed to go back! But once again nothing in our lives has gone as planned! Our pregnancy didnt go anywhere near planned! Our plan of two healthy beautiful babies came out as one little miracle and one angel baby! And why would we think it would continue normally? Brielle can stop being a drama queen any day now!!! Her nurse Kathy was telling her that and that she cant come back except to visit and Brielle gave her "the lip" It was so funny! So we are praying that they give us the OK tomorrow to bring her home and hopefully keep her home forever!!

Worst Nightmare come true

Well its official!! I always had a worst nightmare that Bri would come home and have to go back to the hospital. It came true tonight! We were on our way to Joshs moms house and as soon as we pulled up Brielles monitors were going off and her heart rate and sats were dropping FAST!! I jumped out of the car and yanked her carseat out of its base and set it behind my seat and grabbed her as fast as I could and started stimulating her like normal. This time she wasnt reacting to it at all. Her heart rate kept dropping further and further and she got bluer and bluer. Josh grabbed her from me and tried and nothing. We took her to the grass and layed her down to try and then Rodger got home and we both yelled she isnt breathing. Rodger came running over and Josh and Rodger grabbed her and her oxygen and monitors and we ran to the house with her. They laid her on the couch and tried to stimulate her again but she was so blue and lifeless I knew it wasnt good. Rodger said do you want to call 911. So I did. The dispatcher helped Josh with CPR but he didnt need her. He remembered the training from a week ago! As soon as the first officer arrived he got Brielle to take a nice gasp for air!! It was a miracle!!! Then the first responders got there and took over. Josh just got up and had to walk away. Pretty overwhelmed! He saved his daughters life! The paramedics just watched her breathing and made sure she stayed alert til the ambulance got there and then Josh and the paramedics took her back to Theda Clark Hospital. My worst nightmare! She went back! She was going to go to the Pediatric "Big Girl floor" but we threw in that we would prefer the NICU since we were comfortable and they all knew Bri as well. Dr Debbie was down in the ER before we knew it! She told us no return policies but she took her back anyways :) She has to be in isolation which is just her own little room in her own little corner all by herself with her own nurse. You know she is "DIRTY" since she was out in the world now lol. So all in all in the end we came up with the conclusion that she pinched her vengal (sp) nerve which runs in your neck while she was trying to push since she has been constipated all day. They say that older adults do it as well and older adults will fall off the toilet. Babies just pass our or lose their breath but cant regain their breath that quick so they need the extra help. So lets just say everyone can buy stock in Prune Juice and Glycerin because mom and dad, grandma and grandpa, and great grandmas dont ever ever ever want to experience what we experienced tonight!!! Daddy was great! Jumped right in! I was too hysterical and called 911 and went outside for a minute. All I could think of when I seen my baby laying on that couch lifeless was O god Im going to lose another one. God wasnt going to let that happen thank the lord! Ayden was DEFINATELY watching over us once again!!!!! Now me and Brielle have 2 heros in our lives.....Daddy and Ayden!!

Almost have a 6 pounder on my hands!!!

So far we got almost all of Brielles appointments done this week. Friday she has another home nurse visit and Birth to 3 program starts on Friday as well. So lets see.....Her eye appointment went very well! She was cleared and will go back in June. So she is exactly where they want her to be after her ROP surgery. Her eyes look like a normal babies eyes again!! YAY! It was so grueling to sit and listen to her "try" to cry and then after her eyes were so sore and red and she just looked in pain. My heart went out to her! But she was a trooper as she always has been!

Today was her pediatrician visit and she is up to 5lbs 14oz!! She should hit 6lbs this week yet. Friday the nurse will weigh her so we will see the final numbers then :)

Yesterday a friend we met at the Nicu, Stefani, came with her daughter Lilianna. Lilianna was a 25 weeker and was also a twin. They lost her brother 8 days after birth. Lili is now 5 months old and been home since June and she weighs 13lbs 7oz!! It was sooo weird to hold a 13lbs baby!! My little almost 6 pounder doesnt even compare lol. But it made me realize she will be 13 lbs before I know it! How sad! Josh trys to tell me to put her down once in awhile but I dont listen :) She will not want to cuddle with me before I know it. So I am taking full advantage of her wanting to snuggle while I can! It is wonderful to not have to leave her behind at the NICU. To be able to wake up and lay in bed with her as a family and not have to jump in the shower and drive to the NICU. However, my car isnt too sure whats going on!! I dont use it as much as I used to and it wants to keep driving to Neenah to see all those wonderful nurses!! Got to talk to nurse Laura today which was great! And Rosie from discharge called me to see how Little Miss was doing! Nice to keep in touch!

Busy week!

Hey Everyone!! Brielle is doing great at home!! Had one incident today when daddy left and ran to the store. Me and little miss were snuggling on the couch watching TV and I was watching her heart rate on the monitor and seen it decreasing and it got to about 88 (80 is when they consider it a brady) so I wiggled her to wake her up like we always do but she just couldnt get her sats up for her oxygen. She was in such a deep deep sleep! They were down in the 53s 60s 70s hit the 80 goal mark but then went back down all while maintaining her heart rate in the 130-140s. So I had to bump her up to 1/2 liter from an 1/8 liter of oxygen. Her color looked great so I wasnt worried and I could feel her breathing but the sats have me stumpfed! Maybe Nurse laura, terri or Kathy could weigh in on it while reading :P Miss you guys by the way :) The home nurse called me tonight and I ran it by her but she is confused as well. Said maybe her probe wasnt on her foot all the way or something. He apnea monitor never went off so I dunno. Shes always throwing everyone for a loop! Gotta keep us on our toes I suppose ;)

Shes got a busy week! Tomorrow she goes for her follow up eye appointment! Then one of our dear friends I met at the NICU, Stef and Lilianna, are coming over to give Bri a bunch of clothes. And then 1pm her nurse comes over to check up on her and do her weigh in. On Wed she goes to see her pediatrician, Dr Kranik, at 9am then at 10am respiratory is coming to make sure her monitors and oxygen are doing their jobs! And Mommys back to work on Friday. Hard to believe in 2 days she will have been home 1 week already. It is absolutely wonderful! I love the fact that I dont ever have to leave her, well for the most part! The hard part is I miss all the wonderful nurses we have met over the 3 months in childrens. They have become family! They've seen us at our best worst and highs and lows and happys and sad days. Thank goodness for facebook!!!! Now just gotta get a few on board yet, you know who you are (uh hum Terri/Kathy)!! Brielle is resting semi nicely in our room in her bassinet. I hear a few alarms going off but dads in there and I think she is resolving them before he can even react. She for the most part only gets up twice a night. She usually eats around 9pm then at 12:30ish then again at 3:30ish and then 6:30-7am. She hasnt cried yet so were still waiting. Shes a pretty happy content baby so far. Got a few family photos taken today! Ill post when I get them back :) I know everyone keeps asking me to keep posting on Brielle so I definately will! I probably wont be updating everyday since I am busier now and theres not a whole lot to update on her. But I will definately try every couple of days :) Thanks everyone for the support!!

Getting adjusted

Well we have made it thru the first few days!! The first night went great and mom and dad got way more sleep than ever expected! Then the 2nd night came. Oh my! Those monitors were beeping saying she wasnt breathing atleast 6 times in 8 hours. I dont know if she really wasnt or not. Sometimes if she is moving around she can throw of an alarm so its more about watching her than listening to the alarm, but when your sleeping you cant do that so we just react as if she isnt breathing. But last night she only stopped once. It went from a brady to an apnea and when I put my hand on her she wasnt but then she took a deep breath. Everyone says how scary it is but its just our life. We would have denied her coming home if we werent okay with it. The wonderful nurses have showed us what to do in that situation. In 99% of the cases we dont need to do anything, she comes out of it herself. I asked the nurse because I was concerned she had so many last night and she said as long as she doesnt need alot of stimulation and help coming out shes not concerned. She said shes only 37 5/7 weeks so she will grow out of it soon. She had her first nurse visit to the house yesterday and she has another today. Their scale says she is up to 5lbs 9oz. She is eating like a champ!! she is taking between 50-60ML every feeding. 30ML is an ouce so shes nearing 2oz every 3 hourish. We are all settling pretty nicely I'd have to say! We are learning her noises and what she wants when she does certain things. She doesnt cry she just grunts and makes like little spitting sounds with her mouth when shes mad. This morning she was rutsing around in her bassinet so I thought she was hungry, but nope she just wanted to cuddle with her mama :) Got that one figured out :)

1st night.....

Brielle had a very good first night home!!! We werent sure what to expect of course so we were just going to wing it!! We kept her on her every 3 hour feeds as the NICU had her on, but at 10:30p she didnt want to wake up for nothing. Nurse Kathy told me when I asked that I could let her go as much as 5 hours but dont let her exceed that so I thought, well I'll let her go and see if she wakes to eat. I set my alarm for 12:30a just in case. She never did wake up, so good thing I set it! She took 50ML at 12:30a then 55ML at 3:30a & 53ML at 6:45a. Shes definately a good eater! Then we got to the Dr at 8:30a and she took another 20ML well before her normal 3 hours were up! Grow baby grow! The dogs are taking to her pretty well. The older one, my baby, Chloe still is hesitant and will go up to her when SHE feels like it. She usually stays in the other room but can still see us. She is moping around but she will get used to it eventually! Gabbi on the other hand............She was so excited Josh had to hold her back cuz she was going to lick Bri to death! It was cute. So we were doing some laundry and catching up on our 3 months worth of chores that stacked up and came back in the room and Gabbi was laying right next to Brielle on our bed all snuggled up!! It was ADORABLE!!!! Here we thought she would be so rough with her but she truly knows she has to take it easy around her!! Brielles alarms havent been too bad now that we got the leads figured out! We had the sticky ones on her but they would keep falling off her chest and then it would alarm. Not a big deal right? WRONG! These alarms are for when she stops breathing and they are EAR PIERCING!!! It happened twice last night when we were sleeping and you all probably would have laughed your butts off watching Josh and I spring out of bed. Never seen Josh got out of bed that fast! Maybe I can keep it for when he goes back to work!! :) All in all, we got more rest than expected! Brielle is a very good baby so far! She rarely fusses and hasnt cried yet. We just cant stop staring at her! :) We are so happy shes finally home!!!!!! Had to go visit our nurses tho today! We missed them already! Kathy knew she would have Bri withdrawls so she hid some of her stuff :) On the way to the hospital, I said to Josh that it was probably a good thing we forgot stuff cuz I needed my Kathy time as much as Kathy needed her Bri time :) The nurses have become our family and thats whats hard about being home! I cant see all their smiling faces weekly! But we will try to stay in touch as long as possible! I want them all to come to Brielles wedding :) Not that I'm pushing her to grow up or anything........

Our Baby is home!

What a great day for everyone! Exactly 3 months to the date Brielle is home!! 93 days in the NICU! Its been quite the ride! But we made it! We are still trying to figure out our "routine" as to be expected. How to carry her around the house will all her wires and trying not to worry too much when we put her down for a minute. Figuring out all her noises and what they mean! When we first got home she started to fuss. And I just kinda said to myself "Hmmm wonder what she wants. I just changed her she just ate at the NICU, I usually have the nurses to tell me what she wants." Now its all on me and Josh. I got her a bottle and she ate another 10ML. Little chunker. Then 2 hours later she took 50ML. 7:30am she had a huge poop for me at the hospital and around 4:30 she was SUPER crabby so dad of course hands her to me and I go to look in her diaper OMG is all I can say!!! I dont know where this girl stores it all! It was almost up her back!!! Then her wires got in it and O boy! Well we have company so I will write more tomorrow and let everyone know how her first night went! And ours of course! But wanted to tell everyone that she is home!!!