Shots

Well my 3 pounder is now 3lbs 3.4oz! She looks so much bigger too. She actually has meat on her legs and arms now! She is starting to show more and more features and look like a little baby now. Not that she never did, but she just looks "older" as the nurses say. Not much to report today. She got her 2 month shots today. I cant believe tomorrow at 8:52 pm she will be 2 months! Time is flying! I had to work so I snuggled her in the morning and went to work and Josh stayed with her while she got her shots. I felt better that way too! He text me at work and said they gave her some "sweeties" on her nuc (sugar water) and she just sucked away and never cried, flinched, woke up, or wrinkled her forehead. I knew she would be a trooper! She has been since day one! Shes used to being poked unfortunately and this poke didnt even phase her either. She was realllly buzzy tonight while we were holding her so mom and dad put her to bed and had a movie date night on the couch. Much needed and tomorrow I am going to get her nursery all cleaned out and get everything ready for my showers next weekend so theres somewhere to go with everything she is so blessed to receive!

Loving Life

Tomorrow Brielle has a chest Xray to make sure her lungs are still expanded and then they are going to lower her settings on the vapotherm! She will go down to 5 liters and when she is 4liters or lower they can start introducing the bottle. Her blood gases are the lowest they have been! 41! Thats great! They like them between 45-55. She is usually high 50's and upper 60's. Showing them she wants those prongs off! This morning Kathy took her out to play and while she was sucking on her nuc she dropped a few drops of milk in her mouth so she can start to get used to the suck swallow breath. Next week when she gets on the lower setting Kathy said she would like to try to give Brielle just a nipple from a bottle and just drop milk in it so she doesnt get too overwhelmed on alot of milk. Since she sucks on her nuc like a banchy, she might try to take the bottle in one gulp! A bunch of nurses have predicted that :)

They may do one more ECHO before her last MRI or it might just be her MRI before she goes homne. The MRI shows more than the ECHO does anyway and we cant do anything about it if more pop up anyways. Its just putting her thru another test. Xray of lungs in the morning and she gets her 3 2month big girl shots :( She will be a trooper! Shes been poked and proded so much and often already, shes got this! She will have another eye test next week. He isnt too concerned but being this premature, she could turn for the worst so quickly that he just wants to watch it closely. AGREED!

She had her 8 week developmental review yesterday. The PT comes in and just watches all her cares and watched me hold her and her being fed. She was amazed at how well Brielle tolerates her feedings. She very very seldom spits up anything. She gets the hiccups regularly tho. She loved how often she smiled while just laying by me and when I talked to her. She loved how she would sigh to catch her breathing and slow herself down. She even stayed to just watch her after she was done with the appointment. She gave me a compliment I was quite pleased with. She said to me "Did you know that you were going to be a natural mother and caregiver?" And I think I gave her that look and she said "I mean you know what she needs and you just do it to make her comfortable and settle nicely." I thought that was nice. Sometimes its hard to feel like a mom up there. But now that we can get her out and bathe her by ourselves it more of an independece feeling. So when shes crabby we are figuring out why and her noises and moves to make the change to make her happy. She said she is acting much like a 32 weeker and a 3 pounder!

Mom and Dad are going to give her a bath tonight! Grandpa Mike is coming up to hold. Grandpa Brad held yesterday. Mom had to get an order from the doctor to allow grandparents to hold her since she is on oxygen. He agreed to once a grandparent. We will weigh her before her bath tonight and see how much she is up. or down.

3lbs!!!!!!!!!!!

Thats right folks!! Brielle has reached 3lbs!! She is 3lbs .6oz and 15" to be exact!! She is doing AMAZING on her vapotherm! We couldnt ask for much more progress than she is giving us! Mommy and Daddy are soooo proud of her! Hopefully she keeps that .6oz and doesnt poop it out or something! She was grunting pretty good after we weighed her, but overall after everything is said and done, she reached 3lbs regardless :) Keep growing MY PRECIOUS GIRL! Keep Growing!!!!

Eye Test

Brielle had her eyes tested today for ROP. She has Stage 1 Zone 2. The vessels start to grow from the back to the front. So they are making sure they are growing around the retina and not towards the retina. If they grow towards the retina, they could detach the retina. There are studies that show that the more oxygen she is on the more problems she may have. Since shes been on alot of oxygen, it seems she is doing good with it. So she has some tangling of the vessels but not too bad. Stage 4 is the worst and zone 5 is the best. When she gets to Stage 4 the retina is completely detached. When she gets to Zone 5 there arent problems. So just getting her to Stage 1 Zone 5. Confusing, I KNOW!

She is 2lbs 14.2 oz today. Little fart just wont hit 3lbs! She is tolerating the vapo therm very well!! Currently she is at 32% but was down to 26% and she is high sating right now! Likes daddy holding her! Tomorrow I am sitting in on her developmental review. And her ECHO came back the same as last week. Still small to moderate.

Thats about all I know! Work is going okay. Nice to get back to some normalcy, but I am sooo exhausted!! I get up at 6am to the hospital by 7:15. Then to work from 10-3:30, run home to let dogs out quick, change clothes, maybe throw in a quick dinner, and back to the hospital by 4:30 to meet Josh and do her cares. We usually get home around 7 eat and clean up, play with the dogs for a minute and in bed by 10. And then up to do it all over. It will be so nice when shes home and we can eliminate the 20 minute drive to and from the hospital! love all the NICU nurses but its time!!

Grandmas get to snuggle

Well we got over our selfishness and let the two grandmas snuggle Brielle so far. I know both moms have been dying to hold her since she was born and didnt expect to til she was home. So last night we asked the nurse when she thought others could start to hold Brielle. She said it was soley up to us and she thought she was ready since she loves being held. It was up to us when and if and how long and who. Well my mom was coming up anyways that same night and Josh willingly gave up his time and said he wanted my mom to hold her since it would be a great birthday gift. So when she got here we had her sit in the chair and josh was holding her and I acted like I was going to give her her gift and then said "On second thought, We think you would like this gift better" and placed Bri in her arms. She loved it!!! Then we had to call Cindy and get her to come up the next night so she could hold. She of course said ya not knowing she would be holding! So when she got here she least expected it when Josh put her in her arms. She cried. She didnt think that she would be able to hold her til she came home. And us either. We were not sure. We didnt know what to expect. Or did we know if we would ever want to give her up, since our time is limited to once a day for an hour or so. Some nurses say we are crazy for letting other people hold her already, but how can we not? Our parents have been such a huge support system for us that we atleast wanted to share the joy with them once in awhile. Its easy to be selfish and keep her to ourselves. But sharing the joy is very exciting to see the joy on their faces when they get to hold their grandchild.

Mom and Dad got to give Brielle a bath on their own today!! We did okay! I held her in the water and dad washed her little body and hair. She just loves bath time! Wide awake the whole time.

Brielle is now off her CPAP and on Vapo therm. Next step is the nasal cannula and then nothing! Shes getting there but still has along ways to go. She is losing a bit of weight. She is 2lbs 13 oz now. and still at 15 inches. Everyone said 3lbs was hard to hit and I thought it was easy as she was creeping up sooo fast to it but then she hit 2lbs 14oz and crept right back down. But shes been doing alot on her own as a big girl now so she is just tired and needs to put all her energy into breathing on her own now. She will get there. Glad to see her with all her face gear off and you can see her pretty little eyes and her hair!

54 days In the NICU completed!

54 days down in the NICU! I honestly have to say it doesnt feel like that long. I hope the next month and a half go this fast!! But alot smoother! She can let mommy and daddy and everyone supporting us off her little rollercoaster ride now! She is on a steroid to help with her lungs getting off the vent so it causes her to not be able to gain weight as easily. So she is at 2lbs 14.1 oz. They didnt measure her yet. So Ill let you know tomorrow! She definately looks bigger to me! She is still on the CPAP but now shes on the short prongs instead of the long prongs. So she has to have a hat on that has ties to keep the prongs in her nose. And she needs to keep her mouth shut. Welllll since she was on the breathing tube for so long she is so used to having her mouth wide open that she just wont shut it! So she sometimes has to have a chin strap that goes around her head and chin and keeps her mouth closed. She is still doing very well on her oxygen %. she has her ECHO tomorrow so lets all hope that her PDA is still closing very well and no more talk of possible surgery! She is fine just where she is!! The nurses say sometimes they hear it and sometimes not. So I'm hoping its better than good news tomorrow!!

O and Gma Cindy, mommy, and daddy picked out Brielles material for her curtains for her room :) It is SO cool! I'm way excited! Before you know it We will have her home! So thought we should probably have a room for her to come home it :) I will get pics up when its in order!!

Over 24 hours!!

Well Brielle is still off the vent and on the neo prong CPAP! She has been anywhere from 38%-60% all day! She has been off of it 27 hours now (6pm). GO BRIELLE!!!! She is doing very well and dont really see her going back on so far. But this is the NICU. And things change in the blink of an eye! Shes been having more bradys today (where she stops breathing) But I truly think thats because the prongs have some moisture in them and it goes down her nose and kind of drowns her alittle bit. Think how you feel when you get a nose full of water. You dont like it, and she doesnt either so she holds her breath. She recovers pretty much by herself with no assistance which is a good thing! She weighs 2 lbs 14.2oz. Not getting to the 3lbs mark as quickly as we expected. But the nurses are not too concerned with them taking the tube out (a few extra oz) and her having to breath all on her own, burns calories. So I guess mom wont pout about it quite yet! Just want her to be a big girl already!

Extubated

Brielle was extubated for the 3rd time now at about 3pm today. The first time she made it 2 hours and this last tuesday when she extubated herself she made it 12 hours and this time she got steroids to help her out so lets hope she makes it for good!! She is fiesty, as I have said since day one!! She DOES NOT like her new nasal prongs and she has pulled them out 4 times in an hour and a half. So Barb has put her in a "straight jacket" swaddler. She managed to break loose when we werent looking and pulled them out again. They are giving her some drugs to settle her down, since she high sats when she is relaxed and she desats when she id fighting. She does however like the fact that she can have her beloved nuc and suck on the whole thing freely! I think she loves not having the tube down her throat but she didnt think she would have an extra tube shoved down her nose. She keeps sneezing which also forces it out. The plus for mommy and daddy is we can hear her trying to fuss and cry. O sweet sound! We havent heard that in over a month!!! Guess what!! she is almost 2 months old!!!! Where did the time go?? Next week she gets to have her first ROP eye test. And in 8 days she gets her 2 month shots :( Such a big girl! I remember asking the Dr. about the ROP eye test out of curiosity and she said "O thats like 31 32 weeks, ALONG time down the road!!" Well guess what! We are ALONG time down the road already! Last night she weighed 2ls 14 oz so we will see what she weighs tonight. 3lbs here we come! Breathing tubes, GOODBYE! (hopefully!!!!) 2 months right around the corner! Bottle feeding in a few weeks!! seems like she is on a roll!!