It has been too long...

I know, I have slacked, several of you have told me to get on top of this. This two kids and work thing kind of keeps me busy. So, enough with excuses, on to the important stuff...

Leah is now 13 lbs! At her four month check up 2 weeks ago, the doctor was thrilled. She was 12 1/2 lbs then and that put her in the 25th percentile in both weight and height for her actual age. So, she has officially caught up!

She tried to start at her school last week, but instead Brian, Leah and I ended up with the stomach flu. As a result, she didn't end up making it to school last week, but she was a trooper even not feeling well. So, Leah really started this past Monday and so far, so good. She has come home exhausted every night. Which hasn't surprised me, she is a noisy little girl, so I figured the other little ones would keep her on her toes! She seems to be adjusting just fine. The teachers say that she rarely cries and smiles a ton.

Quin is still loving school and enjoying hockey. Hockey seems to take over our weekends with a practice and a game every week. And since there are not a ton of teams, we are traveling all over the city to get to the games. He still adores Leah (thank goodness). Quin reads to her, loves to hold her and can quiet her down almost immediately. She also thinks he is pretty funny.

Halloween was very fun. Leah wore her costume for about 20 minutes; not to shabby and we got some great pictures in that time. Quin was Captain Hook and Leah was Tinkerbell. It may be the one and only year that I can get them to coordinate. Quin seems to think that he wants to be a ninja next year, and not so sure that there is a one-year old little girl costume to coordinate.

10 lbs.!

Leah hit the 10 lb. mark on Friday. She gains about a pound every week and a half. She continues to do well. She is smiling a lot now when you talk to her and generally a pretty happy baby. She still eats quite often even at night so we are still feeding her about every 2 1/2 hours (that is measured by the start of the feeding not the end) so you can see that she is up eating frequently and goes right back to sleep.

We had her "real" pictures taken last week and they are now viewable online. Luckily a friend takes them and she was very patient. Leah did great with the "awake" pictures but it took her a long time to get to sleep so that we could have some of the more newborn pics. It was definitely worth the wait though.... link to Leah's pictures.

Quin's hockey team has started practicing. They were invited to play between periods at the NHL exhibition game at the Sprint Center last week. Quin was quite excited! I posted a couple of those pictures.

We are all doing well. I am going back to work next week. The time has gone by fast and slow all at the same time.

9 lbs.

So, I know that I am a complete slacker for not updating the blog. Really, I am not sure where the days go. Leah is continuing to do very well. She keeps getting bigger and bigger. She had her two month vaccinations two weeks ago and did well. She weighed in over 7 lbs. Leah has done so well that we didn't need to schedule another appointment until October. She stays alert much more during the day, sometimes an hour or more at a time. She is smiling when touched a certain way on the cheek and she is very close to smiling when you talk to her. She knows what she wants and lets you know, but is mostly easily soothed. Leah loves to get a bath and is a cuddler. She seems to really like Quin. Quin can quiet her down pretty easily.

Since her doctor's visit, she has been spitting up more and having discomfort taking some of her bottles and lying down so we went back to the doctor yesterday. It seems that it is common for preemies to have problems with reflux. Her case doesn't seem to be severe, but nonetheless, they are putting her on Zantac to make her feel better. The doctor said that there really isn't any concern putting her on the medicine, but might as well do it so that she would feel better while eating and sleeping. I weighed her at home naked yesterday morning and she was 8 lbs. 11 ounces. They weighed her at the doctor's office with clothes and she was 9 lbs. 4 ounces. So, she is hovering around that 9 lb. mark. They continue to be pleased with her weight gain. She may catch up sooner that we think!

Quin is doing well with school. He loves it, which is great! Quin is also testing his mischievousness in the new school. On my way home from the doctor yesterday, I got a call from the school nurse, letting me know that Quin had stuck a little ball of bread up his nose at lunch. They couldn't see it and wanted me to come get him and take him to the doctor to make sure that it was out. (Keep in mind, I had already been to the doctor once already.) So, I pick up Quin and we try blowing his nose a couple of times and nothing, but he thinks that he still feels something. When I ask why he did it, he said a boy at his table told him to. That answer led to a discussion on thinking before doing. I head toward the doctor's office and hope that they can get us in quickly without an appointment (it is the lunch hour so they are not taking calls). Luckily, we get there and they got us in right away. The doctor couldn't see it, but went ahead and flushed out his nose a couple of times with warm water to make sure. This was very uncomfortable for Quin; I had to hold down his arms while the doctor flushed it out. He did well, but didn't enjoy it. As a result, Quin learned a valuable lesson about putting things up his nose. On the way back to school, I asked him what he was going to do the next time someone asked him to put something in his nose and he replied with a resounding "NO!"

A Saturday Chuckle

I thought I would share a funny from this morning...

We use eggs that come from a local farm, so they come in different shades of brown. Brian was adding them to the pancake mix this morning and Quin asked, "Are those regular or chocolate?"

Quin's First Day of School and Leah, So Big

It has been a busy week for us around here. Quin had his kindergarten practice last Friday and then his first real day on Tuesday. He was very excited about his practice day. Even though Quin will not be riding the bus each day, he practiced riding the bus just in case last Friday. He was very concerned that we were going to be late, so he insisted that we leave extra early. The bus was suppose to arrive about 8:38 and we got to the bus stop at about 8:10. Unfortunately last Friday was really hot and even that early, the sun was shining, so we just walked up and down the block until some of the other kids got there. The kids were excited and eagerly awaiting the bus and it got to be about 8:45 and no bus, then about 8:50, no bus....9:00 and no bus. One of the parents is calling up to school during this time to figure out what is going on. Of course, at this point, to take him, we would have to walk back home, get Leah in the car and then drive to school, so we were going to be really late. I was holding out for the bus, so at least Quin could blame the bus and not me for being late on the first day! Finally at about 9:10 the bus comes and it is empty...their "real" bus broke down and another bus had to be sent. Luckily the rest of the morning went much better than that. When Quin got off the bus, he immediately said, "Mommy, I had a really fun day!"

On Tuesday for the first real day of the school, Brian dropped Quin off at Kid's Country (the before and after school program) so that he could meet the kids that are there. His kindergarten goes from 9-4 and luckily, some of his neighborhood friends go to Kid's Country too, so there were no issues going. When I picked up Quin at the end of the day, he said that he had a really fun day again. When I asked what he did and his favorite parts, he talked a lot about recess. He also shared his excitement over the fact that he can get breakfast if he wants in the morning and even though he had eaten before leaving, he was "still a little" hungry, so he got a glazed donut. This made me laugh, I told him that I didn't think he would be able to turn down a donut!

Yesterday, he said that it was "even funner than yesterday"...so far, so good. It has also been nice because, we have several neighbors that are in kindergarten this year, as well as a couple of the kids from Quin's preschool and then his t-ball team, so there were familiar faces all around.

Leah is continuing to do well! We didn't have a weigh-in this week, however we have a borrowed baby scale (thanks, Robyn!) and I weighed her yesterday. She was 6 lbs. 11 and 1/2 ounces! We will see how that matches up when we go to the doctor next week, but I am not surprised by 11 ounces of growth in the last week, she has been eating like crazy! She is continuing to stay awake longer, spend time looking around and even crying a little more...I think she is coming into her own.

I took her to the retina specialist yesterday for her follow-up. She had an exam in the hospital that came back that her retinas were immature, which they told us to expect. The pediatrician also warned us that they may come back as immature again since she hasn't quite gotten to her due date. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that they are mature and we don't have to return to that doctor. Leah will be 9 weeks old on Monday, very hard to believe.

A Week and a Half In...

It has already been a week and a half at home, which is hard to believe. You would think that I would have a lot more time now to update the blog, but it hasn't quite worked that way. I had forgotten what it feels like to bring a newborn home, where your days fly by and your feel like you were super busy the whole day, but didn't really do much.

Last Tuesday, Leah went to see the pediatrician and weighed in at 5 lbs. 7 ounces. She had gained about 5 ounces in 5 days, so they were pleased with that progress. They checked her out and had reviewed the notes from the hospital, and she is doing great. Our biggest worry seems to be the upcoming cold and flu season...so for those of you who are close by and come to see Leah, you will hear me ask frequently if you washed your hands and make sure that you haven't been exposed to anything. The pediatrician also reaffirmed what the neonatologist had already told us which is that we should plan to be home bound for the next couple of months. We are to keep her away from any place where there are groups of people. They scheduled us for another weight check which was today.

Today's big news is that she hit 6 lbs.! 6 lbs. exactly was the weight today, so that is 9 ounces in 7 days. Great progress (they are looking for her to average a 1/2 ounce to 1 ounce a day). As a result, she doesn't have to get weighed next week. She will get weighed again on the 24th when we take her in for her 2 month vaccines. She has officially grown out of almost all of the preemie clothes, so she is now enjoying her newborn size clothing.

All in all, we are adjusting pretty well. She usually sleeps for one 4-hour interval at night, otherwise she gets up about every 3 hours. We keep setting the alarm to make sure that she gets up at least every 4 hours, but we haven't needed it yet. She is still sleeping a lot, but is also having more awake time. She is starting to like having baths. Leah seems to pretty easy going. She does know what she likes though. If you move her and she doesn't want to be moved or wake her up when she doesn't want to be woken up, she will let you know.

Quin has been a good big brother. If she cries when we are holding her or feeding her, etc. Quin tells us to stop, because we are making her cry. He has also been very patient with not having the flexibility that we have had before to go to the pool or the playground. Thursday is meet the teacher night for kindergarten and Friday is "practice" day for the new kindergartners. Tuesday, the 18th is the official first day. Quin is getting very excited and is ready to start. I am anxious to see his reaction on Friday after the practice.

We Are Home!

When I came in on Thursday to the hospital they told me that it was time to board in (stay the night at the hospital to "practice" taking care of her). This is code for in 24 hours we will get to come home, all things going well. So, we started the planning. At the hospital, they started the discharge paperwork and final tests. I frantically ran to Target to get anything else that I thought that we could possibly need at home (I know, you would think that we would have had everything by this time).

She had a car seat test-strapped into her car seat for one hour and thirty minutes hooked up to all of the monitors to make sure her respiration was fine and it was.

We spent the night with Leah Thursday night. The first four hours were a little nerve racking-no monitors to beep at us to tell us if something was wrong and we have forgotten about all of those funny little noises babies make when they sleep. We set an alarm to make sure that she got up every four hours to sleep and we didn't need it because she woke us up every three hours to eat and ate very well, almost 2 ounces per feeding (they want her to eat between 40 ccs-an ounce and a third to 60 ccs-2 ounces per feeding).

Friday morning came and she had her hospital photos taken. The doctor took examined her and we were on our way. I asked Dr. Schooley if she was sure we were ready to go home and she said absolutely, it was time. It was both scary and exciting to get the news.

Yesterday, at home was great. A little strange that we didn't have to go back to the hospital last night. Leah seems to be adjusting well. She is eating very well; she definitely seems to have turned the corner on eating (she is at about 5 lbs, 2 ounces). We also learned last night that we need to be a little noisier around here. She is use to a lot of noise, so after a couple of hours of restlessness during the night, we turned on the TV and it seemed to work.

Quin is excited to have her home too. He likes having her around and really likes not having to go to the hospital! Leah will be six weeks old on Monday and as of yesterday her gestational age was 37 weeks. It is hard to believe. The time has actually gone by pretty fast considering all of the hospital visits. We really can't say enough how much we have appreciated all the thoughts, prayers and support. All of the food "support" has also come in handy. Brian said yesterday that he didn't think that I had make a meal since before Leah was born and I am pretty sure that he is right. I guess I will have to remember how to do that again now that we are home...

I will continue to post her progress, as well as doing a better job now of updating you all on Quin...kindergarten is just a couple of weeks away.

Leah's Big Day

She did it, Leah hit 5 pounds Monday night! Then on Tuesday, we got the news that Leah was going to get the feeding tube removed. She moved to a different feeding approach where she eats every 3-4 hours, more when she wants to eat versus the scheduled 3 hour intervals. She also has a range with a minimum she needs to eat and a max. So far, she has done well with this approach (it is more on her terms).

Leah also had an eye exam (it came back that her eyes are immature-they told me to expect that) and ear exam (she passed). She is also has to have a car seat test to check her breathing while in a car seat. They have asked me a couple of times now to bring in the seat, so we did tonight (I am taking this as a great sign since that is one of the criteria to get discharged).

So, all she has to do to leave now is bottle feed for 3 straight days (her minimum feeds) and consistently gain weight. The doctor is saying that we are probably only 3-4 days out. It is hard to believe that we are possibly this close. We are definitely ready. Quin is a homebody by nature, so all of these trips to the hospital and only one parent home at a time is really getting to him. He doesn't want be away from Mom and Dad.

This time has gone by fast, yet slow, if that makes any sense. We seem to be in the home stretch now.

Almost 5 Pounds

Last night, Leah weighed in at 4 lbs. 12 ounces and she is about 18 1/2 inches now. She is on her way to the 5 lb. mark. She has had a great week. Today was her 5th straight day of taking multiple bottles throughout the day. She is still getting tired at times, but keeping at it. She has also gone 3 days now with out a "spell" (heart rate drop). So, we are hopeful, that she has turned the corner and on the home stretch.

I talked with the doctor today and she is pleased with her progress. She also asked if her room was ready. I said that we were working on it and trying to get everything else ready for her arrival at home. She said that we better get going on it, because we are probably only a week or less away from going home! Very exciting news. Hopefully, we don't run into any obstacles this week to getting there. In order to leave the hospital, she has to have 5 days without "spells" and 3 days of full feeds by bottle.

Quin is very ready for some home time. He has been doing well with all of this, but really wants Mom and Dad to be home at the same time. Right now, we spend a lot of time switching off so that Quin doesn't have to go to the hospital a lot. I also posted a picture of Quin with the ducks that wondered into our yard not too long ago. There is a pond in the neighborhood and this was a very rainy day. We have never seen them wonder to our yard before. So, we fed them bread and they stayed a while. Quin loved having them around.

Hopefully, I will soon be posting our coming home date. Thanks to all for the continued support, thoughts and prayers.

Weight Gain and New Bed

Leah weighed in last night at 4 lbs. 7.3 ounces. I asked the nurse twice, because I couldn't believe that she had continued to gain between an ounce and 3 ounces each night! As a result of her continuous weight gain and her ability to keep her body temperature, she got to move to an open crib this morning. It literally brought tears to my eyes to see her in her new bed.

She is taking a bottle here and there; she is spending a lot of her time sleeping. The nurses and doctors say that it is a function of her gestational age (35 weeks last Friday, real age 4 weeks today). She knows how, she just doesn't quite have the stamina yet. Hopefully, this week, it will all come together for her and she will be taking more of her bottles.

Even while sleeping, she is fun to watch. She has a great smile! Leah smiles frequently while sleeping. (I wonder what she is dreaming about.) It is also fun to watch her with Quin. Whenever he is around and she is awake her eyes follow him and his voice. Now that she is out of her isolette, she can't kick her feet out any more. She has to wear her clothes in addition to being swaddled in two blankets to keep her body temperature up. She seems to be adjusting well though, because she got mad at me today when I went to unswaddle her.

It is also a little noisy now that she is out of the isolette. (In the NICU, they have 4-5 babies in each of the rooms , so with their monitors dinging, the nurses coming in and out and occasional crying, it can be pretty chaotic.)When we get her home, I think that we are going to have to make it a little noisier around here to get her to sleep!

4 lbs!

Last night, Leah weighed in at 4 lbs. She is doing a great job gaining weight. In the last 24 hours, she has also taken several feedings through a bottle instead of her feeding tube. She is now up to 35 cc's (a little over 1 ounce) every three hours.

They are also going to start turning down the temperature in her isolette so that they can start getting her to room temperature. Once they get there, she will move to an open air crib. I talked to the neonatologist today and she continues to be pleased with her progress.

Little Leah must be getting tired of the NICU and getting anxious to come home with all of this progress!

Big Day!

Leah had a big day today. She nursed and/or took a bottle at four consecutive feedings! It looks like she is getting stronger at eating and is waking up at her feeding times.

We have to give some credit to Shannon, her nurse today. Leah pulled out her feeding tube again this morning and Shannon gave her a little pep talk letting her know that she can have it out permanently when she gets good at this whole feeding thing. (Maybe Leah took some of this to heart.)

Tonight, Brian and I went in for her 8:00 feeding and to see her get weighed. She weighed in at a whopping 3 lbs and 15 ozs. So, tomorrow could be the day that she hits 4 lbs!

We are also seeing her mature in her personality. All of the nurses, describe her as sweet. She has a lot of noisy neighbors (babies on a lot of monitors that beep a lot) and she is not phased by them in the least. She loves to be snuggled up in her bed, but tends to kick one leg out when she sleeps (her brother does the same thing when he sleeps). She can also go 0 to 100 quickly when someone messes with her when she is sleeping. She has startled some of the nurses and doctors, looking so sweet and peaceful sleeping, then crying loudly when they need to assess her. The good news is that she can bring it back down almost just as quickly. It seems that she just wants to make her feelings heard.

As you can see, she is continuing to make great strides. I will get some more pictures uploaded soon so you can see those cheeks filling out!

Bigger and Bigger Every Day!

As of Friday night, Leah weighed in at 3 lbs. 9.6 oz. She is working on averaging about an ounce a day, so she is doing well. You can definitely see it in her cheeks. She did well with trying a bottle yesterday and today. Between the bottle feeding and her first real bath, she is worn out! She is peacefully resting tonight.

She is not seeming as fragile to me; I guess I am getting use to her size. Dad is still a little scared that he is going to hurt her, but he is not going to get out of diaper changing that easy. AND I got peed on for the first time in diaper changing today (I am sure it won't be the last). Quin especially appreciated this incident.

The staff at the hospital continue to praise her progress and say that she is doing everything that she needs to do. When I left yesterday, I talked with the neonatologist and he said, "I am proud of her." Yeah, me too.

Finally, she gets to wear clothes!

It was a good 4th of July weekend for Leah. She has continued to gain weight every day and she is working on bottle feeding and nursing now. As of Monday night she was up to 3 lbs. 5.7 oz. It is amazing that being that small even a small amount of weight shows; you can see it in her cheeks. As a result of her weight gain, she has been given clearance to start wearing clothes. They will continue to monitor her temperature and start weaning her to air temperature to see if she can maintain her own body temperature. It is very fun to see her in clothes. She looks great in pink!

I am still struggling with my blood pressure. I had to go to the doctor yesterday after waking up with a terrible headache that wouldn't go away. My blood pressure medicine has been increased and hopefully it works. The bad news is that high blood pressure can cause the headaches but so can my medicine, so either way I may be stuck with the headaches for a while. I have been ordered to rest more, so basically, I can go to the hospital, but between visits, I am to rest. So, I am trying. On a good note, my swelling has gone down significantly. I keep looking at my feet in disbelief; they haven't looked this small in months!

Weight Gain!

Last night, little Leah weighed in at 1424 grams which translates to 3 lbs. 2.2 oz. so progress was made. Being so small, it seems to really show when a couple of ounces are gained! Starting today they are also beginning to fortify her milk with more calories and vitamins to hopefully speed along the growing as well.

Everything else is going well. No new tests have been ordered or areas of concern identified. The focus is still on gaining weight and maturing.

According to the doctor, at minimum she is going to be in the hospital another 3 weeks. So, we have a lot more hospital trips ahead of us.

Above are a couple of new pictures including her first sponge bath (which she wasn't so happy about).