Day 64, 12.23.08

Quick update - We've past our first parenting test with Evelyn. She is gaining weight! She is now up to 6 lbs 4 oz. She's gained 9 oz in the past 6 days. Yeah!!! She also got 4 shots and one oral vaccination at today's visit. She cried, of course, but quieted down pretty quickly. Phew.
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Day 63, 12.22.08

Another busy day in the Moore household. Evelyn is doing really well and mom is sleeping better now that Evelyn is sleeping in her room now. I moved her out Friday night! That surprised even me! We kept Rebecca in our room for the first month and Chloe for at least a week or two. Evelyn only made it 3 nights. :-) I think she sleeps better on the mattress rather than the pack-n-play and I've angled the mattress slightly in her crib so I think she likes that better than sleeping completely flat on her back. Whatever works!

Her days are composed of eating, sleeping, peeing, and pooping. All good things! She is like clock work and will wake up to eat every three hours. She is taking 3 oz at each feeding and is a good eater.

She doesn't have too many wakeful moments. Although she was up for about an hour yesterday. Too bad it was 2:30 AM. Roger has been doing a great job (of course) taking care of all three girls. Busy days!

All things considered, she is acting just like a "normal" baby. She goes in to the dr. tomorrow for a regular check-up, so it will be fun to see how much she has gained since being at home. We got so used to having daily weights for her.

She loves to be held, so I've been using a homemade Moby Wrap to carry her around in when I'm home. It's just a long piece of fabric that acts like a front carrier. I wasn't sure I would use it, but she seems to like it and it still lets me do other things - like help Rebecca and Chloe, eat dinner, and update the blog. She's wrapped up right now. She's still too small for our Baby Bjorn, so for $7 worth of fabric, I have a front carrier that works for little Evelyn.

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Day 58, 12.17.08

Quick update - Evelyn is doing great at home. Roger and I did not get much sleep last night. We were expecting to be up a lot with her because we figured we would be so worried about how she's doing and if she's still breathing, but that was not the case at all. We didn't get much sleep last night because Evelyn is apparently a noisy sleeper! Who knew! We had no problem feeling reassured she was doing okay. Now if only we can get some sleep tonight. Evelyn may be moved out of our room and into the nursery sooner than expected!

We'll count this as a blessing and stock up on coffee! ;-)

Rebecca and Chloe are excited to have Evelyn home. Roger said that Rebecca was a great helper today. When he asked Rebecca what she likes best about being a "double" big sister, Rebecca said she likes "taking care of baby Evelyn."

Thanks for your continued prayers. We couldn't have gotten through this without them.

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Welcome Home! 12.16.08

Santa delivered an early Christmas present today! The hospital had Santa come and visit the babies in the NICU today so Evelyn got her picture taken.

We brought Evelyn home today and she is doing awesome. We are so happy to have her home now. Rebecca and Chloe are excited too.

Here are a couple more pictures from tonight...

Day 56, 12.15.08

Big news today... Evelyn is coming home tomorrow! I went to visit Evelyn this morning for her 9 AM feeding and the nurse practitioner turns to me and says - with a straight face - "Well, she's going home tomorrow." Of course my reaction was "Seriously?" Up until this point, we were all thinking Christmas was being hopeful. So it was quite a shock to be told just 24 hours in advance.

Of course we are happy and excited, but a little anxious too. Tomorrow is also my first day back to work after being on leave this whole time. Unfortunately, being on bedrest ate up most of my FMLA leave and I actually had to request an additional 3 weeks off to make it to this point. So please make sure to keep Roger in your prayers as he will certainly have his hands full this week.

Also wanted to give a heads up that we will be retreating into our cave for awhile as Evelyn can't "come out and play" yet. We've been told to basically keep her home until at least a month after her due date (Jan 20), and to limit visitors. No trips to the grocery store, no church, no other excursions. Basically, she's allowed to go to her pediatrician and back. Of course this will make things difficult for Roger and the girls, but we are so excited to have her home with us. We will plan an open house once Evelyn is able to have visitors.

Having said that, if you live nearby and happen to have an extra casserole or make too much food some night for dinner, we would certainly accept that. ;-)

It's been awhile since I updated the blog, so you may have noticed from the picture above that Evelyn no longer has her feeding tube. That was taken out a couple days ago and she continues to do great on her bottle feedings. Evelyn is up to 2,580 grams or 5 lbs 11 oz. What a chunker!

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Day 50, 12.09.08

Happy 7 weeks Evelyn! She is still just 34 weeks gestational age, which means she really should still have 6 more weeks in the womb left to go - but look at how fantastic she is doing! She was up to 2,345 grams, or 5 lbs 3 oz, yesterday.

We brought Rebecca and Chloe in to visit today and had Rebecca hold Evelyn for the first time. She did great!

Evelyn is still working on bottle feeding. She can finish most of them, but there are times when she's just too tired. Like today was bath day and after her bath, she was not that interested in taking her bottle.

Her feedings are now up to 52 cc's/feeding and they dropped her down to 24 calories/ounce. The nurses call the 26 calorie/ounce"jet fuel" and it was giving Evelyn quite a bit of gas. Hopefully she'll be more comfortable on the 24 calorie/ounce.

Day 47, 12.06.08

Oops - I guess it's been awhile since I last updated the blog. Roger has been very busy at church this week, and when Roger's busy, I'm busy. Tis the season.

Evelyn is doing great and continues to grow and get big. The last weight we have is from Friday and she was up to 2,180 grams or 4 lbs 13 oz. She is doing better eating from the bottle. She's taken the bottle for every feeding yesterday and so far today. The effort of eating from the bottle is still too much for her sometimes, so whatever she doesn't finish from the bottle is still given to her through the feeding tube.

Evelyn continues to have some of her spells, but they are usually only when she's eating or soon after she's finished eating and she's recovering on her own. Roger talked with the doctor today and she told Roger that she would like to work on getting Evelyn home for Christmas. Of course Roger agreed! Now Evelyn just needs to work on taking all of her bottle, all of the time and stop having so many spells. Christmas is only 3 weeks away!

Day 41, 11.30.08

Evelyn started taking a bottle today!!! She is doing well and when Roger was there this afternoon, Evelyn took nearly the entire bottle in 10 minutes! It took her another 20 minutes to finish the last 10 cc's or so, but still, amazingly well. She will still have a feeding tube to help her finish her feeds until she can finish her entire bottle in 30 minutes or less. Whatever she doesn't finish will be fed in through her feeding tube.

Here she is today holding Roger's hand. Notice... no feeding tube through her nose. They had to take it out to switch sides anyway, so they left it out for a while. It's so nice to see her pretty face with nothing attached!

She is now up to 44 cc's/feeding and has doubled her weight to 2,040 grams (4 lbs 8 oz). She's still having some spells, but is recovering on her own. She'll have to grow out of these and be on 100% bottle feeds before she can come home. We're getting more excited about being able to bring her home sooner rather than later, but we still think Christmas is a good target date.

One other update is that Roger and I took our infant CPR class - a requirement for us to be able to bring Evelyn home. We hope to never use it.

Day39, 11.28.08

Evelyn lost some weight today, but that was to be expected. She had 3 BIG poops today and they stopped giving her the sodium supplement, which was causing her to retain some extra fluids. Yesterday she weighed 2,015 grams (4 lbs 7 oz) and today she weighed 1,990 grams (4 lbs 6 oz).

She is now getting 40 cc's/feeding and they shortened her feeding time to just one hour. Evelyn is handling this shortened time just as well as when she was getting fed over 2 hours. They will likely shorten this to just 30 minutes and start trying her on a bottle over the next few days.

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Day 38, 11.27.08

Happy Thanksgiving! Evelyn is growing and thriving in her open crib. She is currently at 1,980 grams, or 4 lbs 6 oz. They are now feeding her over 1.5 hours, rather than the 2 hours she was at previously and she seems to handling this change well. Once she's on the bottle, they want her to be able to complete her feeding within 30 minutes. She remains at 37 cc's/feeding, but this will likely be increased today or tomorrow.

So, in order for her to come home, she needs to be taking a bottle exclusively and have 5 days of no "spells." She's already maintaining her own body temperature. Maybe a Christmas homecoming? It's not out of the realm of possibilities, but wouldn't be a surprise if she takes longer. She's already calling the shots!

Day 36, 11.25.08

Look who's in a big girl bed! Today, Evelyn was moved to an open crib and so far is able to maintain her temperature all on her own. So long as she is able to maintain her temperature at, or around, 37 degrees Celsius (98.7 F), she should be able to remain in this bed.

Other good news is that the ophthalmologist came by yesterday (11.24) and found that Evelyn does not have retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). They will continue to check her eyes every 2 weeks until her eyes and the blood vessels in the eye reach maturity. Then she will have to follow-up with a doctor at 6 months and then again (I think) when she's 2 years old for another exam. Some things like cross-eyes, lazy eye, and extreme nearsightedness are more common in preemies, but may only become apparent when they are 8-12 months old.

We also forgot to mention a few days ago that the doctor noticed a heart murmur on Evelyn. Thankfully it appears to be a benign murmur that she may grow out of, but they are following it and may do an ultrasound of her heart sometime before she is discharged just to take a closer look. If this was a bad murmur, Evelyn would likely not be able to maintain her oxygen saturation and other vital signs as well as she is currently doing.

Evelyn continues to gain weight and was up to 1,905 grams (4 lbs 3 oz) yesterday (11.24). Her old bed - the isolette/incubator - had a scale integrated into the bed. Now that she is in the open crib, the nurses have to weigh her on a regular scale. Unfortunately, they were all being used at the time she is usually weighed, so we'll have to wait until tomorrow for the latest weight. Evelyn's nurse cautioned that her weight may go down simply because we are weighing her on a different scale, so we'll just have to wait and see what happens...

Day 34, 11.23.08

Big news today is that Evelyn is off the nasal cannula and doing great! Look at her pretty face! They took her off this morning and she is handling this change really well. In fact, she's probably doing better than she was before. For whatever reason, she is maintaining her oxygen saturation better without the nasal cannula. One theory is that the cannula was introducing air to her stomach which was causing her to have more reflux. More reflux lead to more "spells." Without the cannula, she is having less reflux so is more comfortable and having less "spells."

At yesterday's weigh-in, she tipped the scales at exactly 4 lbs. Today she continues to gain and weighed in at 1855 grams, or 4 lbs 1 oz. What a big girl! So big that they have to continue to increase her feeds. She is up to 37 cc's/feeding. They also measured her last night and she is now 15.5 inches tall/long.

Roger is now getting "concerned" that Evelyn may come home earlier that we had originally expecting. Maybe Christmas isn't such a far fetched idea!?! Thankfully we already have the typical baby stuff. I guess we should stock up on diapers soon.

Thanks again for everyone's thoughts and prayers. Clearly it's helping. Just look at how she's growing!!!

Day 32, 11.21.08

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVELYN!!! Evelyn is one month old today.

Evelyn is growing and growing. Tonight she weighed... drumroll please... 1,790 grams or 3 lbs 15 oz. Wow! She is measuring just over the 50th percentile for her age, which is perfectly average. Couldn't ask for anything better.

Her breathing spells are becoming less frequent, so her oxygen flow has now been reduced to 0.5 liters/minute. Depending on how she handles the decrease in flow, they will keep trying to wean her off the nasal cannula over the next few days. She remains on 21% oxygen (room air).

Because she is growing and gaining so much, they have increased her feeds to 35 cc's/feeding. That's just over one ounce per feeding! They continue to deliver her feedings over a 2 hour time period and will likely try to start her on the bottle 2 weeks from now. We did receive the donor breastmilk last Wednesday, so she is now on half breastmilk, half formula.

Day 29, 11.18.08

Evelyn is growing and growing. She was up to 1,525 grams, 3 lbs 6 oz on Sunday, but dropped down to 1,490 grams, 3 lbs 5 oz, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. She was retaining some fluids (very common in preemies) so the nurses/doctors assume she has just peed it out (or pooped it out) and is figuing out what to do with all this extra fluid she had/has.

Evelyn is getting better with her breathing too. Yesterday, she didn't have any spells that the nurses had to help her with, so today they decreased the flow on her oxygen back down to 1.5 Liters/minute to try and wean her off the nasal cannula.

She remains on full formula feeds... for now. If you recall, when Evelyn first began feeding through her feeding tube, it was on donated breastmilk. Within the past week, the doctors decided that Evelyn is well enough to receive full formula, but there are many benefits breastmilk can provide that formula cannot. So we've taken it upon ourselves to order and pay for milk from the Mother's Milk Bank in Denver. Roger and I believe strongly in the benefits on breastmilk, but unfortunately, I have not been able to produce any. So luckily there is such a thing as human milk banks (like a blood bank, but for breastmilk). We are supposed to recieve the milk tomorrow morning. We will then bring this milk to the hospital for Evelyn. She will then be on half formula and half breastmilk.

Day 26, 11.15.08

Here is Evelyn holding mommy's hand...




Evelyn continues to gain weight. She weighed 1,405 grams yesterday and tonight she weighs 1,465 grams, 3 lbs 4 oz. She is now one pound more than her birth weight! Although, she appears to be retaining water - like any woman would ;-) - so may be given a diuretic to help get rid of some of the extra fluids.



She is now on full formula feeds and is still adjusting to this new food. She has been having some more "spells," so they put her oxygen flow back up to 2 liters/minute but she remains on "room air" (21% oxygen). In NICU speak, "spells" are the times when Evelyn sets off her alarms by either slowing her heart rate, breathing rate, or oxygen saturation to too low of a level.

Day 24, 11.13.08

HAPPY BIRTHDAY REBECCA! Rebecca celebrated her 4th birthday today, so we had to give a little "shout-out" to her. :-)

Evelyn is doing really well. She packed on 65 grams today and is now up to 1,385 grams, which pushes her up to 3 lbs 1 oz!

She is now strictly on formula and is receiving 27 cc's/feeding. She is still on the 26 calorie formula, so her total daily caloric intake is now up to 190 calories/day.

They lowered the flow on her oxygen down to 1 liter/minute and plan on reducing it to 0.5 liters/minute tomorrow. If she continues to tolerate the decreased flow, she could be completely off the nasal cannula by Saturday!

Sorry - no new pictures from today, but here is a cute one from 2 days ago...

Day 23, 11.12.08

Evelyn is doing really well. They lowered the flow on her nasal cannula today from 2 L/minute down to 1.5 L/minute and are trying to wean her off it in the next few days. One of the nurses noticed it's adding too much air to her stomach and is causing her to have continued reflux issues, so we'll see if this helps. I can't imagine Evelyn not having anything on her/attached to her to help her breathe. That will be an exciting day!

Evelyn continues to gain weight. She gained just 10 grams today, but that was enough to push her up to 2 lbs 15 oz. Roger was able to visit with Evelyn today and hold her and bathe her.

Day 22, 11.11.08

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVELYN!!! She is 3 weeks old now (30 weeks gestation).

Yesterday she weighed 1,265 grams (2 lbs 13 oz) and today she weighed 1,315 grams (2 lbs 14 oz). If she was still in utero, she would weigh approximately 3 lbs, so she is doing really well.

Evelyn is now getting 25 cc's/feeding which means she's eating nearly 7 oz/day. She's been on donated breast milk up to this point, but now that she's getting older they are transitioning her to formula. So each feeding is now half milk, half formula.

Evelyn has also started taking a nuk (pacifier). She doesn't have the suck-swallow-breathe coordination yet, which develops around 34 weeks. This is usually the age when these little ones can start taking a bottle.

Day 20, 11.09.08

Evelyn is now up to 23 cc's/feeding now and continues to gain weight. She now weighs in at a hefty 1,220 grams (2 lbs 11 oz).

Now that her feedings are being stretched over 2 hours, she is doing much better with her breathing/apnea episodes and rarely needs help from the nurses to remember to breathe.

The airflow through the nasal cannula was turned down to 2 liters/minute, which also is a good sign that she doesn't need the constant reminder of a higher pressure flow to remind her to breathe.

Roger was able to give Evelyn a "real" bath tonight in a tub of water and got to hold her for quite awhile. We miss her not being home, but at the same time know that she is getting the best care and we will have plenty of opportunities to change her dirty diapers and bathe her in the near future. The best guess of when she might be able to come home is anywhere between Christmas (not likely) and her original due date (January 20th).

Day 17, 11.06.08

Evelyn continues to be our champ and is doing well with her breathing episodes. The nurse didn't have to help her at all with her breathing today. They increased the flow through her nasal cannula to 3 liters/minute and also stretched her feedings to 2 hours instead of 1.5 hours. She is still being fed every 3 hours, so she really only has 1 hour where no food is going into her tummy.

Other good news is that she is continuing to grow and gain weight. She was up to 1,125 grams (2 lbs 8 oz) yesterday and lost just 10 grams today putting her currently at 1,115 grams (2 lbs 7 oz).

One other fun activity was that Colette gave her a bath today in a little tub of water instead of just a sponge bath, so that was fun.

Day 15, 11.04.08

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Evelyn is now 2 weeks old. Although they measure her development as if she was still in the womb, so she is really only supposed to be 29 weeks gestation.

Evelyn keeps growing. She is now up to 1,075 grams (2 lbs, 6 oz). She is also off the CPAP breathing machine again and back on the nasal cannula and doing great!

Evelyn's giving a high five to everyone!

Day 14, 11.3.08

Evelyn has grown! She now weighs 15 grams more than her birth weight. She is now a whopping 1,035 grams or 2 lbs 5 oz. What a champ!

We also figured out how much she is eating these days. She is getting 21 cc's of milk every 3 hours. That works out to just about 6 ounces of milk in a day and is only 148 calories/day (less than a regular can of soda)!

Here are a couple pictures of Evelyn from today wearing Roger's wedding ring on her arm:

You'll notice she's wearing a tiny shirt that some hospital volunteers made. It's so cute seeing her in little clothes and wrapped up in tiny blankets.

She is doing much better with her breathing/apnea episodes. She rarely needs any help from the nurses to remind her to breath. When she does have episodes, she is usually recovering from them all by herself. They also lowered the flow on her CPAP , so she may be taken off the CPAP soon and either switched to the nasal cannula or just be on her own.

Thanks again for all your prayers. I truly believe that is what's helping her so much right now. Keep 'em coming!

Day 12, 11.01.08

Here she is playing air guitar:

Roger got to change her diaper twice today, all by himself. How strange to be excited to change a diaper! She is also doing a lot better with her breathing. She still has some episodes, but is recovering from them on her own most of the time without any help from the nurses. So that is really encouraging. As our nurse reminded us today, she is still not out of the woods, but she is doing great.

Evelyn lost some weight today, but the doctor is not concerned yet. He explained that they like to see the babies back at their birth weight by 14 days, so she has a few more days to pack on the pounds, or is that grams... ;-)

Day 11, 10.31.08

I got to help with her bath today and hold her for a few minutes while they changed her bedding. She is so tiny!


Evelyn is doing really well today. They now think a lot of her breathing episodes are related to when she is eating. Her brain is still too immature to remember to breathe while eating. Too much for such a little girl. There could also be a reflux issue while she is eating that is causing some of her apnea episodes. So instead of letting the milk flow by gravity from the syringe into her tummy, they put the syringe on a pump that delivers her milk - all 19 cc's of it - over an hour and a half. That way it flows into her tummy at a much slower rate and (hopefully) allows her to adjust to having to digest and breathe, all at the same time.


HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Day 10, 10.30.08

First, I have to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHLOE!!! She turned 2 today. Here they are carving pumpkins this morning.



Evelyn gained more weight, and as of tonight is up to 1005 grams (2 lbs 3 oz). She's on her way back to her birth weight! Apparently she had kind of a rough night last night regarding her breathing episodes, but has had a much better day today. I got to visit with her for 5 hours today and actually hold her for 2 of those hours. It was so nice to be able to hold her and feel her moving around. She remains on the CPAP, but they are now thinking some of her apnea spells could be related to her eating and perhaps reflux, so they are giving her food over a longer period of time, and so far it seems to be helping.

I didn't get a good picture of Evelyn today, so here is one from a couple days ago when she got her bath. They took off her CPAP so we could actually see her face! That's her feeding tube taped to her chin and going into her mouth...

Footprint

Okay, I think I'm officially getting addicted to this whole blog thing. Here is a comparison of Evelyn's footprint next to Rebecca's footprint when she was born. Wow! And what's amazing is that Evelyn's feet actually look big in comparison to her own body!

Day 9, 10.29.08

Evelyn no longer has an IV! She is currently getting 16 cc's/3 hours so she is getting enough calories from milk that they don't need to supplement through the IV. They consider 20 cc's/3 hours as a full-feed schedule, so she's nearly there. They are increasing her feeds by 1 cc every 9 hours until they reach 20 cc's. Then they will continue to increase her feedings based on her weight.

The only other update for today is that they are considering putting her on a ventilator because she is continuing to have more breathing episodes than they would like - even on the CPAP. Roger was there with the doctors today and they are going to run some blood and urine tests to check for infection. Infection could be causing some of these increased episodes, or it could just be the way she is. We'll know more when they get all of the results back. While Roger was still at the hospital this afternoon, the results from the blood gas test came back and showed that Evelyn is doing great with her oxygen-carbon dioxide exchange and the pH is normal, so that's good. Now we're just waiting on the blood cultures to check for infection, but that will take a couple days.

I have to keep reminding myself that she is just 28 weeks gestation (full-term babies are 40 weeks). So she is doing remarkably well considering all of the challenges she's had/having to overcome.

Several people have been wanting an update on me (Colette) and I guess I never thought about it - but thanks for asking! I'm actually doing really well. I didn't realize how badly I felt when I was pregnant and on bedrest until after I was hospitalized. A couple days after I was put on bedrest in the hospital, I received a blood transfusion (2 units) to help with my hemoglobin levels. Apparently I was loosing enough blood due to the placental abruption to affect my blood levels. After the blood transfusion, I felt much better; much more like myself.

Of course right before the c-section, I wasn't feeling well, and during surgery I received 2 more units of blood and a lot of fluids. I think my recovery from the c-section has been much like my other two (I had sections with both Rebecca and Chloe), but this time I get to sleep through the night! No middle of the night feedings and diaper changes. Perhaps the only advantage of having Evelyn in the NICU. ;-) Hey - you gotta find something to smile about...

So thanks for asking, but I'm doing really well. Still sore of course, but doing well. It's been great to be able to get up and around now. I would never wish bedrest on anyone.

Here's a picture of Roger and the girls from tonight. Rebecca and Chloe have been wanting a picture on the blog too. Some of Colette's cousins might recognize the aprons the girls are wearing from Grandma and Grandpa Johnson!

Oh - one more thing. Roger went back to the hospital late tonight and got to hold Evelyn for the first time! Sorry, no picture... But he says she is still doing really well. Sorry for such a long post tonight! You are truly dedicated if you've read this far. :-)