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!