One Month Old

Happy One Month to our Curly Q. The last month has actually gone by pretty quickly. She's doing pretty good. Today she weighed in at 2290 grams, which I believe is an even 5 pounds. Wahoo! She's working on her double chin.

The ENT (ear, nose, throat) Doc checked her out yesterday. Good news: he didn't see anything wrong with her airway. They thought that her airway was collapsing while she was breathing, but he said it looked good. Not-so-good news: he saw a lot of evidence that she has acid reflux. This wasn't new news. She's been on medication for it for a few weeks now. Everything looked red and not so good. New Plan: try to wean her off the oxygen, and if she can't come off her 'elephant nose' by next week, the ENT Doc needs to do another exam, but next time Curly Q will have to be sedated. Hopefully she can just wean off her oxygen level in the next week.

I finally remembered to grab my camera and take some pictures. The lighting wasn't good at the hospital, and we're not supposed to use a flash, so these pictures aren't the greatest quality, but you can get a look at our cutie.

"Stick 'em up!"

Curly Q is stretching, just trying to wake up.

Big Yawn!

You can see her double chin and chubby cheeks. She's getting bigger. But you can also see in comparison to my hand, she's still pretty tiny.

28 Days

I realize that I haven't updated for a while. As I read my last update, today's update isn't much different. Curly Q's progress is so slow that I now feel what other NICU parents say - how you begin to feel like your baby is never going to come home. Curly Q still needs oxygen. She's wearing her 'elephant nose' mask. Every time they try to wean her oxygen level, she doesn't do very well, so they've had to maintain her level. The Doc can't seem to find an explanation as to why - other than she's premature and there was limited amniotic fluid for the last 7 weeks of my pregnancy. Her chest x-rays look great. They checked her heart twice for possible reasons - but both times it came back normal. They put her on a medication for a week, but that didn't seem to make a difference. Their new plan is to consult an ENT (ear, nose, throat) specialist to check Curly Q's airway to see if it is collapsing when she's trying to breathe. I hope they can find the solution or Curly Q can just grow out of it.

She's putting on weight very nicely. Her cheeks look a little chubby and it is starting to look like she's developing a double chin. I believe she's 4 lbs 10 oz now. (They weigh her twice a day, but they weigh her in grams. I'm not always that great at converting it to pounds.) She's being fed 42 mL of milk every 3 hours. I can tell when she's hungry, she has started sticking her tongue out a little, like she wants to suck. And when you stick a pacifier in her mouth, she sucks really well at it. I think she's ready to start nursing and getting rid of the feeding tube, but she needs to breathe better before they will even start. I've heard that the eating part and putting on weight takes the longest, which is a little discouraging because it's taking so long for her to get her breathing down.

We make it over to the hospital every day, in the evenings during the week. And on the weekends - I make it over there twice a day. I get to help change her diaper, check her temperature, change her clothes. We've even gotten to help give her a bath. She loves it. I'm pretty sure it took Little Miss a couple months to get used to bath time, but Curly Q loves it. She just sits there all relax, with her eyes wide open, just looking around. It's fun to watch her.

Overall, we're so grateful that she is so healthy. Things could have gone tragically wrong. We just need to keep patiently waiting and praying.

19 Days

When Curly Q was first born, we were told that she would need to spend 10 weeks in the NICU. We thought, perhaps she'll be done sooner than that. Ten weeks is a really long time, maybe she'll be done sooner. Here we are 19 days later and the progress has been so slow that now I think we'll be lucky if she comes home in 10 weeks.

She was doing really well with her breathing and oxygen levels, but is going backwards. They put her back on her 'elephant nose' breathing mask. She's requiring a higher level of oxygen than she once needed. No one is sure why she did so well, and has digressed a little. The x-rays of her lungs look great. Her Doc wanted her heart tested again. He thought it might have something to do with the blood pressure to her lungs, but the test came back normal. They are finding nothing wrong to explain her oxygen levels. Which is a good thing because everything keeps coming back healthy and normal. It's a little frustrating because we wish she could do better, faster. The Doc just thinks she needs to grow out of it. So, we are waiting patiently.

They weigh Curly Q every day and today she weighed 4 lbs 4 oz. She's growing and gaining weight, which is fantastic. The acid reflux medicine is working wonderfully for her and she isn't spitting up anymore. They have increased her feedings to 36 mL every 3 hours. She's still being fed through a feeding tube. She is looking bigger.

We are over at the hospital every day, sometimes more than that. I LOVE my time that I get to hold her. I love how she opens her little eyes when I talk to her. I love how she wraps her tiny hand around my finger and squeezes. We love her so much and can't wait for her to come home and be apart of our family.

I'm So Happy

I love being home. Morgan returned to work this week, so we are getting back to a normal routine. I love being home with Little Miss. On Monday, we were sitting in our living room reading books. Little Miss had her head on my shoulder. It was heaven. She sighed and said "I'm so happy." Yes, me too. We are so happy to get our lives back to normal. Now we just need to get Curly Q home with us.

How We Are Doing

I feel like Curly Q's progress is so slow, that there isn't much to keep people updated with. Thank you all for asking how she's doing, and I will try to do better about keeping this updated. She was able to lose the 'elephant nose' this week. She still is receiving oxygen help through little nasal tubes. She still has a feeding tube (which will be there for quite a while). They removed her IV this week too, and the NICU nurses have started dressing her in little outfits. She's so cute. She seems a lot happier with less cords and tubes hooked up to her. Morgan took all last week off of work, so we've been over to the hospital daily. I usually hold her for about an hour every day and I LOVE it. She was having a problem keeping her feedings down, she would spit up a lot. So, they started her on medicine for acid reflux, which seems to be helping.

Yesterday, Curly Q started to regress a little bit. She kept requiring a higher level of oxygen. Today, they performed an x-ray of her lungs and saw some hazy parts. They tested her for pneumonia, which came back negative. They said she had some aspirations in her lungs. Basically, she inhaled some of her spit up. That's why she was struggling to breathe. They are monitoring her and watching to see if it will happen again. Hopefully it will be a one time thing and she can recover and go back to the lower level of oxygen help. If it continues it can develop into pneumonia. Not exactly what we want to hear. They also performed a heart echo to check one of her heart valves, but that came back normal. While I was holding her today, her breathing wasn't as regular and steady as it should be. She occasionally would hold her breath, then start turning a little blue, then breathe really fast. I really love holding her, but I hated when her breathing wasn't regular. It's a little stressful. Anyway, we just have to take it one day at a time. Keep praying.

I am doing well. My recovery is a little better than I anticipated. It is slow, but gets a little better each day. I am trying to balance taking it easy to heal from my C-Section and trying to regain my muscles. I went up and down 3 flights of stairs at the hospital earlier this week and I was soo sore afterwards. I think I pushed myself a little too hard. I've also gone for a couple walks around the block. Little by little. I keep telling myself that someday I'll be healed and all will be normal again. As a family, we are doing very well. I'm thrilled to be at home with my family again. Now, we just need to get Curly Q home!

Holding

I got to hold Curly Q for the first time today. It was a nice surprise. I thought I had to wait until she was less 'connected', but I was able to hold her. She's really small, but I'm so surprised at how big she actually is. When I was pregnant and the doctors told me I would have a small baby, I was preparing myself for a really tiny preemie. I was thrilled that she was 3 1/2 pounds, and shocked that she was 17 inches long. She has really long fingers and toes. It's kind of hard to see her in this picture, just a tiny head poking out of blankets.

She was really relaxed and happy while I held her. She kept trying to open her eyes. One had a bunch of goop on it, so just one would open. You could tell it was so hard for her, she just couldn't keep it open. But she wanted to see her mommy and daddy. I loved watching her sleep. Her little newborn face would react to whatever she must have been dreaming about. She smiled in her sleep, then it would shift to a little whimper. It was so adorable.

The doctors are starting to wean her from the oxygen mask, and she's doing well. Hopefully in the next few days she'll be able to lose her 'elephant nose' (as Morgan calls it). They are still increasing the amount of milk she is taking, and she's almost up to where she should be. Once she's up to the full amount, they can take out the IV from her belly button. It's really amazing how well she is doing. I am so grateful for how blessed we are.

5 Days Old

Since Curly Q is in the NICU, Morgan and I are the only ones allowed in to see her. Not even Little Miss. So, when we go, we take the camera and take a picture. The last couple days, she's had a headband on with shades to protect her eyes from the lights, in addition to tubes and wires. So, our pictures haven't really showed off our baby. Today, when we went for our visit, Curly Q had graduated from the lights, so we were able to see her face a little better. They will keep monitoring her levels, and she might need to go back under the lights, but today she was off. She seemed a lot more comfortable than she was yesterday.


As you can see in this picture, Curly Q has a little oxygen mask over her nose. She's breathing on her own, she just needs a little extra oxygen than what is in our air. Also, you can see the feeding tube sticking out of her mouth. They are up to about 16 mL (about half an ounce) every 3 hours. It just amazes me how whole and complete she is - even being 10 weeks early. She has really long fingers that she likes to get tangled in the wires. When I got there, she was trying to pull out her feeding tube. Also, the 'old man' wrinkly skin. She's so scrawny! Also, you can see a little tuft of hair sticking out over her ear. She has a fair amount of brown hair. She's so beautiful!