Father's Day Photos

Well a couple weeks ago was Father's Day and of course Miss Avery had lots of quality time with Daddy, but in addition it was also photo shoot day. That means we got lots of cute pictures!!

Here are the pictures from Father's Day, compliments of DW, of course:

So Far So Good!!

Well Miss Avery has made it through the weekend without having any heart rate drops!

Other than that she is just sleeping and growing. She is knocking on the door of 5 lbs. She is currently at 4 lbs 15.5 ozs. She is a lot more alert these days. She cuts her eyes over towards whoever is talking and reaches for things she sees. She loves her passy. Every now and then she will be laying there as content as ever and then for no reason gets this poutly face soon followed by fidgeting and then this crying. However as soon as her passy is put in her mouth immediate silence and back to being perfectly content. I have a feeling it will be in our best interest to keep a passy or two within reach of Avery at all times. It's usually when she is going back to bed after eating that she seems to want her passy. Other than that she is as easy going and sweet as can be. Her Daddy says she must get that from him and I tend to agree.

Final Count Down!

24 hours and lots of changes!

So as of yesterday (June 25th) Avery is off aminophylline!!! They took her off yesterday and are going to see how she does. They said that normally the count is 7 days and baby goes home on 8th if no heart rate drops. However since Avery was on such a high does of aminophylline they are going to keep her a little longer than the 7/8 days. But if all goes well she will be home within 2 weeks! They actually gave us a date, which I am not going to share at this time. I'm going to keep it a surprise. :)

In case anyone is wondering what prompted this change this is basically a good example of why it is beneficial to have a primary nurse taking care of your baby. Not only do we have a nurse that is familiar with Avery and that Avery is familiar with, but we also have an advocate for her.

I have to say I am kind of nervous for Avery, but the doctor reviewed her case and made the decision to give it a try. I don't think he would have done that had he not thought she was ready. So over the next couple weeks make sure extra prayers are said for Avery. If she has a heart rate drop the count will start all over. If she has multiple drops she will most likely go back on aminophylline.

Good News/ Bad News

Well good news is Miss Avery is gaining weight like crazy and is now up to 4lbs 12ozs. She is loving her bottles. She finishes them in no time. Just look how big she is getting!

Bad news Miss Avery Kate had a heart rate drop yesterday and they are leaving her on the aminophylline a little longer. They are leaving her on it partly because the heart rate drop and partly because it is still at such a high level in her system. Each week they do a blood test to see what level the aminophylline is at in her system. Her's still needs to come down a good bit before they take her off it.

So now it is looking like Miss Avery will be staying where she is for another month or so. I have to say it is very disappointing, but we are glad the delay is not due to something worse. We were really thinking it would be this week that she was taken off her aminophylline and then next week that she got to come home. Pat and I are so ready for our daughter to come home.

Botttles

Miss Avery Kate is now up to 8 bottles a day (as of 19th)! They have taken the feeding tube out of her nose and she seems to be doing great. She can down her bottle in less than 5 minutes. She guzzles it! Only time she seems to go slow is when she is working on a nice little present for us. Isn't that sweet of her. lol.

She had her hearing test on the 19th as well and it came back just fine. She has had sever eye exams all of which have come back fine. They will probably do a 4th this upcoming Thursday. They do them every 2 weeks from 6 weeks on in order to be sure the baby doesn't develop ROP, which is something that can occur in preemies.


Avery is plumping up and getting little baby rolls everywhere. She is filling out her preemie clothes and just getting cuter by the minute.






Only major hurdle left is for Avery to come off her caffeine. This should be happening any day now. Once it does she has to go 8 days with no heart rate drops. 8th day she goes home. If she has a drop the count starts all over.

Isn't it amazing what the can do with science these days. Miss Avery was 14 weeks and 3 days early and weighed 1 lb 15 ozs. Now still 3 weeks out from her original due date Miss Avery is just about 4 1/2 lbs. By time July 12th hits Avery will be well over 5 lbs and on her way to 6. She will be wearing Newborn close and living at home with her Mommy and Daddy just like any other newborn baby. And just think it is all thanks to that wonderful modern medicine. Of course the ideal situation would have been for Miss Avery to still be in my tummy, however I believe everything happens for a reason. And this may not have been what we planned, but it all seems to be working out just fine.

Big Girl

Miss Avery is officially a big girl!! She is now out of her condo and into a crib! How exciting is that! They wrote the orders today and she seems to be holding her temp so...so far so good.

So now that she is in a crib all she has left to do is get off her caffeine, start drinking all 8 feedings by bottle, and pass her car seat trial. Currently Avery Kate is drinking 3 bottles a day. I am not exactly sure when they will increase her on this.

The car seat trial is a test where they basically put Avery in her car seat for about 30 minutes and make sure she doesn't have any heart rate drops. This is to insure that she is able to handle the ride home. They can't do this test until she is off her caffeine.

It is amazing how far she has come.

4 Pounds

As of Saturday night Miss Avery is 4 lbs! And as of last night she is already 4 lbs 1.5 oz! Grow Avery Grow!

She has been doing wonderful. She did have a day or two (Friday and Saturday) where she wasn't too interested in her bottle, but as of yesterday she was guzzling it like normal.

It should be any day now that Miss Avery gets moved from her condo into a crib.

Picture Perfect

Miss Avery is making progress! She is up to 3 lbs 14 ozs. Only 2 more ounces to 4 lbs! I noticed yesterday when I was changing her diaper that there was actuall a fat roll on her thigh- how great is that!

When she hits 4 lbs they will take her out of her condo and put her in a crib. It will be really strange seeing her in a crib since we are so use to that condo, but we are very excited because that means one more step closer to coming home.

She is now being fed 32 ccs per feeding. That is over an ounce a feeding! 30 ccs = 1 oz. That is a long way from the 2.2 ccs per feeding she started out with.

As of yesterday they took her off her diuretics. Now all she really has left is to be taken off her caffeine. Once she is off her caffeine it will be car seat trial and be for you know it home! It won't be long now...which is why as of last night her nursery is finished! We of course went with a nice beachy theme for our future beach baby.

Last Saturday we had another picture day and DW got some GREAT shots! We have made sure that Ms. DW doesn't think she will be getting rid of us when she discharges Miss Avery. Nope, DW is a keeper and Miss Avery needs to grow up knowing the woman that has gone above and beyond for her. I have said it before and I'll say it again, we are very fortunate to have her in our lives.

Movin on Up

Miss Avery is growing up!! On Wednesday (June 3rd) Avery was given her 2 month immunizations. Poor DW got the lucky job of giving her those shots. Then on Thursday (June 4th) Avery began receiving 3 bottles a day. And on Friday Avery had her cannula removed (June 5th). And Aunt Tammy got to hold Avery for the first time. How is that for a busy week! She has handled it all like a champ.

She is moving forward so fast that it won't be long before she gets to come home. This means Mom and Dad better get ready, which we are. The hospital requires that we take an infant CPR class and a homeward bound class prior to bringing her home. We took both those classes this week.

Look how much Miss Avery has changed in one week...

Here she is yesterday:

and then here she is May 30th:

The difference in her face is amazing to me. Every day she just looks more and more like a term baby. And to really apreciate her progress, here is Miss Avery during her first days, just 2 months ago:

It is just amazing to me to see how far she has come and how now she is just taking off. Right now she weighs 3 lbs 7 ozs, but if she keeps gaining and growing like she has been in another week or so she will be 4 lbs! That is more than double her birth weight of 1 lb 15 ozs.

Second Time Around

So today Miss Avery had her second bottle and she seemed to enjoy it more than the first! Tonight was Daddy's turn and she took the entire bottle, however Daddy did get some help from her nurse.

Pat and I are new to this whole bottle feeding and burping thing so she had to show us how a pro does it. Seemed to work because Miss Avery downed the whole bottle in no time. After she finished the bottle she looked stuffed, but she kept looking around acting like she was looking for more.

She seemed pretty happy after having her bottle....

They gave her a "caffeine" pick me up today so she was very alert the entire time we were there. She would close her eyes for a second and then before you know it they were back open.

It is amazing how fast she is changing. She was up to 3 lbs 4 ozs as of last night! She is finally averaging a gain of about an once a day. At this rate she will be at 4 lbs in no time!

First Bottle

Miss Avery is up to 3 lbs 3 ozs! She is gaining about an once a day. She is not only getting chubby cheeks but chubby little legs too! She is really filling out and getting cuter and cuter by the minute.

Today was a big day for Miss Avery she got to try something new. She got to try drinking from a bottle for the first time ever! She did very well with it. Her nurse over the weekend started dipping her passy into the milk to give Avery a taste of what she has been missing and Avery seemed to really like it. So today her nurse decided it was time to try the bottle. We were told to only expect her to drink a few ccs but Avery decided to drink 8 ccs. Which is a third of her feeding, so that was pretty good for a first try. I was surprised how she took right too it. The second it was put in her mouth she started going to town. I think she might like drinking from a bottle almost as much as she likes having her hair washed.