Rock Star

Avery had a big night tonight. She had the rock star treatment- spa, photo shoot, being waited on hand and foot, thus she had to look like one too....

When we walked into Avery's pod tonight we could feel the heat right away. The entire room was warmed up so that Miss Avery could come out and have her bath without getting too cool, which I thought was so sweet. As a result not only did Miss Avery have a spa night but so did everyone else in the pod, but we all agreed it was well worth it for Miss Avery.

Pat and I had the pleasure of giving Avery her bath. I just about had one with her we were making such a mess, but it was fun.

After the bath came scales...

Next she had a little photo shoot with her teddy bear. The nurses were all so cute tonight. They were all getting into Avery's photo shoot. DW decided Avery needed a special blanket to take pictures on, then another suggested a backdrop. Before we knew it one was holding up the back drop, one shooting pictures, another making clicking noises trying to get Avery to open her eyes and look our way. It was really fun. They were really funny.

After all that fun and excitement Avery had to have her tubes put back in and it was time to go night night which she was more than ready for. Literally seconds after being put into position she was out like a light.

It was a fun evening for everyone.

Gaining Weight

Miss Avery is 5 weeks old today!

So I know I've been slacking on the blog the last few days and it is partially intentionally. Miss Avery Kate has been doing well and has been gaining weight. She is up to 2 lbs and almost 3 ozs! I've been scared to jinx her by writing about it! She has had several days of gaining in a row now. She is on the 24 cal fortifier and I guess it is working!

She had a few days where she was having a few more heart rate drops then normal, however that has all seemed to stop and she is back to being herself again. It sounds like in a couple days they may even try her without a bump rate on her cpapp again.

Her nurse DW says she can tell Avery is getting bigger. I know she is, but it is hard for me to tell since I see her everyday, however when you compare old and new pictures it is definitely obvious.

Avery looked so sweet and peaceful sleeping today. Avery likes to have her hands free and is usually either sleeping on her hand or has her hand near her face. Today we caught a few of these moments one while she was in her condo and another while she was doing kangaroo care with Daddy.

Daddy really enjoyed kangaroo care. It was his reward for changing not only a poopy diaper but a stinky one at that. It was the first stinky diaper Daddy has had to change. I had my first stinky diaper yesterday and just like Daddy I was rewarded with kangaroo care which made me very happy.

Since Miss Avery had been acting kind of sketchy the past few days we had not been taking her out to hold since we did not want to stress her. We still got to touch her on these days which is great but we did not get to have the close contact that comes with holding her or especially with kangaroo care. I can't speak for Daddy but I know for me personally kangaroo care was such a stress reliever. I felt like all my worries and anxieties that had been building up over the past week or so were gone after getting to feel her so close. It was so reassuring.

The heart rate drops and apnea may be normal for a baby her age but that doesn't make it any less stressful. And when she has not so great days Mom and Dad tend to have not so great days too. Take a few of those in a row and it can result in an exhausting week. So good days with kangaroo turn out to be a great way to rejuvenate after a few tiring days in a row.

Avery's Custom Diaper Bag

Just had to share something fun!

So this past weekend we had a shower for Miss Avery and one of the attendees was of course Aunt Wendy. And let me tell you about Aunt Wendy she is talented and sweet! She can sew just about anything and this dates back to her high school years from what I hear. I hear she made her own clothes back then and even her own homecoming dress. I wish I could do that. Hmm, I wonder if I can talk her into making baby or children's clothes (hehe). So anyways, recently Aunt Wendy started her own bag company, Satin Doll, and Miss Avery was the lucky recipient of a custom diaper bag made just for her.

It is absolutely adorable so I had to share! I was just totally impressed, not only with the creativity it took to design it all, but the quality as well. It's nice and roomy too! Once we out grow it as a diaper bag it will make a great overnight bag for Miss Avery. It was such a great surprise!

And I can thank her also creative daughter, Kim (graphic design and art), for sending me the picture above. I was going to take pictures to post, but they were already working on the above flyer, which worked out well. :)

Drops

So Miss Avery Kate is up to 2 lbs 1 oz! They have increased her to 24 cal fortifier as of yesterday and as of today she is being fed 5.1 ccs per hour. She has been getting eye drops for her slight eye infection and it was looking better today. It never looked bad just a little runny at times.


Today she had several heart rate drops which were rather unsettling. They did blood work on her and her blood count looks good. She doesn't have an infection and her theoflin levels were fine. The theoflin level basically tells them if medicine they are giving her for helping with her drops is at a level that should be working and it is. We talked to her night nurse and she said she hadn't had any drops since she had been there, which has only been 2 hours. So we will be eager to call in the morning and see how she did through the night. Her nurse said she made a pretty large diaper, first of the day, and that can cause heart rate drops if she was having a hard time while working on that. I am kind of skeptical that this was the cause since I was there fairly early this morning and again early evening and I would hope it wouldn't take her that long to work on a diaper and that it would cause that many drops. I guess we will find out in the morning if that was the case or not. If it was the case then she won't have many drops during the night. If it wasn't?


On a good note they did the 3rd brain scan a few days ago and it came back in normal range. It's common for premature babies to have brain bleeds and they tend to watch for this pretty closely. Avery has come back good on all 3 of her scans.

Day by Day

So as of yesterday Miss Avery was doing well with her breathing and the new fortifier which is all good. On our latest visits Miss Avery has continued to make good grades as Daddy would say which means Avery is definitely maturing, however we really need to work on this weight gain.

As of last night Miss Avery was back to 1 lb 15 ozs. Her nurse, whom I have decided we like, said she was going to talk to the nurse practitioner about when they will up her from the 22 cal to the 24 cal. Her not gaining weight really stresses us out, but we just keep telling ourselves over and over to remember it's a roller coaster and that she will get where she needs to be.

When they did the eye culture they detected a slight infection which they are now treating with drops. It sounds like the infection was minor and only in one eye.

Other than that Miss Avery is doing well. We are just taking it day by day.

New Nurse

So Miss Avery was being really good yesterday! So good that we were actually able to take her out for a bit and hold her. I am hoping that today she is doing even better!

They fortified her milk yesterday so we should see her start gaining some lbs! As of yesterday she was holding on to her 2.00.8 lbs so hopefully over the next week or so we will see her move up from there. They left her feeding amount at 4.9 ccs to see how she tolerates the fortifier. It sounds like they start her on 22 cal fortifier first to see how she handles that and them moves her up to 24 cal if she does ok with it. So we will see.

She is still on her cpap with her bump rate of 10 and it sounds like it will stay that way for at least a week before they try her without it again.

She had a new nurse yesterday. It is always interesting when there is a new nurse. Every one of them comments on how feisty Avery is. I like to watch them do their assessments so I can see how they move her around, how they deal with her fussing at them, and how much care they take in positioning her. There are some you feel instantly comfortable with and others not so much. I am learning that when we hold Avery with a new nurse for the first time we can expect it to be a shorter hold. I am sure it is because the nurse is checking to see how Avery tolerates being held, but at the same time it is kind of frustrating for us because we already know how Avery tolerates it so it kinda feels like we are being penalized. It's nice when we have nurses that we have had in the past because they already know Avery. They also already know us and our routine and visa versa which makes for a much smoother visit.

Yesterdays nurse was hard to read. I couldn't get a clear feel for her. I think yesterdays nurse seemed ok with Avery which is most important so we will see. I am really not sure what I think of her yet.

Better Day

So Miss Avery had a better day yesterday. DW said she was back to her old fiesty self. She said any time she did her assessment (checking blood pressure, temp, etc...) Avery fussed at her which is totally Avery. We didn't get to see too much of Avery's fiestyness ourselves because she was sleeping most of the time we were there. I did notice when I changed her diaper that there was a little more force back in her kicks which was nice to see. Avery of course likes to try and kick you away while changing her diaper. It is her attempt at making diaper changing more difficult for you and entertaining for her.

Partly as a result of the transfusion and hopefully partly as a result of her actually gaining weight Avery was up to 2.00.8 lbs which is progress. On the 26th when she first weighed in at 2 lbs it was 2.00.1 lbs. Then she dropped a little below again and now she is back.

Here feedings were moved up to 4.9 ccs the same day she had her transfusion from 4.6 and she seems to be handling it well. I got to see the proof when I changed that nasty little diaper.

She had the hiccups again yesterday. She has them everyday, however this time I happened to have the porthole open on her condo and I noticed you could actually her her little hiccups. When she first got there you could barely hear her especially with all the other sounds around you. So either Avery is starting to develop those lungs or the pod (NICU room) just happens to be quieter more often. I am going to go with Avery is getting louder which to me means stronger and bigger. We really got to hear her the day Daddy had her our doing Kangaroo care. Her cpap started to come out and boy did she let us know.

Other than that yesterday was a rather uneventful day for Miss Avery and in NICU uneventful is GOOD.

Here are a couple pictures DW took of Miss Avery: