Little Princess

Well yesterday instead of the rock star treatment she got the royal treatment. She had her spa treatment, which she loves, and of course had her every other friday photo shoot. Avery seems to really like her baths and really likes having her hair washed. It was really cute.

Miss Avery is up to 2 lbs and 10.6 ozs or 1205 grams.

Now that she reached 1200 grams that means she can now move to the next and final progressive care room. The one she is in now (annex) is the room babies go to grow. Once they reach 1200 grams they can then go into the regular progressive care room which is where they get the babies ready to go home! It will still be several weeks before she is ready to go home because she has quite a bit more growing to go, but she is getting closer and closer!!

Clothes

Miss Avery Kate is getting to wear clothes now! It is super cute! The preemie clothes are still a little big, but very cute! It was quite a challenge getting her into her outfit around her wires and through the little port holes we get to stick our hands into. Avery didn't seem to mind it. Avery actually seems to like wearing clothes.

Avery being able to wear clothes means she is doing pretty well at holding her own temperature. This is another step forward!

Graduation

Miss Avery had a good weekend! It took her a couple days to get use to her canula buy she did it. For a day or two she was looking paler than usual. We were told it was her adjusting and I guess the were right because she is looking better and she is still quite active. She was being such the wiggle worm yesterday that her nurse wrapped her up in an effort to get her to stay put. It was kind of cute.

And the big news is with all Miss Avery's steps forward she has actually out grown her pod. She was moved last night to the progressive care annex. The progressive care annex is basically where the babies go in that in between stage. My understanding is that she is no longer critical but she is not quite ready to be prepped to go home. So she is in between. She is stable and just needs to grow which is what the annex is for. So in a way Avery has graduated to the next step.

Baby Face

What a good day!!

Went to see Miss Avery today and her cpap was disconnected! They are trying her out on the nasal canula and she seems to like it! She was making good grades all day.

She did have a couple heart rate drops today, but none that required stimulating. I am praying if they need to do anything about the drops that it is to up her caffeine and not to send her back to cpap. No matter what it was great to see her face today!

Changes

Avery is getting bigger every day! As of tonight she was up to 2lbs 7.5ozs! WOW!

She is getting so big the shirts Pat and I wear for kangaroo care are getting too small. I actually had to go out and buy shirts especially for kangaroo care so that Avery would fit. And I have to say it was worth it because it was much easier to get her in and out tonight.

Avery is getting so big that today they even changed the way she is being fed! Initially Avery was getting fed every 3 hours, however early on they switched her to continuous feed. Continuous feeds means she has been getting small amounts of food round the clock. The main purpose of continuous feed is to be able to give the small babies more food than they could typically digest if consumed at one time. Well, that has changed for Miss Avery! They no longer think Avery is that small baby that can not digest all that food at one time. So now Avery is back to being fed every 3 hours. She still has the tube in her mouth that goes to her stomach just like when she was on time release, however now when it is feeding time they put her food in a little bottle and attach it to her tube and it slowly goes down. Mommy and Daddy can actually help with feedings now! We get to hold the bottles.

As of today Avery is 6 weeks old which is important! Now she is old enough to reproduce her own blood cells, which means the need for another transfusion has significantly dropped. And another important thing that occurs at 6 weeks of age is that Avery has an eye exam to check for ROP.

They did Avery's eye exam today. Poor baby even had to have her eyes dilated. We were told no signs of ROP (retinopathy of prematurity), which is abnormal growth of the blood vessels in the baby's eye. ROP can lead to a baby needing glasses or can be sever and lead to blindness, which is why they watch for it very closely. Miss Avery's next eye exam will be in 2 weeks.

They also did another brain scan today. I think this is the 4th scan. They watch for brain bleeds and thus far Avery has been in the clear. I was there when they did this one today and the tech thought it looked good, but of course we won't get an official reading until the doctor looks at it.

Yesterday Avery was taken off her diflucan which is nice just because it is one less thing she is on. The diflucan was being given to Avery as a preventative measure. There are types of infections that in the past have been pretty common with preemies, but giving diflucan when a preemie is born now helps prevent these infections.

Oh and Avery has a new pillow. DW thought she just looked too uncomfortable so she gave it back and I agree she did look uncomfortable. She said she can still use it for awhile. Matter of fact, here is a picture of Avery looking snug as a bug in a rug with greasy hair and all after her ultrasound. Just like when the do an ultrasound on your stomach or anywhere else they have to use gel. So little miss Avery's head was covered with it. Poor baby! DW couldn't stand it so she came over and washed it all out of course. When DW is there you can be assured Avery will look nothing but pretty, DW just won't have it any other way (lol).

Growing Girl

Miss Avery is up to 2 lbs 5 ozs now! I hear she should get to a point where she gains an ounce a day. I can't wait!

She did really well yesterday with her bump rate gone. So that is day 2 of her trial. If she continues to do well that means they will take away her cpapp soon. That will be so great! I know Miss Avery will be just as thrilled as Pat and I when that happens. She is constantly pulling on that thing and trying to pull off the tape. She is such a little mess.

The pillow in her bed is now gone too. For the itty bittys like Avery they give them this nice cushy pillow they can shape in all different ways. It is filled with powder and oil. Once the babies hit a certain size they can't use them any more. Miss Avery's sprung a leak which meant hers had to go. However they didn't replace it because she was outgrowing it anyways. I was sad to see it go because she looked so comfy in it, but a milestone is a milestone and outgrowing her pillow is one. So, we will take what we can get!

Firsts

Miss Avery was such a good girl this past weekend! She behaved (few desats) and she grew (an once)! She now weighs 2 lbs 4 ozs. She is up 5 ozs from her birth weight! I know that doesn't sound like much but when you think of it in terms of percentage of body weight that means she is up 20%! That is the equivalent of a 200 lb person gaining 40 lbs of which 4 ounces were over the past 2 weeks. Can you imagine gaining an additional 20% of your body weight in 2 weeks?

There were quite a few firsts that occurred over the last few days. I had my first Mother's Day. Avery gave me very pretty flowers and a very sweet card.

Another first was that Aunt Tammy got to change Avery's diaper (Saturday). That is the first time anyone other than Mom, Dad, or a nurse changed her diaper. And last but definitely not least Avery's Grandma (Maw) got to see Miss Avery out of her condo for the first time (today).

Today they took Avery off her bump rate again. As of our evening visit she seemed to be doing pretty well with it. She made good grades the entire time we were there. The increased her diuretics today. All of Avery's medications are based on her weight so as her weight goes up so will her medications. And thankfully Miss Avery welcomed her nurse in this morning with a nice big stinky diaper. We were very happy about this because Miss Avery didn't make any stinky diapers Saturday or Sunday and after 2 days with no stinky diapers that would mean enema. Can you say- YUCK! So luckily for Miss Avery and unluckily for her nurse today she took care of it on her own.

Other than that Miss Avery has been doing lots of sleeping and eating which is what she needs to do in order to grow and get herself home! We can't wait for her to get home. It will be so nice to be able to curl up on the couch with her and just hold her in our lap as long as we want.