TV Debut

Today Miss Avery had her TV Debut. Every year the Children's Miracle Network has a telethon to raise money for USA Children's and Women's Hospital. During the telethon they have the local news people at the NICU interviewing nurses, doctors, and parents. They walk around and show the various babies and the equipment that is used to take care of these babies. This is how Miss Avery ended up on TV. While we were visiting today they came and talked to us and of course we got to show off little Miss Avery. Miss Avery's grandma caught her inverview and said Avery was just looking around the whole time. Of course that wasn't the case when I tried to get some pictures...

It was pretty interesting to hear just how much the equipment costs. The monitors which display Miss Avery's good grades, as we call it, costs about $30,000. That is just one of the pieces of equipment used on babies there. As they were going through the costs of equipment I think I roughly calculated Avery had on average $100,000 worth of equipment on her. This includes the isolett, cpap machine, heart monitor machine, etc. Right now she would be using less since she doesn't have the cpap machine any more.

Another one of the statistics we heard today was that 30 years ago 90% of babies under 2 lbs did not survive. Today 96% of babies under 2 lbs do survive. It is astounding to think about how far the knowledge and technology necessary to help a baby like Avery has come and it is comforting to know there are organizations like Children's Miracle Network to help keep this good work going. Children's Miracle Network donates 100% of donations to local hospitals. Around here that hospital is USA Children's and Women's. And I have to say I feel very fortunate to have access to a hospital like USA and even more fortunate that it is so close.

3 Pounds!

Miss Avery hit 3 lbs yesterday! Her official weight was 3 lbs 0.3ozs. She likes to squeak by on those milestone weights. She did the same thing when she hit 2 lbs. Yesterday her nurse dressed her up to celebrate being 3 lbs. She put her in party clothes. It was pretty funny because the outfit swallowed her. She looked pretty cute though.

It is just amazing how fast she is growing. She is starting to get little chunky cheeks which are super cute, has a bigger passy, and is now wearing bigger diapers (as of yesterday). She is on the 3rd size of diapers! I think these are the official preemie sized diapers. The other diapers she wore were so small you couldn't even buy them at the store.

She is getting close to being able to try a bottle and she is so close to being tried off her cannula.
At the rate she is going now it won't be long before we will be bring her home. There are still several things she needs to do, but pending no serious setbacks we are moving forward at a good pace.

Growing

Ok so Miss Avery hasn't been doing much other than growing, which is good. She is up to 2 lbs 14.4 ozs as of this morning. She should hit 3 lbs by the end of the weekend! Other than that no changes. She is still on her cannula and still doing well with her every 3 hour feedings of 21 ccs. Pretty soon they should be trying her off the cannula and also should be trying her out on a bottle. I was told they develop the ability to breath, suck, and swallow around 34 weeks. She is at week 33. She will be 34 this upcoming Sunday.

So for now no news is good news!

Here are some pictures taken by DW from last friday royal treatment:

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!