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Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Settling in

We have been home for a little over a week.  We love having Willa home!

She had her first Dr appt a week ago and she weighed 7 lbs 4 oz at that appointment.  I was so relieved she is still gaining weight. 

Since we have been home, she is getting up ever 2-3 hours to eat.  We are still trying to get in a routine with days and nights.  Some nights Willa gets up every 2 hours to eat, other nights she gets up every 4 hours to eat, and then others she has no desire to sleep and all she wants to do is look around, kick and suck on her binky.  I wouldn't trade the sleepness nights for anything!

She is still on the formula to help with her reflux.  We are starting to introduce some breastmilk in with the formula and we try to nurse once a day. 

Elli is doing well with Willa.  She seems very concerned when Willa is crying. I think she is just thrilled to have someone home with her now.  Poor dog was left alone so much when we were making trips to Wichita.

We are up for having visitors and have already had some friends stop by.  We do ask that you keep the following things in consideration before you come by to visit. 

-Please do not come over if you are sick or have a cold, have recently been sick, or were around someone who was sick.  In the NICU, we had to be free of any illness symptoms for 24 hours before coming to visit.  We want to stick to this rule for awhile.

-We ask that only adults come for visits at this point.  We are in the height of flu and RSV season.  Willa is especially at risk for these things.  RSV to adults and children is just a cold, but to preemie babies can make them very sick.


-You will be asked to wash your hands before holding Willa or touching her hands.  Please don't be offended.

-Please come in clean clothes (or atleast clothes that haven't been worn around germy people).  Might sound silly, but the RSV virus can live on clothes and we just don't want to take any chances.  Also, her little lungs were very under developed when she was born and she will continue to fight that.  Clothes that smell of smoke or any other strong smells can weaken her little lungs.

-A heads up that you are coming is appreciated.  :)



Our second night rooming in.  Helping dad get some work done.

Leaving the hospital. Cue the tears after this pic was taken.

Welcome home!

Checking out her new home

Grandpa Dave holding Willa for the first time and Elli supervising

Hanging with Uncle Joe and Elli not far away

Thursday, January 19, 2012

A four letter word that starts with H

We are going there....home :)

There has been quite a turn of events in the last week.  On Saturday I received a phone call from one of the nurse practitioners.  Willa's reflux was not getting much better since starting her on medication.  We made the decision to start her on a formula that is specifically made for babies with bad reflux.  I still hope to be able to get her back to strictly breast milk.  She needs a little help until she outgrows the reflux.  We decided to give the formula a few days to see if she would take more full bottles.  The most she took was 4 out of the 8.  On Tuesday, Willa didn't finish one bottle.  I sat down with our nurse that day and cried.  She recommended calling a care consult with the Dr.'s, nurse practitioners, and speech to see if we could brainstorm something new to try.  When I got to the hospital on Wednesday morning, the doctor and nurses had already discussed what to try. 

They recommended Mitch and me room in with Willa for a couple nights - provide all her care and give her some consistency.  So that is where we are.  Her feeding tube was yanked out.  Willa now decides when she wants to eat and how much she wants to eat.  Before she was forced to eat every three hours and take 58 mls.  Now she is eating every 2-3 hours and is taking anywhere from 30-47 mls per feed. 

We still need to prove tonight that Willa can still gain weight or at least not lose much.  If all goes well tonight, we will be making our journey home to Anthony tomorrow. 

This isn't how I thought we would end our NICU journey.  I always thought I would come into the NICU one day and have them tell me - "Willa has finished all her bottles today!  She can go home tomorrow!" That never happened.  Instead, it was more like - let's shove this early bird off a branch and see if she can fly.  Right now she is flying, but I think before too long she will be soaring.

Please keep us in your prayers the next few days and weeks as we make this transition.  I ask that you give us a little time before we start with visitors.  I'll post a blog entry later about the NICU recommended requirements for our visitors and when we will be ready to have people over.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Day 100

I didn't think we would reach 100 days, but it has happened.  My due date was Monday the 9th.  Willa is now term and her adjusted age is now 3 days old.  We have reached frustration level and beyond.  I think now we are at the point of just going with the flow now, which is much more relaxing.  I received a letter from my mom in the mail this week and she said "getting frustrated doesn't help anything".  That is so true so I have decided I'm not going to let myself get frustrated any longer.  I think we have now learned and conquered the virtue of patience.

Willa's eating has slowed down her journey home.  She has been improving with her nippling.  The nurse practitioner decided to back off on offering Willa a bottle at every feeding and see if she can finish some bottles.  Today she finished 3 out of the 4 bottles she was offered during the day.  This is a great improvement!  Her problem is her endurance.  A full term baby can do "suck bursts" of 20-30 sucks.  Willa's suck bursts are only about 5 or 6 sucks.  She started out with just 2 to 3 sucks per burst when she first started nippling.  So we are getting there, it is just a slow process.

Willa reached 6 pounds this week!  She is quite the little chunk.  The nurses say she looks more and more like her daddy every day.  We both agree as well.  She also looks like she just came from the barber with a fresh buzz cut.  She lost all the hair on the top of her head a few weeks ago and now it has finally grown back and it really does look like she just got a crew cut.  Its a good thing we dress her in pink or people would probably mistake her for a boy!

We have finished her nursery...all we need is a baby!

Here is her "crib" now -

And here is what her "crib" will be when she comes home -



Thinking about coming home soon -

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

3 months old

Day 92....Willa is up to 5 pounds 11 ounces.  I always thought we would bring home a 4 pound baby, then I thought it would be a 5 pound baby.  Now I really hope we bring home a 6 pound baby - I better not have to wait until she is 7 pounds.  I may just move into the hospital if that is the case :) 
Willa is completely off oxygen and caffeine and has been doing great without both.  Her one and only hold up to going home is eating.  Willa got her first bottle on Thanksgiving.  She started out being able to nipple (taking a bottle) one time per day.  She is now up to being able to nipple all 8 times per day.  However, she rarely finishes her bottles.  She has to take 52 ml's (just a tad shy of 2 ounces) in 30 minutes.  She is only allowed 30 minutes to take her feed because she burns more calories than she takes in if she goes longer than the 30 minutes.  What she does not take orally is then gavaged down the NG tube (tube in her nose).  Since we cannot do gavaged feeds at home, she must master taking everything orally.
Willa has a speech therapist that works with her once a day during a feeding and she is awesome.  I have learned so much about how to tell what Willa is telling me with her facial expressions, her little grunts, her eye blinks, and how her jaw feels. 
Willa has developed some pretty bad reflux which is not helping her eating.  She has figured out that if she eats, it's going to come back up later and not feel good.  So I don't blame her for not wanting to eat.  Today she was prescribed some medication to help with the reflux.  I'm praying this helps and she will feel like eating soon.
It has become harder and harder to stay away from her lately.  Between Mitch and me we are up to see her once a day now for several hours.  Willa has also had some more visitors in the last couple weeks - Uncle Joe and Great Grandma Dolly both got to hold Willa for the first time.

Willa and her favorite (and only) uncle
who got her a BB gun for Christmas

proud Great Grandma Dolly

3 month old little miss Willa
Thanks cousin Macy for the outfit!

 

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