Milestones...

Miss Emily has had an exciting week. On Tuesday, she turned ONE MONTH old! The same day she also hit another awesome milestone - 3 pounds!! Yes, our little piggy continues to eat everything we give her and she is steadily gaining weight. As of last night, she weighed 3 pounds and 3 ounces. I can hardly believe she has gained almost a whole pound since she was born. I can't quite figure out where is hiding the extra pound. But I can tell that she is filling out her skin better, her face is bigger, and I don't think I can see her ribs through her chest anymore! Here are a couple pictures I took on her one month birthday.

On Wednesday, Emily had her first eye exam. The results from the first test were normal, but they will continue to check them every two weeks until her eyes are fully developed.

We had a little bit of a scare Wednesday night, when Emily had a cluster of bad spells (where she stops breathing and her heartrate drops) that required the "bag" to bring her back up. The spells are normal for a preemie, but they get concerned when they come in a cluster or the frequency increases. I am so impressed by the NICU staff's quick reaction whenever there is ANY concern about Emily's health. The on-call resident came within 5 minutes of being paged, and within 15 minutes of the resident's visit, we had bloodwork drawn and the chest x-ray was ordered. Within an hour, we had most of the results. Luckily, the results showed nothing of concern, and the rest of Emily's night went well. Whew!

Today, the doctors discussed Emily's spells and the fact that her hemoglobin and hematocrit levels were right at the level where they consider a blood transfusion. Low levels can contribute to spells. They did decide to do a transfusion, and they started that this afternoon. It takes about 4 hours. (Transfusions are also very normal for preemies. Their bodies haven't started producing enough red blood cells to keep up, so their hemoglobin and hematocrit levels drop, and a transfusion is needed to "perk them up" until their bodies kick in and help out. The nurses have all said it's amazing Emily hasn't needed one until now)

I've been rambling on long enough, it's probably time for a couple more pictures :)

So, all in all, things are going well here. Last night I talked with a group of other moms with babies in the NICU, and I am so humbled by their stories. Over and over, I am reminded how blessed we are that Emily is doing as well as she is. We could be facing far worse - FAR, FAR worse!

In a few days, when she hits 1500 grams (she's 1440 or so now), she will be able to wear clothes! And in the next week or so, she should be able to start bottle feeding. They will only bottle feed her once a day, because it's very exhausting for her to actually do all the work of sucking and swallowing, rather than getting fed through a tube.

I guess that's it for now - thanks for taking the time to read the latest on Emily!