71 days old today!

Every morning during bedside rounds, they say "Emily is X days old today"...and today, they said 71 days! Wow, I can't believe Emily is 71 days old....and we have been doing this NICU thing for 71 loooooong days. We are getting so close to going home that it is driving me crazy. I've been frustrated and a little depressed the last couple days, just anxious for that wonderful day to be here. Troy and I have said all along we are so thankful for how healthy she is, and that she has had no major setbacks. So, we feel guilty wishing for anything more...but the days in the hospital are starting to wear on us, and we are so ready to get on with our life and figure out what it's REALLY like to have a baby!

Our families have been so helpful in making the last few weeks bearable. Grandpa and Grandma Hunt (Dad and Pam to me!) have sat with Emily several nights, and Grandma Vollbeer (Troy's mom) has come to help out many afternoons. Just having a few hours away to take care of errands, house work, or go out to eat makes the days pass easier. Grandma Corbino (my mom) came last week for my surgery, then came back for the weekend with Uncle Joey. Grandma came early for rounds so I could sleep in a little bit!

So, enough complaining...we do have things to celebrate! First, Emily officially hit 6 pounds over the weekend - she is 6 lb 4 oz today. Amazing! She also passed her hearing test in both ears - Wahoo! She is taking all of her feedings by bottle, and if she has another good day with all bottle feeding, the feeding tube should FINALLY come out tomorrow. Don't worry, I will take lots and lots of pictures. Her weight gain has been steady, so I am going to try breastfeeding again, starting with a couple times a day to make sure she still is gaining weight.

Emily really is just a normal little baby now, just waiting to start living her normal life :) She is doing fun things like hanging out in her Boppy...

...and sitting in her swing...

...and she even has a little bit of "chubby" to her now - check out those cheeks and arms!
The doctor said today that we are probably within 1 week of going home. Emily has another eye exam today, and also has to be weaned off the fortifier being added to her breast milk. We will use a fortifier at home, but we can't use what the hospital uses (not sure why).

I guess that's all I have for now. Hope you enjoyed the pictures, and I hope to be posting later this week about going home!

This one's for Aunt Jenny!

I love my Aunt Jenny!!!!!

Surgery went well!

I had my gallbladder surgery on Wednesday, and so far recovery has been going great. I didn't have nearly as much after-effect from the anesthesia this time. My incision areas are bruised, so if I don't take some pain medicine I feel like I've been kicked in the gut, but I am moving well and overall feeling much better than I expected!

Emily is taking 7 bottles a day, and one feeding still through her NG tube. She is having a little trouble pacing herself and coordinating the suck/swallow/breathe, so her oxygen saturation has been dropping somewhat while she takes a bottle. That's the only reason they haven't increased her to 100% bottle feeds. I'm hoping tomorrow or Sunday they will do that.

Her weight is increasing steadily - I think she will hit 6 pounds tonight! Today she is wearing her first "newborn" size onesie - she has outgrown her first preemie clothes! I was hoping we would be able to take her home Monday, but it's looking more like mid-to-late week....and that's just my guess, the doctors haven't even mentioned the word "home" yet. :(

I'll leave you with a picture of our sleeping beauty.

Father's Day started out good...

Troy and Emily on Troy's 1st Father's Day!!

Emily is doing great! She hasn't had any problems since coming off her oxygen, and we are slowly increasing her feedings by mouth. We did switch to bottle feeding her breast milk, mostly out of my frustration - she was having a hard time staying awake to nurse for a decent length of time, so I never felt like she was getting enough to eat. She was losing weight, I was stressed out and feeling like we were NEVER going to get to go home at that rate....so, bottles it is! She now gets 6 of the 8 feedings a day by bottle! It's fun to see Troy getting to do some feedings now :)

I brought in Emily's car seat (a good sign!) and she has been spending some time in it - she seems to like the different environment and change in position. It usually puts her right to sleep!

On Father's Day, we went out for brunch with our Dads and other family. I think Troy had a good first Father's Day....until I had to go and ruin it! I started having bad stomach pains in the evening, and ended up going to the ER about 10 p.m. because I was so miserable I couldn't stand it any longer. After blood work and an ultrasound, it was determined I have gall stones and an inflamed pancreas. They told me to call the surgeon on Monday morning for a consultation. I met with the surgeon today and he scheduled my surgery for TOMORROW at noon.

Apparently gall bladder issues are fairly common during and following pregnancy, but I had never heard of that before. I had been having these stomach pains over the last month, but Sunday's attack was worse and lasted longer than the others. I am glad its an "easy" problem to take care of...not looking forward to surgery at all, but SO looking forward to never having that pain again! Troy and I are starting to feel like we should just sell the house and move in to the hospital - will we ever be done with this place???

A Big Day!

Whew, I really needed this - I have had a few days where I just felt down, ready to be done with this part of our journey and have Emily home. I had to keep reminding myself to count my blessings and be patient.

So, the news of today was a much needed pick-me-up! Today, they took Emily off her nasal cannula, which was giving her just a small amount of supplemental oxygen. Awesome!! So far she seems to be doing just fine without it. And its great to have one more tube/wire/thing off of her body! Of course I had to take the opportunity to snap some pictures!

Before Emily can come home, she needs to be taking all of her feedings by mouth, on her own (either breastfeeding or bottle). Right now, we are trying to breastfeed every other feeding, but she gets pretty wore out from it, and isn't always awake enough (or at all!) for some of the feedings to breastfeed.

So, now we just have to let Emily grow strong enough to handle more feedings.....and then we should be VERY close to going home!

5 pounds!

Emily weighed in at 5 pounds today. Awesome! Pretty soon she will be outgrowing her preemie clothes. She is so amazing. As I type this, I'm sitting here watching her wide awake in her bassinet, wiggling around and smiling at me! She now has periods of 30 minutes or so a few times a day that she is wide awake like this. It is so cool to see her alert and just enjoying the world!

Nursing is going pretty well, we now get to do it 3 times a day, the remaining 5 feedings each day are still through her feeding tube. She doesn't wake up for 100% of her feedings yet, so I think it will be a little while before they increase her nursing schedule.

Here are a couple of pictures I just took during her afternoon playtime.

Our little Rock Star!

Just a quick update. Emily really seems to like her new home at Genesis. The days have really been uneventful, she is just resting, eating, and growing! She is up to 4 lb 15 oz. WOW. It is just amazing how far she has come.

Yesterday Emily breastfed for the first time, and both the nurse and lactation consultant said she did an A+++ job. Originally they were only going to let her try it once a day, but she did so well (and didn't have any problems with breathing or heartrate while doing it) that they are going to let her breastfeed twice a day! She really seems to like it. When she wakes up for her feedings, she is rooting around, opening her mouth and licking with her tongue. She is ready for more I think!

Today they reduced her oxygen rate to 0.5 liters. This is part of the slow process of weaning her off the oxygen. She is tolerating it well so far.

I'll leave you with a couple of new pics from yesterday. Isn't she getting HUGE? :)

Closer to Home

On Thursday afternoon, Emily was transferred to Genesis in Davenport! We are thrilled to be closer to home. This is going to be so much easier on Troy, since he was doing a LOT of driving back and forth. And I will be able to live out of my own house again rather than living out of a "hotel" room. I still plan to spend most of the day and evening hours at the hospital.

First, a picture of Emily in her "big girl" bed! She was moved into the bassinet early this week. It already makes her seem so much bigger and more - normal? - now that she is in the bassinet. Well I guess she is getting to be a big girl - she is 4 pounds 10 ounces now, more than double her birth weight!

As you can imagine, she had to have quite a bit of support equipment on board with her when she travelled in the ambulance. Here's a (not very good) pic of her accomodations for the ride!

I was ready to say goodbye to the NICU in Iowa City!

Here's Emily arriving in her NEW ROOM at Genesis!

It was an exciting week for Emily, her Grandma Vollbeer and Grandma Corbino got to hold her for the first time!

So far, we are very happy with our decision to transfer to Genesis. Emily is getting excellent care - the nurses and neonatologists are all WONDERFUL. And you just can't beat sleeping in your own bed at night.

In the next week, we hope to attempt breastfeeding! How Emily does with that will have a big impact on when she might come home. If things continue in the positive direction they have been going, I am guessing we could be going home in 3-5 weeks.

I am amazed how much Emily has grown in the past 2 weeks or so. It seems like just yesterday she looked and felt so fragile and tiny. She is still small, but she just looks so big in comparison to where she started! It is becoming easier to picture taking her home...and I'm growing more anxious for that every day.

Quick Update

I just realized it has been several days since I have taken any pics of Emily - I better get to that! But, here's a quick update. Today, they weaned Emily down from 1 liter oxygen in her cannula to 3/4 liter. I don't exactly know what the numbers represent, but I do know this means she is getting stronger! Her feedings are up to 32 cc's (just over an ounce) every 3 hours. And, we are ready to move her to a crib later tonight or tomorrow! I originally thought we would be starting to try breast or bottle feeding this week, but it probably won't be for another couple weeks.

We have been looking into transferring Emily to Genesis East in Davenport. The decision is bittersweet because we have gotten very comfortable with the staff here, and have a few nurses that we just love (HI Michelle and Alison!), not to mention we know some of the best doctors in the world practice here! It obviously will be more convenient for me and Troy to have Emily in Davenport, but we wanted to make sure that Emily's level of care would not change if we transfer. Troy and I toured the Genesis NICU last week and we were impressed with what we saw. The doctors at Genesis are part of the "extended" team from the University of Iowa Hospital, so their practices are similar and we know they have a high level of expertise. So...Emily has one more test we want to have done before we make the final decision. It's an eye exam, and it should be on Wednesday or Thursday of this week. If it comes back OK, we will most likely transfer by early next week. I'm anxious to be closer to home, but pretty sad to leave the people we have met here and who have provided such awesome care for Emily.

I think that's it for tonight. I'll try to snap some pictures so you can see how cute she is!!