A great day!

Emily weighed in at exactly 4 pounds tonight! I am amazed how big she is getting! It won't be long now and she will have doubled her birth weight.

I also have something AWESOME to show everyone. Last week I had a photographer come and take Emily's portraits. They turned out amazing. Here is the link to see the pictures - they will only be online for 2 weeks.

http://www.iowafunphotos.com/
Click on "View & Order"
Select "E Vollbeer Newborn portraits"

I am so grateful to this photographer, Ben Shirk, for capturing this very special time in our lives. Not only is he very talented, he is also a very generous person - he did Emily's session free of charge! He offered his services as a member of ACPCG, which is a volunteer organization of child photographers that are willing to donate their time to critically ill or extremely premature newborns. If anyone is in need of photography in the Eastern Iowa region, I strongly recommend him!

32 weeks, 3 days

32 weeks and 3 days. That's Emily's "gestational age", how far along I would be in my pregnancy if she were still growing inside of me. Its hard to believe I should still have 8 more weeks of pregnancy to endure!

On Thursday, Emily had her blood transfusion and it went just fine. And the great news is it seems to have helped her spells! She has had several great days since the transfusion.

On Saturday, I had my baby shower and Troy hung out with Emily all day. He got to give her a bath!

Sunday night, my mom came up and visited and spent the night with me at Rossi. I'm so glad she was here, because Emily had quite a big day on Monday! First of all, she was moved to Bay 5 of the NICU, the area where the most stable NICU babies go. This is a step up for her, and it's great that the doctors consider her stable enough to be in Bay 5! Her room in bay 5 has a couch, TV, and a bathroom with a shower, so it's also a step up for me and Troy! A picture of her new room...

On Monday, Emily also got to wear clothes for the first time! Although, she didn't leave them on long because she got too warm. We are trying to get her isolette to a good temperature for her, but it's taking a little trial and error. She has been in and out of clothes for the past couple days.

Yesterday they took Emily off the high-flow nasal cannula and put her on regular cannula. This is a positive step :) They also moved her feeding tube from her mouth to her nose. That will make bottle and breast feeding easier for her.

Last night, we gave Emily her first big tub bath. Before that, she had only had sponge baths and one bath in a small tub. She really liked her bath, she was calm the entire time - even when I washed her hair!

Mom and Dad couldn't be happier with the progress our little girl is making, and we pray that she continues to be the Rock Star she has been so far!

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!

Progress!

We have had a good couple of days! The rain has put a stop to Troy's field work for now, so he has been able to be here all day for a couple of days. Yesterday, they took Emily off the SIMV for her breathing, skipped right over the CPAP, and went to a high flow nasal cannula. We are SO happy about this, because the SIMV and CPAP both require a tube that goes 4 cm up her nose, and she has lots of problems with the tube getting clogged and irritation in Emily's nose. She is loving having that nasty thing out of her nose! She slept so soundly almost all day Friday and today.

We have also been able to hold Emily more frequently - a couple of times a day, which we are just loving! Here is one of Troy holding Emily yesterday morning as she got her breakfast!


The nurses are so sweet, today we went home for the day and when we got back, the nurse (Michelle) had taken pictures of Emily and had a little picture collage hanging on the wall in her room. Also, her night nurse last night (Alison) put a little bow in her hair. Well actually, it's glued to her head! Here's a picture.

Emily continues to grow and do all the things she's supposed to be doing - eating well, sleeping lots, peeing and pooping regularly, and just being downright precious! Last night her weight was 2 lb 13.8 ounces - I have a feeling we will be having a 3 pound party this week!!

Our home away from home

Thought you might like to see a few pictures of our home away from home. We have a room at the Helen Rossi Guest House, which is inside the hospital (although a decent walk from the NICU). As you can see, it's much like a hotel room! Sorry we didn't make the beds before we took pictures :)

And, a few pictures of Emily's home....well, at least this room was her home until yesterday, because we FINALLY got a room with a door. Wahoo!! Her new room is bigger, but basically has the same set-up, just with a glass sliding door.

Mother's Day weekend

Yesterday was my first Mother's Day as a Mom! I had a wonderful weekend - my Mom and Joey, and Jenny, Craig and the kids came to Iowa City for the weekend. The kids swam, we visited Emily, some of us shopped, we made baby shower invitations, and today we all had brunch at Iowa River Power Company. I really appreciate everyone being so flexible and accomodating of the fact that we are here in Iowa City.

My mom and her kids :)

Me and my brother Joey

My sister and her family

Things have been going better at the hospital since my last post, when I was feeling pretty frustrated. Saturday, I got to give Emily a sponge bath, and then I got the best Mother's Day gift ever - I got to "kangaroo" her. This is where they lay Emily, in just a diaper, on my bare chest and we get to snuggle for a while. It was so great for both of us, I was so happy to have her close to me, and her vital signs were just amazing as she snoozed on my chest. They say I should be able to do this every day, as long as Emily is feeling healthy! And I'm not going to be afraid to ask!

Washing Emily's hair

Drying her off
"kangaroo care"


Emily is still on CPAP, they reduced the rate today which is one step closer to getting back to the nasal cannula...but it will probably still be several days before we get there. Her weight is now up to 2 lb 9.9 oz, and she is being fed 23 cc's of milk every 3 hours (about 2/3 of an ounce). These are all good things - slow, steady progress is what we want!

Oh, and also...

I've given up on knitting!!!