Update

Just some of what Chesney has been going through just so I can look back to this and remember. She now weighs 4 lbs 1 oz! She is on fortified breast milk 22 calories at 35 cc's. They started giving her vitamins twice a day, they upped her caffiene because she is getting bigger. They have told us that she will most likely go home on caffiene and if she does she will also go home with monitors. They did an follow up head ultrasound and everything looked good. They tested her hearing and it was also good. She is getting her eye exam tomorrow. She is nippling everyother feeding. Wow lots to remember good thing I wrote about it!!

Favorite time of the year

On saturday we went for a drive to entertain ourselves between feedings. We drove up from Ogden to Pineview resevoir then took the back way up to Snowbasin. It was a perfect day and the leaves were so beautiful. This is my favorite time of the year, the leaves changing, a chill in the air and football!!

She's a tooter!!

Well Chesney is doing so good with her feedings, we now get to bottle feed her everyother feeding. Sometimes she eats it all and sometime she only eats a little bit, sometimes she desats and sometimes she doesn't . I know in time it will all get better. Once she is nippling every feeding they will let me try to nurse her. All of these are steps that are getting us closer to bringing her home. After she eats her bottle we try and try to burp her and I have yet to hear her burp. That worries us cause we don't want her to get a tummy ache. But, before we feed her we get to change her and as soon as her diaper comes off the tooting begins! Matt was laughing so hard the first time he heard her! It is just so funny to hear our little tiny princess doing this!! So that makes me feel better to know that she is getting the air out some how. She is up to 3lbs 15ozs one more oz and she will be 4lbs. She is putting on weight good. I was talking to the nurse and she said she thought this is the hardest time cause they look so good you just want them home. I am trying to be patient but I just want our baby to be home with us.

Yes she does actually have a few outfits that aren't PINK!! The nurses are just loving all her outfits and love to dress her up! Chesney is still doing good, this morning when I called at 5:30 to check on her the nurse felt really bad but she said Chesney was so wide awake that she decided to feed her and she at 22 cc's!! That is so good for such a little baby. They have added a little powder to her milk to fortify it, they said it will help chub her up. She weighed 3 lbs 12 oz last night which is a good sign because she is actually maintaing her weight. I think these last few weeks are gonna take forever cause she looks so good that it seems like she is ready to go home.

1st Outfit

Daddy's 1st time feeding her!!
She even posed for her picture!

Still a little room to grow, she is a long little bugger though!

Update

So mom and I just went to see Chesney for her 8 o'clock feeding and when we got there, there was a bottle at her station!! That's right she got to eat from a bottle for the first time!! And she did so good for her first time the nurse said!! She ate 18 of her 30 cc's from the bottle and she didn't desate until she was done, and then she was tuckered out! But the nurse said she did a really good job! What she doesn't eat from the bottle they feed her the rest in her feeding tube. We get to feed her from the bottle once a shift! I can't wait for Matt to get here tomorrow night so he can feed her. It is so exciting!!

More Pics

Her new bed, with some pink blankets from home!!

Chesney in her new bed!

The binkie is bigger then she is but she sucks on it so good!!

Little one is still doing so good. They took her off the oxygen today which makes her mom pretty nervous. But I got to hold her for about an hour and she did great! Hope she can keep up with all these changes and continue to do good. The nurse said that she was going to put in her notes how good she sucked on her binkie and that she recommended she start nippling (trying out the bottle). So we will see what the doctors think of that. She weighs 3 lbs 11 oz she gained back the weight she lost last night, so lets just hope she maintains her weight. We took in a little shirt and some socks for her to wear but she was sleeping so good, we didn't put them on her just yet. When she is sleeping we don't like to bug her, right now all the sleep she can get is the best thing!! But believe me as soon as we get those clothes on her we will take tons of pics!! We took in some pink blankets to put under her and over her, but I forgot the camera cord in E-town. Imagine that me forgetting something, now days I am just lucky to get myself out the door.

Our Little Girl is Growing UP!

Our little baby is getting bigger everyday. They have moved her to an open crib today. They said that most babies have to be moved back into the isolette but they are gonna see how she does in the crib. Her tiny body not only has to remember to breath and digest food, now it has to keep its self warm. I know these are all things she has to do to come home and I am praying she does good. Sometimes it feels like they are pushing her.

Update

Chesney is doing so good, I find myself hesitant to say that, but it is so obvious to see when you see her. She is on full breastmilk feedings every three hours, tonight she was on 30 cc's so about an ounce. She is weighing 3 lbs 11 ozs (depending on what nurse weighs her), almost four pounds. She is starting to fill out, her skin is not hanging on her any more. They have been cutting her back on the oxygen. Hopefully with in the next week or so they will start nippling her, (putting her to a bottle). Each of these steps is getting us closer to taking her home. I am pretty sure it will be another 4 if not more weeks, but I am trying to be ok with that cause I don't want her to go home til she is ready!!

PICS!!

One Month Old!!

Wow, I can not believe that Chesney is already 4 weeks old. I know everyday seemed like an eternity but looking back that month flew by. Here's to hoping the next one does also. I am hoping Matt will make it down today to see her and he is the picture man so hopefully tonight we will get some pics. Mom and I went and saw her about 11 this morning that is when they feed her, well they feed her every three hours 8, 11, 2, 5. So I try to be there during a feeding cause then they let me hold her since they have bugged her. We were too late and she was already asleep which is ok cause I want Matt to hold her tonight! Anyways she is doing good, for the most part. The doctors that take care of her are a three man team and we have only met two, and the third one came back from a month long vacation today, still have not met him tho. He put her on a high flow of oxygen trying to get her to stop all the desating she is doing. If that does not work then they are gonna check for reflux. She had her first eye exam today and the doc said he didn't see anything, so I am guessing that is a good sign. They are also starting her on half breast milk and half formula trying to get her switched over to all breast milk. I am very happy about that but also a bit weary since that is what she was on when she got her infection. Her weight is up to 3 lbs 4 oz so she is doing good in that area.

Update

Chesney did not like the flash that went off on the camera! She has some of the funniest expressions and loves to smile!

Well after the baby shower yesterday we headed back down to Ogden and went to see little one! When we got there they had put the oxygen back on her. It was still only at room air but she needed a little extra whiff they said. I guess she had been desating quite a bit, so they were just gonna let her sit with some oxygen on. Well this broke my heart which most things do these days. She is just starting to eat well and gain some weight and then her breathing has to go bad. We went in this morning and Matt held her and she is still desating pretty bad, they have her up to 50% oygen, which makes me feel better but she was still having her issues. They say she is being a bad girl :) The doctor ran a bunch of blood work on her and they say everything looks great, so they atleast know that her body is not trying to fight off an infection or something. A couple of nurses say that her body is working hard on digesting and gaining weight that is why she is struggling in the breathing area. It breaks my heart to know that my little angel has to struggle in anyway, it is so not fair for her to have to go through all of this. I am trying to be strong and keep it together but it is getting harder and harder. We have decided that we are not gonna go back in and see her tonight and let her just try to rest, Matt headed back home. I can not wait for the day that we get to take her home and get settled in. I know it is wearing on everyone. My mom, bless her heart has been with us from day one and she is staying in Ogden with me, and I know how hard it is to be away from home. I will never be able to thank her!!

One good note is that they have changed her feedings from a constant drip to 17cc an hour for two hours then she gets an hour of rest. They are working her up to the usual feeding process which is every three hours. Hopefully that hour of rest her body gets from trying to digest will help with the breathing problems. Last night she weighed 1420 grams, 3.2 pounds almost back to her birth weight, so she is gaining!! Keep praying for our little angel that she will continue to grow and progress!!

Baby Shower

Thanks to everyone who came and helped out at the shower!! It was tons of fun, and Chesney is going to be one very stylish little girl with all the cute, cute clothes and things she got!! It was fun knowing that she is a little girl and all the girl things she got. Matt said it is all overwhelming pink!! When we get more time to set up the rest of her nursery I will put up more pics! Again thank you to all of you!!

Cute little bow

Like mother like daughter

Snug as a bug in a rug, they say it is good for digestion if she is on her tummy or on her right side. That is a preemie diaper goes almost all the way up her tiny back!

So when we called to check on Chesney this morning they said she was OK! What does OK mean. Well when they measured her tummy is was distended and she had some residual from her feeding come back up. All we could think was oh no here we go again, we have been praying that she would continue to do good on her feedings and then this. Well yesterday they upped her strength on her formula to three quarters. Well I guess that made her pretty gassy and therefore the bloating of her belly. Luckily she has great nurses and doctors that are very cautious and took an x-ray to make sure it was nothing more. They gave her a suppository and after that did it's business she was much better. That made us feel alot better but it was a pretty worriesome morning, nothing new there tho!! So for those of you that know me know that my daughter has inherited all her bad things from her mom, bad veins, gas......we will see what else comes along :) Her daddy came down to see her this morning because it is just too hard to go even one day with out seeing her cute face and she needed him to make her feel better which he did. Last night when I held her she had a couple desating problems(that is when her blood oxygen level goes low because she is not breathing) but today when daddy had her she did great!! I have a feeling those two are going to be unseperable. And Matt said he never wanted a girl!! Of course that was before he got one!!

Just a couple pics! Just can't get over how cute she is and all that hair!! She sucked on her binkie alot today and loved it!!

Momma's little snuggle bug

I love to hold her like this and feel her so close to me, and the nurse said it is better for her!! Look how tiny she is, I still can't fathom but we are getting more used to it, we get to change her bum often, she even pooped on her daddy while he was changing her. And he said he would never change a dirty diaper. He is already wrapped around her finger. Aren't we all:)

She was so content and her oxygen was so good while I was holding her. It made me feel so much better, but of course it was so hard to put her back. I just tell my self the more sleep she gets the sooner she will get to come home and I can hold her all the time!! Every time we leave the NICU I always have a feeling I am leaving part of me behind. Soon we will all be together!

Daddy's finger trying to so just how small our little one is. She had a really good day! So far so good on the feedings. They are just gonna continue to do a slow drip of food in her feeding tube and see how she tolerates it. They continued her caffeine today by mouth, hopefully that doesn't upset her tummy either. She seems to be doing great and that makes us happy, but of course there is always the worry in the back of our minds!! Hopefully she just keeps doing good with the food and will start gaining weight. They are feeding her Enfamil Pregestmil that is hypoallergenic and lactose free, so if she does have her daddy's allergies she should do good on this.

Daddy's little girl

Chesney loves her daddy!!

She smiles alot, it is the cutest thing ever.

As soon as her tummy is better I know she is gonna be a good eater. She is always sucking on her finger or the feeding tubein her mouth.

Daddy loves her so much!!

Chesney is still doing good!! They are actually gonna start her feedings today. It wont be very much very fast but atleast it is a start. We just pray that she does good! She weighs 2lbs 15 oz, almost three pounds hopefully she puts on a couple more pounds quick!!!