Happy Halloween

Chesney just loves to play dress up! Can't you tell!! She is our little pumpkin! We have been working all week on eating and gaining weight, I swear that she is having a growth spurt, all she wants to do is eat, eat and eat!! Which is great for her and turns out good for me, great weight loss program, still lots more to go though! She is up to 5 lbs 14 oz almost 6 lbs. Anyways she went to the doctor yesterday for her two month checkup and we all know what comes with that SHOTS!! Well needless to say mom can't even watch Daisy get shots let alone her tiny little baby! She did pretty good she cried but calmed down pretty quick! That is until we got home and she woke up and was obviously in horrible pain, she was screaming so hard and holding her breath that she almost passed out. I was in shock and paniced didn't know what to do, luckily mom was right there and she grabbed her and had to yell at her really loud to make her breath. Long story short we called Kristin she ran right out and got some infant tylenol and the rest of the night was pretty good. I am scared today every time she starts to cry, it might end up in holding her breath. I have seen babies get mad and throw fits but never have I seen anything like that. SCARY!! I am certainly rethinking have four kids :) I am always worrying and stressing about her. It gets a little better each day but is still overwhelming. Mom is going home Monday, lets just not go there.

Cousins

Chesney and Maddox finally got to meet!! She even rolled over trying to get to him. She is so strong it is amazing she moves everywhere and even holds her up once in awhile, all of which she is not suppose to do for another 2 months. The doctors call it her corrected age, for all of her development and things she is suppose to be doing we go off of her due date, which is still not here yet. She loves to be held and she is already spoiled. We have just been trying to adjust to life with a newborn. We feel so blessed to finally have this little miracle home with us. I have wanted to have kids of my own for so long, there was even awhile there when I had lost all hope that it would not happen. I still have to pinch my self when I look at her!! We are just enjoying her being a baby cause we know it will go by too fast, it already has. Chesney went to her doctor appt and he said everything is good, she has to go back and get her two month shots next week. That's gonna be a hard one for mom, I can't even watch my dog get her shots!! She was at 5 lbs 4 oz but she feels heavier everyday so I am sure it has gone up. She was 18" long!

The public health nurse has came over a couple times this week and that has helped so much. She even brought over an $1100 dollar scale that we can weigh her on before she nurses then weigh her again after and it tells us how much she eats. That makes me feel so much better cause you never know how much she is getting.

Sorry for not updating more often I am just enjoying having her home and holding her! I will try to do better.

9 weeks

She loves her daddy
Tummy Time

Tiniest Yankees fan!!

Couldn't be happier

We are so excited to have our little angel home that we don't know what to do with ourselves. She seems to be adjusting well to life outside of the NICU. Chesney is eating, sleeping and filling diapers like a champ. Mom has a hard time getting much sleep at night, I am somewhat of a worry wart. She likes to squeak and make noises in her sleep. We can't believe how aware she is, she looks all around when she hears voices, and loves to make all kinds of faces. We are gonna have lots of entertainment while we are indoors for the winter. We go back to the doctor tomorrow for her first check up, I really didn't want to see Ogden or do that drive for awhile but I am sure we will survive. Just wanted to say THANKS again to everyone for their support, and all the prayers and kind words for our little family!!

We're Home!!

FINALLY!! We are finally home!! After a long night stay at the hospital with Chesney we all got to come home!! I am too tired to think, so I will just post pics, I should be able to handle that.

8 Weeks old!!

Well we have had a few pretty uneventful days, which is just what I want. They are pretty much just watching Chesney to see how she reacts off of her caffine. I think it will be out of her system by tomorrow or thursday. After that we get to go home, so probably for sure by this weekend. I can't wait!! They took her off of the human fortifier and she has lost a little bit of weight. Hopefully she won't loose too much more or we will have to stay here. I also think it is harder for her to nurse and so she burns calories trying to do that. It is still an up and down rollercoaster. Sure it will be like that for many years to come.

No Caffine!

It is just way too much work being this tiny!!

Little Chesney has had her caffine taken away. They have took her off of it to watch and see how she does. They said it would take 3-5 days for it to get out of her system. If she doesn't have any bradies or desates then she can go home with out it and those noisy monitors!! But if she needs it they will leave her on it and we go home with monitors. Either way they are pretty much saying we get to go home mid-week. The doctor didn't give us an exact day cause she doesn't want us to get our hopes up, but she wants us to be prepared!! It is so exciting and kinda scary at the same time. Ches gets to nurse everytime that I am there and she is ready to eat, she is doing better then I ever imagined. She also eats from the bottle and she eats about 60 cc's. She loves to eat!! Good thing she is not on formula!

Long story short, we got to nurse tonight and she did great. I didn't have any expectations because I really didn't think she would do it. But she did!!! She was wide awake and was pretty mad because it was something different but she gave it her all and kept trying, which is a good sign. Then we got to bottle feed her and she did awesome on that too, she took it three different times after burbs which she has never done before. Hope this is a sign of things to come. I think that light swicth has finally turned on for her. Three dirty diaper changes later she was still awake after an hour which is so not like her. It is so hard to leave her when she is awake!! Chesney is so aware of everything that is going on around her, she follows people with her eyes as they walk by. And she knows her mommy and daddy that's for sure.

One more ounce!!

One more ounce and we have a five pounder. I just called to check on Chesney and the nurse said she just weighed and bathed her and she weighed 4 lbs 15ozs one more ounce and she will be 5 pounds!! I can not believe it, I knew by holding her that she was getting bigger but 5 pounds! That is so awesome! What is even more awesome is she ate all the milk in both of her bottles today!! Hopefully she will do the same with the two tonight and the doctor will probably move her up to every feeding by bottle. Once she does that we can try to nurse and they will take out her feeding tube. We are getting closer everyday!!

Wow! So we went in at 8 this morning to feed Chesney and she ate the whole thing, 39 cc's in about 10 mins!! She didn't even take time to breath I don't think. The Doctor was there and he said that the transfusion was a success. Her heart rate has gone down to where it is suppose to be, her apnea has decreased, and she has more color in her face. Her critic went up to 38 and they say that is good. He said that once she got her feeding down we could go home. So we are keeping our fingers crossed that between the transfusion and her getting older, that it will just click and she will get these bottles down. They upped her again and she is eating 41 cc's. She weighs 4lbs 12 oz's so weight is not an issue.

Blood Transfusion

Another update! The doctor called me about 10:30 this morning and asked me if it was ok to give Chesney a blood transfusion! What!! He said that they needed to give her some blood, he said it was just like your car when it is empty you need to fill it up, she just needed her tank filled. He said that because of her tummy infection that she had it took alot out of her little body and it just never recovered fully. They say that we will see a huge change in her, she will be more alert, her color will be better and she will eat better, her heart rate will go down, and her apnea will be better. Well here I was thinking everything was great with her. I had asked the nurses before why her heart rate got so high when she was bothered and they just chalked it up to her temper! Well today when they did blood work they noticed that her hemcritc (dont know that word for sure) was low and she needed blood. Needless to say I lost it, I rushed over so I could hold her. They got the IV in on the first try and she calmed right down after, they said she had grown veins, so that is good. I sat there and held her for about an hour and then her daddy got there and he got to hold her for 20 mins before they started. I cried for that whole hour I held her, every nurse in there gave me a hug. Here I was thinking we would be going home soon and then this! But they say in a day or two she will be doing so much better, maybe we will. Anyways the blood got there and that was the end for me, I couldn't stand to see that. Anyways they gave her 20cc's over four hours then they gave her a diurectic to flush the fluid out and leave the blood then they gave her another 20cc's over another four hours. She started about 12:40 and got done at 10:00 p.m. We got to go in and try to feed her a bottle but she was just too pooped to take it I don't blame her. It is just so hard to see this tiny little baby have to go through all this stuff. I pray someday it will be a distant memory!!

Here's to hoping

Chesney is 7 weeks old today! It still has not sunk in that I am a mom. It is still so hard to not be with her everyday. We went in the other day and the nurse was standing up holding little one and the nurse acted frazzled. She turned around to see us and was surprised she said she was about to suction out her nose and I asked if she was stuffy and she said, no because she was so mad she wouldn't eat and couldn't breath. It broke my heart to see her that way her poor little eyes were all red from crying! The nurse quickly handed her to me and she immediatley calmed down and ate her bottle, that made me feel good, but still felt horrible she was so upset and I was not there. Then last night we go in and there is a towel in the swing, I was told awhile ago that is where the bad kids go. Another nurse asked if we had a time frame of when she is going home, they have a saying once they start crying, it is time they go home. It breaks my heart to know that she is in there crying and being upset and I can not be there to make it better. I am just hoping she gets this feeding thing down quick!

Pics

4.5 pounds and growing

They have her hair in a little mohawk! Can't wait til i get to put bows in her hair!
Love that we can hold her more like a baby

She is still working on eating all her food from the bottle

Chesney is still doing great just eating, sleeping, and growing. Can't believe she is 4.5 pounds she is doing so good gaining weight. She maintains her temp really good too. We get to go in and feed her every other feeding, but she really likes to sleep when we are there. She eats so much better for the nurses. I know in time she will start waking up more and eating. One doctor upped her caffine because of her weight and then the next doctor lowered it back down. I don't know if maybe he was thinking he would try to weign her off of it. Guess we will see. Her eye exam was good they said her eyes looked great and we need to bring her back in 6 months. The eye doctor said that preemies are prone to lazy eyes, crossed and googly eyes. Not too much going on lately, I like that! Just waiting on Chesney to get this feeding thing down and then we can go home. One nurse said maybe to weeks, but I am trying not to get too excited because she will do what she is capable of on her own time. I having a feeling she is gonna be the boss of things for a long time to come!!