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!!