july 31- up 25 grams

my little girl is getting to be a fatty! weighing in at 3lbs 8oz... she is starting to fill out. i thought she'd have skinny legs and arms forever!

today while i was visiting her heart rate shot up over 200. that rarely happens. i started messing with her (which is what i do when she seems upset, mess with her until she calms down) and unswaddled her to find her bright pink and hot. she was 37.5 celsius (99.5 farenheit)! that was in a short sleeve onesie and a thin blanket! i don't know why people doubt her. :)

this evening i tried the nns twice. the first time was about 20 minutes into a feed. she is definitely to lazy to try and work for it when it's already coming in! haha.. i think someone told her we're going to feed her either way. :) the second time was about 15 minutes before her next feeding. that time she latched again.. and she loved it! i'm so glad she's taking to this pretty well. let's hope we don't have feeding issues once we get to the point that we can start trying to feed her.

wren LOVES music. she started out dancing in my belly anytime she heard it. now, she sats high every time she hears music. (of course, she's on the picky side.) most all classical, some earthy soothing stuff, and the joshua radin station on pandora. :) that's pretty much all she's listened to so far. i got her down to 42% on the cannula while we were listening to music. (of course, then she pooped, threw a fit, and desated to 64!

this should be an ad campaign

wren will only be missing her daddy for about a week more. then he comes back home to all of our craziness. yesterday we got the most thoughtful care package from wren's great grandma! it included homemade cookies, snacks, books, and a mirror for kangaroo care! she definitely knows what preemie parents need!

 

a note to daddy

 

check out how long that hair is!

july 25- another day in the nicu

with her mady beanie baby...mady's our dog. i can't wait until she can play with the real thing. those will be CUTE pictures!

3bls 7oz tonight. what a heifer! up 70grams!
really though, she pooped SO much that she'll probably be down by 50grams tomorrow. 4 times! full diapers! it was really quite comical, every time we put a new diaper on... we needed another.
she has been on only hindmilk for a few days now though... so that, with the prolacta should help. but probably not 70grams in a few days help.

they're a little worried about her weight gain. she's only been gaining about 10-20 grams a day since she was born. they want 15-30 grams daily. as i've said before though, thadd and i were both small babies. (he was only 5lbs or so when he was born full term.) genetics plays a part in it, so i don't think she's really having problems... she's just smallish. :) her primary nurse told me today that that could also be another reason why they dropped her sprint times by so much... that they're just trying to conserve her energy so she'll gain weight.

they upped her feeds to 30ml/3hours over 1 hour. she tolerated the feeds fine.. just having about 1ml residuals, which is what she had before on 28ml. (residuals are what they pull back out of her stomach, through the feeding tube, after the feed is over. what the baby was unable to digest. as long as it's a small amount, they just put it back in their stomach and let them have more time to do it. residuals also have a lot of important stomach acids in them. if she had a lot of residuals it would mean she was having a problem with digestion or something.)

her primary also said that they'd probably pick back up on the sprints on monday. she also seemed a little concerned about her need for more oxygen lately... but her labs are tomorrow night. so we'll see how they turn out. hopefully she's just being finicky the past few days.
she hung out around the 40s today... and was in the low 40s on cpap this evening, and on about 55% during her sprint while we were there holding her. when we put her in the bed she started doing MUCH better. (little turkey!) so hopefully the nurse was able to ween her down before her sprint was over.
check out that noggin'! that's what you call a "toaster head". (or the mad scientist gigantic brain head.) it's because preemies, particularly micro-preemies do better on their bellies. this means they're laying with their heads turned to one side or the other 24/7... it makes them have tall skinny heads. they'll usually outrgrow it between 1 and 2 years. (we hope!) but hey, she's a girl, she can wear cutesy little hats! :)