Peanut was in Da House (for a couple days)

Yes, it's true, she was here! Charlotte came home from the hospital last Friday (1/19). Her hernia surgery went well, and after two more eye exams it has been determined that she still does not need the surgery. We will continue to go to the Ophthalmologist every week for a few months, and hopefully he'll just keep giving us the same verdict.

When we brought her home I was so excited to see how the dogs were going to react to her. They could have cared less. They were not impressed. They gave her a sniff and that's pretty much the last interaction they've had.

Things were going great the first couple of days. She came home with a feeding tube, but we removed the tube on Sunday since she had been taking all of her feedings by bottle. She also came home on oxygen, which comes with an apnea monitor that lets you know if she's a) not breathing, or b) her heart rate has gone above or below predetermined levels. She's also on a monitor that measures the oxygen saturation in her blood. That monitor goes off if her saturation falls below 90% ("desat"). This means that everytime she holds her breath to take a poop (which seems like it happens every few minutes) the alarm goes off. It's reassuring to have the monitors attached to her, but of course we still check her every few minutes to make sure she's OK.

Things started to go not so great on Monday when she began to desat each time I fed her. She never did it for Brian, though. What's up with that? The first couple times her saturation went down to the 80s, then it started going to the 70s. On Monday night she had a bad episode where it fell into the 30s and she turned blue. That's definitely something that no parent should ever have to see. We were able to stimulate her and bring her back to normal without doing CPR, but we were both close to starting. At that point, we decided that maybe she needed a rest from the bottle, so we put a feeding tube in. We gave her a few feedings through the tube and things were going well until I went into her room the next morning and she had the tube in her hand and she was waving it over her head like, "Look what I have!". We took her to the pediatrician on Tuesday and she told us that the desats were classic signs of acid reflux. From what I've heard, acid reflux is common among babies and people used to think it was just gas or colic. In preemies it can be even more of a health hazard because their nervous systems are so immature. When the acid comes up their espophagus their bodies basically shut down - their heart rate slows and they stop breathing. She's on medicine for reflux, but perhaps not enough or not the right medicine. We decided to try a couple different things and see if that worked, but when she had her next feeding at home she had another desaturation to the 40s and turned blue again. So we called her pediatrician and she arranged for us to take her back to the NICU for oberservation. As soon as I heard that she was going back there my stress almost completely went away. I want my little peanut home, but not if she's going to be doing that everytime I feed her. It was getting to the point where I was scared to death to feed her.

She will most likely be in the NICU for a few days. They are going to try and determine if acid reflux is the culprit or if maybe she's having issues with aspiration (aka "going down the wrong tube"). It's already weird not having her here, but I know she's in a safe place and she's in good hands.

Brian went back to work today after taking a couple days off to help get Charlotte settled, and it sounds like he's really enjoying his new position. He seems much busier than he was before, but he's gotta keep busy so we can afford for me to stay at home and eat bon bons. Where do you even get bon bons? Do they still make them?

I think that's enough drama for one post.

P.S. She's 4 pounds, 11 ounces.

False Alarm! No Peanuts Here!

Nope, Peanut didn't come home on Sunday. Nor did she come home on the next projected date, which was yesterday. I'm going to keep the next homecoming date to myself so I don't jinx anything. Let's put it this way, I'll just let y'all know when she gets here. I've heard from several people that the NICU tends to make parents superstitious, and that definitely rings true for me.

Charlotte's eye exam was fine last week and the doctor even said he thought she wasn't going to need the laser surgery at all. That surprised me. The blood vessels had been growing rapidly, so I was sure she was going to need the surgery. But she had another exam on Wednesday of this week and he still thinks she's doing OK. She will get checked on Monday and every week after that for the next few months. Hopefully the verdict will remain the same.

So we may have dodged the eye surgery bullet for now, but we didn't dodge the hernia bullet .... last Thursday they found a hernia on the left side of her abdomen and she was scheduled for surgery on Tuesday (1/16). The surgery went fine, and they sewed up her right side as well, as a preventative measure. So no tub baths for a few days, but we're all about sponge baths!

Keep tuning in, because hopefully over the next few days I'll have some pics of me rocking with little Peanut in her room!

***DISCLAIMER*** Cross your fingers while reading!!

***Before you read this post I want you to cross your fingers, knock on wood, rub your belly and tap your head .... anything and everything you need to do to make sure we don't jinx anything.***

Pending the outcome of her eye exam today, Peanut is scheduled to come home on Sunday. As in January 14th. As in three days from now. The doctors have been watching her eyes weekly to make sure that the blood vessels in there are growing properly, which they're not. When they start to grow all crazy they can attach themselves to the retina and even detach the retina causing blindness (that's why Stevie Wonder is blind). If the blood vessels don't stop growing she will need laser surgery on both eyes to stop the advancement. For that surgery she will need to be put on both the paralyzing drug and the ventilator, so she would need to be in the hospital for a few days. Therefore, if they think she is going to need that surgery in the very near future there's no sense in sending her home only to have to turn around and readmit her in a few days. As much as I'm itching to have her home I would rather wait until she's ready. The doctors are also performing a sleep study on her today to see why her oxygen saturation still drops every now and then. They put a bunch of straps and probes in and on her and watch her for 12 hours to determine if she's having problems with acid reflux or apnea. Both of these can be controlled with medicine - prilosec for the former and caffeine for the latter. And yes, I already asked, and no, she can't have coffee. So, in the next 24 hours after her eye exam and sleep study we will know more. Either way, she should be home within the next 1.5 weeks (again, knock on wood).

In the last two weeks Charlotte has been growing by leaps and bounds. Yesterday, she weighed in at 4 pounds, 1 ounce. She's also taking almost all of her feedings by bottle. Getting all that sucking, breathing and swallowing coordinated is difficult. One of the nurses suggested that I try to suck on a bottle to see just how difficult it really is and HOLY COW! Give it a try if you ever get the opportunity. It's really hard! I actually hurt myself trying to get something out of the nipple.

We did get a bit of not-so-good news the other day when she failed two hearing tests. The tests weren't very accurate as far as what she could and couldn't hear, but I was told that she probably had some degree of hearing loss. HOWEVER, after several requests I was able to get a ENT doctor to have a look at her ears and she has fluid in both canals. So, we're hoping that that is the culprit and she's been put on antibiotics and we'll bring her back for a retest in a month. Like everything else, we'll just take it as it comes and keep our fingers crossed.

Brian is going to be starting a new position with his company over the next few days and he's pretty excited about that. His territory will still be close to home, but he's going to be adding some new clients to his repetoire and he'll be focusing more on sales. The plan is for him to relinquish his pick-up for another smaller vehicle at some point, so we're a little bummed about that.

Speaking of vehicles, I have a 2001 Chevy Venture Warner Brothers Edition minivan for sale that seats 7. Let me know if you or anyone you know might be interested.

We hope everyone had a safe and happy new years! We celebrated the new year with Charlotte at the hospital, however we were on our way home to bed by 12.05am. I guess the days of drunken debauchery are over for awhile.