Story Time at the Zoo

I think the dogs are starting to get into Charlotte a little more. They come into her room once in awhile for story time and to lick her head. One thing that I thought was kind of interesting is that yesterday when we brought Charlotte out into the family room for a change of scenery (on portable O2, of course), Bart was snarling at Amy everytime she would get near Charlotte. But if they're both in Charlotte's room Bart doesn't care what Amy does. Any suggestions on this one? Do I just let them sort it out, or do I reprimand everytime I see a snarl? I have to take Bart into the vet soon, so I'll ask then, but maybe one of you's has some valuable (i.e. free) advice.

Things have been going pretty smoothly around here. We finally finished with that supply of breast milk, so the freezer in the garage is now freed up for ice cream and chicken when it's on sale. Charlotte's reflux seems to have gotten better since we've switched to a strictly formula diet. She's a much happier baby and is even back to sleeping in her crib sans car seat or bouncy seat. Maybe it was that Mexican food phase I went through for awhile?

Medical Update - We went to see the Ophthalmologist last Monday and he said we didn't have to come back for 3 weeks! Yahoo!! Her eyes are looking better and now he just wants to check them a few more times. I'm pretty positive we've dodged that bullet.

Last Tuesday we went to the Neo-natal follow-up clinic, which is run by various members of the NICU staff as a way of checking up on the progress of the NICU babies once they're discharged. There was talk of starting to wean her off her O2 and maybe taking it down a notch this week. If they do decide to go that route I will be curious to see how she does. She's currently on a flow of 1/4 liter of O2. The next step down is 1/8, then 1/16 and the smallest is 1/32.

The final appt last week was with the Otorhinolaryngologist ("ENT") on Friday. They ran several tests on her ears and we really didn't find out too much information. The doctor doesn't think she has fluid in her ears anymore, but she still didn't pass the hearing tests. She is scheduled to go back in the middle of March for an extensive 2 hour test that will see which tones she can hear and which she can't. I'm hoping that test will give us a more definitive answer as to what direction we need to take.

Later this week we have a team of specialists (speech, audiology, physical therapy, occupational therapy, developmental therapy) coming out to the house from the Early Intervention program to determine if she needs any therapy at this stage. I'm interested to hear what they have to say. If they think she needs anything they will arrange for specialists to come to our house and work with Charlotte. That would be brilliant!

See that pic up above of me and Peanut? I just want to point out to you that in the background is my favorite item in her room - Bongo the dirty laundry hamper. He is awesome and I never tire of throwing dirty clothes in his mouth. I think everyone should have one.

How About Some More FAQ's?

1. How many monitors is she on?

Here's a pic of Charlotte and her peripherals. As you can see there are oxygen tanks to the left of her bed and on top of the purple crates are two monitors. One monitor is connected to her foot and measures her oxygen, while the other has two sensors that go on either side of her chest to keep track of breaths/minute and her heartrate. We don't necessarily need to have the oxygen monitor on at all times. The hospital recommends checking her oxygen saturation 3 times/day, but since she still holds her breath every now and then and she still gags with the reflux, we feel better having it on all the time. There's been a couple times where the oxygen monitor has alarmed way before the heartrate monitor would have gone off, so we were able to catch her having a problem before it really became a problem. The oxygen monitor is going off less and less as the days go on, so as soon as we've had a few days without any problems we'll feel much better about only checking her periodically through the day.

When we leave the house for doctor appts we use small portable oxygen tanks that last up to 6 hours. They're small enough to fit in a backpack. But while we're at home she's pretty much stuck in her room at all times. Even during bath time.

Charlotte's been sleeping in a bouncy seat inside her crib the last few days to keep her elevated to help with her reflux (thanks for letting us borrow that Aunt Patty!). We tried elevating her mattress, but either she kept slipping down or we had to put so many blankets in there to keep her in one place that the bed was starting to look like a SIDS nightmare. She was sleeping in her car seat for a few days, but I just didn't like the looks of that. I couldn't shake the feeling that being scrunched in that seat for so many hours per day was stunting her growth.

2. Did you use all that breast milk in the freezer yet?

Nope, still working on that. We should be done with it in about two weeks. Then it's on to that yummy formula.

3. Is she sleeping through the night?

Nope, still working on that. She 's only getting up once during the night since she's still kind of small to go that long without consuming any calories. Keep in mind that even though she was born in October, Peanut is really still a newborn. Doctors will use what they call "adjusted age" to determine where she should be developmentally until she's around 12-18 mnths. Adjusted age is calculated from my due date, so being that Charlotte was due on January 30th her adjusted age is currently 2 1/2 weeks. Sometimes this can be a little tricky because in some respects she's older than 2 1/2 weeks because she's been around for awhile (i.e. she's already on a schedule and eats more than your typical newborn), but in other ways it really is like she just came out of the womb (i.e. she still has very limited awake time and we get excited when she lifts her head up).

4. How much does she weigh?

I ask every other new parent that question. I think I'm obsessed with weight now. She's around 6 1/2 pounds.

5. How are her eyes?

As of this past Monday they are starting to get better! Yay! So it's starting to look like she won't need the laser surgery. We're not totally out of the woods yet, but the doctor said the blood vessels are starting to recede and maybe we'll only have to go see him three or four more times.

6. How long does she have to be on oxygen?

Depends on how quickly her lungs heal. Her lungs were damaged from both the ventilator and from just being premature. As she gets stonger and has more reserves (i.e. fat) her lungs will be able to heal faster. From what I've gathered from her home nurse, Nancy, she will need to be stable for a few days on her current O2 level before we get the OK from her or her doctor to start weening her down. Brian and I are allowed to go higher than her current O2 level if she's having any problems, but we're not allowed to go lower without authorization from a doctor or nurse.

7. How are YOU guys doing?

Pretty darn good. Loving having Peanut home. We seem to be getting ample sleep. Brian and I switch off on the pm feedings so we each get a relatively decent stretch of sleep. My sleep has been a little weird over the past few days as I'm getting used to my new mouth guard. Turns out that I don't have enough of an overbite and since I clench my jaw when I sleep this can result in cracked or chipped teeth (which actually did happen during labor). Let me tell you, nothin' says SEXY like a mouth guard. I don't know how I feel about it yet, but everyone whom I've talked to who has one swears by it.

I don't think I told y'all, but Brian became a U.S. citizen in January. In the grand sceme of things it really doesn't change much, but hopefully we've got another Democrat voting in '08! And no, he didn't have to give up his NZ citizenship. He had to "renounce" it during the ceremony, but he didn't have to give up his passport or anything. Technicality.

If anyone has any other questions please post them in the comments section and I'll do my best to give you an answer.

There's 6 Pounds of Lovin' Sleepin' in the Other Room!

She's here, she's sleeping, AND she's 6 pounds! Peanut came home on Tuesday (2/6) and so far (knock on wood) everything has been going great. She's still suffering from acid reflux, but a lot of babies have that and we'll just have to deal with it until she grows out of it. Here's a pic of her sleeping in her crib right after we brought her home.

The doctors did a bit of "fine tuning" while Charlotte was at the hospital. They put her on a few new medications to help the reflux and to help her digest her food a bit faster. They did a scan at the hospital where they put some radioactive stuff in her milk and then took x-ray shots of the milk going down as she drank it. They were able to determine that she wasn't having problems drinking the milk, but she also wasn't digesting it very well. It seems that three hours after a feeding she still had at least half of the previous feeding left in her stomach, which can add to the whole reflux problem. So now she's taking some meds to help her digestive tract move a little faster. Unfortunately, it makes her sound like WW3 is going on in her stomach. I'm just hoping that we're not creating a problem by solving another!

Having Charlotte in the hospital was a good opportunity for me to get my confidence back when it comes to feeding her. She really scared the crap out of me when we had her home before, and even when I would feed her at the hospital I would tense up. I tried to feed her as much as possible over the last two weeks and I think it really helped. Granted, she still holds her breath every now and then, but now I'm more confident that a couple good whacks on the back are going to wake her up. "Wake up, Missy!!"

Charlotte is still on oxygen and needs to be hooked up to the apnea monitor at all times. This can be a bit annoying sometimes because the oxygen confines her to her room. Hopefully she won't have to be on the O2 for too long. I'm thinking maybe 2 months, or so.

It looks like our social life is going to consist of doctor appointments and home nursing visits for awhile. But I encourage everyone to please feel free to give me a call if you wanna chat! I have a feeling that cabin fever might hit pretty soon! I'll post more pics of Peanut in the next few days.