A Good Night

It's like she's a different baby, or getting there, anyway. She slept in her crib for a whole hour last night -- 11 to midnight -- before getting fussy. So, I moved to the couch with her, and she slept until 4am! She ate for half an hour, then slept until 7! Perhaps we're getting over that hump and sleep, while still interrupted, will be a little more restful. That is, of course, until she gets a cold. But, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Day 0

I meant to put this post up yesterday, but we just got a little busy. Yesterday was Lena's due date, which made Chloe age 6 weeks, 2 days chronologically, but a big 0 as her adjusted age. So, yesterday, she was officially a newborn, and boy is she acting like one. She's definitely more active than she has been, more vocal, more fussy. I won't lie to you, it's draining on all parties involved.

Okay, I know I promised pictures, but the camera's in the other room where the baby's finally asleep, so those will have to wait.

In other news, she's getting to be a big baby. She's about what she should weigh as a newborn, and let me tell you, 8 pounds starts to get heavy after a while. But, we made our first trip with Chloe to church yesterday. She was pretty good, only made some of her famous squeaking noises, and Lena got up with her once. Overall, she was really good. My guess is that she'll never do that again. HA!

Busy Week

Well, this has been a busy, busy week for Chloe. And for Lena, too. Chloe met her (maternal) great-grandparents this week, as well as her Uncle Bill. There are some pictures from that visit, which will be put up later. It was a good visit.

Lena was taken off her restrictions from Chloe's birth on Wednesday, which basically means she's allowed to drive again.

Today was Chloe's first party. The fine, fine people from the Woodruff Arts Center (my work) threw her a shower today. It was amazing! The cake, the food, the decorations, the people, the attention! And Chloe slept through a good portion of it before she screamed for food. It was a great time. A HUGE thank you to everyone who came, dropped by, and loved on the baby. Hopefully Chloe will be a little more attentive and interactive next time. This is me crossing my fingers.

And last, but certainly not least, we gave Chloe a good weighing in this morning. Again, the scale isn't exact because it only measures by .2's. Today, Chloe was 8.2 pounds, which is about 8lbs, 3oz. For those of you keeping track, that's 1 whole pound since last Friday. What a little porker. Oops, I guess that's me giving her an image complex already.

The Eye Doctor

We took the Chloe-monster to her first eye doctor appointment today. To explain quickly, because she was a premie and had the oxygen for a few days, they needed to check out her eyes for signs of Retinopathy From Prematurity. The oxygen therapy can cause the retina to not have developed correctly, and she could be a) fine, b) need glasses, or c) blind, which is obviously the worst case scenario here. Long story short, the doctor found everything in her eyes to be tip-top! No signs of retinopathy, which means she's out of the woods regarding that, and no signs so far of near-sightedness. That last came as a little bit of a shock considering 90% of our families need glasses. They'll check her again in 6 months, and then again at age three. Keep your fingers crossed, but we're sure everything's going to be fine.

Oh, yeah! Used our electronic scale to weigh the baby last Friday when she was five weeks old. Now, this scale is great because you can stand on it, turn it on, and it takes your weight into account and tares to "0" which then allows you to pick up baby and see what she weighs. It read "7.2" which calculates to roughly 7lbs, 3oz. She's a feeding machine! Which is great, as long as she keeps it up and catches up. The rate she's going, she'll have "caught up" by six months, if not earlier. HA!

Baby's Day Out

Yesterday was a big day for baby, and mom, too. Since premie house arrest has been lifted, we took the opportunity to take a drive and stop by both of our works to show off baby for a little bit. Good times were had by all. Mom got some exercise, and baby got some fresh air.

Also yesterday, two of Chloe's great-grandparents (that's my grandparents on my dad's side) stopped by for a visit. They were on their way back to Florida from Illinois, and it worked out perfect for them to come here in the morning and say hello and visit for a little while. The visit also allowed for traffic to disperse a little bit so they could actually make good time while passing through.

One-Month Doctor Visit

Long story short, Chloe had her one-month doctor visit today. Here are her latest stats:

6lbs, 12oz (+1lb, 6oz from last visit)
19.5in (+3/4in)

They're very encouraged by her growth so far. We looked at her birth weight and her current weight, and she's actually growing in the 50th Percentile. This is a very good thing. She's supposed to gain one ounce per day, and since her last visit (13 days ago) she's gained 22 ounces! This is a very good thing! He also gave us the go ahead to take her out of the house for short periods of time, which is also great. Maybe we won't go stir crazy after all.

PREMIE HOUSE ARREST HAS ENDED!...and the peasants rejoiced. Yea!

Last night was a little rough. Basically, she ate, then ate, then ate some more. Over three hours, she ate almost 2/3 of what she had eaten the entire previous day's feedings combined. I smell a growth spurt coming on. No, wait, that's just another diaper. Well, back to it.

Happy One Month!

Today marks one month since Chloe's birth. And what a way to ring it in. From 9pm to 12:30am last night, the rain was so terrible that the power was out. Apparently a generator in our area was knocked out. It was a long night for all three of us. Plus, it was insanely hot and humid, since we opened the windows a little for some fresh air. Just muggy. Ugh! On top of that, we had water come into our basement. Oh joy!

Today is much better, though. Chloe slept in her crib for three straight hours! We did some reading on child sleep patterns, setting habits, etc. and I got her to fall asleep in her crib, no problem. They actually described perfectly what we had been doing, calling it "The Crib Sneak." This is where the baby falls asleep in your arms and you quietly pur her into her crib. She then stirs a little, opening her eyes ever so slightly to find herself in a different location. Naturally, she's disoriented and agitated. Hence, she starts screaming. They compared it to if you were to fall asleep on the couch and your spouse moved you to the bed. You wake up later disoriented an annoyed. Same exact thing. So, no more of that for us.

Lena's parents came by today, and her dad took a whole bunch of pictures for us. Here's a few:

Mylicon to the Rescue

So, the past few nights, Chloe has just been a little terror. Not Exorcist terror, but really, really fussy. Yesterday we noticed she was squirming a lot and passing all sorts of smelliness. Note: I did some reading and found that the formula they have her supplementing on actually causes some gas. Nice. Thanks. Anyway, we asked the doctor and he said she was fine to get some Mylicon drops. Gave them to her last night, she burped some and passed out for a few hours. At 10:30 she got them again, let out the biggest burp I've ever heard -- I mean, this puts frat boys to shame! -- followed by a few small ones, and slept until she was hungry again about 1:15am. She ate, and slept again until 4am. She just ate, took some more Mylicon, and is currently passed out with Mom. So, for those of you keeping score:

Mylicon = (Some) Sleep, even if it's broken up every few hours.

Happy Friday!

Growing

Well, she wanted to stay up most of the night last night. There was some sleep to be had, but she wanted to sleep on me. I would hold her until she was asleep, or almost asleep, and then try to put her down. She wanted none of that. So, I held her most of the night. And, boy, was she hungry. She's up to 2oz per feeding, but she had 70ml and 80ml at 12:30 and 3:45 this morning respectively. The good news is that she didn't throw up on me. She's eaten that much before, but both of those times, she purged right after. It's a clear sign that she's going through a growth spurt that she's eating so much all the time. I'm pretty sure she's over 6 pounds alreadym which is fantastic!

Have a great Wednesday, everyone!

Nice dress...

...the second outfit in 5 minutes. Oops!

Ready for your close-up?

Mommy and her babies

Aunt Jerilyn lends a hand

More Pictures

It's almost 6am and Lena and I just switched "shifts" with Chloe. Well, it was almost an hour ago, but I had dishes to do and wanted to update the blog. So, here I am, updating the blog. My parents leave today, but here are some of the pictures from yesterday. Enjoy!

Finally, a third set of hands to take pictures of the two-person bath. I can't wait until she can hold her head up and it won't take as much effort to keep her still while she gets the bath.

Grammy & Chloe

Grammy & "Popeye"-Chloe

Bapa & Chloe 1

Bapa & Chloe 2

No News Is Good News, Right?

Nothing much to report. Chloe's started sleeping for two or three hour stretches in her crib, as opposed to on someone's chest while they're sitting up all night on the couch. It's definitely nicer. Anyway, my parents are in town until tomorrow, so there will be more pictures soon. Other than that, everyone have a great week!

Picture This

Just a few pictures to pass the time.

Bedtime

Freshly Changed

Snug as a Bug

"Look, hands-free baby!"

Not quite ready for the "big girl" crib...

...let's try something a little smaller

Ahhh...A Real Bath!

Tonight was real bath time. The doctor gave the go ahead, so Chloe got to sit in her little bathtub. Unfortunately, since it's a two person job right now, there are no pictures from the actual bath. But, here's one from just after.

And just for fun, this is how we spent most of our 4th. Here's mommy and her babies (minus the cat who doesn't like her picture taken):

Happy Fourth

If Chloe had to come early, today is the day that we hoped she would be born. "Always fireworks on your birthday," we wanted to say. Oh well. At least she's home and healthy, am I right?

Anyway, just a short message today.

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!

Weighing In

Today was Chloe's first doctor's appointment since being released from the NICU last Tuesday. All in all, it was a good appointment. We had our questions answered and received a lot of information. So, what's the news? Here's how she compares to her numbers at birth:

Birth
4lbs, 13oz
17.5in

Now - 2.5 Weeks
5lbs, 6oz (+9oz)
18.75in (+1.25in)

Her numbers were up from birth last Tuesday when she left the NICU, but I don't have those numbers readily available, if at all. So, suffice it to say, her numbers are up, and that's a great thing. Her pediatrician was very optimistic at her progress after such a short time. Great news!

After a somewhat frustrating ordeal with getting the data from Chloe's monitor uploaded to the srvice and the report sent to the doctor, the results were astounding. Since last Tuesday when we left the NICU, the alarms on the monitor have gone off 21 times. Now, I already knew that many of those alarms were false because of burping and whatnot, however, when the nurse practitioner from the center called after the upload, it was all I could do not to laugh outloud. Of the 21 alarms that went off in the last week, only 2 were actual events. It's a bit frustrating, especially when you consider that many of them happened late at night. Not that we were asleep, but still, it's a pain. Of those two events, one was last Wednesday night where her heart rate dropped below 80bpm (beats per minute) for a few seconds, and the second was last night when her respirations were low (I don't know the threshold number) for 20 seconds. That's it. Her pediatrician had the report when we got there, and was, again, optimistic about her condition. As such, she'll continue on the monitor for at least another 6 weeks. At her 2 month appointment, depending on the number of events, her condition, etc., he'll determine if she keeps the monitor, or if we can call and have someone come pick it up. Really, it's good news, okay news. She keeps it (okay news), but her condition is promising (good news). Honestly, it's still just peace of mind to have it on her.

What else from the appointment? She is at risk for RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus - Click For More Info From the CDC) and will be vaccinated for it in the fall. Because she's a premie, her immune system isn't "fully charged" and so she needs the extra protection. As such, she can't be around sick people, children, etc. which makes it hard to take her out even just to the grocery store. It sounds like she just qualifies for the immunizations for RSV in the "At Risk" category, which means that insurance will pay for it. YEAH!

Because of the preeclampsia and HELLP Syndrome that Lena developed at the end of the pregancy, she gained a lot of water weight. What's funny about the gain is that at 5 months gestation she'd only gained 8 pounds. By the time she delivered that Friday, she'd gained 47 pounds. Between her last doctor appointment and being admitted a week later, she gained 8 pounds, which was one of the reasons she was admitted in the first place. Between admission and the next day when they weighed her again, she had gained 4.5 pounds overnight! The good news, two weeks after delivering, she'd lost 32 pounds, a vast amount of that just water. So, baby's gaining, mom's losing, and dad's maintaining. Amazing, since it feels like all I do right now is eat.

Nothing much else to report. We found that Chloe sleeps best when she's strapped into her car seat. A little sad that we can't strap her in at night. HA!

Slow News Day

Since today is a slow news day as far as updates, and since she kept us up most of the night, today you get pictures.

Middle of the Night Baths

You read that correctly. That's 'baths' plural. For the record, they say that a baby won't eat more than it can take. I wholly disagree with this statement as of midnight Saturday/Sunday. Chloe was eating and eating and eating. I went to burp her and she spit up about a quarter of what she'd just eaten. So we waited a little bit and then bathed her. Right after that, and just before dressing her, she did it again. So, there was another bath. She was fine after that, as I sat up with her until about 4am. So, like I said, I don't necesarily agreee with that statement that babies won't eat more than they can handle, because Chloe just ate and ate and ate, and then purged. Only got a little on me.

So, yeah, just a little boring, for the most part, and not much to report. Tuesday is Chloe's first doctor's appointment outside of the NICU. Maybe they'll let us leave the monitor there.

crossing my fingers