70 days

Sorry it's been so long since I last updated...been busy! Lauren is still doing well. Still periods of feeling like we are on the roller coaster, but for the most part everything is going well. Lauren still likes the sound of her monitor alarms. She is having less episodes of her oxygen level decreasing and when she does have them usually the Nurses don't have to do anything. They tell us that when they go off, all they have to do is start walking over and she comes back up and the monitor goes quiet again. Lauren must like giving them a hard time. :) She is still on the high flow nasal oxygen and is still slowly being turned down. Hopefully in the next week or two she will be able to go on the nasal cannula itself with low flow oxygen. We have to continually remind ourselves that she will show us when she is ready.

3lbs 13oz is her current weight. She almost looks chubby! Okay, not really, but she looks so much bigger than at birth. She has been holding her temperature very well for about a week or so and the next step is to put her in an open crib. They were considering doing this today, but Lauren has been very sensitive to sound (it makes her oxygen level decrease) so they are holding off for little longer.

Lauren has been showing more cues that she is feeling hungry. She will try and eat her hands and smack her lips and yes...CRY! It is so nice to see her be able to communicate in this way now. She feeds from a bottle occasionally and when I'm there we also work on nursing. She does get tired out and usually ends up having the rest of her food put down the feeding tube. There has been a couple times when she has taken the whole bottle though. She is getting just over an ounce every 3 hours now.

It seems like we get a different estimate every day about when Lauren might be able to come home. One doctor says 2 weeks, another says 3 and so on. We are looking into transfer to Salem now and we will see what the insurance's decision is. Hopefully it's a yes!

I can't believe that she might be home in less than a month...or a month...sometime fairly soon though. It's been 70 days that she has spent in the NICU as of today and she has come such a long way. From 1lb 3oz at birth to 3lbs 13oz now. This whole experience has been so crazy...a constant roller coaster. I know that Lauren will come home eventually, but sometimes I feel like is this ever going to end? Will I ever get to just have her at home and see her whenever I want and tend to all her needs instead of someone else doing it? There was another family in the NICU today that was fitting their lil' one for a car seat because they will be going home in a day or two and I couldn't help but watch them out of the corner of my eye. I was tearing up watching them because all I want is to be able to have that day soon too.

Okay okay...enough sappiness. Will try and update again soon

More pics...

Not too much new...just wanted to post some more cute pictures. Lauren is now 3lbs 6oz!

Well...I guess there is some new stuff. Lauren had another eye scan today and it showed stage 1 retinopathy. Dr. Kaempf said this is not surprising due to Lauren being born so premature. He also said that stage 1 usually means it will progress to stage 2, but hopefully it will stop there. Treatment will be indicated if she gets to stage 3+. She will have another scan in 2 weeks, and we will see what that shows.

We were able to be there when Lauren got a bath yesterday and we were both afraid she would hate it and cry the whole time. She actually did very well and only fussed for a minute or two and then seemed to enjoy it. She stayed awake for about 30 minutes after and seemed very content. We just love seeing her with her eyes open. I'm so curious to see what color eyes she will have and if her hair will change color from blonde to brown.

I still can't believe that her stay in the NICU is coming closer to an end. It's hard to believe it has been 2 whole months. She is incredible and I know it is so cliche to say, but you really don't know how much you can love someone until you have a child. I love my family and my husband, but this love is just different and it's hard to find the words to explain how...but luckily all you parents out there know what I mean. :) She makes everything worth it...being tired, all the driving, working, etc...once I see her, all the tiredness and stress go away.

Remarkable

Lauren has been continuing to do very well. Dr. Kaempf, who has been with her the majority of the time, called her "remarkable" yesterday. What a great accomplishment for Lauren. She had so many breathing issues, was born so early and was so small that she truly is remarkable. Dr. Kaempf also said he is very impressed with how well Lauren can track with her eyes at this point. If someone is talking to her and they move from one side of her isolette to the other, she will turn her head and look at them on the other side.

It is time to try and start using a bottle to feed Lauren, so hopefully she will take to it. The Nurse tried a little today and Lauren wasn't too interested and just gagged. They will keep trying as this is one thing she must be able to do to go home.

Speaking of going home, I talked to the Nurse about when that might be and she said they usually don't see many babies still in the NICU when they would be 38 weeks gestation. Usually they have met all the criteria to leave around 36-37 weeks. Lauren would be 34 weeks now and I can't believe there is a possibility we could have her home in less than 4 weeks! I'm very excited about it, but freaked out at the same time. Part of me still thinks she will be closer to the 38 week mark, but we will just have to wait and see.

My sister, Kelly, was able to come with me to visit Lauren Friday night. She got to hear her give out a big cry...I think she was stunned at how loud it was. Kelly thought she looked huge too. Lauren looks like a chunk now that she has hit 3lbs! Her current weight is 3lbs 4oz.

Staying Strong

Lauren has been doing very well these last few days. She was taken off CPAP on Monday @ 9am and was put on high flow oxygen through a cannula in her nose. (You can see what it looks like in the pictures.) So far she has been doing well and has not needed to go back on CPAP. That is still an option if she does get tired out. Having Lauren off CPAP is so nice when I get to hold her because now I can actually feel her little head against me instead of the hat & CPAP tubing. I'm glad her head is also getting a break from wearing the hat. She occasionally desats, but brings herself right back up with no help.

Lauren is also becoming more and more vocal. She is able to give a cry that actually sounds like a real baby instead of little whimpers. She still amazes me with her strength. She can lift her head up and turn it side to side with no problem. She has also hit the 3lb mark and will hopefully continue to gain at a good rate now. We're so excited she's at 3lbs!

We are still hoping for a transfer to Salem Hospital at some point. The doctors would like Lauren to have her next eye exam (next week, I think) and then think more about getting approval for transfer. The reason they want the eye exam done first is because if she needs treatment, it is done at St. V's.

We are hoping that we are getting into the more boring part of Lauren's stay in the NICU. The doctors touch base with us everyday to let us know how things are going and instead hearing how one thing is better and something else is worse, hopefully it will be more of a steady incline of improvement from now on. We don't want to get complacent though.

We learned of little nickname that the night shift Nurses gave to Lauren a while ago. Apparently when she would desaturate, there was one Nurse that would talk to her very quietly and sweet while stimulating her to breathe. Well...it sounded like she was saying "Norman, you can do it" "breathe Norman..." So finally, another Nurse asked her why she was calling her Norman and she said "No...I'm saying Lauren it's just to quiet to hear". So now we occasionally refer to Lauren as Norman.

Movin' up!

Good news! Good news! Lauren has been moved from the level III area of the NICU to level II. This happened on Friday and she has been doing well. The level III area needed room for new babies and Lauren was stable enough so she got the boot. Being moved means they don't think she will go back on the ventilator and that she will continue to grow healthy and strong.

She is on CPAP still and it seems to be going well. She is getting 15mls of milk every 2 hours and then they attatch a syringe to the tube (from her mouth to her stomach) to vent air from her stomach after she eats. The CPAP constantly blows air, so some air ends up going to Lauren's stomach which she doesn't like too much. When she gets bothered by the air she tries to push the air out by "burping" through the tube from her stomach. Sometimes when she is trying to "burp" she holds her breath and she desaturates, but recently these are the only time her oxygen saturations decrease. To avoid so much air being blown into her stomach, the doctor is considering changing Lauren to high flow oxygen through a nasal cannula. It could be a couple days or weeks before they try the switch if at all. I was reassured by her Nurse & respiratory therapist today that if she did go on the high flow and didn't tolerate it, she would just go back on CPAP and that is not a set back like going from CPAP to the ventilator is.

I can't believe how much weight Lauren has been gaining lately. She is doing so well in this department! She is 2lbs 15oz now. She did look a little puffy in her feet today so she may lose a little over the next day or two. I was looking at pictures from when she was first born and comparing them with today's pictures and she looks like such a big girl now. My perspective on baby size has really changed after having a micro-preemie.

Feisty little girl

Lauren is still on CPAP! She has been on it since the 1st and is doing pretty well. She had a rough night last night with lots of oxygen desaturations, but redeemed herself today. Apparently, even though she had many desats, she was able to bring herself out of them and did not need any extra oxygen or any stimulation. Hopefully as she is getting older, these episodes will be less and less.
She has been doing so well with her feedings that they took her off the IV nutrition! She kept doing well and was able to get her PICC line out too! It's nice to have 1 less piece of equipment for her to be hooked up to. It was a little odd to walk in and not see a big IV pole next to her. More room for us to move around now which is nice. More nutritional labs were drawn yesterday and finally showed an improvement which is good news. Lauren is currently 2lbs 10oz!
She also had her first eye exam this week to check for Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP.) This is a concern for premature babies and the risk increases when they are also low birth weight like Lauren. ROP can lead to slight vision problems requiring glasses or to blindness. Lauren's exam was NORMAL! She will have another exam in a few weeks, so we are trying to keep in mind that may show some changes, but we're very glad this initial exam was good.
Here are some pictures that I took today.
#1-I just wanted to show off how much blonde hair she has! :)
#2-One of our favorite Nurses, Audrey, put Lauren in a preemie onsie today! It was so cute to see her in it. It was so big on her.
#3 & #4- When the Nurse & respiratory therapist suctioned and changed her CPAP equipment, Lauren did not want them to put the CPAP prongs back in her nose so she decided to just put her hand in the way! We were all laughing pretty hard at her, because they had to pry her hand out of the way.

One more funny thing-- The Nurse said that after she changed one of Lauren's diapers this morning, she had to leave the top of her isolette up for a while because she needed to air it out since it stunk so bad. :) I'm sure Lauren is going to love reading this years from now!

Can You Tell What's Different...

Notice anything different about this picture...that's right! Lauren is back on CPAP as of 11 this morning. Her blood gases have been great and she did well when they turned the ventilator rate down to help her start taking her own breaths. So far, the doctor and nurses are pleased with how she doing off the ventilator. They are slowly increasing her feeds as she is still having problems with reflux, but at least she is able to get some milk feedings. They have been weaning down the IV and her blood sugars are back in the normal range, so Insulin for the last 2 days.

My mom & I had a nice visit with Lauren for a couple of hours today. I didn't get to kangaroo her because her nurse thought we should wait a day. She was pretty hoarse when she cried after the extubation and her nurse didn't want to irritate her airway anymore with moving her to me in case she cried. I always want to hold her, but I am content with just being by her side and able to put a hand over her. Lauren has been putting on some more weight and is up to 2lbs 4oz! Hopefully she will continue to gain. My mom thought that she looked HUGE compared to when she was born. :)

I asked the nurse if there was any specific weight that Lauren would have to meet before being discharged and she said Lauren will have to maintain her temperature, be able to feed and be able to adequately oxygenate. She said they send babies home that are only 4lbs! We also got a call from our insurance case manager that she reviewed our policy and our insurance will only pay for a transfer if it is "medically necessary." Well, St. V's is a level 3 NICU as is Salem, so there would be no necessity, just convenience for us. I spoke to the doctor who was on today about it and she said that occasionally if St. V's has a high enough census they & the receiving hospital sometimes split the transfer cost. That would be great, but for now we just have to wait it out and let Lauren grow stable enough for a transfer.