Measurements, shots and poop

Both the girls had check ups today with their pediatrician, Dr. Pham. Oldest goes first!

Riley is 23 lbs and about 32'' tall. For weight she is in the 50th percentile and for height she is in the 75th to 80th. He is not at all worried that she is still using bottles and wants to wait a little bit before we start phasing them out since we are having so many changes in our family as of lately. This was the first dr. visit in a long time that during the exam she did not cry. She just sat there and looked at him as he listened to her heart, looked in her eyes and then looked in her ears. I was so proud! She did get her 15 month shots today, which there were three of them. After some tears and crying (and some snuggling with Mama) she was able to walk out of the office on her own steam.

Now onto Bree...she weighed 5 lbs 10 oz and that was only a weight gain of 4 ounces in two weeks. He would like to see her gain at least a half an ounce a day. Since he can't increase her calorie intake (she's already at the max) we are going to be watching her weight very closely. If she continues in this pattern we may be looking at having a feeding tube put in again. She was 19 inches long, and is doing pretty well in all other aspects.

We are having issues with her pooping (every parent's favorite topic of discussion). She is not doing it on her own for some reason. So we have been instructed to give her a suppository every three days. Right now, it has been five days and she has not gone since christmas. We know it is bothering her because she was up over half the night last night (and we were too!). So needless to say, I am exceptionally tired today. I never thought I would say this, but I am excited to give her a suppository today because it means that we will all get WONDERFUL blessed sleep tonight. (Hopefully Riley complies with this too!)

Hope this finds everyone happy, healthy, and in love with life!

Faith Motto

"Trust in God with all your heart
No matter what you do.
Lean on him during hard times
and He will see you through"

Eye, eye, eye!!!

So today we had another eye appt for Bree with Dr. Golub. He is the doctor who did her laser eye surgery for her ROP and we have a standing date with him every Monday. (Okay, so it's not really a "date") Bree's left eye is doing great and he said today that it looks as though there is a complete recession of the disease. Her right eye is a different story. There are some great parts that are healing, while there are other parts that have showed no change for the good or for the bad. There is also a slight retraction of her retina, which is the biggest concern. If it retracts any further, we will be sent to consult with a retina specialist and we will probably be having another surgery of some sort.

Let's all take the time to praise God for his goodness and faithfulness! We thank Him for all that He has done, and we ask that He continue to be with Bree and to help heal her right eye. We would like to avoid all surgeries, but if that's what He has in store for us we will take it and do our best!

Hope this finds everyone happy, healthy, and in love with life!

First Smile

One momentous event for Bree occured on Christmas Eve. We were all getting ready to head off to church service to have Bree dedicated (which went great...and I will post pictures when I get them from our good friend!). Daddy was holding Bree while sitting in the recliner and Riley was standing next to them peeking at Bree. I happened to walk by and made some comment to Bree (I don't remember what it was), but she turned her head, looked at Riley and smiled. It was so precious that she gave her first "awake and aware" smile to her big sister. I can already tell that there is a special bond between these two and I can't wait to watch it grow and blossom over the years to come.

Hitching a Ride....

See...In our family, the women make the men ride on the back of the motorcycle. Rock on Riley!

Poor Ethan looked a little scared about Riley's driving skills though...

Happy Birthday Jesus!

We all had a GREAT Christmas today! We all got everything that we had asked Santa for...even little Bree got lots of cool toys. :) As a family we all sang Happy Birthday to Jesus (cheesy I know, but it is important to me)....We hope that you and your family had a joyous and blessed day as well.

The best gift of all...

Home sweet home?

When I always thought of bringing Bree home from the NICU, I thought it would be so great to snuggle with her, help Riley interact with her, and it would be filled with bottles, dirty diapers and all that other fun "baby stuff".

SURPRISE! It is nothing like that....we have at least two doctor visits (pediatrican check ups, eye doctor, pulmonologists, etc) a week that are out of the house, two nurse visits where the nurse comes to the house to check her weight, height, head and abdomen circumferences, and then to address any concerns that we have.

Here's an example of how our next week looks: Today is Christmas (Thursday). Tomorrow we have the RN coming to the house at nine in the morning. On Monday the nurse will come out again in the morning and then we have an eye appt at two thirty to check on her ROP. Tuesday both girls go to the pediatrician: Bree for a two week check up, and Riley for her fifteen month appt. On Thursday the nurse comes out again. And then on Friday we have an appt at PCH (Phoenix Children's Hospital) at ten in the morning with the pulmonologists to evaluate her need for oxygen and to see how she is doing.

Somehow I am suppose to find the time to pump amidst all of that. I am a little embarassed to admit that my pumping has fallen to the wayside since she has come home. I pump in the morning, in the afternoon and in the evening. I only get about 50-60 cc's each time. Luckily, we have a good stock of frozen breastmilk so we are doing half fresh, half frozen and then supplementing it with the formula to jump up the calories for her. I have ordered and am going to take an herbal supplement called Fenugreek to help boost my milk production. I had it recommended to me by one of the nurses at PCH so I hope it works. I was reading some of the side effects of it and it seems a little iffy. However, even with regular medicine (benadryl, tylenol, etc) there are some wierdo side effects so hopefully none of them from the Fenugreek will affect me.

As of Tuesday, Bree weighs 5 lbs, 12 ounces! Woo hoo! We are almost at the six pound mark !!!!! Yee hee!

Hope that this finds everyone happy, healthy and in love with life!

Early Christmas Present

With Adam's Mom here for a little visit we decided that we would each open one gift while she was here (each of which she either helped with or is going to). I tricked Adam by filling a large box we had with "stuff" (random things to make the box heavy), put a blanket on top of that stuff and put two small slips of paper on it with the tattoo's that he wants of the girls names. Before he opened it I asked him what he thought was in it, his answer was perfect..."I don't know, a bunch of crap? Ha ha ha!" He was right on the money!
Adam gave me a shoe box with a "certificate" for any type of shoe that I wanted. So I get to go shoe shopping after christmas! Woo hoo!
Bree didn't open any because, well, she can't. We didn't wrap any of her presents because as we learned last year, she'll get gifts that are wrapped from family so there is no point in us wrapping presents ourselves to unwrap them ourselves...
Riley ended up with a motorcycle...a crotch rocket to be exact. Seriously, she did. She loved it and enjoys being pushed on it so much! We even have the pictures to prove it:

Hope this finds everyone happy, healthy, and in love with life!

Photos

First Family Photos as Four

Whew! Say that ten times fast! Ha ha...so today, with the help of Adam's Mama, we made the trek to Sears to have our annual "Christmas time" family photos done. They went, well, as good as they could with a newborn with acid reflux that spits up anytime you move her, and a toddler that gets stage fright in portrait studios. We only got four pictures out of Riley, (two of which were accidental). Riley proceeded to pull out all of her tantrum tricks, which include: screaming, flailing, hitting anyone within reach (including trying to hit Bree), and all out Mama-clinginess. Needless to say, we are hoping that she'll do a bit better next time.

Bree did better than her big sister did! We were so careful to dress the girls right before we left the house and we put a bib on Bree so that if she spit up it would go on that and not the dress. Well, lo and behold, we whipped her bib off about ten seconds before the first picture was taken and Bleh...that's right, all over the dress. Luckily, she was dressed in an off-white dress which perfectly matched her spit up...one quick wipe and you never knew she spit up in the first place.

Today was the first, and last time, Bree will go out of the house to a public place (the exception being doctor visits). We had a great time...and we love the pictures that we got because they all tell a story of our family!

Hope this finds everyone happy, healthy and in love with life!

"All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth"

...And that is what Riley will be getting! Just yesterday I noticed a little bit of white on her gums next to her right front tooth. Her left front tooth has to squeeze between the two teeth that are already there so the next few days should be full of crankiness, whiny-ness, and fit throwing! BRING IT ON!!! :)



Hope this finds everyone happy, healthy and in love with life!

Sisters united at last!

Riley has done better with Bree than we were expecting...a little bit of jealousy, but that seems to be it so far! Here is some pictures...

Homecoming

We had a little bit of a mix up in communication regarding the time we were bringing Bree home. I had gone in in the morning with the intent to watch her eye exam at ten, then we were told that we had to wait six hours after her exam before we could bring her home. We had made all of our plans (dropping Riley off, cleaning house, etc.) around that. Well, I got there for the eye exam and Courtnee said "Ready to take her home? She's ready to go!" So after a flurry of calls and rushing back home to get Adam and drop off Riley we were back up at the hospital to pick her up!

Aunt Courtnee had to get one last picture in with Bree...

After that, we got our discharge instructions, packed up the little stuff we had left there, and proceeded to get her ready. We dressed her in her coming home outfit. (Bumble bee pj's and hat!), switched her over to her portable oxygen and made sure her apnea monitor was set to go. Adam loaded all up and we were ready to head out!

Courtnee walked us out with everything, and after a few dozen hugs, promises to stay in touch and almost three crying adults we were off! We got home and settled in quite nicely for the night. Our good friend Cheri was watching Riley for our first night home. We were even able to squeeze in her first bath!

Hope this finds you happy, healthy, and in love with life!

Nesting

Nesting was great as you can tell from the pictures! She is an awesome sleeper!!! I am amazed and feel so so blessed to finally have a good sleeper for a child. I love Riley to death, but she is a horrible sleeper. Even at the age of almost 15 months she wakes up at least twice a night. Ugh! The only downside to Bree being a good sleeper is that we have to wake her up every three hours to eat and she does not like it. We have to bounce her, change her diaper and work with her for a half an hour trying to get her to eat as much as possible. However, during a large majority of it she stays zonked out and feels like a sack of potatoes.

Speaking of sacks of potatoes...she is now the equivalent of a five pound bag!! Her weight last night was 5 lbs, 2 oz! What a big girl...woo hoo! We are both very excited to be bringing her home tomorrow and we are looking forward to the visit of Adam's Mama on Wednesday to help us out.

While we are on the subject of helping out...we both want to extend a warm, heartfelt THANK YOU to Danielle and Pat, Cheri and Steve, and Aleasha and Scott for being our helping support system during these crazy times for us. They have logged numerous hours in watching Riley for us so that we can go to doctor appts for Bree, classes for her monitors, nesting with her, and just allowing me time to go see Bree during the week while Adam is working. We don't know what we would have done without you all!!

Hope this finds you all happy, healthy and in love with life!

Picture post!

Officially...Homecoming day is...

MONDAY!! After her eye exam on Monday, (as long as it is good)...we get to pack up her stuff, put her in her carseat and walk out of the doors with her! To hear that car seat click into place in our car,and to know that she is in it, will be one of the sweetest sounds my ears will ever hear.

She is taking 50 cc's a feeding on average (which is about 2 ounces). As of today she weighs: Four pounds, thirteen ounces! Almost five pounds!!!!!!


We have a few classes we have to take before we can take her home. One is a class about the monitors she will be coming home on...she is at least coming home on an apnea monitor and on oxygen. The other class is infant CPR and choking. Then comes the BIG test....nesting. No, we don't have to build a nest or something silly like that, but we have to stay the night with her. It is a simulated "we are at home" test. They put us in a room for the night with her and she will be on all the monitors she will be on when we go home. They leave us alone for the night and let us fly solo. That way if something goes wrong in the night, or we push the wrong button we can be shown how to fix it and what to do. (BIG thank you to Danielle for watching Riley during these for us!!)

Hope this finds everyone happy, healthy and in love with life!

A Mama's Dilemma

So, I have been mulling over in my mind for the past three months on how Bree's homecoming will be. Of course, I would love for it be all smiles, hugs and kisses. Bree will come home and fit perfectly into our routine, and Riley will accept her with open arms and want to help all the time. As most of you who know me know, I think of every possible situation and I WAY overthink everything!!! This is true for her homecoming...the dilemma is this:

Riley is very much at the stage where I am the only one who can do things for her. This includes: snuggling and giving love (no one else will do, not even Daddy), play with her, read to her, and a few other things. Hence, the problem. When Bree comes home my time is going to be stretched even thinner than it is. It is going to hurt Riley's feelings that I cannot do everything with her anymore. This will result in fits and crying (I am sure of it!). Here's what breaks my heart: In order to take care of Bree properly, I am going to have to hurt Riley's feelings and cause her to feel neglected by me. Even thinking about this and writing about it brings tears to my eyes.

I am sure that every 'second time new mommy' deals with this problem, but it is exacerbated by the oxygen and apnea monitors she is coming home on. My heart aches and yearns for the day when Bree will be home and our family will finally be together all under one roof, but it also dreads the day I am going to have to look into Riley's sweet little eyes and tell her "No, Mommy can't give you love right now because I am doing something with Bree." She is not able to understand that and to see her little eyes tear up, and for her to cry is going to break my heart into a million pieces.

A "BUG"

So, there's this bug that is going around. No, not a ladybug or a bee...but more like an annoying fly that seems to land on you at the worst moment ever! Riley still seems to have 'the bug', which consists of throwing up, stomach cramps, horrible gas and diarrhea. Today was day three on her not eating much at all so tomorrow we may be taking a trip to the urgent care office if she is still not eating.

As if not one sick person is enough, Adam came home from work sick today. All my years of knowing Adam, (six years), he has only thrown up twice that I can recall. Once when he was trashed beyond belief, and the other when he had his wisdom teeth taken out. Today he has met that record. He threw up twice at work, and then once at home. He also has all the symptoms that Riley has, which has resulted in a lot of laundry between the two of them.

That is why it is unlikey that Bree will be coming home on Thursday. I refuse to have her come home to a house full of people with 'bugs'....because a little baby around that is bound to catch it. And we can't be having a little one with a bug...she'll end up right back in the hospital!

Let's all pray for the health and recovery of Riley and Adam...and for the protection of myself and Grandma against this "bug"...the last thing we need is four sick people.

Hope this finds everyone happy, healthy and in love with life!

Bree's news

On Monday, Bree had her eye exam....no change in her ROP. Which is a good thing, and a bad thing. On one hand, at least it is not worse. However, it is a bit discouraging. The doctor did say that he does sometimes see an improvement at this point, however the more average is that they see a response the second exam. If there is no change next Monday, we are going to have to consider a second surgery.

When I was feeding Bree on Monday, she had a coughing fit and then had rapid breathing afterward. The speech pathologist was worried about aspiration, so today she had a barium swallow test. It is kind of like 'x-ray in motion'. She got to sit in this special little chair, and I fed her a bottle of the barium while they watched her on the screen. It was so awesome to see her insides while she was swallowing. She passed her swallow test with flying colors!! No problems with her swallowing...the first little swallow she does she pushes a little of her "food" into her nose, but the doctor said that that won't cause any problems. She will figure out that it is unpleasant and will learn how to swallow correctly in time.

Bree could come home as early as Friday (which is unlikely...)or more realistically we are still looking at Monday-Tuesday ish...

An unlikely first

As of lately, we have been talking about a lot of 'firsts'. Namely, Bree's firsts. Well tonight we experienced one of Riley's firsts. It was not one that most people remember or celebrate for that matter, but it is a first. It was Riley's bed time and we were letting her run around and play because she was still up for it. You know, to help wear her out just a little bit more. She started to come towards me...and then she lost it. Yeah, that's right...she threw up all over herself and the floor. Poor kiddo....she threw up about four more times that time. Mind you, this was the first time she has ever thrown up. :(

We let her rest on me (thankfully none on me!) and when she was settled down, we got her cleaned up, changed and ready for bed again. We made a bottle of 3/4 water and 1/4 juice to help to rehydrate her. No sooner than three minutes of laying her down in bed did Adam hear the tell tale noise....and I got to change her bed, and wipe it down with clorox wipes. Nana helped us out and got the laundry load started to wash everything all up.

This time, we let her rest for an hour before we tried laying down again...and so far so goood. She's been down for a half an hour and right after I get down writing this I am checking on her and headed to bed myself.

I hope my sweet little girl wakes up refreshed...and with a non-yucky tummy!

Hope this finds you happy, healthy, and in love with life!

The "Question"

Sooo...the question has been answered! Bree will be coming home next week! We were told it could be as early as Thursday this week, but more realistically we are looking at next Monday! We are a mixture of emotions...obviously, we are thrilled with her coming home, it's what we have been waiting for all along. We are even more excited that it is before her due date....most preemies don't come home at least until their due date. (hers was December 19th).

However, on the other hand, it is scary to think that they have had her hooked up to all these monitors, watching her heartrate and her breathing, and we are going to be sent home with none of that if she comes off of the oxygen. If she comes home on the oxygen, she will be sent home with an apnea monitor and an oximeter. It is kind of a double edged sword situation. One one hand, it will be a little harder if she comes home on oxygen because of the monitors, and the oxygen itself. But, if she manages to get off of it, she comes home with none of the monitors, which is easier to move her around...but trust me, I will get no sleep at all!

Tomorrow is Bree's eye exam...the first since her surgery. Let's pray that the doctor at least sees a little bit of a positive step forward for her ROP.

Milk anyone??

So....yeah. I got a call tonight from the hospital during Adam's christmas party. Of course, we had missed the call and there was a voicemail. Both Adam and I panicked and I ran to go listen to it while Adam stayed in to be sure our ticket numbers weren't called if we were both gone. (It was during the raffle)

Luckily, nothing was wrong and it was just the night nurse calling to let me know that they were running low on milk. They didn't even have enough to get through the night!!!!! So, they are mixing about a 1/4 of formula with 3/4 breastmilk every bottle so that she is not getting 2 breastmilk and one formula. Darn it!!! I didn't want her to ever have any formula at this age....so, Adam is making an early run to the hospital to drop off some more. Grandma is going to go with Adam so she will get some snuggle time in with Bree.

Rrrrr!!

December 5, 2008

Good evening...

As of lately, I have been struggling to find something to blog about on a daily basis. There is always the basic update on Bree, but I feel like all I do is repeat myself. As I have said before...no news is good news! So, in light of that good news, I am going to be going to writing blogs at least once a week...or more if there is a special event in the family!!

I thank you all for the support, prayers and dedication in reading our blog and I hope that you coninue to do so!

Bree's update for today isn't much...she is still eating exclusively out of the bottle...no feeding tube usage as of lately. Woo hoo!! Other than that, she is staying the same with her oxygen and everything else. Her A's and B's have been getting better slowly as she is getting stronger and stronger from her surgery. Monday is her eye exam from her surgery so let's all hope and pray that it shows improvement and that she won't need another surgery!

Hope this finds everyone happy, healthy, and in love with life!

December 4, 2008

Well, this is officially the one hundredth post that I have done! Whew, it is hard to believe that I have posted that much! Lots of information in all of those posts too...and there is more to come in this one.

I went and saw Bree today. She got her first bath since her surgery and she did pretty well. It did tire her out, but I was able to feed her a bottle afterwards. The last 6 cc's were a bit tough to get in there, but after Courtnee tortured her (ha ha...not really!) she sucked it down. All Courtnee had to do was to unwrap her and take her hat off. If she's not super comfy and warm, it tends to wake her up. I'll stash that in my little bag of tricks for when she comes home.

MILESTONE ALERT! Bree has, for over the past twenty four hours, drank everything out of a bottle! Her feeding tube has not been used since she came out of the anesthesia from her surgery. I am so proud of her!!!

Riley's lip is a little better today. It is a darker shade of red, but that means that it is healing. On a good note, she grabbed Nana's cigarettes today and said "Yuck!!" Let's hope that she continues that behavior and frame of mind!

Hope this finds everyone happy, healthy and in love with life!

December 3, 2008

What a champ! Our little Bree is doing so so good today. Her eyes are really puffy from the surgery, which is to be expected. However, she is doing great on her oxygen! She is still at .1 liters and 35% oxygen on average. Her only 'issue' she is having right now is that she is having periods of "A's and B's" (apnea and bradycardia). This is where she forgets to breathe, and then her heartrate drops because of it. She is a little more tired because of her surgery so she gets worn out easier. Once she gets worn out, she relaxes her whole body and that is when she forgets to breathe. Her heartrate follows for a few seconds and then she picks herself right back up...

She is weighing in at 4 lbs and 9 ounces today! It is so crazy to think that we are rounding near the five pound mark....it seems just like yesterday that she was hitting the two pound mark and we were celebrating. She looks and feels just like a normal, just slightly smaller, sized baby. She even fits pretty nicely into some preemie clothes. From friends and family we have recieved many clothes for her and it is such a blessing! It is amazing how God fulfills your needs, even without you asking sometimes. Thank you to everyone who has helped us out, and a thank you to those who will in the future!

Hope this finds everyone happy, healthy and in love with life!

A lesson a little earlier than expected...

At the ripe age of 14 months, I had to have the "smoking is bad" talk with Riley. If you look closely at the picture above, you'll see a red mark in the middle of her upper lip. Nana (my grandma) is here visiting and she smokes. Riley was playing outside while Nana was smoking this afternoon. Nana put her cigarette down in the ashtray when it was still lit and came to the door to tell me something real quick. Next thing we know, Riley is at the door trying to put a cigarette in her mouth...backwards! Monkey see, monkey do! She ended up burning the top of her lip with it. I guess that is one way to learn that smoking is bad! I just thought I would be having this talk at 14 years old, instead of 14 months!

Nicole's Prayer for Bree

A friend of mine, who also has a preemie little boy, wrote this prayer for Bree and I wanted to share it with you all!

Dear Lord,
Thank for today and every day that you have given us. Thank you for the beautiful children which you have blessed us with already and those that are still to come. Please look over and protect our little ones and keep them safe in your arms. We ask that you please take extra care with our little Bree in the coming days as she goes through surgery and recovery. Please guide all the doctors and nurses in the best possible way and allow for a successful treatment for Bree's eyes.

In Jesus' name we pray, Amen!

December 2, 2008

Bree's surgery went well. The doctor said that they got all the portions that they were hoping to. The surgery time was a little bit later than we had expected. We were told 130 and it ended up being 230. Her surgery lasted from 230 to about 430. Adam and I were in the waiting room during that time...me reading a book and Adam watching SpongeBob. (of course!)

When she got out of surgery she was still on a ventilator due to the anesthesia that was used during the surgery. I just called and got an update (7:49 pm), and she is still on the ventilator because she is having a hard time waking up from the anesthesia. We were told that it takes some kids an hour, while others can take 5-6 hours to wake up from it.

Grandma Ogden (Nana) is going to be coming into town tonight so we are going to stop and see her since the airport is right by the hospital. I will update more when I get more info!

Let's all praise God and give thanks for his faithfulness and healing...he is an awesome God!

Hope this finds everyone happy, healthy, and in love with life!

December 1, 2008

Surgery is tomorrow. We were there today when Bree's eyes were checked, and her right eye is worse than her left. However, her left eye is also right on the verge of needing surgery so since they are doing the right eye, they are going to do the left as well. Her surgery will be at 1:30 tomorrow, is what I have been told. It is ordered to start eye drops at 1:30 to dilate her eyes for the surgery. I have not heard how long recovery will be or what it entails, but will ask tomorrow.

Adam and I will get to give her a quick bath before her surgery, which will be the first bath Adam gets to be present for. Hopefully I can get him to give it to her. With how small she is, it still freaks him out a little. She seems so breakable at times if you are not used to handling her.

A big thanks to Cheri and Aleasha for helping us with watching Riley so that Adam and I can both be there for Bree. Cheri watched Riley today, and Aleasha will be watching her tomorrow while Adam and I are there for her surgery and for her recovery. I t means so much to us to have friends that are still here for us even though it has been a long three months.

Please pray for the guidance of the doctors hands, for Bree's strength, and for a quick and successful recovery.

Dear God,

We thank you for today and we look forward to what tomorrow has to bring. Please be with Bree during her surgery tomorrow. Please guide the hands of the doctors and nurses that are caring for her. You are a big and great God, and you have already shown that you are a God of miracles! Just hold your daughter Bree in your arms, and let your healing pour over her tomorrow. Thank you for all that you do!

In Jesus' name we pray...Amen

I hope this finds everyone happy, healthy, and in love with life!

November 30, 2008

Good afternoon!

Today, we all took a family nap! It was so great! Okay, Riley slept in her crib, but
Adam and I retired to our bed and took a two hour nap this afternoon. Usually we don't take time for naps because there are a million other things to do, but we have been beat lately and needed a break. Sometimes you just have to put aside the cleaning, dishes and laundry to take some time for yourself.

Bree is doing well. I just called and got a quick update on her. She ate a full bottle last feeding and Becky, her nurse for today, is going to try again this next feeding. She has been resting well for the day and behaving herself quite nicely.

On Tuesday the opthamologist will be examining her eyes again in the afternoon. That examination will determine if surgery will be done or not. We are told that it is pretty for sure at this point unless a miracle happens. However, I remain optimistic because our God is a big God and we never know what he has in store!

Hope this finds everyone happy, healthy, and in love with life!

Novermber 29, 2008

We all went to see Bree today! Riley gave her sister her first kiss from her (melts my heart to look at the picture!) and then her second... and then her third! In fact, Riley was very into giving her kisses. However, Riley thinks that Bree is a baby doll and even asked me to give Bree to her. (she said please in sign language and then held her arms out for Bree.) It was so cute, but I did not give her what she asked for obviously!

Adam hadn't seen Bree in about two weeks so he couldn't believe his eyes when he saw her! He got to feed her today, and she gave him quite a scare. She decided to choke on her milk, and we are both very jumpy with her. I think that will last for a bit considering what we have been through.

I was brave enough to hold both girls for a picture, which turned out quite nicely I might add! Riley was interested in Bree's nasal cannula and did try to pull it out. I think we are in for a bit of a struggle if she comes home on oxygen. Riley will have to learn to leave it alone.

Bree is doing great. She is up to 35 cc's of breastmilk, and is down to .1 liters of oxygen at 50%. She is attempted to be fed every feeding and as of right now the pattern she is holding at seems to be one full feeding by bottle, then she takes about half of the next one by bottle but becomes too tired to take the rest. She receives the rest of it through her feeding tube. The next bottle she drinks, she drinks all of it and etc... etc...

Hope this finds everyone happy, healthy, and in love with life!

November 28, 2008

Good evening!

Well, we have some good news and some bad news today. Good news is that all last night Bree ate her meals out of a bottle! She is up to 4 lbs 5 ounces and is doing GREAT in her big girl crib! The bad news is that they did her eye exam again today and her ROP is worse. They are talking about laser surgery (90 percent certain it will happen). They are re-checking on Monday and if it is the same or worse they will be doing the surgery next week. We are reassured that it is a short recovery time, but any type of surgery scares me.

Since her eye exam today, she has been tired and irritable. The eye exams are stressful for her and seem to ruin her day when she gets one. We are all going to see her tomorrow morning and to get a picture of both of the girls in their christmas dresses for our christmas cards. They both have off white and gold dresses that are oh-so -cute!

I tackled and braved the crowds today for Black Friday shopping deals and I emerged triumphant! I actually need to get to wrapping some presents so.........

I hope this finds everyone happy, healthy and in love with life!

November 27, 2008

From our family to yours, Happy Thanksgiving! We hope that you enjoyed your day with friends and family. We hope you ate lots of turkey, smashed potatoes, and are currently relaxin on the couch watchin football and thinking about if you can fit another piece of pie into you! We are thankful for our miracle baby Bree, and for all of our family and friends. Even the friends we have never met, but who follow our story we are appreciative of! I think it is so cool that we have people from Australia, Washington, Maine and all over that read our story. I think it would be really cool if everyone could post where they are from (and their name!) in the form of a comment on here so we could see how many followers we have!

We got the best news ever today! We were told (in the words of the nurse) that "come hell or high water" Bree will be home for Christmas!!!!! Exciting exciting exciting!!! Today, she is 4 pounds, 3 ounces. She was moved to a big girl bed again, and is down to .2 liters of oxygen at 50%. She is doing great!!! She is doing so awesome with her feeds on the bottle that they might be moving her to eating 2 of every 3 feeds out of a bottle. We are so happy and excited about all of this great news today!

We hope this finds everyone happy, healthy, and in love with life!

November 26, 2008

Good evening!

We didn't get a chance to go see Bree today, but I did call and get an update on her. I was told by her nurse today, Fran, that Bree is a pleasure to take care of, and is oh-so-cute! (I agree!) She ate both of her feedings from her bottle in about 10-15 minutes each. She has been weaned down to .3 liters for oxygen.

Today we had a late morning at the house, and then we all went out to Uncle Ricks (except for Adam who was at work) to hang and have some dinner. We even made a short trip to Devin and Jason's house to see how it was all set up. Devin is nine months pregnant and is in the last few days of her pregnancy. She is having contractions and hopes that Baby Wyatt will stay in for a few more days so that she can get Thanksgiving and Black Friday shopping out of the way!

A little funny story tonight about Riley: She is really wanting to drink out of the cups that we have. So, tonight I grabbed a plastic shot glass for her to have for her own. At first, we gave her a bit of Diet Mountain Dew in her "cup". She did great with it! I didn't want her to have too much of the soda, so I went and got some water that we could pour into her "cup" for her. She was drinking from it pretty well, and she even was so nice that she wanted to share with her Auntie. She took her full little shot glass and quickly thrust her arm in the direction of Auntie. This proceeded to throw the water all over her Auntie!! Too funny!

Also, here's the picture from Santa...she wasn't too happy about it!

Hope this finds everyone happy, healthy, and in love with life!

November 25, 2008

Good evening!

The day started off with a visit to Bree. She is doin great as you can see! When the picture was taken, she was getting all ready for her bath...She is now 4 lbs, 1 oz, and is up to 33 cc's a feeding, which is supplemented so that it is 36 calories per feeding. Her ROP results were left for me, and it has not gone down, but it has shown no increase or change at all. No news is good news!

Today she enjoyed her bath, but it wore her out so much that she wasn't able to nipple her feeding. So she got to try, but when she wasn't interested it got put onto her pump to go through her feeding tube. Wehn we left, she was snug as a bug in a rug. She was swaddled, and put back into her isolette.

With the family, we took a little trip this afternoon and ran a few errands. After a few quick stops we stopped at the "air park" located on base. We played around, took some pictures, and Riley had a great time! She enjoyed crawling back and forth over the brick border that was lining the area. (Kids play with the wierdest things!) Here is a snapshot my stepmom she took as us kiddos were headed back to the car.

Hope this finds everyone happy, healthy and in love with life!