November 1, 2008

Good Evening!

We are all beat and tired, but we have all of our big furniture and 90% of our stuff is moved into the new house! Big thanks to Mark, Megan, Scott, Joel and Kristina! Our friend Mark was able to borrow a trailer for us to move all our stuff with and it only took two trips....(wow!)

Riley has adjusted well to the new house. She has not had any crying issues with naps today and she went down to bed rather easily. I know the next few days will be the true test, however so far so good.

Bree had a little bit of an eventful night last night. She was in an open crib (which I was excited about), however, she wasn't gaining weight fast enough. The nurse explained that she was using her energy to maintain her tempature in the open air bed instead of using it to "pack on the ounces". So they have switched her back to the isolette to help her conserve her energy a bit more. It is the "two steps forward, one step back" dance that we were warned about when she first went into the NICU. I know it is best for her to be back in the isolette, but I cannot help but feel a little disappointed. We did buy a mobile for her crib today (okay, Mama bought it...I picked it out!)

On the plus side, she is up to 2 lbs, 10 oz and her feeds have been increased to 22 cc's every three hours. She is still recieving the breat milk, but it is being "enhanced" with calories. Each feeding is 26 calories total. She is also recieving a liquid multivitamin, and few other meds. (like sodium...etc) Well, I have to go help move the futon into the house so Mama has somewhere to sleep!

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

October 31, 2008

BOO!

I am sure that that did not scare many of you, but I had to throw it in there! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Bree is a bumblebee for halloween, you've seen her cutie little outfit I made for her. It is a picture from Carrie Fay (it's a few posts back!) Riley is being a nurse (in training of course). We thought it would be rather appropriate considering that more than half of our time is spent at the hospital. Tonight we are not doing too much...I am spending the day packing and doing schoolwork. This evening we are going to our church's "Festival in the Park"...it will be loads of fun I am sure! Then it is back to our house to pack some more. We are moving tomorrow morning, so it will be a little crazy tomorrow and I may not get a post up.

Bree is a healthy 2 pounds 9 ounces today (which is 1160 grams). She is down to 2 liters and 28% oxygen on her nasal cannula and is doing well with it. There is not much else going on with her....we're back to no news is good news! Woo hoo!

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

October 30, 2008

NO MORE ISOLETTE!! Yay! Bree did so well with being an an open air bed that she is now in a big girl crib with a mobile and everything! WOO HOO! Riley and I are about to head down there in our halloween costumes to show off to Courtnee. Both Riley and I are being nurses. Okay, I am really just wearing scrubs from my CNA days, but Adam thought it would be cool if I wore scrubs with Riley.



Bree is now 2 lbs 9 oz, so she is slowly growing...six more ounces and we'll be in the three pound arena! Woo hoo....



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

October 29, 2008

Good morning!

I am up bright and early this morning so that I can go clean the rental house for a bit while Adam is home with Riley. Okay, I am actually up so early that it is not even bright out...still dark outside. Adam doesn't have to go to work until 11 today so I am going to go clean the new house from 7-9 in the morning, come home and pump, take Riley to Aleasha's and then go to a dr appt at noon. It is my six week well checkup so it's not really a kid friendly appt.

This week must be a week of milestones and events for our family! Let's see first bath for Bree yesterday, Friday is halloween, and Saturday we are moving into our new house. Why I say this is because Bree is now such a big little girl (there's an oxymoron for ya!) that she is now in an open air bed!!! YAY! This means that she is not closed in her 'box' anymore and they have lifted the lid of it. If she continues to do well with maintaining her tempature on her own she gets to move to a real little baby crib. WOO HOO! I can't wait to go and see her in her big girl bed!

She has also been weaned down to 2.5 liters on her nasal cannula. She is also needing less and less oxygen support. The nurse tonight informed me that when she is on her tummy she does perfectly fine with room air (21% oxygen). When she is not on her tummy she is requiring 30% oxygen....I think my little heart will burst from being so proud of her!

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

October 28, 2008

Woo hoo! Three milestones have been reached! Okay, really only two of them are milestones to most people, but as I have mentioned before we are bit on the odd side. First, (the "real" one), Bree had her first bath in a baby bath tub! Up until now she has been getting sponge baths. Courtnee was able to assist me in all my bath-giving glory (quickly wiping her with a washrag), so now Bree has soft fuzzy clean hair, and a smell good little body!

The second milestone happened right before her bath. We had stripped her down and I was holding her as Courtnee was bringing the bath over to us. Just as I was lowering her into the bath, she peed on me! Woo hoo! I have finally been christened! Ha ha!

Thirdly, and lastly, Bree is officially a member of the United States of America! After much worrying and waiting, her social security card came in the mail today! It only took like seven weeks! Whew! That's one less thing to worry about....

Since they have taken her PCVC out, Bree now has no more IV lines! So all that is on her is her nasal cannula for oxygen, her feeding tube, and her "leads". (The leads are for vital signs: oxygen saturation, heartrate and breathing). Each time there are less and less "things" on her so it means that we are on the right track!

Riley also had an exciting day. My good friend, Aleasha, watched Riley for me while I was up with Bree this morning. Aleasha's son, Ethan (aka Riley's boyfriend!) gave Riley her first kiss from him. Up until this point it has been Riley laying on the smooches. When we were leaving Aleasha asked Ethan to give Riley hugs and kisses and he very slowly (and 'gentlemany') gave her a sweet kiss on the forehead. Okay, all together now, let's say "Awww!". :)

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

October 27, 2008

Good morning!


We have had a rather successful morning so far. Riley had a WONDERFUL photo shoot with Carrie Fay, and of course I was there too. She played, ran around and acted just like a antsy little toddler. I think we got some really good shots in there. Ironically, this photo shoot is EXACTLY one year from her first photo shoot with Carrie Fay. The only reason I know that is because we did it on my birthday last year...and so we did it today on my birthday this year.


I am the big 2-3...okay, so it's not that big, but it's still something fun to celebrate. We aren't doing anything special that I know of, and Adam isn't known for surprising me with things so I am sure we will just have a lazy night at home. He won't even get home from work until 7 ish, so I will have already eaten dinner. (Speaking of which I need to take something out for dinner).


While at Carrie Fay's house this morning, I picked up the pictures from when she went with me to see Bree in the NICU. Bree had just turned one month old and we wanted to get some pictures since we had done Riley's at one month. The pictures turned out beautiful!

These were eight of my favorites! A huge thank you to Carrie Fay for taking these beautiful pictures! I will upload all the others to my flickr account tomorrow (busy day today!).In case you don't know, my flickr account is at www.flickr.com/photos/gonce .

Bree is up to 2 lbs, 8 oz as of this morning! She had gone down to 2 lbs, 5 oz but she gained three ounces in one day! Big girl! We hope she starts packing on the ounces!

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

October 26, 2008

Good afternoon!

Adam and I are about to head off to see Bree with Joel and Kristina. Kristina works right by the hospital so we gave her a wristband to be able to see Bree on her lunch hours. Her husband Joel, then hears all this information about Bree...but has never seen her. So we want to be able to "put a face to the name" for him. :)

Bree is up to full feeds! Because she is tolerating full feeds, it means that she is not getting TPN anymore. She is strictly getting breastmilk and they do add some vitamins into it to make it 24 calories a feeding. They have to make sure that she is getting her caloric needs to be able to grow. She has lost a little bit of weight lately, so she is 2 lbs 5 oz as of last night. Since she is just on breastmilk, the nurses are taking out her PCVC line. This is exciting because it greatly decreases her risk of infections. Yesterday, we went to see Bree after we went to the pumpkin patch and Adam's mom got to hold her. I am going to post all the pictures after all this...

Riley had a good time at the pumpkin patch...Adam, Mama and myself found it disappointing though. Adam and I grew up in Washington state...and where we come from (wow I sound old!) you go out in your boots and tromp around in the mud to find your pumpkin. Half the time you get stuck in the mud about 2-3 times! However, we got to play with Riley and we picked out pumpkins for Riley and for Bree.

Adam and I are off to see Bree...and to go to his birthday present from his parents....WWE Wrestling! They are in town tonight for the "Cyber Sunday" Pay Per View, so it should be a whole bunch of excitment, loud noises and fireworks...

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

October 25, 2008

Pumpkin Patch here we come!

This morning Adam, Riley, Mama and myself are going to venture out to Schnepfs Farm to go pumpkin hunting. We will take our time to make sure we all find the right one, and to have lots of fun with Riley! She has gotten to more and more fun the more she grows up...she has got the cutest little laugh and the most adorable smile. She is repeating and learning words like crazy...in the past few days she has learned (and knows how to use) the words "Thank you" (ak-oo), "Cheese" (chee!), and "Good Girl" (guh-guh). These combined with her usual "Uh-oh" (uh-uh), Mama (Mama), Dada (Dada or Da-DEE), Tipsy (ti-ti), and Jet Jet (je-je). Both of our girls amaze us daily with ther growth and development.

Speaking of our girls and growing...Bree is going up to 18 cc's of formula this morning. As of tomorrow at this time she will be at a full feeding for her body weight. Exciting stuff! Adam had gotten the day off yesterday and we went down to see Miss Bree. He got to hold her and I got some marvelous pictures! I hope you all enjoy them....

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

October 24, 2008

Mornin mornin!!

Bree is off her CPAP!! She switched off of it yesterday morning right before I showed up for the day. I got to hold her for a good two hours, and it seemed as if she had the best nap she has had while layin on me. The nurses had gotten me set up in a giant lay-z-boy chair, so I was all laid back and comfy with Bree on my chest. Once she had settled down and was completely zonked out and not moving, I broke out "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" to reread. I think I got through 150 pages or so before I had to leave for the day because of a previously made engagement.

She is up to 16 cc's of breastmilk as of this morning...and doing great with it! A full feeding for her is 20 cc's and that is based upon her weight right now. So, as she grows she will get more breastmilk, and soon (hopefully) they will start to let her try the bottle. Exciting stuff!

She is on 30-35% oxygen with her nasal cannula...which I am so glad that she is on the nasal cannula. Adam got the day off of work for finding a 'golden tool' (It's a gold piece of paper with a drawing of a tool on it and if you find it you get a day off). I am really hoping that he'll get to hold her because it has been almost a month since he held her. She has grown a lot since then! Hopefully I'll get some good pictures to share with all of you tomorrow!

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

October 23, 2008

Good morning!

Bree is doing well this morning...she rested comfortably most of the night last night. She is still having troubles with maintaining her oxygen rate, so I am just guessing here but they might do some tests to make sure she doesn't have any infections brewing or anything of that manner. She did have a bradycardic episode last night (when her heartrate drops low) around 2am. That also makes me worried. She is now a whopping 2 lbs, 8 oz!! As of 8am this morning she will be going up to 14 cc's every three hours for feeds. She is still sitting at 35% oxygen and a pressure of 5 on her CPAP, but other than that we have no other new news!

Riley is playing in her crib right now...I can hear her over the monitor. However, I need to pump before I go get her up. She has learned that when 'Mama is pumping, Mama can't do anything'...yeah, it's real fun! So, in the mornings she stays in bed until I am ready for her to get up.

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

October 22, 2008

Good afternoon everyone!

Bree has reached two milestones today! One, she now wears clothes...little tiny clothes, but they are cutsie little dresses. Two, she in now well enough that she can be stolen! Most parents would not think that is a milestone, but as you all know we are a bit on the odd side. Actually, she is really well enough she can be stolen, so they have put the "baby lo-jack" onto her right leg. It looks like a little black box strapped to her leg. This contraption causes all doors to lock if she is taken too close to them. It is a great safety device that helps to set our minds at ease just a little bit more.

Mama went with me to the hospital this morning, while our good friend Cheri watched Riley for us. Mama was hoping to be able to hold Bree, but was unable to because Bree had just gotten a bath, and a new bed change. She had already had a lot of movement and change for the day, and was having a hard time keeping her oxygen saturations at a steady rate. We will try again for another day! Bree is up to 12 cc's of breastmilk every three hours and she is doing great with it! She did have to go back on her CPAP yesterday because she was having a hard time breathing and was using too much energy. They are also giving her a drug that will help to draw some extra fluid out of her lungs that they found evidence of yesterday with an x-ray.

We did find out some good information regarding her brain bleeds however. They are at a stage three, but in the report it is noted that the ventricles are only "mildly enlarged". The ventricles being enlarged is what classifies her brain bleeds as a stage three so to hear that they are only mildly enlarged is a relief. It means that she is on the mild end of the spectrum of stage three brain bleeds! Praise God!

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

October 21, 2008

Grow Bree Grow!! She is for sure growing and getting bigger by the day. About every two days she gains one ounce, so as of right now she is 2 lbs, and 4 ounces. Her official length (as of two days ago) is 14 and 1/4 inches long! You go girl! So she has gained almost a whole pound and grown an inch and a quarter in 5 1/2 weeks....

Isn't the picture on here the cutest (and saddest) little cry face ever?? I might be just a slight bit biased, but I sure think so!

Last night, Riley woke up three times! We are not sure if it is teething or growing, but we realized we are out of tylenol for her. (Why does it always happen when you need it!?) Even this morning, she has been crabby and just not herself. She will be fine and happy for a while and then out of nowhere become a fit throwing, toy throwing, crying, screaming child. So, she is down for an early nap this morning. I am hoping that it will change her attitude a bit because we have some errand running and grocery shopping to do...

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

October 20, 2008

Woo hoo!! As you can see, I got to hold Bree this morning. It is so nice to hold her without the ventilator tubes. Hearing her little squeaks and grunts just melts my heart. It is so great to hear all of her noises, the fact that she can make noise now just reinforces the point of how well she is doing. She is now just on the nasal cannula, and is requiring about 35% oxygen when she is resting comfortably.

She is now up to 8 cc's of breastmilk every three hours, and I got to "feed" her again this morning while I was holding her. I held her for about 1.5 hours, until I had to get up to pump, eat and use the restroom. I wish I could sit and hold her all day long!

Our biggest monster (Riley) has had a super fun morning with her Grandma Gonce. I was informed that she ate a BIG lunch, played peek a boo, sang songs, and even got to play outside!

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

October 19, 2008

Okay, Okay..I am posting this WAY late, but it is still the 19th. We've had a crazy, busy friend filled day today! Bree also had another eventful day...she was switched off of her CPAP today to a regular nasal cannula with humidified oxygen support. This means that she does not have the positive pressure in her airway. Bree is doing it all on her own now! She is breathing a little harder than they would like, but they are keeping a close eye on her. If they think it is taking too much toll on her they will switch her back to the CPAP.

She is a hungry little girl as of lately! They have been uping her feeds one cc every twelve hours, and she is up to seven cc's every three hours. She weighs a hefty 2 lbs, 4 ounces now!

We had a great day with friends....we had church this morning, lunch with Joel and Kristina at Red Robin (mmm..banzai burger!), and then had Jim, Iliyah, and Nathan over for dinner. I learned someting new today too....how to make spanish rice from scratch. It is rather tasty!

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

October 18, 2008

Good morning everyone!

As you can see, we have a pacifier loving baby on our hands...Riley loved hers as well, so she is already following in her sister's footsteps. The nurses are really impressed with how well that she does with it. It even helps to calm her if she is a little more fidgety than normal. Now I did ask this morning, and it is not for another 3 weeks until she develops the suck, swallow, and breathe reflex. So we are still on the feeding tube for a little bit...

It is so great to see her on the CPAP..however, now we just can't see her nose. Ha ha! We can see her little lips tho, and they are just as beautiful as we expected them to be. The CPAP is less tubes than the ventilator, so in our world, less tubes is a good thing!

As of this morning, she is doing well. She is breathing a little harder than she was, but Patricia said Bree is overdue for a poop. So, she is probably a little 'full' (which can cause pressure on her lungs) and uncomfortable, which could be causing her to breathe a little harder. I never thought I would say this, but let's all pray for Bree to poop! I can imagine that it is so uncomfortable for her...poor little one.

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

October 17, 2008

Good morning!

Yes, indeed it is a good morning! Bree is still on her CPAP, and last night she had the best blood gas she has had in weeks....wow! Patricia, her night nurse, told us that her blood gas result had everyone jumping around they were so excited that it was so great....it was so good that they have not ordered one for today. They will probably do one in the afternoon just to check, but it is not 'needed'. What a good girl!

She did have a little bit of difficulty last night at one point and Patricia thought they might have to switch her to a different CPAP machine, but she pulled right out of her little funk. I am so ridiculously proud of her!!!!!! I don't think that I could fill this blog with more exclamation points!!! Ha ha....

She's still on the 3cc's of breastmilk every three hours, and there is nothing else that is really new. No news is good news!

In other news (I feel like a news reporter), Riley has recently acquired an obssesion with the computer. This would be okay except for the fact that she wants to "type" when we are typing. This consists of her banging on the keys, which makes it very hard for us to do anything. So, we have started the warning system. The first time we say "No thank you! This is your warning, next time you will get your hand smacked." We then follow through if that happens with "No thank you! Next time it is time out"...then if we need to, she goes into her crib for five minutes. That is where she is now. However, I am not sure if it is working...she alternates between whiny crying and squealing happily....we'll keep trying it to see if it works!

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

a BIG step

Miss Bree has had a very eventful day today! (in a good way!) She is now up 3cc's of breastmilk every three hours. I got to 'feed' her today, which consisted of me holding the tube of breastmilk as it drained into her tube, then into her stomach. It woke her right up and made her be a little wiggly worm. After she ate, Courtnee repositioned her and she was an awake little girl! I have never seen her that awake, her eyes were open and alert for a good fifteen minutes.

Her BIG step of today was that they took her off of her ventilator!! As of 3:45 this afternoon there is no more tube down her throat for breathing! Now they have her on a CPAP, which is a device that goes on the outside of her nose which applies continuous positive airway pressure (hence the name...CPAP). Here is a link to a page that explains the CPAP and shows a picture of one: http://www.mtnaneocare.com/Whatrespiratorysupportmightbeneeded.html With the CPAP, she is taking the breaths on her own, it just helps to keep her lungs open and to remind her to breathe.

When I called at 4:30, she was resting comfortable, keeping her oxygen saturation at 90 percent, and breathing at a rate of 60 breaths per minute. We were informed that sometimes babies as small as she is do get tired from all the work of breathing on their own and have to go back on the ventilator. Even if this were to happen, we are both overjoyed that she has shown improvement and a wanting to be off of the ventilator...every little bit of forward advancement is exciting to us.

Bree is thriving, growing, and doing all the right things...and I truly believe that all of the prayers that have been said for her are the reason why. Our God is a big God and a God of miracles! I believe in my heart that he knows what is best for her, and all we can do is to continue to pray for her healing and well being. The rest is in His hands! He will not give us anything we can't handle. We love Bree with all our heart, and we thank all of you for your prayers. They mean more to us than you can ever imagine!

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

October 16, 2008

Good mornin..

Bree is having a bit of a rough morning. She is having a hard time with her oxygen saturations...it's nothing life threatening or harmful yet, but they are drawing blood to make sure she doesn't have an infection anywhere. I love how everyone that is taking care of her always errs on the side of caution. It is easier to catch things early and treat them than to find out when it is too late, or is just much harder to treat. I didn't really get too much other information when I calledthis morning, but I am going in to see her here soon so I will have much more info later today!

At eight thirty, (which is soon!) I am leaving here to take Riley to hang with Ethan for a bit today. Aleasha agreed to watch Riley for me so that I could go see Bree. I am so grateful to have such wonderful friends! It means so much to me to be able to go see Bree...I constantly feel torn between my two girls. I can't imagine what it is going to be like when they are both at home! But, for right now, I am taking things one day at a time. Today is a good day...and I plan on enjoying it as much as possible!

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

October 15, 2008

Once again..no news is good news! Bree has had a very uneventful day and night. She is down to 32 on her rate of the ventilator, and is breathing on her own above the ventilator. She did have to have her intubation tube retaped today, it just helps to keep it stable and in place if they retape it every few days. She is resting comfortably right now because they sedate her for the retaping. Her skin is so sensitive there from the constant retaping.

Riley and I are headed off to our yearly WIC requalification here shortly so this will be a shorter update...I still need to shower and get ready in order to leave at nine! Ah! Nothing like rushing to make the time go faster...

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

October 14, 2008

Good morning!

Today is my first day alone with Riley in over a month. It feels strangely familiar, but not quite right. I have an urge to go see Bree, but I know I can't with Riley. I could, but I wouldn't be able to touch Bree, hold Bree or do anything like that. So, I will patiently wait until I get a chance to go see her without Riley. Other than my panicky feeling about that, our morning is going great. Riley woke up wet from head to toe this morning so she had a bath ASAP! We had a fun bath time, and we even got her hair washed without crying...big girl!

Later in the morning, Riley and I spread a blanket out on the ground, and played blocks for a good fifteen minutes . The block playing ended when Riley started to throw them at me...wooden blocks hurt! So we picked up the blocks, and got out some books. She now sits on your lap when you are reading to her, and it is so adorable. It is comforting to feel her sitting on you and to be able to smell the Johnson and Johnson baby shampoo her hair was washed with. For me, my grandmother always had Johnson and Johnson baby shampoo at her house, so when I smell that particular smell, I think of her house and the fun bath times I had there when I was small.

Adam took Dad to the airport this morning so we are on our own until Mama flies in on Saturday. The house is oddly quiet right now (Riley is down for her morning nap...score one for me!). Adam stopped by the hospital on the way back and gave me report over the phone on his way to work.

Bree is doing well, not too much has changed. She is now up to 2cc of breast milk every three hours! Woo hoo! The PCVC line that was in her left arm went bad so they had to put a new one in. Her new PCVC is in her leg. She did have to have a blood transfusion last night, however I am not sure what level was low or needed replacing. I will have to ask tonight when I call for an update. So her PCVC is in one leg, and she has an IV in the other foot from which she received her blood transfusion through. They are now trying to avoid putting IV's in her arms since she has proven to them more than once that she can either pull them out or wiggle them out of the vein. She's a very determined little girl!

Carrie Fay and I had a great time yesterday...and we got some Bee--u--ti-full!! photos of Bree. It will be a week or so until she is able to get them back to me because her computer is in the shop getting all fixed up. I was able to hold Bree skin to skin, but only for about fifteen minutes. The nurses were not aware that she was to have her first eye exam so she had to go back in her bed to get eye drops to dilate her eyes. They were checking for ROP (Retinopathy of Prematurity). Here is a link that helps to describe it: http://www.nei.nih.gov/health/rop/ I wasn't able to stay and watch them do the eye exam, but Carrie Fay assured me that it wasn't as bad as they made it sound when they described it to us. Her eye exam went great and the doctor said that obviously her eyes are very immature due to her age, but that there is no sign of ROP. She will have another eye check in two weeks...

It was great to get out of the house yesterday with Carrie Fay. We had some wonderful conversations and it was wonderful to get caught up with all the news of their family! We had a scrumptious lunch at Paradise Bakery and we both made it home before 2 in the afternoon...I miss having 'girl' time. It makes me miss Ashley just a little bit more than the normal...well, I better take advantage of Riley's morning nap and go get all ready for the day!

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