Sunday, August 30, 2009

This and That!

So we have passed the 50 day mark in the NICU. I think you should get some sort of prize or at least a t-shirt of some kind. I am really hoping that we won't make it to day 67 which would bring us to my due date. Ella is really making some progress on her eating so I hope we are here for only another week or week and a half. Who knows when we are going home but as the nurses say there are no toddlers in the NICU so we will leave at some point. Both Shazam and I are really getting ready to be out of here and move on to the next chapter in this adventure.
One of our favorite nurses Traci told us we may want to bring in the car seat in the next few days. I think I will hold off for a little bit but I am hoping that our beautiful car seat will soon have a baby in it and not a stuffed bear.
Speaking of favorite nurses Ella and her mommies totally love Traci. She is one of the few things we will miss when we finally get to go home from the NICU. I was feeling crafty the other night and made Ella a onsie to express her love for Traci. She has been with us for this whole journey and I think she may love Ella as much as we do! Traci loved it and actually unplugged her so that she could show her around to the other nurses! Ella is now posted in the break room in all her cuteness. I swear Ella puts herself in the cutest poses it looks like we put her this way but we just find her like this all the time! The nurses tell us preemies find it very soothing to have their hands near their faces and are very impressed that she can get them there herself.
Ella had a great day with her feedings today. She had an off day yesterday. I am not sure if it was the weather or the fact that Shazam was not with me but she slept through her 11 am care time and spelled three times when I tried to nurse her at 2 and 5. It was very frustrating. I was relieved to hear that Ella was not the only baby in a funk yesterday since several babies in the nursery were just not interested in doing much of anything all day. But today Ella was back to her rock star self and ate like a champ. She nursed ok at the 11 but I thought she didn't get enough so we fed her through her gavage tube. We gave the full feed and our poor girl got so full. She had such a bad tummy ache and also a full diaper so we decieded to change her. Mid change Ella really did it up and when I was wiping her bum she let loose and shot poo across her crib. It was pretty impressive and we had to get her a whole new crib since there was poop everywhere. Shazam and Traci were not all that impressed with my skills. Ella felt so much better afterwards though. Lesson learned...Ella seems to be getting a lot of milk while she is nursing. Even if she doesn't nurse for too long! At the 2 pm she went to town on a bottle with Shazam and she took the whole thing in about 15 minutes and she was alert for about 15 minutes after her bottle just looking around and being cute for her Mimi A. Then she nursed again at 5 and didn't have her gavage. I have not checked to see how she has done with her other feedings tonight. I expect that she was left so sleep through her 8 pm feeding and will get a bottle at 11. She is working hard at learning how to feed and is still gaining weight and topped the scales a smidge over 5 lbs last night. She is so sturdy and hefty now.
She also has so much more awake time these days and we are having so much fun spending our days cuddling and smiling at the girl. She loves her pacifier and her baths and makes so many funny faces. I need to spend a day trying to capture them all, perhaps when we get home. She loves to hold her pacifier in her mouth and has even found her thumb a few times.

Well I need to work on some tasks in the apartment and finish some designs for onsies for some of Ella's friends in nursery A. I made Ella an Ella onsie and they have been a hit so I want to make some for her buddies. I think she looks pretty cool !



3 comments:

Meegs said...

I can't believe how much your little girl is growing!! She's getting so big now.

Yay for getting so good at the feedings and hopefully you'll have an at home baby soon.

Snickollet said...

Wow, she is really growing. She's beautiful. Keeping my fingers crossed that you have her home soon.

XOXO

Anonymous said...

Glad she is doing so well. She will be home before you know it!