Finally Home, with a 9 lb 2 oz baby in fact!

Sorry for not posting for the past couple days while we made our trip BACK to the hospital. Needless to say I was exhausted after staying up all night long Thursday night in the ER, having and Ambulance ride from hell to Louisville (that I will explain later) and then me coming down with my own cold/sinus infection that has made me feel like crap, and since Mallory was doing ok other than being a little congested, I failed to update the blog or really notify too many people as to what was going on.

I’ll try to be brief but here’s the basics:
We got home Thursday night from Kosairs around 8:30 pm. By the time we fed her and put her in bed her congestion seemed to be getting considerably worse, although acting normal, no freak out episodes like the Friday night before, so we got to thinking it must be something in the house and decided to make a frantic trip to Walmart to get some kind of filter and other stuff, so we loaded us all up in the suv and headed into town. I went on and called the Dr’s office and talked to the nurse since the blue bulb didn’t seem to be really helping suck out much of the congestion and she said if you really think it’s worse, go to the ER so they can check her out.

So we decided just to be safe we’d go by, I figured they’d suction her out a little and we’d be on our way, because otherwise she was looking and acting fine. So they brought us back fairly quickly since they knew our history (so nice to be recognized in the ER, sigh) and her O2 sats were high 90’s, no temp, and her congestion seemed much better since we left the house. They went on and did chest xrays again because I really think that’s all Owensboro’s Hospital knows how to do and they were then showing up with some pneumonia in one of her lungs. Now after the fact, it had probably been there all week and was on the down hill side of being a concern but because of that, it got us an automatic transfer, since apparently unless you have a broken bone or are having a baby, Owensboro is fairly useless. I tried to get them to send us to St Mary’s in Evansville which is only 1 hr away as opposed to 2, but they wouldn’t take us since we just got released from Kosairs. They also didn’t want us to drive the 2 hours, we had to go by Ambulance, AGAIN.

At this point it is like 3 in the morning, I just told Ben to go home and get some sleep so one of us would have some and that I’d go in the Ambulance again and he could come to Louisville once he got up and our stuff packed. The Ambulance finally arrived around 5 am and they were the most unprofessional ambulance team I’ve ever seen…..and they were out of Hopkinsville, so that probably says it all because all the one’s I’ve dealt with this year out of Owensboro have been great.

They crazy woman driving the ambulance didn’t even know how to get to Louisville from Owensboro, I mean she didn’t even know which way to turn out of the hospital parking lot. All I wanted to do was sleep during the ride since there was no real issue with Mallory but I ended up having to be the guide to the ambulance company to get to Louisville. I had to give her turn by turn directions all the way to the hospital. She had some piece of crap gps and she didn’t even know the street address of the hospital , which I did, so as she is trying to drive the ambulance and plug in the data to the gps I basically took it out of her hand so she could keep us out of the ditch and plugged in the address. Then she was fiddling with it again and lost the address I plugged in. At this point I just gave up and told her how to go and resigned myself to the fact I was getting no sleep.

You would also think that they would fill up with gas prior to a patient pick up. I mean, I know we were not in any life threatening situation, thank goodness because I would not have trusted these 2 for anything, but seriously, we had to stop for gas, not cool in my opinion. She was also blaring country music so even in the few places where I felt like I could sleep, I couldn’t because the music was so loud and I know she was doing it just to piss me off because I don’t think you could have put two people more like oil and water together. I was in total bitch, over protective, no sleep momma mode and she could tell I was appalled at everything they were and were not doing.

I could swear the guy who was in the back with Mallory had fallen asleep because I called back there to see what her O2 sats were and the driver had to like yell at him to get him to respond. Like I say, it was just the ride from hell and I was never so glad to get out of the ambulance.

Once we got to Kosairs everyone was helpful again and they gave her more antibiotics, but again, all her vitals were good, she sounded good, her O2 levels were good so they went on and admitted us just to keep an eye on her basically since they sent us all the way back over from Owensboro, AGAIN.

Mom was supposed to come up on Friday to stay with Mallory while I got some work done but since we weren’t home now she came up to Louisville to stay with us so I could basically get some sleep because I felt horrible and with no sleep, well it wasn’t helping matters any. So mom arrived around 11:30 and I tried to just sleep as much as I could that afternoon.

There wasn’t much for them to really do for Mallory because the pneumonia that was showing up had apparently been there and she was already recovering from it, she didn’t need oxygen, she didn’t need fluids because she was eating good again, so they had an IV lock on her so they could give her the antibiotic once a day through that, but otherwise, we were just crashing in the hospital for a couple days to double and triple check that everything was a ok.

We were still worried that perhaps some dust or dog hair in the house was the problem since it seemed like she got worse when we got home. So Mom and Aunt Sharon went to our house on Saturday and did some serious spring cleaning. It wasn’t that the house was that bad, they typical dusting and vacuuming had been done, but with being in the hospital so much this year, no DEEP cleaning had been done in preparation for Mallory to come home, so they did an amazing job, moved furniture, cleaned things that I probably would have forgotten about for years to come, so that way she was in the best environment we could offer.

Thankfully later on we had a good talk with several of the doctors and they reassured us that what Mallory has/had isn’t allergies, they just don’t develop them this young, so that there really shouldn’t be any issues with Tucker at this point. She could develop allergies later, but that’s not what this is.

We could have been able to go home Saturday but since we had just gotten there and they made us come back to Kosairs from Owensboro they decided to keep us until Sunday. She had her first gas pain episode Saturday night which kept her up and crying from like 9 pm to about 2:30 am. Not sure what finally helped her, but we finally got to sleep around 2:30. And of course, since we knew we were getting released on Sunday, the Doctor that was the one who could actually give the nurses the ok to release us took forever to come around, so it was 2:30 in the afternoon before we even saw her. But regardless, we got home around 4 or so on Sunday and Susan was on her way over from Sikeston so she could help clean up what Mom and Aunt Sharon couldn’t get to and then to keep Mallory for me while I worked this week so she could recover fully.

So, the past couple days has gone well. We went to the pediatrician Monday morning for a follow up from the hospital dismissal and Bean is up to 9 pounds 2 oz, so somehow although she didn’t eat much in the hospital, she has gained some since her appointment on the 9th. Thankfully she continues to sound good and seems to be back to her normal self and has her normal appetite back. I think Susan is enjoying having her to herself and getting to enjoy some Grammy/Mallory time while I’ve set up my office in the camper so I can concentrate on work but yet just be a few steps away from the house, so it’s working out very well.

Looking forward to Wednesday night with Scott, Amy and the kids come over from Kansas to stay for the long Holiday weekend!

Sorry that ended up being a way longer explanation of everything that has gone on since Thursday night, but now everyone knows it all!

There's an IV on my head!

Last night wasn't very peaceful....since she's finally gotten some food in her tummy and knows she's hungry but we don't want to let her eat as much as she normally does makes for a fairly fussy baby.

I got 2 more ounces down her at 10 and then another 2 at midnight. She still wouldn't settle down and go to sleep so the nurses gave her 3 oz around 2:30 in the am. She did spit some of that up, not all of it by any means but I did have to get up and change her out of her gown.

Got her up this am and fed her 2 oz and then had a coughing spell and spit all that up, so she still acted hungry so we went with another 2 and it came back up too with another coughing spell. I think like more of us she is more flemy/congested in the am and all the coughing brought breakfast right back up. So we let her sleep for a while and I fed her again around 10 and I just gave her 1 oz and she kept that down fine, no coughing spells.

Even with the lovely diaper foot, her iv in her foot still worked its way out so they called to have the "iv team" to come in and give her another new iv. In the meantime I fed her again 2 oz and of course just as I was finishing up the iv team came in....great I thought, screaming and kicking will for sure make her throw back up what I just fed her....amazingly enough she has a little spit up but not the vomiting of her entire stomach, so we were good to go.

They couldn't find another good vein in her arm or leg so they had to move to her head, which looks awful but gets the job done. I drew a flower on it to make it a little less scary and more girly! She doesn't seem to care that she has what looks to be an antenna coming out of her head!




I fed her again around 3 and she took another 2 oz no problems, so I'll probably up her a little more next time.

We do get moved to a regular room today and they came in and said good news we are heading up to the 7th floor and so I immediatly called Ben and told him and then as soon as I hung up the nurses phone rang and nope, for whatever reason, we no longer have that room, seriously it went from her telling me to getting that call in all of 3 mintues. Oh well, so we wait longer to move to a regular room. Good Grief.

I bought Mallory a puppet, or more like I bought myself a puppet to play with Mallory, not real sure what to think of it, but it seems to amuse her some....i've named it 'birdy.' Here's a picture of birdy and Mallory.




They did come back fairly quickly and got us a room on the 5th floor, so we are all moved in there. By the time we got settled in it was time to feed Mallory again and she was HUNGRY this time. I was only going to try to give her maybe 3 oz but she was starving and took 4. I'd say about 1 oz came back up in a coughing fit 15 mintues or so after she finished eating, but it was by no means all of it. Now she's just snoozing away.

As long as everything goes well it looks like we will be able to go home tomorrow, hopefully but I'm not going be set that we will either. I know I'm tired and ready to get back to our routine at home.

I think I'm going to have to find a different sitter though, I think she just has too many of her own kids and then a couple more that she watches that is just too many germs for bean.....so back to square one. Oh what I wouldn't do for a nice Amish girl who would come to the house....not going to find that in Owensboro though.

Fingers crossed her feedings continue to stay down and we get to come home tomorrow.

Diaper Foot

Diaper Foot: off patent use of a baby's diaper to pad the iv when located in the foot.



This is what we came back too last night after the iv that they put in her in Owensboro worked its way out.....a diaper on my childs foot. It helps them from knocking it around but somewhat alarming to see for the first time!

After not keeping any of her feedings down yesterday and having a conversation with my mother in law about Ben and Micah becoming sensitive to cows milk and having to switch over to soy milk that I thought who knows, perhaps some of her issues are due to a milk sensitivity....that can cause congestion, reflux, etc.

So after this mornings feeding with the Neosure that we use at home coming right back up about 2 minutes after she sucked it down I talked with the nurse and Nurse Practitioner about Ben having to be on soy and perhaps we should try that. They were fairly adament that they didn't think that was the problem and the Speech Therapist was going to come by at noon to feed her.

She had been fed numerous times in the NICU by a speech therapist and by the end was deemed a normal swollower. I know that's not the technical name for it, but she didn't have anymore eating issues basically. I also went through my theory with the speech therapist and she didn't think soy was the answer until.......Mallory succeeded in throwing it all up back on her about 2 minutes after she was finished eating. At that point she thought maybe trying soy wasn't such a bad idea!

She said she didn't need a swollow study, she ate fine, but they might want to do a reflux test where they drink that gross barium stuff and then do the xrays to see if and where it's refluxing, but if the soy worked, they may not need that.

So, with the spit up problems she was having they decided not to to move her to a regular room today.

They finally agreed to go get me some soy formula because at this point what could it hurt, so at 2 pm I fed her again, just 1 oz of soy formula to see how that worked.

1 oz down and it stayed down.

4 pm we fed 1 1/2 oz. She ate it and it stayed down.

7 pm we fed 2 oz and she ate all of it and it stayed down.

Hmmm, perhaps we are on to something here.

Who knows, but if soy is staying in her then we will go with that!

She's feeling much better today and now that she actually has some food in her tummy you can tell she's even more active

Here's a couple more pictures from today!

Normal CT Scan

We had our CT scan and that all came back normal, so they think her Brady episodes probably are just due to some reflux.

We've started feeding her formula again and she's taken to that much better than the pedialite they were trying to feed her yesterday. She took 2 oz this afternoon, she did spit part of it up when she was coughing, but I think that was just because she was coughing.

So, we will increase feedings to get her back closer to the 4-5 oz she normally takes per feeding and then there's a chance they might put her on zantac or something like that to help with reflux some.

Thankfully otherwise, she's done well today!! Fingers crossed for a regular room tomorrow.

Still in the PICU

We are still in the PICU today. She is doing much better though, she has her oxygen off and is keeping her oxygen sats up on her own, and her congestion is better, they haven't had to do a deep suction since about 2:30 pm on Sunday.

She has had a brady episode or two, which isn't uncommon in babies with congestion/drainage, but just to make sure there's nothing else going on they are going to do a CT scan this afternoon. It makes us a nervous wreck, but I still think all it is is her reflux on the drainage. She has had a few brady's over the past month or so that her apnea monitor had picked up that appeared to be due to reflux, so I'm hoping that's all it is.

We did finally get to feed her a little formula today and she took an ounce down without any problems, so we should be able to slowly increase that back to where she was before.

She looks SO much better and her lungs are sounding better so fingers are crossed that we avoided pnumonia.

We are about to head down for the CT scan and I'll update everyone again after that, hopefully all is normal there and we are just dealing with a little reflux and will get to go to a regular room soon and then head home.

Bean is acting much more like her normal little cute self!

Happy Fathers Day and Hospital Update

As some of you know, we ended up back in the hospital with Mallory yesterday. As hard as I tried to make sure her cold didn't develop any further by having the Dr check on her Friday morning, it didn't help.

She was crying around 4:30 am Sat morning to be feed and after changing her diaper and getting her bottle ready, once I sat her up I could tell she wasn't acting right and when she didn't snap out of it I got Ben up and we went quickly to the er. I think what was happening is that she was so congested that she couldn't really breathe deep enough and her blood oxygen SATs were dropping and her color was off and just basically couldn't catch her breath. But because she was breathing, which is good, her apnea monitor was of no help or alert because it doesn't test O2 sats, it was just me knowing something was amiss.

I really think the Owensboro hospital is good for little more than stabilizing and sending you elsewhere, at least as it pertains to kids, but with them transfering us back to Kosairs in Louisville, at least I know we are in good hands.

So, dejaveu once again, we are strapped into to ambulance and are heading to Louisville. I give Ben a list of things we need and he goes home to pack and then meets us back at the hospital. Thankfully once they got some O2 on her in Owensboro she was looking some better. They did a chest xray and didn't see pnumonia and tested for rsv which came back negative.

She is all settled into the picu and is looking much better this am. She's had some Brady/dsat episodes, but overall is doing good. She's had a couple more xrays and there's a little cloudiness in part of one of her lungs, it's still not pnumonia yet either but they are treating her with antibiotics to help it from going into full blown pnumonia. They have the good sucking mechanisims here to clean out her mucus and no wonder the bulb was of little help, it's really thick and deep.

If she continues to do well this morning we will be moved to a regular room and out of the picu.

She looks so much better today and is moving around a bit so I'm sure she is feeling better.

We slept on the pullouts in the room with her last night, I was so tired from no sleep Friday night that I coulda slept anywhere and from all that nicu time I have basically trained my brain to know when to ignore the alarms that don't matter and only wake when the true alarms that mean something go off, so I slept fairly well. Ben on the otherhand I'm sure will be finding alternate sleeping arrangements tonight!

So keep the prayers coming, she's doing better but I want my happy baby back!

Here's the picture the nurses did for Ben for fathers day and of bean in her bed.







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Day 34 and Day 35: We are Home!!!

I couldn't bring myself to write a blog on Saturday...I was just to anxious because I knew if we could get through Saturday we could come home on Sunday...and I just couldn't write about it, but I'll do it now since we are home!

Ben and his parents came up on Saturday and Aunt Sharon, Mike and Memaw also dropped by after Matt's Graduation from UK with his Masters in Architecture, so Mallory got quite the number of visitors on Saturday.

I also went out and got the nurses of the 3N Nursery cheesecakes from the Cheesecake Factory like we did for our nurses on 3C, it just coincided with Nurses Appreciation week, but they deserve it, they've been great!

We went down to J Gumbo's for dinner Saturday night and then back to the camper to anxiously await for Sunday morning where I could call into Mary Jo and see if Mallory "passed". It was the longest few hours....

But, Sunday morning came and I called into Mary Jo around 7:30 and got the official word, she passed and as long as nothing major happened between now and when we got her packed up, we were going home!

Taking Mallory home on Mother's Day, how awesome is that!!

So, I prodded everyone up and going and we got to the hospital a little after 10 to get the paperwork up and going so we could get home!

I was glad Paula was our nurse this morning, she has had Mallory so much over the past month so it was good that she was the one to discharge us.

We went through all the do's and don'ts and appointments, etc. Waited for the Dr to come around and see her, fed her at noon, got her take home monitor going and then Barb helped us get her all hooked into the car.

Here's a couple pictures of Mallory sitting in her car seat in the hospital, her modeling her going home outfit and then her sleeping soundly (albeit very uncomfortable looking) on the ride home!








Susan drove the Jetta and Mallory and I rode in the back while Ben and his Dad went back and hooked up to the camper and brought it home. Have no intentions of camping anytime soon after living in it for a month!

The ride home was fine, she slept the whole time, hardly uttered a peep. We got her home and settled in and fed and she's just done great!

Mom's coming in tomorrow and we will see how the first night goes!

SO HAPPY TO FINALLY BE HOME!!!!


Oh yeah, forgot to mention, Mallo Bean weighed 5 pounds 10 oz when we left the hospital!!

Day 33: Our Little Chunky Monkey

I made my way back to Louisville today feeling better about everything.

I got to the hospital around 1:30 pm, so I didn't get there in time for her noon feeding, but speech therapy did that one and she did great, took 75 cc and for the nurse at the 8 am feeding, she took 80 cc!

Her weight now, 5 pounds 7 ounces!! She's gained 4 ounces since I left her Wednesday afternoon! Good grief, she's growing like a weed! She even looks bigger to me! She's our little chunky monkey, which is great since she was so small when she was born. Can't wait to see what she weighs tomorrow!

I feed her at 4 pm and I can tell in just a couple days that she's really doing much better and really taking it better than I've ever seen her take it before, so I'm thinking maybe stuff has really finally clicked with her! Fingers crossed, we will see. I keep telling myself, she will let us know when she's ready!

I have to say that I love my iPhone, for some who was so skeptical to move to it from the black berry, it's the greatest thing ever! When our ancient gps (think 2005 gps....ancient for gps's!) died back in December I was really dreading having to buy a new one and put it off and put it off and before I ended up in the hospital I read about the iPhone app Motion X GPS Drive. Tom Tom and various other traditional named gps' have apps, some cost almost $100, but this one, Motion X GPS Drive, had great reviews and cost.....99 cents! So, I figured it can't hurt! So I downloaded it and LOVE IT! It's as good or better than the Magellan that we had earlier and you can still get calls, texts and use the ipod function of your iphone while using it. 99 cents doesn't get you voice turn by turn directions but for either $3 a month or $24 a year you can get turn by turn directions and automatic updates. Hmm...no brainer, $24.99 or over $100 for a gps that just uses another cig lighter hole! I love it, it's great, beyond worth the $24.99!

Ben's parents have arrived to Utica this evening and they along with Ben will be heading over here tomorrow. We got the campground to extend our site for another day, our month was up tomorrow but they have given us through tomorrow. So, regardless, if Mallory comes home Sunday or not, the camper will come home. We are so close and to add another week at the campground it's going to be like $275, which is funny since a month is only $400, and I saw a weekly hotel by Clarksville, IN for $175 a week, so I'll either do that or just go back and forth to home every other day and make use of the Ronald McDonald house for a couple nights, but no more camper after tomorrow night.

I'll call in and check to see how her evening feedings went later tonight and head back to the hospital in the morning.

Here's some more super cute pictures from today of Bean!

Day 32: Not Today....

Obviously Mallory isn't quite ready to come home yet, she had another dsat sometime last night which started her "go home" clock again, 72 more hours. We were so close, I really thought today was the day.

So, after a 2 1/2 hour total meltdown this morning, I've composed myself and have had a fairly productive day. Ben told me during the meltdown that I needed a break and was not going back to Louisville today, I needed time at home, which is what I've done.

I'm really not sure Ben knew what to do with me this morning, I'm not one to cry often, and meltdowns I've had I'm sure I could count on one had, so he decided to stay home with me and let me do what he thought might make me happy "out to lunch and shopping." Love my poo!

So, I wallowed in my own self pitty until about 9:30 and then finally got up and got a shower.

Mom had already planned to come and clean the house today anyway, so she came on up and helped a ton and now I feel better about Mallory coming home when she does because at least the house is pretty much clean now. Thanks Mom, you are great!

Ben and I ran some errands, which included two of my favorite places, Target and TJ Maxx of course, and lunch at O'Charlies and after this am, a Margarita was due for and it was good. If I wasn't still pumping I think I could have had two or three....

Either way, doing better now, coming to terms that she will come home when she's ready. The next earliest now would be Sunday, which would be a great Mother's Day present, but I'm going to try not to get my hopes up...

Ben is now mowing our hay field, er yard, and I'm trying to get a few more baby things put away, so perhaps it was good she put herself off a few more days, I feel like the house is much more ready for her now.

I've called once today to check in on her and she's doing good and I'll check on her again at the nurses change at 7 pm and will go back again tomorrow.

So, keep your thoughts and prayers coming our way and hopefully we will have our baby home with us soon!

Day 31: 1 Month old today

Mallo Bean is 1 month old today and I'm too anxious at this point to write much....

If she can get through 4am this am with no episodes we bring her home tomorrow!!

Ben and I came back to Utica this afternoon late, packed up most of the stuff from the camper and my fingers, toes, arms, and legs are crossed that she makes it through a-ok and we come home tomorrow....finally!

I will know first thing tomorrow morning and then Ben and I will head to Louisville to go bring her home!

So, keep those prayers coming, I'm super excited and anxious all rolled into one!!

Day 30: Outfit Modeling

Today was another good day. I got to the hospital around 11 this morning ready to see how she idid overnight. No apnea's/desats overnight!! Hopefully the simply thick stuff they are putting in her milk now is helping!

So I fed her again today at nood, 4 and 8 pm. We did change the nipple on her bottle at the 8 pm feeding because she was using one that had the slowest flow and with the added thickener its like she was trying to suck a milk shake through a small straw, lots of sucking and not much going in. So we went to the next nipple up at 8pm and it really seemed to help. She didn't have any problems with it going too fast and it didn't seem like it was taking forever for her to get her milk.

The monitor company is going to come by the hospital tomorrow morning and do my "class" on the monitor, so that should be good, will take notes!

We weighed her again tonight before I left, she was up to 2.345 kg, not quite 5 lb 3 oz, so she just keeps gaining!

Ben and Tucker are on their way here as we speak. Ben's got to be in Lexington tomorrow for work, so they are coming over tonight so he can go over there in the am, see Mallory tomorrow afternoon late and then head back tomorrow night with Tucker.

I believe her last recordable episode was 4 am Monday morning, so she has to get to 4 am Thursday morning for us to go home on Thursday, so if it's looking like it's a possibility of Thursday I may go home with him so we can come back in 1 vehicle and then he can come back this weekend to get the camper. I'm trying not to get my hopes up that it could be Thursday, but who knows....it would be awesome if it was that soon!

Here's a few photos of 2 of her cute outfits she had on today....so many cute things she has already!!

Day 29: 4 Weeks ago today....

Wow! 4 Weeks ago today Mallory was born, and between her and I we've been in the hospital for 11 weeks and 2 days....ready to click those ruby slippers together and get home already!!

Ben and Tucker left early am again like they normally do on Monday mornings. I got to the hospital a little around 11 this morning so I could do her feeding at noon and see how her night went.

Sounds like things went well last night and she gained a little more so she's up to 5 lbs 2 oz! She's looking much more filled out!

Her feedings went well today. They started adding simply thick to her milk today, basically that helps make it thicker and easier to not get choked on and to stay in her belly better, even though she doesn't seem to have much of an issue with refulx. So, anything that will help works for me! She didn't seem to mind at all.

They are also going to get us set up with a monitor when we go home. So they are either going to come to the hospital tomorrow or Wednesday to give me my "class" on the monitor. It's an hour or more long ordeal, which is good, I need to know all the specifics for when we do go home on how to use it properly and eliminate as many false alarms as possible!

I fed her at noon, 4 and 8 pm today, and she did good for me all 3 times, hopefully she will keep that up throughout the night too. I'm glad I'm at least getting to feed her half her daily feedings. I guess if I got my butt up early I could do the 8 am one as well, but I think 12+ hours at the hospital is a little much for just about everyone and I've got to take care of myself as well and not do too much and get sick, because if I'm sick I can't see her and that's not doing either of us any good.....so I guess until we are home half will have to do.

Here's a few more pictures from today....still just can't get over how cute she is!!

Day 28: Perhaps we should build an ark!

What a rainy past few days! I don't have a rain gauge at the camper, but good grief, what a ton of rain! I see pictures on Facebook of all the flooding back home and the big mess around Nashville, I'm ready for the rain to stop!!!

We were fairly lazy this morning but we got up and going and got to the hospital before her noon feeding so we could feed Mallory.

She just keeps gaining weight like crazy, 2 ounces a day for the past couple days, she's up to 5 lb 1.5 ounces now! She's going to be 6 pounds by this time next week if she keeps this up!

Apparently she had a little episode while she was eating this morning early, so we restart the clock on when she comes home....

But, instead of having to wait 5 days from the last episode they may let us just wait 3 days and send us home with a home monitor, which really wouldn't be bad, it would kind of ween me from all the monitors there and give me a little peace of mind too, so we will see what they have to say tomorrow, but having the home monitor for several weeks or a month or so may not be a bad thing either. They aren't quite as concerned because the only time she's having them is when she eats and you are right there with her and you know she's having it, so that's better than her just not breathing for no reason when you aren't around!

So much to have to worry about with preemies!!!

Ben and I made reservations at 1:30 for Lynn's Paradise Cafe, if you don't know what it is, it's a place in Louisville that has been on Food Network. Guy Fiatte and Bobby Flay have done show at/with. It's quite the eccentric little place, but wow, Yum-O, super good!! We split an order of Bourbon Ball French Toast and Horseradish BLT Home Fries and then Ben finally got his real Mint Julep! It was packed and it's a place we will def go back to!

We wanted to kill a little more time and let her sleep good until her 4pm feeding so we ran by the Children's Science Museum and did a tour through that. I'd been through it before but it had been a while. I'll be glad when we can actually take Mallory there!

So, back to the hospital for her 4pm feeding, pumping and then just holding her for a while. I just love having her lay on my chest! Ben got to hold her too, so we both had some good Mallory time today!

Back to the camper now, still raining, sitting watching some TV and having some Tucker time now.

Keep praying that her apnea's will slow down or become non-existent soon!!

Day 27: Super Saver in the City Limits

Today brought more visitors for Mallory. Mom and Sue headed up this morning and Ben and Tucker got over her later this afternoon.

Mom and Susan had a good visit with Mallory. She was much more attentive for them and wanted to entertain instead of nap after her noon feeding. Oh well, we enjoyed her and finally after her 4 pm feeding she got some rest.

Her feedings still seem to be going well. I've got to learn to be a little forcefull when it comes to feeding her...it just takes time. I think she's tired but she just needs to be pushed a little more...lots to learn when it comes to this Mommy thing!

Ben arrived around 4:30 and since Mallory was sleeping good, we went to the family waiting room where there's a cushy couch and big screen tv, so we made ourselves comfy and watched the couple hours leading up to the Derby and then watched the race.

As I mentioned yesterday, I participated in the nurses pool for the derby and drew Super Saver. I seem to have a knack at picking the winners, I picked Mine that Bird last year, and Super Saver has the same jocky as Mine That Bird did last year. So we watched the Derby and Super Saver won! $20 dollars for me, LOL!

Ben headed back to the Camper to take out Tucker and to find us a spot for dinner, Mint Juleps were to be on me tonight with my "hefty" winnings and I fed Bean her 8pm feeding and then headed back to the camper.

Ben found the City Limits Bar and Grill down the road from the campground and right next to the Teen Dance Club....didn't know Shephardsville had such things! Either way, we finally got down there around 9:45 tonight, starving by this point. The place was hopping and music was pouring out of the doors. I must say it was the middle age crisis bar for Shephardsville because most looked to be 20+ years older than us and living it up.

So, we got some good people watching, fair karoke, decent bar food and NO Mint Juleps! What kind of Kentucky bar is this?? Oh well, our dinner and a few drinks still cost less than the $20 I won, so dinner was on the NICU nurses tonight I suppose!

As I said in the earlier Blog, Bean was up to 4 lb 15 oz for today's weighing, so we are just shy of 5 pounds!! The breast milk is doing a little body good!

Ben and I will spend more time with her tomorrow and hope she keeps on doing well so we can bring little Bean home next week! I can't wait!!

Day 26: The Tube is Gone

Today has been a good day, we were able to take her tube out at her 4 pm and as long as she continues to eat well, it shouldn't have to go back in!!! Now you can really see that adorable little face even better!

Here's some pictures of Bean sans the tube!








The nurses had a pool to draw a horse for the derby and they asked me to participate, they were like you may as be one of us you know about everything here now! So, my dollar got mr Super Saver, so go super saver!!

Bean was up to almost 4 lb 14 oz and before I left tonight, I stayed late to get to give her the 8 pm feeding, so they weighed her again and now she's 4 lb 15 oz!! Almost 5 pounds, how great!

Dr Singh said she may be able to go home as early as Sunday or Monday, but I think this next week, I'm just not going to get too hopeful that it could be Sunday.

I found out tonight that a friend from high school passed away today at 33. Shannon Taylor Waggoner will always be remembered for het laugh, she was so funny....many fun slumber parties at her house playing with her hampster mr pooters and playing the juija board. Prayers for her mom, husband and son. Not sure yet what happened but she woke up not feeling well and then passed out in the floor and was without oxygen for about 45 minutes and her organs started shutting down. She had som health problems but I'm not sure it had anything to do with what happened. Makes you realize how short life can be and make sure you enjoy it!

Mom, Susan and Ben are all headed over on Saturday, so Mallory will have many more photo opps tomorrow!

Love out Bean!!

Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Day 25: Big Bows in Derby Town

Yes I'm from Kentucky, no, I've never been to the Kentucky Derby, and never knew how much stuff went on in Louisville prior to the Derby....2 weeks of non-stop activites leading up to the Derby, many of which require blocking off downtown streets near the hosptial...grrrr! Today was the parade, which its course is 2 blocks from the hospital! Thankfully Churchill Downs is not anywhere near the hospital! If I had nothing else to do it would be fun to camp out at the airport and see the "stars" who have come into town for Derby.

So, on to today's activities.

Bean passed her hearing test, which it was pretty obvious to me that she could hear, but the test also determined that!

We also got back her echocardiogram results. Nothing major and what they expected. One little valve isn't quite closing as much as it should, but it should fix itself as she gets older, sounds similar to my hear murmur and then something about some veins in her back to her lungs being small, but again, nothing that shouldn't fix itself as she grows. They want to recheck her in 6 months and if they thought it was very serious they would be checking her every month, so nothing to worry about, just more parts of being a preemie.

She continues to eat well. We did have the lactation consultant come by and work with me on breast feeding and to weigh her to see how much she is getting.

Good thing: I figured out the best ways to hold her while feeding that is most comfortable for her and me.

Bad thing: She ate off and on for roughly 30 minutes and according to the scale she only ingested about 12cc....not great considering she is supposed to be taking 50-70cc per feeding now.

So, she basically has to get stronger to breast feed better, so we can attempt to breast feed for about 15 minutes and then just give her what she wants via bottle for now. So, she still gets the breast milk, but it will be awhile before she will be able to truly breast feed.

But, at least we know and I'm not going to be starving my child!

Some lady brought by baby headband/bows for all the little girls, which I find very funny since we've had the conversation with Ben's dad as to how ridiculous he thinks these big bows are on babies, so of course, I had to stick it on her and take a picture! I prefer smaller bows, but I couldn't resist. She's so darn cute regardless of what she's wearing or has on her head, but here's a few, you can judge for yourself! I'm thinking it will work well for her big, gaudy, derby hat for Saturday, LOL!




Mallory gained more today, up to 4 lb 13 oz!!

They are also letting her eat what she wants at each feeding, kinda like she would at home. If she can eat as much as she wants eat time and still gain weight, the feeding tube will come out and we are much closer to coming home!! We are basically going through the checklist of things that must be done before she can go home now, so we are getting closer!

Here's another picture of Bean minus the bow, LOL!

Day 24: Feedings and Blogging via iPhone

Ben and Tucker headed out around 5:30 am this morning to head back to Owensboro and work for Ben. Again, I will be SOOOOO happy when we can all be together...it's been almost 11 weeks since we've all been together. Good grief!

I was excited to see how Mallory's feedings were throughout the night so I got to the hospital around 10:30 today.

She had taken them all overnight!! Yeah!! But, she did have one desaturation (which means a quick drop of the level of oxygen in her blood) which is probably due to a little reflux because with less feedings she is taking more volume per feeding. Hopefully that will pass but it did happen again this morning. It's really quick, almost like she's holding her breathe for a quick few seconds but long enough for the monitors to catch it. Hopefully it will all even itself out soon.

So we got to breastfeed two times in a row today! Amazing what makes you happy now! For someone who was totally freaked out about breast feeding and pumping prior to having her, it really isn't bad and has become such a part of life now, who knew!

My time when I'm not holding her or feeding her or pumping consists of me reading. I figure I may not get the time to do much reading once I get her home, so I better try to squeeze in the 12 books I want to read this year sooner than later! I've already read Nicholas Sparks Last Song, just finished my Preemie book and Iris Johansen's Blood Game and now I'm reading Johnathan Kellerman's Dr. Death...yes I have a thing for Forensic Thrillers, and then there's Nicholas Sparks, not sure where he fits in, but love all his books.

They also did a heart echocardiograhm on Mallo Bean today, which is essentially a ultrasound of her heart which I've had done to me numerous times. They thought they may have heard a heart murmur, which I have one, or did, so they did that to check her out. She did great. She just laid there sucking on her pacifier and didn't seem to mind at all. She seems to be quite the laid back little lady, I hope that means she's taking after me in that aspect because we all know how fidgety and anxious Ben is, so who knows, we will see as she gets older how it all pans out!

Stef sent me a text today...there's an app for my iphone so I can update my blog, upload pictures and videos to it all via my iphone, how cool is that! Now I can update just about anywhere any time! Woo Hoo, a bloggers dream! I love my iPhone!

Bean didn't gain any today, but they said, good grief, she gained 30 grams yesterday, give her a break, LOL! So, we are still at 4 lb 12.5 oz, which is still great.

So, back at the camper now doing more of Mallory's laundry, which is much more fun to do and fold than mine or Ben's, but I'm sure I will quickly get over that before too long! For now, it's fun!

No new picture today. Hopefully she will get her tube out in the next few days and I can take a ton more with her tube out, right now they all look alike at this point!

Day 23: 4 Hour Feedings, Cousin Matt & Dad

The only crummy thing about having Tucker stay with me is having to walk him when it's pouring down rain....that was my morning! Thankfully Ben had left his camo rain coat because I didn't have an umbrella with me, so we were able to wander around for 5 or 10 minutes while Tucker did all his tricks without me getting soaking wet. He required a good toweling off, but no big deal.

When I arrived at the hospital this morning around 11 am, the speech therapist was back to feed Mallory again. They like to check in on them and their progress. I mentioned wanting to move to every 4 hour feedings to see how that would go, so the Nurse Practitioner came over and said it would be fine and we would feed her 55 cc every feeding at 4 hours. So she sucked down here feeding for 11:30 am and then off to sleep and we would see what 4 hours would bring us!

She was wiggling around a little before 3:30, so I was happy to see that because normally she's sound asleep. I fed her a bottle of breast milk this time so we could see how much she would take. She did really good until right at the end and she got a little choked and was then done with the bottle, so she took everything but about 15 cc, so we just went on and put that down her feeding tube. So now, on to wait until the 7:30 pm feeding.

Since Ben was going to be coming by the hospital later after his meeting, I headed back to the camper to let Tucker out and grab some dinner. I got back in time to meet up with Matt who came over to see Mallory!

I thought it was cute, he will probably hate me for telling, but he was like I thought I hated all kids until I saw her! She's so cute, you just can't resist! So Matt got a good visit with her before her 7:30 pm feeding. Here's a picture of Mallory holding Matt's finger : )



Also, congratulations to Matt, he's about to wrap up his Thesis and will soon have his Masters Degree from UK in Architecture...which will be very handy when we go to build a house!

The 7:30 pm feeding came and she was awake again! So we breast fed and then I gave her about 15 cc more in a bottle and she took all of that too....so we will see tomorrow how the night feedings went, but so far it's looking like the 4 hour feedings may be what she needs!

She just keeps gaining weight like a little champ! She gained 30 grams yesterday so she's up to 4 lb 12.5 oz today! 5 pounds here we come!

Ben had a good meeting with the Agco salesman and had dinner and then back to the hospital around 9:30pm. I was still holding bean when he arrived, so she had another nice visit with her daddy! We put her in her little bed, it's always so hard for us to leave her at night! So it was a long day, but well worth it!

Here's another picture from today....can't wait for that feeding tube to be gone!

Day 22: Juggling Tucker and Mallory Today!

Ben headed off to work early this am from the camper and left Tucker with me because he's heading back over her for work tomorrow afternoon and would have to board Tuck if he didn't stay with me, so I'm juggling time between Mallory and Tucker today!

I slept in longer than planned today, I guess it's the weather but just couldn't get up and going today. I had intended on going in a little later than normal so I wouldn't have to leave Tuck alone for so long, but it was still later than planned. I didn't leave the camper until 11:30 and normally I'm at the hospital by 10:30.

Gloria was bottle feeding her at her 11:30 feeding and if I'd known that I would have tried to come in earlier because that's normally her tube feeding but somehow they got off last night, so this was an oral feed. So I finished up giving her the bottle and then we thought we'd try breast feeding at 2:30 pm and see if she would do 2 in a row.

Unfortunately she wanted nothing to do with eating at 2:30. Took about 10 slurps again and then just went to sleep. We may try to switch her to every 4 hour feedings and see if longer in between feedings helps her be awake and wanting to eat every time.

I bottle fed her again at 5:30 pm because she needed her vitamins, so we just did it via bottle. They taught me how to bottle feed her and get her started so she doesn't choke as easily. It worked well and she sucked it all down really quickly!

Hopefully we can get her on a 4 hour schedule tomorrow and see if that helps....that's all we are waiting on right now because she hasn't had a reportable episode since the 20th when she got choked so bad, so it's just eating at every time she is supposed to.

She does gain weight like a little champ though, up to 4 lb 11 oz now! Before long she will be up to 5 pounds!

I left the hospital around 6:30 so I could get back and have plenty of time to walk Tucker good before it got dark, so we made a couple laps around the campground, good for him and me. I love that Tucker prefers to poop in the really tall grass in areas no one ever goes, so I don't have to worry about collecting his poop! It's just natural fertilizer for the already tall grass/woods!

Just got one picture today....they decided to take a little more precautions in her pulling her tube out...seems to work, but not real photo flattering, LOL! She's a cutie pie regardless!

Day 21: Grandparents visit again!

Today Mom and Dad came up to visit Mallory. Dad hasn't gotten to see her since the first days she was born, so she's much more "fun" and responsive now!

This morning before we met mom and dad I took Tucker for a walk while the weather was pretty. We found that the KOA has a Dog Park! Lots of fun stuff just for dogs in a fence where they don't have to be on the leash....Tucker seemed to enjoy it...here's some pictures of him in the park...




We met mom and dad at Cracker Barrel for lunch before heading off to the hospital. We got there in plenty of time for mom and dad to hold her before her 2:30 feeding. Here's some good pictures of mom and dad holding little bean!




Everyone got some good Mallory time today!

We breast fed at 2:30 today and she did great, better than she's ever done before, I didn't feel like I had to worry if she got enought this time, she ate great and then went sound to sleep when she got done!

Mom and Dad headed out and Ben and I went to run some errands while she slept. When we got back she pulled out her feeding tube. I stayed in there with her while they put it back in. I didn't watch but she didn't get very upset, so either Gloria the nurse is really great at getting them back in or it's just not as horrible as it seems it might be. I think getting the tape off her little face was worse than actually getting the feeding tube in her.

So, she took her 5:30 feeding through her tube. We are all anxious to try her orally at more and more feedings, but we just can't rush it either. Like they say, she will get up one day and it just clicks, she will wake up at her feedings and take it all. Hopefully we aren't too far away from that!

She's up to 2.095 KG today which is just 3 grams shy of 4 lbs 10 oz, so she just keeps gaining weight on a very steady basis!!

After her feeding and pumping, Ben and I headed out and had dinner at Joes Crab Shack and now back at the camper with Tucker again. He's going to wait and leave early am in the morning to go to work.

Here's a few more pictures from today: