Day 13: Open Air Crib and Grandparents Visiting

Thankfully I made it into the hospital before the traffic for Thunder Over the Ohio really got going. The Dr was making her rounds right after I got there and today we started weining Mallory to the open air crib, Yeah!

Basically that means that she is now in an open air crib but the isolet is still next to in on "stand by." They check her temp at every feeding and as long as she maintains her body temp for a day or so, they will do away with the isolet and she will just have her open air crib.

She took 17 cc this am at her 8 am feeding and then at 5 pm I tried her again with the bottle and she took 6 cc then, so she's doing better. That's the first time we've tried 2 bottles in one day.

We tried breast feeding at 11 am feeding, but she was about 1/2 asleep, so she did about like she normally does, nothing major, but she tries!

Ben and his parents arrived to the hospital around 3 pm, so they finally got to hold Mallory! Here's a few pictures of the proud grandparents!






So, after a good day at the hospital, we are back at the campsite grilling some steaks.

Also, Mallory gained more weight, she's up to 1.91 kg, which is right about 4 lb 4 oz!! They also increased her feedings again to 38cc per feeding!

She's growing like a weed!

Day 12: First piece of mail and more good stuff!

When I got back to the camper tonight Ben called, he said guess what, Mallory just got her first piece of mail! I was like, she's only been here 12 days, how is she already getting mail? Thankfully she isn't already receiving junk mail! Aunt Brenda and Uncle Jim donated moeny in Mallory's name to the National Arbor Day Foundation to plant 50 trees in her name. I will know more of the specifics when I actually see the mail, but that's what I got from what Ben was telling me. How cute, her first mail and trees in her name! It's a good thing!

Today was a good day, no sign of the nurse from yesterday that I don't like!

The drive in was a little rough. Thunder on the Ohio is tomorrow in Louisville and they expect something like 700,000 people?? That seems a bit much to me, but I've never been here for it, so streets are closed and tomorrow will just be chaois downtown, so I'll probably go in earlier than normal tomorrow to try to avoid all the traffic and people!

When I got in today, they had her isolet temp turned down as low as it will go and it seems like she has done good to maintain her temps today, so it's looking very probable that she will get an open air crib tomorrow!!

She also gained more weight, so she's up to 1.845 kilograms!! Because I got there a little late, Paula was already feeding her at 11 am and she took about 16 cc from the bottle today, so thats awesome, getting better every day!

I kangarood again at 2pm for that feeding and then just held her at her 5pm feeding. Here's a few pictures I took of her at her 5pm feeding....she was sucking on her thumb for a bit of the time!





Tomorrow will be a busy day with Ben, Tucker, Ben's parents and Shultz (their dog) all coming to visit Mallory....obvioulsy the dogs will not be visiting Mallory, but will be all in the camper!

Keep praying for Mallory, she's doing great and we want to keep this great progress moving forward!!

Day 11: More weight gain and just overall cuteness!

Ben and Tucker headed out early this am, they will be back on Saturday.

I made it into the hospital around 10:30 this morning, in time to work on "practicing eating" for a while before she took the rest via her feeding tube. She continues to get better every day. She took aroun 9 cc of her 35 cc feeding via the bottle today, so that was up from 3 cc yesterday.

They try to feed her my breast milk as much as possible...of course the nurse, who seemed fairly ditzy, spilled out the rest of it before getting it into the feeding tube. I wasn't very happy since I'm not getting a full supply yet. But Dr Singh got me a prescription today for a medication that is supposed to help increase supply. The same nurse later today pushed her 5pm feeding in too fast, it was gone in like 5 minutes and it should normally take 15-20 minutes, so because it went down so fast she had a little episode where her oxygen saturation levels go down, so again, not very happy with this nurse...I don't even think she told me her name. Perhaps we will not have her again.

We got to do another Kangaroo session today, those are my favorite. I love holding her period, but Kangarooing is my favorite!

Jacqueline, the chaplin, also came by today. Always good to see her...she reminds me so much of my friend Melanie in North Carolina its almost odd!

One of the other girls from our weekly group sessions had her baby yesterdy and she is also in the intermediate nursery with me. We've decided to take the infant CPR class this coming Tuesday morning at 11am, it will be good to know and hope you never need it!

I also got to spend some time talking to the amish mother who has twins right next to me, really nice lady, they are from Munfordsville.

Mallo Bean gained more weight, she's up to 1.825 kilograms which is just about at her birth weight, thats the first weight on her chart, so now it's all improvement from here!

I can't wait to keep trying her with the bottle, I see improvement every day and it's so fun to watch her improve.

Here's a little picture of her sleeping this evening...sleeps like mamma, with her hands always up by her face....I also think she has Ben's toes, I like Ben's toes, so I suppose thats good!

Day 10: Ben visits again and more Skype!

Mallory had another good day, nothing really new on her front, just continuing to slowly improve the suck/swallow reflexes.

She did gain more weight and is up to 1.81 kilograms, which is just over 4 pounds and almost back up to birth weight.

Ben and Tucker came up after work, so we had a later than normal evening at the hospital, we didn't leave until 10 pm. Ben got the chance to hold her for quite a while. I kangaroo'd twice again today. I also got to give her a bath tonight, which she didn't enjoy very much, but I don't think they ever do at this age!

We got to skype into some of the family this evening, so Aunt Brenda, Bud and Susan and Amy, Blake and Eli got to call into see Mallory! Skype is so great, everyone in the nursery night shift thinks of me as the Skype lady! Apparenlty no one else has ever done that before, which I find hard to believe, I know I'm fairly technologically savvy, but no other skypers?? Whatever.

So, for the most part today, I'm just posting quite a few pictures, my favorite is the one with her cute little eyes open while kangarooing next to me in my robe.

Love our little bean!







Also, Tucker is getting used to Mallory's scent by sleeping on and sniffing on her used blankets....he's got to be a good big brother!

Day 9: Kangarooing!!

Sounds like Tucker was going to make sure he got his fair share of pork steak last night...Ben said he had eaten half of his pork steak when he went outside to turn off the grill...and he came back to an empty plate and Tucker eating the rest of his steak! Happy Birthday Tucker. Ben said he'd let it slide because it was his birthday and he was going to get the rest anyway!

This morning I washed some of Mallory's blankets and onsies and then headed to the hospital around 10am. She was doing great, I think she had one little episode over night, but they are only coming about once a day and it's always sometime around when she eats, it has to with reflux with is normal in preemies. Dr Singh said at this point since it only happens once a day, they aren't going to medicate for it, just let her grow out of it, and then if for some reason she doesn't, then they can medicate, but since it's only happening about once a day, they think she will in another week or two.

She gained a little more weight yesterday, up to 1.79 kilograms now, which is almost 4 pounds again, so slowly but surly we are inching back up!

She's opening her eyes much more often now and becoming quite the little wiggle worm. They had her laying on her stomach earlier and she woke up and just didn't like something and was propping herself up with her hands and her head was up! I was like I didn't think that was supposed to happen for quite some time....she's our little over achiever!

I got to Kangaroo twice today, and that's what I'm going to try to do every day twice a day now, each 1 1/2 hours a time. She's keeping her body temp up so they don't mind that I do it that much and it helps her as much as it helps me!

The nurse practitioner came by this morning too and said that she did have her head ultrasound yesterday morning early before Dr Singh could cancel it, but it was normal, so now we just know for sure!

I just love her little eyes, you just wonder what all they see!

Here's a couple more pictures from today, one she kinda has her eyes open, hoping to get some better ones with her eyes open in the next few days.

Day 8: 1 Week Old, Anniversaries and Birthday's!

It doesn't seem like it's already been a week since little bean has been born! Thankfully I'm feeling better, still a little sore from not using those muscles for so long, but other than that, doing much better.

Mallory is doing great as well! We thought she was going to have an ultrasound of her head today, sometimes preemies will have brain bleeds, althought they didn't think she had one, it was just a routine thing. I asked Dr Singh this morning if she'd had hers yet and she said she didn't think she was supposed to. So she did a little checking and she isn't going to have one. Dr Singh said she doesn't schedule them unless they are 32 weeks or less when they are born or have signs of needing one, so Mallo Bean is good to go!!

Today is also our 7th Anniversary!! Mallory was going to be induced today, but she didn't want to share her birthday with Mom and Dad and Tucker too....today is also Tucker's 7th Birthday!

Ben and I celebrated last night and Mallory and I will celebrate in the hospital tonight and Ben and Tucker are going to grill Pork Steaks (yuck) to celebrate at home tonight!

Mallory's had a good day. She didn't gain any weight from yesterday but she didn't lose any either, so keeping even is good.

I can tell she's opening her eyes more, and they are just so cute!

We had another "feeding practice" session today. Attempt at the breast and bottle for about 30 minutes and then we give her the rest through the feeding tube. I can tell her sucking reflexes are getting better so hopefully by the end of the week she will be taking more orally. It just wears her out, so we only try once a day for now until she gets stronger.

I think I'm kinda settling into a routine now that Ben is back at work and I'm just here by myself to come and go as I like. So I try to get here a little before lunch, or sooner if possible, then have some feeding practice around 2 and then run a few errands if necessary and then back to the hospital until around 7 or 8 at night is the plan. That way I get plenty of Mallory time!!

A lot of time I'm just sitting here watching her, reading, on the computer like now or continuing to knit, just anything to sit here with her!

Here's a couple pictures from today, they were taken through the isolet because I'm not coordinated enough to take them while holding her, but regardless, it's always fun to see her little face!!

Day 7: Mallory meets her Memaw!

Thankfully I got a good nights sleep last night, got rested up and feel much better!

We cooked a breakfast here at the camper with Susan and Nick and then Susan and I went on to the hospital and Memaw and Mom were not far behind us coming from Elkton.

Mallory was just snoozing away! The Nurse Practicioner came by and said everything was going really good, she gained a little bit more weight, 1.77....I'm not sure the measure, I'll have to look it up, but somewhere in the high 3 pounds I believe is the conversion.

She continues to have better body temp regulation, so I'm hoping that some time next week she will be able to be moved into an open air crib.

I got to try to breast feed her again, not that she really does much but she does seem to enjoy it! So then we moved onto a bottle, she's still not real interested in that either, but really isn't supposed to be interested in them until 34-35 weeks and she was just 34 weeks today. So then I just got to hold her while she was fed through the feeding tube.

We got to try out one of the Sleep Sheep I bought, she really seemed to like the sounds of the whales, she was really relaxed!!

Here's a picture Sue took with her and sleep sheep:



I wish mom and Memaw would have gotten to hold her more, but it just didn't work out today, but they got to see her, touch her and hold her little hand!

Ben and I then went to the Cheesecake Factory for our Anniversary Dinner since tomorrow we will have been married for 7 years! It's also Tuckers 7th Birthday and Mallory will be a week old tomorrow! Exciting stuff!

To thank all the great nurses that took such good care of me for those 7 weeks in 3C, we got 3 cheesecakes to take back to them so they could eat on those for the next week or so! They were great and I know I owe a lot to them to help keep Mallory in for 7 more weeks!

After dinner we went back to the hospital, took the nurses the cheesecakes and then went back to see Mallory and tell her good night. She was all swaddled up and sleeping good, so we didn't wake her, just told her how much we loved her and that I'd see her tomorrow and Ben on Wednesday.

Now back to the camper for a relaxing rest of the evening.