She made it through the eye exam!

The dreaded eye exam is over! Liz and I arrived at 3pm to the hospital where the nurses administered the eye drops and hooked her up to a heart monitor which also displayed her breathing and saturation and she did wonderfully! She was even allowed to eat and she didn't have any reactions at all. Of course the eye exam itself is not much fun for her but she was such a good girl through the whole thing. We're not sure how many more of these she will have in the upcoming weeks, but she is definitely scheduled for another one in two weeks time. The eye doctor said that her eyes are getting stronger and she received an even better score this time than the last four times. So typically they stop the eye exams once the babies reach 40 weeks gestation (Anna is 37.5 and will be almost 40 weeks at her next eye exam) but it is all dependant on the eye doctor's discretion and whether or not she feels that Anna is out of the woods.

Anna was so pooped after the exam that she had a meal at 1am and didn't wake up until I woke her up at 9am this morning to eat. Hmmm...can't wait until those days are here for good! :)  She is eating wonderfully now, about 80-100mls on average per feed. I think in total she has about 16-20 ounces of formula per day, spanned over 7 feeds. She has also gained an incredible amount of weight since this weekend, so she is now 6lbs 1.5 ounces as of this morning (which is just over 2760 grams)!! Looks like she gains about .5 oz each day so at this rate she will be a big girl in no time!

Her demeanor is still the same, she just hangs out and doesn't complain much. But that is expected at this point because she's so little. She really only cries if something significant is bothering her which doesn't happen often.

I finally got in touch with the hearing centre for Anna's follow up hearing test and they informed me that she won't need one again until December when she will be 2 months 'corrected' age and 5 months 'true' age. So I guess we sit and wait, although that doesn't seem right to me so I'm going to definitely bring it up with the Pediatrician. 

Speaking of Pediatrician, we have another appointment for her tomorrow so it will be decided then whether or not she should take anything for reflux. It seems to be under control so long as we don't overfeed her or lye her flat. I found her today 2 hours after her feed, she woke herself and threw up just five minutes after I came into watch why she was stirring. So it's still a bit of an issue but not enough that she's not gaining weight, which is when the real concern would begin.

So not much is happening (hence the lack of posts). Between the long feeds and the numerous doctors appointments, she pretty much just sleeps her days away, maybe has about 2-4 hours of awake time. 

Here's a short video of her today after her bath and lunch trying to doze away into sleepy land:

 

M.A.A.

Reminiscing again...

I was just browsing through all of our media files from when Anna was born and I can't believe how far she's come. It is really hard to watch her earlier videos, I guess at the time I didn't feel sad, I felt happy that she was alive. Now that I look back I feel so sad for all of her hardships, I feel sad that she was ripped off from a normal life in utero and that she had to endure nine weeks of NICU life. Having said that, I am really happy that she's alive, healthy and from what I can see happy as well. That was the only life she knew, but hopefully all that difficult time in the NICU is just a distant memory for her and is replaced with new happy (and easy) life.

She was so tiny, she could fit into Arthur's one hand

I can't believe that a Preemie sized diaper reached her armpits back then

Here she is sucking on a Preemie soother which covered almost all of her face. She could probably swallow that entire thing now...

Here she is today! Although she's only 5lbs and change, to others she is still tiny but she is so grown up and healthy to us! 

Here we are today having some "home-style" Kangaroo care! No nurses, no machines, no breathing tubes, just good ol' fashion lovins'! :) 

Finally! Here she is with Grandpa getting some cuddles today. We waited a long time for this! :)

We still look at her in amazement today and can't believe that she's finally home, here in her own little room, farting and belching as if the last three months never even phased her. :) It's great!

M.A.A.

Developments...

Nothing much new to report lately. Now that she is off the machines she's able to just relax and sleep most of her days away. I try to videotape her when she's awake and alert but most times it's only because she is hungry so it's just a fine (2-5 minute) line between "awake to screaming for food". :)

Yesterday, while she was awake I tried to test her hearing. I'm not sure, I'm still a bit confused as to whether or not she really can hear out of her left ear. It looks like she had an easy time looking to the right when the rattle was to her right but when it was to her left it took her a while to clue in. So she might have just been looking to the left because she saw a shadow of something.  I've been trying to book a hearing test for her since last week. I've been playing phone tag with the lady who books these as she never answers the phone; only has voicemail. Whenever she calls me back, I'm either at an appointment with Anna or feeding her and not able to pick up the phone. So hopefully one day we'll be able to connect and set this thing up for Anna before the crazy cold weather and flu season starts.That way we can also eliminate the curiosity of whether or not she is able to hear in the left ear.In any case, she seemed amused by the rattling noise, we can't wait until she is able to reach for them and play with them:

The other thing we've noticed with her lately is that she has much more strength in her legs now. When she is doing tummy time it almost looks like she tries to kick herself upwards, like a crawl but not so much. Here is a video of what I mean:

It's difficult to tell where she will be in terms of development. I am just amazed at things she can do now because she is not supposed to be born yet. We don't take a single day for granted with her. Every little thing that might be the norm with a full term baby is a huge accomplishment for her and she amazes us tremendously on a daily basis. :)

M.A.A.

PS - Blogspot is doing some redesigning and it's really messing with the formatting of the blog. My apologies for the jumbled look.

Just truckin' along...

Anna had her very first Pediatrician appointment today! It went really well, we covered all sorts of things that I have been (as a mother) wondering and worrying about the last two weeks.

First thing's first, she checked for fluid in her lungs and yes as Dr. A had mentioned, she is all clear! But she would still like to keep her on the diuretic until the next eye appointment passes; which should be sometime next Tuesday or Wednesday, however we have still not received a call from the NICU regarding this so I will have to follow-up with them.

She also had her head ultrasound yesterday which I 'think' went well. You never know with those technicians as they are not allowed to tell you anything. But we should have the results in by next week to the Pediatrician's office.


I brought up the issue of her possible reflux and the doctor agrees that it sounds like she has reflux which is very common in young babies and even more in premature babies. We will monitor it for one more week and if it's still there, then she will go on Zantac to control the acid. This reflux makes it quite difficult sometimes with her feeds and having to keep her upright for long periods of time (not to mention the fun projectile vomiting). It can't be too comfortable either for the poor little wee. In any case, she was not too concerned as long as Anna is gaining weight and still eating. Which reminds me, she is up to 5lbs 5oz!

She also checked her head shape and it looks like the plagiocephaly is not there anymore. The pediatrician just noted that she has a typical preemie head, which is long in shape for now because of 9 weeks of lying on her sides constantly. But she is not concerned over that and encouraged that she will grow out of this.

She was also very impressed with how alert Anna was. For a baby that was not to be born yet, she is doing really great! The doctor explained to me how we will be referring to Anna's age from here on for medical and developmental purposes. So as soon as we pass her original due date of October 15th we can start using this new method. For example, November 15th she will be 4 months 'true' age, and 1 month 'corrected' age. It's really tough explaining to strangers her true age though. (Every appointment we have been to lately, strangers are constantly stopping to take a look at her and of course, they all think merely by her size that she was practically born yesterday. Although very repetitive, it sometimes makes for an interesting conversation piece. I have never spoken to so many strangers as I have in the last week or so. :) It's nice hearing that almost everyone knows of someone who was born early and has no health issues and are doing really well).

Anyways, speaking of November, Anna will start  her monthly RSV shots in November. RSV stands for Respiratory Syncytial Virus which is "a common respiratory virus that infects virtually all children before age two. The virus usually causes mild "cold" symptoms but, in some infants at risk, can cause a life-threatening illness". So it basically presents itself as a cold, and it essentially is. But for babies that are premature like Anna, it can cause severe distress and problems. So the Pediatrician advised that at the first sign of any illness with her, as simple or as non severe as it may seem, we should immediately take her to her office or if that is closed, then to the Emergency. This is to be the routine should this happen up until the end of January. After that, we should be alright in treating her ourselves since she will be old enough and will have been exposed to the vaccine multiple times by then. She didn't want to scare me but she said 90% of infants will contract RSV at least once between the time they are born until they turn 1 year old. 

So that's that...Anna is doing great, she is still such a little angel so we're keeping our fingers crossed that it will last! :) She will be 3 months old next week, can you believe it?? Also, as of tomorrow, she will be 37 weeks gestation which technically means full term. She would have been born October 4th via a c-section at 38 weeks and 3 days gestation. The little trooper...she has come such a long way!! 

PS - Anna if you're reading this one day, thank you for farting so loud in every waiting room we are in :) They are so loud that everybody thinks it's Mommy farting!!! :)

M.A.A.

Crunch Time

I'm not going to lie, I'm finally starting to feel the crunch. It just seems like there's not enough hours in the day most days. With Anna having reflux issues, and it taking about 1 hour each time she has a bottle, I'm spending about 12 hours out of 24 feeding/holding her upright. That doesn't leave much time in between for sleep, cleaning (as you all know I'm a freak with this so that's been tough to let go of), eating, sterilizing her bottles, mixing her formula or anything else. I really have to invest in some sort of a sling so I can carry her around while I do things around the house.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE hanging out with her and just holding her while her tummy settles. Today, I just hugged and kissed her so much, and couldn't believe that we have her here. I can't believe how many people mistreat babies/children of their own when they are such a blessing to have. I have this strange but nice ticklish feeling in my stomach when I hold her, this feeling that I'm complete, that nothing else matters in the world, and just utter love that you have never felt before.

So yes, as sleep deprived as I feel, as dirty as our house is, as much as I don't accomplish during the day, it's still all worth every second of it for her.

Anyways, finishing my sob story, let's move on to the events of today. We visited the doctor who had been looking after Anna during her stay in the Oshawa NICU. The prognosis is good; he didn't hear any fluid in her lungs but he would still like for her to finish the remainder of her prescription or let her Pediatrician decide on Thursday whether or not she would like her to finish it. He also didn't order any blood work because she didn't look dehydrated or ill, again leaving it up to the Pedi on Thursday. He weighed her and got the same number we had at home, 5lbs 4oz which is good. He said just to keep up with her feeds and not let her go too long without eating. At one point he did hook her up to a mini monitor to quickly check her vitals. He was really pleased, her saturations were good, and her heart rate was good. So he said that the issues we had after she had her eye drops were just from that; the eye drops. That was really reassuring to hear, but needless to say we are SO nervous for the next eye exam!!

So that's the story for today, the little munchkin is starting to be more and more alert each day. Today she was awake for a full 4 hours! We did some tummy time, some gym time and some "stare at random things" time. It almost looks like she can see some things now, she really tries to focus on objects. I'm still curious as to where she is supposed to be development wise; where a 3 month old is, or where a newborn would be at this point. These are some of the the things we'll have to discuss with the Pediatrician on Thursday.

Here she is during her awake time today, she was just staring around her taking in all the sights and sounds:

(PS - she may or may not think her name is Monkey :) woops!! )



M.A.A.

Back in Business!

So, after a few days away from the blog, we are back in business! Looks like my cold took a turn for the worse and I was out of commission for a couple of days there. Daddy was super busy taking care of Anna and I so he is pooped I'm sure, and has to face a week of work now. I am really glad to see that Anna is not sick (yet??) though. I know her first cold/flu I am going to be SO worried. Especially because we're not used to her not being content, so when she's upset it's for good reason and can get quite concerning.

As I have been taking a turn for the worse, Anna has actually been blossoming with her feeds and weight gain. She is up to 95ml feeds every 4 hours or so and in total she's eating about 14-15 ounces of formula per day. She has also gained a bit of weight, as of this morning she is 5lbs 4ounces which is great to finally see. I hope the trend continues in the upward direction.

She has an appointment tomorrow morning with the doctor who discharged her (and the same one who checked her after her eye exam). He will check her over to make sure she is not too dehydrated from the diuretic and to check her progress regarding the fluid in the lungs.

The one thing we did notice this weekend is that we think she might have some reflux issues. It looks like we have to keep her upright after a feed for a good 30 minutes, otherwise she'll throw up, arch her head backwards and cry from pain. I'll ask the doctor about this tomorrow, although I suspect he might let it go until she has her first appointment with her full time Pediatrician.

So that's the quick update on the little munchkin, lets all keep our fingers crossed that she's able to stay healthy and flu free as long as possible during this upcoming flu season!

Here she is tonight at midnight, we were waiting for her bottle to warm up, as you can see she gets quite alert before a feed. Wait a bit too long and she might even let out a cry or two :)



Marta, Arthur & Anna

Karate Kid!

Anna wanted me to post so she can tell everyone that she has officially taken up Karate! :) Here's the little Miss in her Kimono today having some fun (I'm amazed at how alert she is today!!) I also checked her weight and she is now back up to 5lbs and 0.5oz which is great!! She is being such a good girl eating all of her formula and hopefully it's finally starting to show. Anyways, here she is showing off some moves (I now know what all those nurses were talking about!):

Here she is practicing her Karate chop -- "Hiyaa!!"


And here she is doing the 'praying mantis':


Here she is having some tummy time, I can't believe how strong her head is already!

Here are a couple of videos of her as well:







Marta & Arthur (& Baby Anna)

My First Day as a "Stay-at-home-mom"

Lots of fun today! Anna and I spent the day getting to know each other and learning a new routine together.

We're trying to get her to eat a bit more since it looks like as of this morning she is still only about 4lbs and 16oz. We called the NICU and they basically said to try and make her eat more, but that she is probably fine so long as she is peeing and pooing a normal amount. I don't know what normal is at this point because she is on a diuretic medication which means exponential diaper changes. But since she won't eat more during a feed, I've decided to increase the number of feeds she gets instead. This means that Miss Princess has to be woken up sometimes every 2 hours and other times she just wakes herself up after 3-4 hours and talks to herself in the crib for a while...or well I should say 'grunts' to herself.

She is such a pleasant baby and she still rarely cries unless she is cold or hungry. Except last night she did let out a few whimpers so I picked her up and all the little girl needed was a good burp and a warm cuddle and she was back to sleep in no time.

We had some tummy time today and she is quite strong! But we knew that already when she tried to literally walk away in the NICU at Women's a few times. :) She also tried out her baby gym today but she wasn't too interested since she can't even see as little as a newborn baby yet.

I'm not sure where she is supposed to be developmentally at this point since she is technically only 36 weeks gestation. But soon enough she will start doing the typical newborn things so it'll get easier to guess what we can and can't do in terms of stimulating her senses.

So we both survived our first day together and there will be many more to come! I can tell she missed Daddy's cuddles though but he is so good, he still gets up to feed her in the early AM for some bonding time (and so I can catch a few zzz's).

Here is a video of Anna on her baby gym today:



Marta & Arthur

The Circle of Life...

Great G & Great A finally got to squeeze in a visit with Anna today! We were especially proud to see how the long circle of life is continued...from the eldest all the way to the smallest member of our family. We have been waiting quite a while for these days so it's especially treasured when the time comes.

In the meantime, Anna is doing great, it's as if nothing happened. I will be enrolling in First Aid CPR, it's always good to have and after yesterdays scare (even though it was an isolated incident), we don't want to take any chances.

She is taking her feeds well, somewhere between 30-60mls per feed, so every 3-4 hours. I'm not sure but I think she is packing on the pounds. We forgot to weigh her tonight after her bath but we'll do that tomorrow morning after her change.

Daddy is returning to work tomorrow so it'll be our first day alone as Mommy and Daughter, hopefully the transition will be smooth! Unfortunately, I think I'm coming down with a cold, so it's going to be tough trying to limit our contact together. I can't believe after all this time we finally get her home, and here I go getting sick. I'm going to try and keep her in the nursery, she sleeps pretty much 22 out of 24 hours of the day so that won't be hard. So hopefully she won't catch what I have, but we'll see, only time will tell.

Anna also started her diuretic tonight so we have to keep a close eye on her so that she doesn't dehydrate. There will tons more poopy and wet diapers to take care of for the next 2 weeks as well!

Her appointments will start next week, first on Monday at Lakeridge again to check her electrolytes from the diuretic, then Tuesday she will have a routine head ultrasound as she was due for one the day before discharge but someone dropped the ball, and lastly Thursday will be her first of many weekly appointment with her Pediatrician. That will only leave her hearing appointment which we have yet to book, and her follow up appointment with Women's College in December.

Which reminds me, I went to the St. John's car seat clinic and after lots of maneuvering, sweating, yanking, pulling, pushing, and swearing by both Daddy AND the St. John's crew... the car seat is installed and approved by an MTO supervisor! So Anna will be driving around to her appointments not only in fashion but safe and sound as well!

So that's it for little Anna today! :)

Marta & Arthur

Scary Day

As most of you know, Anna was going in to the hospital today for a routine eye exam. One that she has had three times already.

For some reason, today she had a reaction to the eye drops. The eye drops are vasoconstrictors which means that they narrow the blood vessels and sometimes because it's systematic, it might narrow other blood vessels in the body, causing a negative reaction.

In Anna's case, about one hour after she received the drops, she stopped breathing. The nurses had to resuscitate her and she was hooked up to monitors immediately. But once she was stabilized, she did really well.

The eye exam was performed later on and her vitals were great during the exam so they let us take her home. This was a localized incident and we were told that we just have to inform the staff next time she is in for an eye exam, to keep her on monitors at all times and to stay after the exam for a short period to make sure she is stable.

Apparently these reactions are not unheard of. Some babies have negative reactions to the drops and the doctor that has been taking care of Anna while in the NICU in Oshawa was confident to send her home. We will go back to see him on Monday because while there today, he noticed that she has some fluid in her lungs. So he ordered for her to take some diuretics (which are medications which increase the excretion of fluids from the body) for two weeks and since he has a lab there at his office upstairs, he can do some blood work on her to check her electrolytes (it is common for the body to dehydrate while on diuretics). So now Anna is on iron supplements, multivitamins and the diuretic.

I can't even describe how emotional and scary today was for us. We watched our daughter lose all consciousness and all that ran through my mind was that we were going to lose her. We weren't informed prior to the drops being administered that there could be such a fatal side effect. Had I known this, I still would have panicked but would have kept a closer eye out for it.

We are in a state of shock, panic, fear and disbelief right now. But little Anna is trucking along, sleeping soundly as if nothing happened. What a poor little girl, the things she has had to go through all her life, not to mention today's incident and also how terribly invasive these eye exams are. :(

Anyways we will keep you posted on her progress...


Marta & Arthur

Busy Bee

A quick update: quick because there is not much to report other than growth and the fact that it looks like we have found somewhat of a routine.

Today Anna is due for another eye exam. This means a trip to the hospital and what is probably going to be quite the wait. But at least we can say hello to all the nurses who I am sure would love to see Anna again.

Yesterday Anna had visits from her Grandpa who was stopping by and her Aunt who finally had the well deserved opportunity to hold Anna for a bit. Amongst the balloons, the cards, the clothes

and the toys is this little girl that looks incredibly peaceful, as if nothing happened. The pictures and the video's remind us of the long road we have traveled to get here. And after all she has been through, to see her in the arms of family, breathing, eating, burping and farting like a pro-star is a fantastic experience.

So, for the next little while Anna will be busy with follow-up appointments at the hospital and various medical clinics. We will update as we go along.

M&A&A

We Survived the First Night! :)

Hi all! Anna is now safe and sound at home, and all three of us seem to manage life together smoothly. A little too smoothly if you ask me :) maybe it's just the calm before the storm who knows. But at this point Anna seems to be a content little monkey, nothing really bothers her and if she does cry, it's only for a short few moments and then it's done.

The animals are taking nicely to her as well. They were a little curious the first day she was here because she's their size but not quite one of them and she is too little to be "human" in their eyes so they were certainly a bit thrown off. All of her funky pushing and grunting noises also throw them off but I think they are over it for the most part. The dog seems protective of her which is cute. We have to watch all of them very carefully since this is their first time being exposed 24/7 to a baby (or a child of any age for that matter).

It was a bit of a rough go at feeding once she first came home, she didn't like her new powder formula (as opposed to having it all premixed) but now she seems a bit more used to it. She is still not eating as much as she was at the hospital; 80-100mls per feed. At home it's more like 30-60mls per feed but it's also a bit more often. Her grandpa rented her a hospital grade scale so we are able to keep track of her weight which is important when she is this little. Any major weight loss and she would have to go back to the hospital since she was so tiny to begin with at discharge. According to our scale, she was 4lbs 7oz on Saturday evening (she lost some weight the evening before discharge as well) and this morning she is 5lbs on the dot. So she gained around 88 grams which is great!!

We are also working hard to try and shape her head back to a normal shape. As you can see in the picture, she has some supervised "head shaping" time each day, along with some supervised tummy time to relieve the pressure on the sides of her head. She was still classified as having plagiocephaly (flattening of the side of the skull) at discharge so we want to keep on top of that so she doesn't have any long term effects. It's tough because we are trying to undo 9 weeks of flattening.

Anyway, we have quite a few appointments for her in the upcoming weeks, which seem to be exponentially increasing. But better to have many appointments so we can ask all the necessary questions. Things are a bit different when raising a baby that shouldn't even be born yet.

Anyways we are coping wonderfully and we're just so happy to finally have her home!

Here she is having her first bath at home, she didn't quite like it but didn't make too much of a fuss:



Marta & Arthur

Home-coming Queen!

She's finally home and doing great!!! We can't believe she's home, it's such a dream come true!

We arrived at the hospital to pick her up at around 10am, met with the doctor and discussed some things. She will have quite a few follow up appointments in the upcoming days/weeks but that is expected for a premature baby.

She lost 20 grams last night but that was because the hospital fed her 22 calorie formula for the day instead of 24. It's amazing how much a couple of calories here or there affect them when they are so little. She can't over-exert herself in any way because she'll burn too many calories and that's not good. So we just have to keep the little princess content and peaceful.

She is sound asleep now so the real test will begin once she is up and our routines start with her. But we are so excited and so thrilled to have her home that words can't even describe!


Here's a little video of her leaving the hospital:



Marta & Arthur

Comments for Anna

I hope that one day Anna can read this blog and see her wonderful progress and how supportive and proud we all are of her.

Please feel free to post a comment or a few words so she can read this one day and see what great support she had and how many people were cheering her on while she was fighting to grow strong these few months! :)

(You can do this by clicking on "Comments" at the bottom of this post, and once you finish the comment, click on "Name/Url" to enter your name as you would like it to appear.)

We are all so proud of you, go Anna go!!

The Last Night

So I definitely wasn't premature posting the last bit of information. They will release Anna sometime tomorrow morning after the doctor examines her and goes over some information with us.

She is on a premature formula for an indefinite amount of time. This just means that it has a slightly higher calorie content and has a much higher nutritional content compared to a normal formula. We will have quite a few follow up appointments to attend in the following months with her pediatrician, with Women's College, with Lakeridge and with the COT study we signed up for. Anna will also have to have a preventative vaccine every month to get her through the cold and flu season while she is still so young and small. I hope we don't have any major problems with her health during this winter season.

Tonight has been so surreal for us. We are numb, but anxious, if that makes any sense. We have been waiting for this day for nearly 2 years now and to think that it's only a few short hours away. It just doesn't seem real, but it's such a dream come true finally.

Things will be tough, we will be doing a lot of adjusting, but we are so anxious to finally have a healthy baby of ours come home from a hospital and finally fill that empty nursery.

It has been such a long journey...but now we begin a new and wonderful journey with Anna at home.

Oh and of course, we were so excited to see her tonight that we forgot the camera. :) We will DEFINITELY remember it tomorrow though!

G'nite,
Marta & Arthur

Anna is Going to be Discharged!!

I hope I am not premature with this post but I just had to share the good news! We spoke with the doctor on call today and she did indicate that they do plan on discharging Anna from the hospital tomorrow for sure! :) <--- I can't put a big enough smile to show how happy we are!!

She passed her car seat test and got her feeding orders all set up to be discussed tomorrow.

We will update more details after our visit tonight!

Marta & Arthur

Hit the 5 Pound Mark!

So she finally made it to the 5 pound mark! 5 pounds and 1.5oz to be exact! She was weighed in tonight at 2302 grams which is another jump of 73 grams. She is getting quite hefty and we love it because the bigger she gets the more comfortable we get with handling her.

There is not much new to report, things are going pretty slowly these last few days (at the hospital) and very hectic at home. With Arthur working and us wrapping up things for Anna's unexpectedly early (but welcomed) arrival, there is not much time left for anything else...except a quick midnight blog session of course. :)

She is up to 80 mls of food the last couple of feedings which is a big jump from 60, and even bigger jump from 44mls which is what she was not too long ago. I hope we are able to keep up with her big appetite at home!

All the nurses just love her at the NICU, they even posted a little sticker for her on her cot which reads something along the lines of "Dancing Queen". Apparently she is quite the dancer, and just like the nurses from Women's College, the nurses at Lakeridge seem to think she will be a ballerina or a swimmer, or a gymnast. :) Cute...

Anyways, it looks now that they will attempt to do the car seat test tonight, if not the latest tomorrow night and have her released Saturday at some point in time. I was arranging the nursery and washing her clothes and bedding and realized that it is such a bitter sweet time. As happy as we are to bring her home, it's hard not to think of the wonderful life Liam was robbed of. But knowing how quickly a life is created and then taken from us, makes us cherish every moment with Anna that much more.

We can't wait to have her home...



Marta & Arthur

Wrapping Things Up (T-minus 3 Days??)...

So just to quickly update Anna's progress; not much is new on the Anna-front today. She is still taking her bottles on demand and doing good with taking them. It's a bit tough feeding her at this point because she is still learning the whole suck-swallow-breathe technique. But I am sure once she is home we will figure out what works best for Anna to help her out. It will also be a bit easier since she won't be on such a tight hospital schedule. Even though they have her on an 'on demand' feed, they still get very antsy if she doesn't finish her bottle fully in an allotted time. Whereas if Anna was home, SHE would be the boss. :)

Also, we have been asked to bring in the car seat tomorrow so they can perform the car seat test soon. There is no sense in getting us all excited to bring her home if she fails the test. If she passes the test, then we are now looking at a discharge of no later than Sunday. It's sort of borderline Saturday/Sunday because it will all depend on the doctors' discretion. She will be 5 days off caffeine technically on Saturday, but who knows if he wants to wait an extra day just to be safe.

We will have to bring her back in to the hospital on Tuesday because she will be due for her routine eye exam. I also have a car seat clinic appointment on Wednesday, so I hope Daddy is able to have some time off work because it's really important that I go to that clinic since she will be riding in my car most of the time.

Also, she had her first hearing test today and her left ears' results came out as inconclusive at this point. This just means that she has been referred for an additional and more in depth hearing test. They informed us not to worry too much because sometimes there is debris in the ear, or other environmental causes which can affect her test results. We look at it this way, if that is her biggest problem after being born so early at such a low birth weight, then we are really lucky! She is healthy and we'd like to think that she is happy too! ;) So we are pleased with that!

Unfortunately, due to Anna's small size, and very early age at the time of her discharge (35 weeks gestation), we would like to temporarily limit the number of visitors to only immediate family for a few more weeks. She is very susceptible at this point to infections and viruses and would probably have to be hospitalized if she catches even a common cold due to the fact that she's still a preemie (can't wait for flu season to officially begin *sense the sarcasm*). So lots of washing hands around her, and being careful not to visit if sick or suspecting that a cold is coming, etc.

So that's all that is new...we are SO anxious to finally have the little munchkin home with us! After 9 weeks in the NICU, it just seems so surreal that the journey is finally coming to a closing.



Marta & Arthur

The Clock Has Begun Ticking...

You know that feeling of the calm before the storm? That's sort of our life right now. We're slowly preparing for Anna's homecoming and realizing how incredibly unprepared we are. It's going to be really tough to live life without those monitors, to have to depend on our own parental instincts. All you parents out there, geesh, now we know what you felt all these years. Like the one nurse said tonight, there are two emotions of parents; worry and guilt. She hit the nail on the head there. If we're not worrying about Anna or how we will take care of her, then we're feeling guilty about our self seen inadequacies or again how we will take care of her. This little life depends on us fully and I think it's all just starting to sink in now. No more nurses, doctors, nutritionists, no more monitors, just Arthur, Anna and I. Oh and all of our precious fur-babies too. Yes, our life will now feel more complete, but in a sense it will also just begin again.

In any case, we are quickly preparing for Anna's departure from the not so glamorous hospital life because she in fact is just as quickly proving herself to be ready to come home. She has still taken every feed by bottle but that's also touch and go at the moment because it has only been one full day of bottle feeding. She has gained an amazing 71 grams overnight and now weighs 2221 grams which is about 4lbs and 14oz; almost to the big 5 pound mark! They also took her off caffeine, which we only learned tonight was a prerequisite for discharge. The caffeine to this day was helping her remember to breathe and prevent her from having spells. So as of today she is off, and she has to stay off of it for 5 days without any spells. That combined with the feeding and passing the car seat test and she will be discharged without problems! So based on the caffeine test, her earliest discharge at this point would be Sunday. Which is still amazing! The possibility of having her home with us by the weekend is just great. But we still have to see how she will cope with all of these changes. She might tire out, or she might just do great.

She has also developed quite the set of lungs in the last few days. I think since she is actually able to feel "hunger" now she's not as tranquil as she was in her earlier days. :) Here she is right before a feed...I just got a small snippet of her screech-fest caught on tape:



Marta & Arthur

She's all grown up!

Anna has officially graduated to a big girl bed! No more isolette, she is such a big girl now! So now she gets to finally wear clothes every day and get bundled up into a baby burrito to keep warm. They are trying to 'normalize' her for life outside of the NICU. This will help us all transition to life at home, which is nothing like it has been in the hospital the last few months.

Anna also finished 2 full bottles today on her own! The nurse said that she finishes them in about 15 minutes which shows that she has good coordination and does not have any visible issues at this point so it will only be a matter of a short time before she takes all of her feeds by mouth. She said sometimes they will take all of their feeds and then have to retract back to the tube feeding to get a break but that doesn't last too long. So the night nurse is also going to try her on an "on demand" feed as well tonight and see how she does (instead of feeding her on the hospitals' schedule). This is also more like how it would be at home.

In terms of when Anna would 'realistically' be home, the nurse stated that maybe even as early as next weekend. Now, we're not going to get our hopes by any means or think that she in fact will be home next weekend, but realistically in our minds maybe in another 1.5-2 weeks she should be home at the rate she is going now. She is just such a little champion and has really sailed through the last 9 weeks in the NICU.

So she is now 2150 grams on the dot, which is 4lbs 11 oz, so she will definitely be over the 5lb mark once she is released home. She is also on full formula feeds now which she has been tolerating quite well and her feeds I believe are 44 or 45 mls still.

There's just a few odds and ends we have to take care of before she comes home; shave the dog (haha), get some newborn sleepers (we never ended up getting too many, thinking that she would be full term and they would be too small -- HA) and we have to double-check our car seat because we are not sure if the weight requirement is on par with Anna's weight. The nurse mentioned to be on alert because they will just call us one day and tell us to bring the car seat in for the final test that she has to pass, and then the day after she would be home. So we have to start preparing.

So exciting!! Sounds like she will definitely be home before two weeks are up!! :) We are on cloud nine right now!!

Here she is tonight after her bath and fully dressed in her first little outfit:



Here she is getting woken up to eat, she lets out quite the cry:



Marta & Arthur

Num-nums!!

Anna had such a good day today! She had nice cuddles from Daddy and then she had her Auntie visit later on as well. We brought in some clothes for her to wear so from here on she'll be wearing only clothes from home. The nursing staff will make a note on her isolette and we will be responsible for bringing in new outfits and washing her dirty ones. It's really nice to finally be able to see her in all her little clothes that have been waiting for her since I was pregnant. It gives you a little control and feeling of parenting in this crazy whirlwind of the NICU lifestyle.

The other good news is that Anna's feedings have really taken off today. She had two tries at the bottle during the day where she took 15 mls each time, slowly but surely! However, tonight the nurse called us at home to let us know that Anna had her first FULL bottle of 44mls at her 9 o'clock feeding, and all in 15 minutes!! She was so amazed that she had to call us right away. She also made a note on the nurse's chart that Anna is to only have slow flow nipples (as we have been advocating for a while now). But it's so nice to finally see our wishes/thoughts/gut feelings play out in real time. She did wonderfully so hopefully she will be able to take a full bottle again tomorrow.

Speaking of full bottles, Anna now weighs 2100 grams on the dot, so it's only a matter of time before she is put into a crib! We think she will respond much better once she's in a crib since they will able to swaddle her with blankets (that way she won't crawl around as much). We, along with the day nurse, have a suspicion that she's crawling around her incubator a lot right now because she was so used to being swaddled at Women's and they don't swaddle her here at Oshawa because her incubator temperature is so much higher.

So all in all, a big and very successful day for Anna!

Here we are having some fun with her while she sleeps. It's just a quick snip-it taken with her Aunt's Iphone. Yes, many more torturous days await Anna when she comes home! :)




Marta & Arthur

Just another day in Level II....

Anna had a long day of squirming and trying to crawl out of her incubator again today! :) She just won't take no for an answer. Apparently all the nurses are saying we're going to have a feisty redhead on our hands here. She is quite the talk of the NICU already!

She will be out of her incubator soon enough though, I spoke with the nurse today and apparently she says most babies leave between 36-38 weeks gestation. Anna will be 35 weeks this Wednesday so that's really a nice thing to hear. She also will be put in a crib at the NICU once she reaches 2500 grams. Which is not really that far away since at today's weigh in she was already 2054 grams which is about 4lbs 8oz. I can't believe that she's almost 5lbs!

I also can't believe that she's having baths every other day now! She HAAATES baths but that's what makes it that much fun. :) Who doesn't love to watch a little cranky baby getting a bath? And let me tell you, she was SO cranky today! Cute...

We tried Anna on the bottle again today, she wasn't as interested today because she was working on some gas, both down yonder and up north too. But I think she managed to eat 10mls which is still pretty good. It seems slow at this point but one day it will all just click for her and she will just get "it".


The other thing is, I casually asked the nurse if they are still applying the butterfly pillow for her and she said absolutely. Apparently they are not worried about the shape of her head at this point the way they were at Women's College. The nurse mentioned that as she grows bigger and she's held more and has more tummy time, her head will mold itself back to a more round shape. So no worries there...phew...the Nurse Practitioner really had me worried about the long term consequences of lying on the sides of her head all the time.

So that's all the news from today, will keep you all updated on her feeding progress. I'm really excited because these last couple of weeks will just fly by. Next week we have the car seat clinic, and the week after she might slowly be ready to come home. Can't wait!!

Here's a couple of videos of Miss Cranky Pants from today (the nurses were kind enough to let us use our camcorder today):






Marta & Arthur

2 Kilograms, Yeah Baby!

She did it!! She reached (and exceeded if I might add) 2 kilograms! She is now 2029 grams which is about 4lbs and 7.5oz. What a big girl!

And no wonder, she is now having 43mls of milk every 3 hours and tolerating them quite well. The great thing is (although I don't have pictures of this) that she took her first bottle today! She had a full 15mls of milk by bottle and she did it so well. We weren't sure if she got tired so we hooked her feeding tube back up to continue her feed through her NG tube and she burped a real big one and then she started looking for the bottle again. So I think she would have definitely had more milk by bottle if offered. So maybe tomorrow we will try her on a bit more. The nurse and I were both amazed at how well she did the whole "suck swallow breathe" thing. We knew she had it in her all along!! What a little trooper!

This little trooper apparently has made quite the name for herself in her new home. The nurses call her "Little Houdini" because they settle her in all nice and comfy and 20 minutes later she appears at the other end of the isolette, facing in a different direction, upside down, inside out, legs all over the place, you name it. :) The nurses have no idea how or why she does it but I think it's because she's trying to tell us "Look at meee! I'm ready to go home!!".

As you can tell, we are still in "isolation mode" but we did receive a few results back and we were able to get rid of the uncomfortable face masks so that's great news. So, slowly as this isolation bit ends, we will start to visit her more often and get more involved in her care. Hopefully she'll have that tube out of her nose in no time!




Hangin' out with Daddy:
Here is Miss Anna getting her nightly weigh-in (and fighting through the whole thing!):



Marta & Arthur

Splish splash, we're having a bath!

Anna had her first bath today!! We just can't believe how relaxed everything is in a level II in comparison to a level III NICU. Not only did she get her first bath today, but she also got to have a break from her COT monitor (this is the machine that monitors her desaturations) for over an hour! This was her first time off the COT machine and the nurse on duty today mentioned that as she progresses they will slowly keep her off of it during her feeds and baths etc to sort of get us and her used to not having to rely on a monitor.

The nurse on duty today was really wonderful today too. She was so supportive of bottle feeding our baby and she even mentioned that they will probably start her on the first bottle tomorrow with the approval of the Neonatologist. She emphasized that the main criteria for Anna to come home is to be able to eat on her own for 48 hours straight. This will take some time for her to master, but it's not unheard of that a baby might go home well before their due date (40 weeks). In fact, she mentioned that many babies go home well before they even reach full term (37 weeks). That's really comforting to hear because it means that just because she is not full term, doesn't mean that she can't be just as healthy and thrive just as much as one that is full term. Also, it means that we might have her home as early as 36-37 weeks if she does well with her feeds. She is now 34 weeks and 1 day old so that's just around the corner for her if she does as well as she has been for the last 8 weeks.

Anyways, as you can see from the pictures, we are still suited up for isolation. We had some fun with our outfits today to make light of the fact that it was so uncomfortable. Apparently when her first cultures come back tomorrow we can ditch the masks. But the gloves and gowns have to stay probably until Saturday's visit still.

Oh, but the big news today (other than her first bath) is that she is now on feeds that are every 3 hours and they have upped her milk to 42 mls now to compensate for the increase in the time. It still runs through a one hour course but I'm sure eventually that will be decreased to half an hour as well. She also now weighs 1983 grams which is about 4lbs 6oz!

Here she is getting her hair washed before her bath (the quality is not so good compared to the prior videos and there is no sound; but that's because I wasn't supposed to be video taping but I just had my little still picture camera in my hand pretending to be taking pictures without flash the whole time muahaha!) :



Here she is having her quick bath, it looks rough but it's not. The nurse had to hurry it along because Anna is still a bit fragile and it is quite cooler in this hospital:



She did really good today and she barely let out a couple of squeaks, she has such a cute demeanor still! :) She is also really handling being in Oshawa well. I think she is loving how much quieter this NICU is than her last one. So we are very relieved, the nurses are nice, they are not bullying us into anything, the place is bigger, cleaner, newer and Anna seems very content with her new home!

Marta & Arthur

She's Here!!!!

Anna is finally one step closer to home! What a way to ring in her 2 month birthday! Her new temporary isolette resides in the Lakeridge Health Oshawa Level II NICU. Exactly where she was on the day she was born. Tonight has been quite long, so I'll try to keep this entry short since it's almost 4am now.

We got to Women's College around 9pm and did some Kangaroo care with her from 10pm until it was time to prep her for the big move. The Ambutrans people didn't arrive until 12:30am so they set everything up and took her on her way. She did really well during the ride and slept the entire time. Once she arrived at Oshawa around 1:30am, she woke up since they skipped her last feed in case the ride would upset her tummy. So it was really nice to see her alert and waving around again (even though it was only because she was hungry).

The nurse at Oshawa was pretty nice, she took us through the way things work there and I'll be honest, it's all a little bit overwhelming, but so was the Level III at first and we somehow adjusted eventually. Anna is currently in isolation for the next 2-4 days until her cultures come back. This is normal protocol to screen every new patient like this because every hospital carries its own germs. So it's just a safety thing. But this means that when we visit her we will have to wear gowns and gloves (and possibly face masks depending on the nurse??) until her results come back negative. After that, we can possibly get into a nice routine with her again.

So level II seems nice, apparently it's quite the busy place during the day and things are the same with visitors, only 2 people at a time and one must be a parent of the baby. Unfortunately, we are not allowed to have cameras there since they don't want anyone recording sensitive conversations. So from here on for the next few weeks we will have to use the still camera (which also takes videos but without sound). I will try to sneak in our regular camcorder here and there when it's not busy though. I would hate to miss out videotaping her development to keep for the rest of our lives because of some silly rule.

But Level II is a good place for her and she is definitely ready for it. Here is where she will start to bottle feed, she will have her first bath once she regulates her body temperature and we can have longer cuddles with her once she is more stable during her feeds. So it should be nice and certainly great preparation for life at home!

Anyhow, she is doing well, she has gained more weight and is now 1953 grams which is 4lbs 4oz. They said at Women's that usually once babies hit the 2kg mark they qualify to be transferred into a crib (so long as they can maintain their temperature) which Anna still can't fully do. But she will soon meet the first requirement, within the next day or so in any case! :)

Here are some pictures of her journey to Oshawa:

Here are some videos; the first one is of Anna having some Kangaroo cuddles before we left Women's College, the second is of the nurses at Women's College getting Anna into her travel incubator and the third one is of Anna settled in at Oshawa in her new incubator. She was so hungry at this point :)







Today was really tough and we are nervous to say the least with the new surroundings, new nurses, new routines but we look forward to her journey here at the Oshawa Level II NICU and hope that it's a short one at that! It feels really great to have her so close to home!!

Marta & Arthur