As Promised...

Sorry, I'm a day late... I'm a little busy!








I've been getting a lot of questions about how nursing is going and I am so happy to report that it is going well!!! Today he took his first full feed from the breast and there are no words to explain how happy this makes me. William is a great nurser unlike his sister who refused me with everything she had. I hope I am able to transition him to all nursing within a few weeks! The lactation consultant I see is encouraging me to take it slow. I'm so ready to get rid of the stupid pump! I can't believe I pumped for nine months with Margaret... I don't think I could do that again.

And, yes, he is still coming home on Thursday!

By George, He's Got It!

My big little boy has decided he has had enough of the NICU and has started gulping his bottles down! As of this morning, he is on full feeds by mouth and doing well! He has to pass his carseat test, get his immunizations today, have a follow-up eye exam tomorrow, and then he is ready to go. Mommy and Daddy need to take the CPR refresher, get his meds filled, learn about his monitor, and decide if we are going to room in (don't have to since this is #2 preemie).

I love today's milestone. It is one every NICU Mom can appreciate: first time without tape on his face. Pictures will be uploaded later today!

Rock, Paper, Scissors

Before I was a Mommy, I had no idea. None. I never knew that although I was having the time of my life (for nearly 20 years!), that your baby laughing trumps all else. Seriously. There has been nothing better in my entire life than my baby laughing. I can't wait to add a second baby laugh to my life.

Well, that stunk

Let's just leave it as Margaret doesn't do well when she comes out of anesthesia. They told us to expect her to be "fussy" for half an hour after they placed her tubes. Not our girl, she was hysterical for close to two hours. She refused to eat (even though she hadn't eaten in nine hours) and then just kind of "passed out" from crying so much.

When she woke up, she was still a little upset so I gave her another dose of Tylenol and a bottle. Margaret calmed down enough to cuddle with me on the floor while watching Monsters, Inc. for a good chunk of the afternoon.

Monkey girl must be feeling pretty good now, though, because she is orchestrating the room while shouting. She should be sleeping. I should be sleeping.

Margaret in her first hospital gown (before surgery):


After surgery... very upset baby:







William and Daddy (for good measure):

This explains a lot...

My Fortune Cookie told me: Your doctor is looking unsteady because he has been hitting the gin. Get a cookie from Miss Fortune

I'll see your ear infection...

and raise you a double ear infection and a ruptured eardrum. Yowch. But at least they gave me good pain meds.

What a Winter

Daycare sucks. Margaret is still sick in addition to STILL having her ear infection. We have scheduled her appointment for tube surgery this Thursday.

In addition to Margaret being sick... I am sick again. And now I'VE got an ear infection. Right now I'm pumping and waiting for time to go by so I can get David to take me to Urgent Care (it opens at 9am). I don't think I've ever had an ear infection before... let me tell you, NOT FUN!!!

I'll be so glad when William is home and I can say goodbye to the NICU forever, take Margaret out of daycare, and hopefully have a healthy spring!

Climbing and Signing

Today Margaret showed me two new skills. She can now climb up on things that are the right height... namely the middle part of the sofa where I have removed the cushion.

Also, out of necessity, she is now signing and saying "down". She is so stinking proud of herself and gives me the biggest grin when she knows she has it right. Now, this isn't one of the signs we have been working on forever... I just looked this one up a few days ago so that she could use it when she gets stuck somewhere. I never expected her to learn and use it so rapidly. Especially since she has never signed anything other than "milk" even though we've used a handful of other signs for the past several months. (Right now she is so excited about her skills that she will not go to sleep!)

William and I have started attempting to nurse. So far he has done better than Margaret ever did. He will actually latch on and suck and swallow! I'm very hopeful that I will be able to nurse him!!! He still is not doing very well with the bottle... and this is our last hurdle before he can come home. I anticipate he will be in the hospital for at least another couple of weeks.

Little Monkey vs. Littlest Monkey

Do they look alike?








I think so!

Let's talk about Margaret

My sweet little monkey now has, count 'em, eleven teeth. ELEVEN! Somewhere in the madness of the past couple of months, she has managed to get four molars and just today I have noticed that one of her bottom front teeth has finally come in. Toothy.

Also, I am almost able to brush her teeth now. She lets me put my brush in the front part of her mouth and brush the top front and bottom. I really want to get to those molars but I'm not sure how I will be able to do that any time soon.

And the age of the meat stick is nigh. We have tried these things every now and then trying to get some protein into our munchkin. But until today she only thought they were fit for squishing. I was so lazy with her lunch today that I decided to try again since we have three jars left of them. She ate three! Since she did so well with them, I decided to try another frequently rejected food, cereal ("Nutragrain") bars. To my shock, she ate that too! And then she sorted the green beans to the far corner of the highchair tray. We now can add two foods to her repertoire that aren't deep fried or consist primarily of sugar. Nice!

She has also FINALLY started cruising. She does this with much trepidation as she is not much of a risk taker. She also doesn't feel entirely comfortable moving her formally inverted foot around in different directions so that she has to put weight on it in ways she isn't used to. But every single day I can see an improvement. I feel that walking is very close.

And poor Margaret has had a severe ear infection for the past three weeks. She just finished her third round of antibiotics... the serial injections. On the third day, the ped said the infection had not cleared up as much as they usually see and if she is still in pain on Monday to bring her in so that we can schedule have tubes placed. :( I know it is so common but I still hate to think about it.

She is growing up so fast. Too fast. Today I held her in my lap most of the day and tried to savor every second of her still being little and Mommy being the most important thing in her life. It is so unfathomable how much you love them, isn't it?

Alphabet Soup

We have yet another diagnosis.

A couple of days ago William was diagnosed with Optic Nerve Hypoplasia. He will likely have vision impairment that could be as severe as blindness. It is impossible to tell how he will be affected by ONH... it is another wait and see game. Unfortunately, this type of vision impairment is not such that glasses would be of use.

What scares me is that this could be an indication of how severe William's PVL is. I also worry about the development challenges of not only dealing with cerebral palsy but also being vision impaired. I want William to be as independent as possible but now I am so worried that these two diagnosis will make independence very hard for him... Ugh.

I'm drowning in Alphabet Soup.

Growing big

Mommy is still having a very hard time but William seems to moving right along.

He is gaining weight like a champ and every day looks more and more like his sister. He is five and a half pounds and 18 inches with a double chin, chubby thighs, and arm rolls... a very cute little baby. William is actually big enough, now, for commercial preemie clothes! It may even be getting close to time for Newborn sizes! ...like his diapers- newborn!...

William has moved out of the NICU and into the Special Care Nursery and has one of the covetted bays with a curtain so we can get some privacy.

Still only taking one bottle a day. Since Margaret had such a hard time with the bottle, I'm more than patient for William to "get it". My sanity isn't riding on every single bottle he takes and I understand it may take him quite a while yet to go all the way to only oral feedings.

William has made it off oxygen now. He seems to be doing really well and has had no a/bs since coming off. And now that he doesn't have that cannula, I have requested all NG feeding tubes instead of OG. After all the oral aversion problems with Margaret, I want to cut out all the risk factors that I can.

He also had his hearing test today and passed. So we know that his ear is in working order. Now we pray that his brain can process the information from his ears!

No new update about his brain injury nor do we expect any.

Pictures as soon as I upload some new ones...