Time for a Check-Up

Erin had her first check-up this afternoon since she was released from Allen. Her breathing was still a little fast, but everything else looked great! I was THRILLED to hear she has hit the 8 pound mark, we are now past her birth weight!

In less important news, my feet finally fit in my pre-pregnancy shoes again.  It. Is. Awesome.

A New Week

Happy Memorial Day from E & E! Fortunately, the parade went by our street so we were able to make it on time. :) We enjoyed many visitors this weekend celebrating Erin's homecoming!

Funny conversation this weekend between Ella (2) and her friend Evelyn (3):

Evelyn: "I like your sister. Where did you get her?"
Ella: "Because!"

Today (Tuesday) marks my first day at home with both girls without Derek. Should be a busy day!

Big Sister

Ella is just as thrilled to be a big sister as she was the first day she met Erin. She is very proud and protective of her little baby! Anytime she hears the littest squeak out of Erin, she rubs her head and says either "It's okay, sweetie." or "I know, Erin. I know. I know!" She is very good at being the pacifier police and also the burp cloth retriever. She has also been testing a LOT of boundaries lately, but we hope eventually that will subside.

On Saturday, I was dressing Erin and Ella watched over.
Ella: "Where's her mommy?"
Me: "Who, Erin?"
Ella: "Yeah!"
Me: "I'm her mom. I'm also your mom! Remember? She used to be in my tummy but now she came out!"
Ella: "Oh, ok!"

Friday

Friday, May 25: Home sweet home!! The doctor finally gave us our discharge orders. Erin also weighed in at 7 lbs., 5.6 ounces. Things are looking great!

I've decided that no matter how "ready" you think you are for baby's homecoming, it is still crazy trying to get settled in. Between sorting all of the things we brought home from the hospital, finding some lost items, hooking up monitors and moving baby furniture, it was a busy day! Good thing we all slept good last night.

I LOVE having my bed, shower, and recliner back!!!

A Look at the Times

How cool is it that I can Skype my toddler from the NICU pod... I can talk with her, she can show me her new bubble blower, and she can watch her little sissy sleep with just the click of a button!

Thursday

Thursday, May 24: Erin's numbers were a little better since yesterday, although her numbers were still up and down. We are hopeful that tomorrow we will be discharged!  She has a VERY anxious big sister waiting for her to come home.  She passed her hearing test and jaundice test tonight, and all of her other routine evaluations look great! I am anxious for her weight check at midnight tonight.

Weight Check

It has been mentioned several times that Erin's breathing troubles burn more calories, making it harder for weight gain.

Original birth weight: 7 lbs, 14 ozs.
Sunday: 7 lbs, 9 ozs.
Monday: 7 lbs, 5 ozs.
Tuesday: 7 lbs, 2 ozs.
Wednesday: 7 lbs, 1.8 ozs.
Thursday: 7 lbs, 3 oz!

Hip hip hooray! Finally, a midnight weight check that is in our favor!

Wednesday

Wednesday, May 23: Not too many updates today. Erin was the same weight at midnight, so hopefully that will go up from here! When the doctor visited us today, he was still concerned that her respiration numbers were not consistent. Sometimes they are okay, and sometimes they are above 60 where nursing poses a risk. It is doubtful we will be discharged tomorrow, but we are crossing our fingers for Friday! It is evident that when we are finally home, we will want to settle in slow and continue to take it easy with her.

Big sister Ella visited tonight! She gets such a kick out of Erin squeaking, eating, and looking at her big sissy!

Funny Moments

(Cue loud, disgusting noise coming from Erin's diaper... for the 6th time already today)
Me: "That one is yours."
Derek: "Nuh-uh!"
Me: (stare and face-tilt) "That's a bunch of crap!"
Derek: "It IS a bunch of crap!"

Tuesday

Tuesday, May 22: They removed Erin's IV in her hand - one more cord gone! I think the rest will stay until discharge.

Goals: The doctor came in and still didn't like her respiration numbers, but our nurse is really advocating how much she is improving. She needs consistently good numbers before he'll think about letting us leave. She has lost a couple ounces each day for the past 3 days, so I am trying to plump her up as much as I can today to turn that around.

Derek and I are just itching to get out of here. The care is great, but the bed situation, shower situation, and room situation sucks! In fact, the NICU pod is extremely full today (as is the entire OB floor). We are pleading for them to kick us out so they can have our room! Not likely, but it doesn't hurt to put a bug in their ear.

We miss our Ellie Bellie today, who came up to visit last night. We let her play with Erin for awhile, then took her out for supper. She was bursting with excitement heading back to the hospital.  She didn't want to be away from Erin one second! She even knows that "Elegator D" takes her to her sissy. She was devastated leaving us last night and was pretty sad again this morning.

Monday, Continued

Monday, May 21 (continued): This morning, Erin was given an echogram to make sure her heart was healthy and normal. The results came back tonight and showed everything was perfect, which is great news! They've ordered another chest x-ray tomorrow, her fourth, to make sure it looks the same. They ruled out pneumonia a few days ago.

The doctor has mentioned a condition called "transient tachypnea" (wet lung) which is common in babies born early and in babies born via c-section. Basically, it involves fluid of the lungs that sometimes need more than a few hours to clear out... sometimes days, sometimes weeks. It seems this condition is the reason for her breathing issues and it will work itself out. Hopefully soon so we can take her home! For more information, click here.

Erin made us laugh during her echogram. Normally, she immediately cries and kicks and flails whenever they test her or bother her in any way. She is very sensitive to stimulation of any kind, unless it involves food. :) This morning, I asked that they turn her heater on in her bed to see if that would relax her a little. Not only did it relax her, she loved it! She sunbathed under her heater, naked, wide awake, and happy as a clam. It was so sweet to watch, and it was a very good decision since the procedure took about 40 minutes.

Since then, Erin has been the most content I have seen her since she was born. Her sleeping is much more solid and she has been perfectly content while the nurses do their tests. I hope this means things are turning around!

Echogram

Monday

Monday, May 21: Today we have been delivered good news and bad! The bad news is that Erin will be here for a few more days, and her stats are generally the same. The good news is that they removed the feeding tube she was not using, and also her oxygen. Two less cords to mess with! She still has several on her belly and feet, but finally her sweet little face is cordless. :)

Tonight's agenda involves big sister Ella coming to visit and a quick supper out to eat.

We are feeling very blessed with how well Erin is doing. We have a few people in our thoughts this week suffering from health issues, including a NICU pod neighbor who was life-flighted this morning.

Erin after her bath last night!

Erin is Here!

I'm not really sure how to recap the last  4 days without writing a novel! But I will try :)

Thursday, May 17th - Erin Jo Gustafson was born at 11:57 am by c-section. At roughly 4pm, the nurse decided Erin was having some breathing troubles and wanted to run some tests. From there, they sent her to the NICU for observation.  She was put on an IV, oxygen, and all sorts of cords and monitors. The best way for me to describe what symptom she was having is that she was (and still) pants like a little bunny -- very quick, fast breaths. For 24 hours, she was under a "low stimulation" rule where we were not allowed to hold her and she couldn't nurse or eat anything. Her respirations went up often: any talking, whenever the nurses came in, or even when the door to her pod was opened. Many visitors stopped by, including big sister Ella, but they were very brief visits.

Friday, May 18 - Derek and I were finally able to hold Erin again in the afternoon. They were very careful about monitoring her response to us. Her breathing actually settled well when we held her, but her respirations went back up when she was placed back in her bed. She was still under a no-eating rule because of that, which was heartbreaking. At this point, I was pumping every 2-3 hours to keep the nursing progress going. Later that day, they allowed me to nurse her one time, but her respirations were not well and she went back on the no-eating rule.

Saturday, May 19th - Some improvements - they lowered her oxygen and her fluids. We were given the okay to begin holding her again, but still did not want to stimulate her too much. At this point, she was very restless and starving which did not help her numbers. I was now getting results from the pumping so they inserted a feeding tube to fill that empty little tummy with what I had refrigerated! They only had to do that once, the next time we fed her my supply from a bottle, and about 3 hours later I got the OK to begin nursing again as long as her respirations < 60.

Sunday, May 20 - Erin's stats have allowed her to nurse ever since Saturday-- she is a nursing champion! She also loves to be rocked and cuddled. The doctor told us that her respirations are still higher than he would like before she should go home. Tomorrow agenda involves more labs/tests, and the soonest she could go home is Tuesday. I have been discharged from my room and will now live in Erin's room. Derek will be staying in Denver with Ella at night and in the mornings, and will come to the hospital during the day. This is probably better, because we have one very hard couch to sleep on in a very small room. This arrangement also allows him to bring necessities from home, since I did not pack for a week's stay!

Things are Looking Up!

Our bag is packed, our car seat is in the car, and I got 10 hours of sleep last night!

Ella has set up a stool next to the baby crib, and I've caught her peeking in there a couple times recently. She is starting to get anxious for its new occupant.

Public Service Announcement

No, I have not had the baby yet.

No, we still haven't packed our hospital bag yet.

Yes, I know this blog was written in the middle of the night.

Daddy the Big Girl

Ella: "DAD! I went potty!"

Derek: "Really? Good job! Are you a big girl?"

Ella: "Yeah! Like Daddy!"

Derek: ".............................................yep.................."

A Night Out!

We are pretty tired today from a fun Friday night out!

Ella enjoyed staying the night at Gma and Gpa Gustafsons, where they played non-stop, went to the park, had a couple easter egg hunts, and went garage saling!

Derek enjoyed a night with the boys hitting a few golf balls, going to Buffalo Wild Wings, and hanging out until the wee hours of the morning with the guys!

I enjoyed my much-anticipated "girls night out" - a very fun tradition we have kept going for each mommy-to-be.  It was heavenly!  8 girls. 8 pedicures. 8 meals at Olive Garden. 8 Scratch cupcakes. Need I say more?

In Good Company

Even though it has been much more challenging having a toddler to chase after during this pregnancy, here are the things I've enjoyed sharing with Ella this last trimester:

Someone to nap with
Someone to stretch with
Someone who loves lounging in pajamas as much as me
Putting belly lotion on together
Constant entertainment (like watching Ella randomly kick up her feet and say "My back hurts" or "My feet hurt")
Someone to sing Happy Birthday to me... every day...