Smiles That Come With a Warning

K is 14 months old today and I was thinking about much fun and how totally aggravating she can be all at the same time. So I made my top ten list for her.

Ten Things I Like About You:

1) Ten minutes after you get up, my living room looks like a tornado hit...AND I get to live in that for the rest of the day as cleaning up is an exercise in futility.
2) All day I listen to huge long stories told in a language that is something between Arabic and Swahili. I'm sure they are good!
3) You tell on yourself since every time you do something wrong, you say "uh-oh".
4) You look at the laptop computer, shake your head from side to side, say "no-no" and then grab for it anyway.
5) You climb so well that I have caught you on top of your table and halfway on to the dining room table and you always play on the playgrounds that are too big for you.
6) You say "hi" to everyone cause early on you figured out you get a great response from people when you do.
7) You think when you say 'thank you' that means you get whatever you want and you think when I say 'come here', it is more of a suggestion than a command.
8) Snot, drool and a cough never get you down.
9) You say 'bye-bye' after people leave and never before.
10) You are still convinced that your dad is the greatest person on the planet.

Seriously, K has been the biggest trooper through all of this...sleeping at other people's houses, having a LOT of different people watch her, and her life being full of change instead of consistency. All this, and she's still a super happy little girl who trusts and loves us.

Ok

I finally got to talk to the attending dr (the one in charge) and feel much better about just about everything. Apparently, the mucous in the spit up and the brady were not nearly as big of deals as the nurse made me think and since there wasn't a pattern there, the dr is not even worried about them.

Secondly, I know why she needs the additives in her milk...the short of it is that she does not either break down or absorb everything she needs from the milk she does eat so we need extra nutrients a full term baby would not. AND each time she does not tolerate an additive, they try one that has even simpler proteins so she can absorb them...we are on our fourth try right now.

Lastly, she did gain weight tonight for the first time in four days but the three days in a row policy is not a promise...the dr said the gains have to be big enough for her to feel comfortable sending her home. Sooo, hopefully next week sometime???

Me, I am still learning new things every day when I go in. Today I met with the physical therapist to teach me how to help her and where to do follow up after we leave. It is kind of fun to learn all this stuff...kind of makes me wish I had known it before K. But then I would have pushed her too much, right? :)

Spring is in the Air

So it has been beautiful here! We have been hanging out outside a lot so her are some pics from a couple different days...

Having a picnic with friends...

Sharing a t-rex.

You dropped this mom...anything dropped is an "uh-oh" and must be picked up.

The hospital gave me a wrap to use on Em so I thought I would try it out on K. :)

The mtns around us.

Striding out.

I know, just a tree...but look, it's blooming!

Urgh!

Soooo, Emily didn't lose weight tonight, but - against her mother's orders - she decided she didn't want to leave the NICU quite yet. She has been throwing up again (yes, a new additive in her milk...the third time is NOT the charm...don't even get me started) and now there is mucous in her spit up.

I don't really know what that means but the bigger symptom is that she is suddenly having Brady's again. A Brady is when her heart rate drops way down (sometimes stopping) and she doesn't recover right away. She has been dropping down to 90 beats per minute (normal is 150) throughout the evening and one time they had to help her recover. Right now, we don't know the cause and if it stops, they won't worry about it but if it continues, they will have to start running tests.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why we didn't get too excited about her coming home. We have the pack n play up in the living room and we even bought diapers, but until she is waking me up in the middle of the night, promises of her coming home are just empty words.

In the mean time, we got some cute photos of her with her daytime 'primaries'...her two main nurses who have her whenever they are working.

...Not yet...3 days...Maybe?...

Yeah. The waiting game begins. They did an MRI yesterday and had to sedate EG because she wouldn't stay still. As a result, she didn't eat much last night. Go figure! She was still groggy! Anyways, she did not gain any weight, so the doctors want to keep her for another 3 days before they let her come home. Maybe longer...who knows...

Tomorrow? Seriously?

Well, when we called in today, there was a little surprise for us...IF the MRI looks good, Emily will come home TOMORROW! Wow! That sparked off a seriously hectic day. We found a sitter for K (thanks J!), went in and finished all the videos, signed papers, I did CPR, learned how to give her her meds and memorized all that has to be done tomorrow.

Sadly, they had to sedate her for her MRI, so she's tired and thus far she hasn't eaten as much as she needs to...so we need two things...she has to start eating more again through the night and we have to get positive results from her MRI. Oh, and she has to pass her car seat test tonight as well.

We are SO excited, but we have also been at this game long enough not to count on anything for sure...that includes promises of her coming home...so we are ready for whatever happens tomorrow. God Bless!

On Her Way?

I can't believe how well our baby is doing. I can't believe how many tests she has to pass to come home. I can't believe how FAR she has come. Even if it takes us a little while longer, it's okay...we have endured this far, God will take us to the end. I know the journey has just begun, but praise the Lord, this leg of the trip will soon be over.

She passed her hearing test today. Tomorrow she has an MRI to look at her brain again. Tomorrow we also bring in her car seat to see if she can keep breathing while in it for a long period of time...I don't even know everything else she has to do but I will be sure to keep you updated as they tell me.

She could come home this week!