What a difference a week makes

Just as I predicted, Friday was the big switch over day from isolette to big-girl crib.  Zoë has actually been too hot the past couple of days all snuggled up in clothes and blankets.  So, she's doing just fine regulating her temperature.

Zoë's new crib on the left and her old isolette on the right.  We can just pick her up now whenever we want and I can plant a kiss on her head just as often!

And, in bigger news Zoë is officially OFF her nasal cannula.  Hurray!!!  Her care team dropped her down to a 1.5L flow on Saturday and then told us yesterday she would probably be off it altogether by today.  I was a bit disappointed when I walked into her room this morning at 9am and found her still hooked up to the air.  By the time I left at 2pm, the nurse had weaned her off of it completely! We joked that Zoë had to be sneaked off of it because she's so stubborn (where could she possibly get that from?).  She looks like a brand new baby, we can't believe it.

One of the most noticeable differences in Zoë is how chubby she looks in her cheeks.  Actually, she's starting to look chubby all over, which is great!  Today she weighs 2031g, or 4 pounds 7.6 ounces.  Her nutritionalist, Rachel, told me today she's gaining too much weight (on average it's two ounces per day in the past week and it should be closer to one), so they're going to reevaluate her supplements tomorrow to get her back to the ideal weight gain.  I think this is a much better problem to have than not gaining enough (at least as a baby!).

And, since she's off the cannula, Children's Therapy sent someone in today to start working on nippling with her.  We've been working on non-nutritive breast feeding the last couple of days, but today was the big day for beginning to learn how to oral feed.  The therapist, Amy, came in at 12:30 and put Zoë right on her lap, put a bottle to her mouth, and waited to see if she was interested.  Actually, we had tried this same thing yesterday, even waited around for an extra care time, so see if Z would eat, but she was so disinterested yesterday (not "cueing" as they say) that the nurse didn't even try the bottle.  Today Zoë ate 9ml from the bottle!  That is not a lot (her feelings are at 45ml each time) but I was the proudest mom on the planet watching her suck on that bottle.  Tonight, the nurse gave her a bottle again to see if she was into it and she ate 19ml!  I think we'll be out of the NICU by tomorrow evening at this rate.  ;)  Ok, not really, but a mom can dream, right?  To be dischargd, Zoë needs to be eating strictly from a bottle (strictly breast feeding is not a necessary requirement and will actually take more practice at home) and not be dependent on her feeding tube.  I have a feeling it's close... (but probably still a couple of weeks away!)

You know your child's been in the NICU for a month when...

...you're closer to being fluent in Latin than you were a month ago due to the medical terms you've learned.
...some random nurse you don't recall knowing asks you how your baby is (and you're not currently standing in the birth center or NICU).
...when you don't need to show your wristband at the NICU door any more; they know your names, the name of your baby, and your visiting schedule.
...the nurses argue over who gets your child at the shift change.
...changing your child's diaper is easy through two small arm holes in the side of her isolette.
...you've created a nice butt mold in the reclining chair in your child's room.
...10 grams is an exciting number, and doesn't refer to drugs.
...you can identify which monitor (oxygen level, heart rate, feeding pump complete) is alarming just by it's sound.
...loading breastmilk into a cooler in your car twice a day is a common occurrence.
...you have time to make a list about the reasons you know you've been in the NICU for a month because your sweet baby is asleep on your chest.

Miss Zoë hit the four pound mark today!  She's currently 1840 grams and weighs 4lb 0.9 oz.  She is still on 1.5L air and is getting her food by gavage (gravity).  I attended rounds this morning and we're not really doing much new.  I'm frustrated because there ISN'T anything new and she just needs to get rid of the high flow cannula before she can begin nipple-ing and learning how to eat (which everyone here has told me is the hardest and longest process, even though this damn cannula seems like the longest process so far).  She may be in an open air crib soon, because 1800g is the ideal weight for that AND she just needs to be regulating her temperature, which she is doing nicely.  I wouldn't be surprised if they make that switch in the next couple of days.

I was crushed thinking about how I couldn't do monthly pictures of Zoë that show her growth over the course of the year.  You know the ones you've pinned a million of on Pinterest with ideas for your kids and they're oh-so-cute and creative.  But, with her being attached to tubes and wires, my thoughts of those kinds of pictures went out the window.  Chris, however, made a stop by the Cougar Connections store in Westlake today and did a good job of collecting some items that would help us take her pictures every month.  Good work, Dad!

Getting their hands on the baby...

If you asked how long it was before they got to hold Zoë, all of the grandparents would say, "FOREVER!".  Here're some pictures of that special moment...

Oh, and the afternoon Zoë and I played "hat model".

Hat model!

Dedo and Zoë

Baba and Zoë

Grandma and Zoë

Grandpa and Zoë

It's beginning to look like a nursery!

Though, we're not done, yet.  :)  Christopher, Vicki, Chris, Gene and Natalie have all been working hard and putting in a lot of time to get the nursery done since we weren't quite there, yet.  And, now that the construction phase is over, I can do the part that I find fun: decorating!

Obligatory "Dad putting together crib" picture. 

When we originally talked about a nursery, we were really excited about a robot theme (Chris because, well, it's ROBOTS and me because I was really against the thought of having an overly stereotypically girly room).  When we found out we were having a girl, my interest in a robot theme dwindled quite a bit.  Yes, I want my daughter to be smart and enjoy math and science and love all of the nerdy things her Dad and I love...but the thought of a room full of industrial robots for my darling little girl didn't fit the picture inside my head anymore.  When I brought this up with Chris about a month ago, I said, "Really, I only agreed to robots to help me feel better about the whole thing if we were having a boy".  And he said, "That's funny, that's how I felt about a robot nursery for a little girl".  Huh.

Sooooo, as you can see, it's not so robot-y anymore.  :)  I've picked up more items with flowers and birds than I ever thought I would for this room.  But it's sure FUN to pick out girly things.  We do have an ADORABLE robot print from Auntie Dianna that still fits (the visual picture in my head) because it's such a cute robot.  It will have a special place on the wall when I figure out where I want to place it.  Nicole also made Zoë a very cute stuffed robot which is already sitting on the shelf next to her name.  The room's still not done, lots more touches to put in the room, but some of you have been asking about Zoë's room...so here's a preview!

From the doorway...

From the closet (the bare wall to the left is where the hallway door will be when it gets installed).

In other news,

Zoë has been losing weight.  :(  She's in a new incubator, so the nurses say that it's just the difference in how she's being weighed.  They reassure me that I should look at trends rather than focus on her weight day by day.  It's still hard because that's the ONLY number I can focus on when I walk into her room and to see it down 110g one day (!) was startling, to say the least.  

She's doing ok with keeping her food down, and down to a 30 minute pump.  The nurse brought her cannula down to a 1.5L flow this morning while I was there, so we'll see if she tolerates that.

Chris is feeling much better and finally got to go to the hospital and hold his little girl last night.  YAY!  

Slow and steady...

Not much to report here, though Zoë's still doing very well, and three weeks old today.  She's up to 3lbs. 5oz, eating really well (no major events, even when her food is NOT pumped and is just given as a gravity feed instead, which is faster and, in the past, has lead to more frequent spit-ups), still on her 2l cannula, and dressed in adorable clothing all the time.  The doctors say they're really going to try to wean her off of the high flow cannula this week, because that'll help her start learning how to eat (without a feeding tube) next week.  She graduated to a larger size pacifier, also, to help her with that transition.

Chris has been sick this week, so he hasn't been to the hospital since Thursday.  :(  He's hoping he'll be completely better so he can go tomorrow evening.  I told him that if he got me sick and prevented me from going to the hospital I would never speak to him again.  Because, really, how could you stay away from this?:

Bedtime stories

The nurse that does these drawings in each of the private rooms is AMAZING.
I can barely draw a straight line on my white board at school let alone do THIS.
We'll forgive her for using a purple Expo marker.

Zoë is up to 3 pounds 1.3 ounces!  What a fatty!  :)  She hit the three pound mark yesterday AND the nurse took her PICC line out.  What a big day.  She is also eating 28ml at a time now and keeping the food down just fine.  She's getting some Vitamin D and protein something or other added to her breast milk now, too.  Other than that, we're in a holding pattern while she continues to grow (and figures out how to breathe without the nasal cannula...come ON Zoë!).

Skin to skin this morning.  Such a peaceful time.

Last night my parents came to visit and my Dad brought with him some of our favorite stories from when Angela and I were little (hey, now that I think of it, Dad, where was Strega Nona?  THAT was a favorite and not in your pile last night.).  He read Randy's Dandy Lions (after considering if it was too violent or not) to Zoë while she snoozed on Chris' chest.  It was a special moment to see my Dad reading to my daughter.  He read to us EVERY. SINGLE. NIGHT. without fail until we were, uh, old.  I know he can't wait to read to her when she's home from the hospital, too! 

Dedo reading to Zoë

Baba, Chris and Zoë

Two weeks (32 weeks?)!

Grandma and Grandpa visit!

She's so tiny!

Zoë has officially been in the NICU for two weeks today and she's made some tremendous strides.  She is up to 1310 grams (2lbs, 14.2 oz); nearly two ounces past her birthweight.  As of this morning, she is eating 19ml each feeding, although by the time we go back this evening it'll be 20 or 21ml.  She hasn't had much trouble with the feedings this time, although there have been a few spit ups WHILE I've been holding her.  Each time the nurse reassures me that it's not that much and she's doing just fine.  The nurse this morning said they were going to put her on a 45 minute pump to help her with these last few ml, because this is when she was having so much trouble last time.  This morning she was on a 1.5l flow with the cannula, although that's been going back and forth so much that it's not really even worth mentioning.  :)  Her labs and x-rays looked good this morning, too.

She LOVES her pacifier.  She sucks on it like crazy, which the nurses say is great and to keep encouraging her to use it.  The last couple of days we've come in and she's been dressed!  They have the CUTEST little preemie outfits for the babies in the NICU.  We have a few outfits for her to try on but we'll wait a bit.  They've got to have snaps or an easy way to get to her diaper amid all of the wires that she's hooked to.

The nurses in the NICU make signs for each of the private rooms...Zoë finally got hers yesterday!

So, things are going pretty smoothly.  I keep hoping and praying that she tolerates the full feeds this time and we don't have to start back over again.  I'm afraid I've become an anxious mother asking the nurses first off when I get there how her feedings are going.  Time will tell on that one.  I love going into the hospital in the morning to have alone time with her for an hour or two, and then Chris and I go in after he gets back from work for her 6pm care time and he holds her.  We've come to terms with the fact that this back and forth business is exhausting.  We're typically gone for about 2-3 hours in the evening to give you an idea of what we're doing.  Thanks to those of you who have dropped by food, I can't imagine a better gift for us right now.  It's so nice to have something to pull out of the fridge either before we go or when we come home that is super easy (and REALLY delicious). Thank you!!!