FINALLY!!!!!!

1 Praise the LORD. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.
2 Who can proclaim the mighty acts of the LORD, or fully declare his praise?

Psalm 106:1-2

THE FEEDING TUBE IS OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU JESUS!!!

What an exhausting last few days it has been. I stayed at the hospital for 2 nights due to us trying to get rid of that crazy feeding tube and it is finally gone!! We are so excited to have our baby girl come home with us, it looks like it will be in just a few short days. She continues to do so well!!!

Such A Cutie!

Emma continues to grow every day. STILL working on eating... it feels like an endless battle to me but I am trying to remain optomistic, we have had such a long journey with so many ups and downs, thankfully mostly ups, but it still feels like we have so far to go. She is 6lb 15oz, we go up and then down. Up to 71cc every 4 hours, sometimes taking it all, sometimes half, sometimes a quarter, it just depends on her mood. We did an exam yesterday to check for reflux which was actually negative!!! She's so stinking cute!!!

EAT BABY GIRL!!!

Sorry I haven't posted in a few days but nothing has really been happening. So by now this mommy is very frustrated. We have been battling the same issue for a few weeks now and I am READY for home sweet home. Emma is showing us all improvement and taking almost all of her feedings now per the bottle. Mommy is off for 4 days straight this next week and I am just gonna camp out at the hospital so that Emma can get the feeding tube pulled out and then come home!!! She is 6lb 14oz. They decreased her oxygen to 1/4 liter and she has been doing great with that. She had an eye exam today which showed nothing new. We are anxiously awaiting her homecoming.

Little Weed...

Emma continues to grow everyday! Tonight we are 6lb 12.8oz. They have increased her feedings to 54cc/3 hours. She is still working on this... we are now taking 1 out of every 2 bottles by mouth and the rest of her feedings go into the feeding tube. She seems to be doing ok with that. Please pray that the light bulb in her little head will go off and she will just "get it". This is all that is keeping us from home.

Yeah!

Emma is growing more and more very day. She is weighing in at 6lb 4oz tonight!! She continues to work on her eating... we are not quite there with it. Also we had to go back up to 3/4 of a liter of oxygen, she just couldn't hang on 1/2 a liter. It has been 4 horrible days for me to not see her but finally today I was able to see her and it was a wonderful moment!!!! We had a fabulous afternoon together, I have missed her soooo much!!! They also moved her to the step- down unit which they had been threatening to do for the last few weeks. Mom already doesn't like it nearly as much but hopefully it will only be for a short time!!!

UGHHHH!

Well this is the 1st day in Emma's 83 days of life that mom has had to skip out of visiting her and it's killing me!!! I miss her sooooo much!! I woke up this morning with head congestion and a scratchy throat. From frequent phone reports Emma is doing well today. Her labs all came back fine but she has low albumin; a protein in your blood and so hence the swelling. They have added protein powder to her milk so she can increase this number and bulk up like daddy!!! She weighs 5lb 10oz, they upped her feedings to 60cc every 4 hours and decreased her oxygen to 1/2 liter!!! We are still trying to eat all the volume at each feeding.

Let them eat cake!

Emma continues to grow every day with a weight last night of 5lb 8oz!!! The concerning part is all the swelling. It seems like whenever she gains 2-3 oz in one day a lot of it is fluid retention and it is unclear why she is retaining fluid...the plan is to do some additional lab work this am to find out what's going on. We are still learning to eat from the bottle... some feedings she does absolutely fabulous with no problems at all and then others she only will take 1/4 or 1/2 of what she needs to be eating. Her oxygen remains at 3/4 of a liter. She passed her hearing screen today and her eye exam showed nothing new, still stage 1 in zone 2 of both eyes, which basically means no worries. They look so good we are gonna go 2 weeks this time instead of the every week schedule we have been on. So the biggest hurtle right now is her endurance with her meals!!! Otherwise we are looking great!

Good News is what we like!!!

Emma continues to do very well. She is at 50cc every 4 hours now and bottle feeding with every feeding!!! BUT... she is still trying to get the hang of it. Her endurance isn't quite there, for the staff she only eats about half and the rest still has to go through the feeding tube. For mom today she ate the whole 50cc so.... go figure!!!! We are still hoping it will be only a few more weeks till she is home... She weighs 5lb 5 oz and has outgrown most of her preemie clothes!!! She continues to grow!!!

Light at the end of this tunnel....

Emma continues to make amazing progress!!! She is now eating 50cc pretty much whenever she tells us she is hungry or 4 hours, whichever comes first... so far she definitely lets us know!!! We turned her oxygen down to 1 1/2 liters yesterday and are down to 1 liter today with the hope of switching from the high-flow oxygen to a regular big girl nasal cannula tomorrow... She might have to come home on oxygen for the first few weeks to a month or so, we shall see how her progress goes... She received her immunization shots today and so has been a bit cranky all day. I was informed today that she could come home in as soon as 2 weeks, depending on her progress, more than likely 3 weeks!!!!! We are signed up for the required infant CPR class Saturday. Dad and I cannot WAIT to have her home with us!!!! We have been here 11 weeks today...77 days which has felt so long on some days and other days has felt like it has flown by. She continues to grow everyday, 5lb 4oz today! Will keep the updates coming!!!

News...

OK... So Emma had another busy day today. Eye exam with nothing new to report (yea!!!). Increased her feeding to 40cc every 3 hours, still getting the bottle 3 times a day and doing great with it!!! They pulled out her picc line, the iv she has had for the last few weeks because yesterday they discontinued all her i.v. antibiotics!!!! We had tried a few days ago to go to 1 liter on her oxygen but she wasn't quite ready so we are still at 2 liters. She now is weighing..... drum roll please..... 5lb 2oz!!!!!!! She has moments when she is wide awake and so curious!!! And she knows when mom and dad are near by because she screams bloody murder to be held! :) She continues to do so incredibly well!!!

HAPPY 2010!!!!!

Well Happy New Year to everyone!!!!! It is so amazing all that has happened in our lives this last year- especially in the last , oh, 10 weeks...
Emma is doing great. The doctor came by yesterday and we decreased her oxygen on the n/c to 1 liter- he says the goal for this week is to be off of it!!!! Still doing her feedings by bottle 3 times a day, maybe eventually we'll go to 4... She weighs 4lb 12oz now... so shes filling out very nicely:)
I hope 2010 finds all of you healthy and happy!