Getting Settled in at Home

Well, after spending 3 weeks in the NICU Ashlyn was ready to come home and we were more than ready to have her home. But first, here are a few more pictures from our last week in the NICU.
Ashlyn passed her hearing screen!


This was our first time to give Ashlyn a bath!

Reading a bedtime story



Ashlyn's first roommate, Sarah! I talked to Sarah's mom and she went home a couple of days ago!

The night before we went home, Chance and I spent the night at the hospital with Ashlyn. They call it "rooming in". They unhooked all of the monitors and did her evening assessment. She weighed 5 lbs 13 ounces that Monday night! Once the nurse was finished with her, she turned her over to us. We had a small hospital room with 2 beds and her crib. We were responsible for her care from then until we left the next day. We gave her a bath, did all of her feedings (she was taking 5-2oz bottles and was breastfeeding 3 times) gave her vitamins...YUCK and everything else that goes along with having a newborn! We got a little sleep that night, but were mostly watching Ashlyn sleep! The doctor came by the next day around noon and checked on us. She felt that Ashlyn was ready to go home! The newborn photographer stopped by the room for a mini photo shoot and we found out that Ashlyn is quite the model! She was posing it up. We got some really great pictures.





Once we got packed and loaded up and received our last minute instructions from the nurse, we were ready to head home. I was excited and a little anxious...we had been there so long and I had gotten very comfortable with having the nurses on standby. I don't think my motherly instincts had kicked in because I always had backup! I was a little emotional as we loaded up into the car to take our sweet angel home. She was so tiny in her car seat. I sat in the back and held her head in place as Chance drove ever so cautiously.



We made it home safely!
Nenna, Chance's mom, had this stork delivered to our house! It was very cute!



My mom, Mimi, spent a couple days with us to help us get settled in. She cooked, cleaned, did laundry, held Ashlyn a little (a lot), grocery shopped, bonded with Pip and was all in all a big help! And it was reassuring having someone else around. Her furry sisters, Mazzy and Pip, are handling the new addition very well. Mazzy is very interested in every peep Ashlyn makes. She sleeps by her crib at night and watches her every move! Pip isn't too bothered by her. They both love being in her nursery when we are in there. Here is a picture of them meeting the little sister.

Pip sleeping next to Ashlyn's pack-n-play

We are settling into a routine and it is so nice having our baby home. She eats at 3, 6, 9 and 12 and sleeps the majority of the rest of the time. She fusses a little with her diaper change and when she gets hungry but is honestly a very good baby. Ashlyn is our centerpiece when we sit at our table! She loves the baby lounger and we don't mind staring at her while we eat!

We had a Pediatrician's appointment on Wednesday. Ashlyn got a good report. She was up to 6 lbs! He didn't hear her heart murmur and was confident that if she does have one, it will go away on it's own. Her jaundice is better and her anemia is likely improving, although he didn't want to stick her foot to check it. It is pretty common for preemies to be anemic the first month or so after birth. Ashlyn has a beauty mark on her right check called a hemangioma. Our Pediatrician referred us to a specialist to monitor the birthmark, but doesn't think it should cause any problems. These types of birthmarks are very common (about 10-15% of babies have one) and usually get worse over 6-9 months and then completely go away over the next couple of years with little to no evidence that it was ever there.
Ashlyn has had several visitors since she has been home and many more expected! Pa J (my stepfather) and her great grandma Sally came by to say hi and Ashlyn's Auntie Sarah came over and brought lunch and hung out with us one day.
Ashlyn with her Mimi and PaJ

PaJ holding Ashlyn

4 generations
Great Grandma Sally, Mimi, Mom and Ashlyn

Great Grandma Sally

The Pediatrician recommended that we keep her at home for the next 6 weeks or so until she has a chance to grow a little more. It is good that it isn't cold & flu season, but she is still very suseptible to everything! We are going to do our best to keep her healthy!
Ashlyn and Mimi reading a bedtime story

Ashlyn after her first bath at home...the bath part was a little too hectic to pull out the camera, but here is an after shot! We all survived, but man is she slippery!

I will try to keep the blog updated more regularly once things settle down a little more and we get caught up on everything. It is amazing how time flies. I can't believe it will be 1 month tomorrow that our little angel graced us with her presence. She truly is a miracle and we feel very blessed to have her in our lives!

2 weeks old!

Wow, does time fly! Ashlyn continues to make daily progress with her feedings and her weight. She weighed 5 lbs 3 ounces last night and is taking 4 of her 8 meals by mouth. She gets the other 4 through her feeding tube. She still gets fatigued with eating, but is finishing 50 ml now. She still sleeps a lot but is having more wakeful times and is pretty funny. She makes some really cute faces! We had a baby shower on Saturday. Karen, Sarah and Rachel did an awesome job! It was great to see everyone, although it was a little hard to leave her alone at the hospital for that long! She got lots of really neat gifts!

Nenna finished her crib bedding and it looks amazing! Ashlyn is going to have quite the princess room! She had a few visitors over the weekend. Nenna and Papa stopped by on Saturday before the baby shower and Mimi came to see her on Sunday. I will try to make posts to keep everyone updated on her progress!

Lots of visitors!

Ashlyn has had a lot of visitors! The visitation is very limited in the NICU. Parents can be there all day except during shift changes in the morning and at night. Grandparents can visit on a slightly modified schedule. In addition to that, she can have 1 visitor per day! Visitors have to scrub in, surgery style! They try and keep all of the germs away from the babies because they are so susceptible to every little thing. Here are some pictures of Ashlyn with her family and friends. We hope that she gets to meet a lot more once she is home!

The Greatest Mother's Day Gift EVER!

Well...a lot has happened since our last post! Guess I will start from the beginning. Saturday, May 8th we went to East Texas for Grandma B's memorial service. It was a beautiful service and we enjoyed visiting with all of the family. I was a little tired and my legs were swollen, but other than that I felt ok. I slept in the backseat on the way home. When we got home we decided to go to Buy Buy Baby and pick up our glider and use some of our gift certificates! We bought our car seat and some other things. We got home and I laid down on the couch, then moved to the bed because I could not get comfortable.
At about 8 pm, I started having some cramping that was concerning. I called the doctor's office and the on-call doctor told me to go to labor and delivery to get checked out just to be on the safe side. We went to the hospital at about 10 pm. She "checked me out" and I was dilated 2 cm and 90% effaced. I was actively contracting. They gave me a shot to stop the contractions and a shot of steroids to help the baby's lungs develop in case delivery was in the near future. The contractions slowed down but came back after about 2 hours. I got another shot. I thought they would stop the contractions and send me home on bed rest. Ashlyn had other plans! At about 4 am my water broke. Wow! That was an experience. The nurse came in and told us that we just got upgraded to the delivery room. We were going to have a baby within the next 24 hours!

They started me on lots of antibiotics and moved me to the new suite! I started having pretty strong contractions about 6 am. I got my epidural at 7...that is good stuff! I didn't feel any pain after that. All of our family started arriving. My parents and Sarah and Chance's parents were all there for the excitement. Nothing was really happening and I was only dilated to a 3 at 9 am when they checked me again. We all just hung out in my room. I felt great! I got a second dose of steroids at 11. We met with the Neonatologist who would be present at the delivery to take care of Ashlyn immediately. She had a team of about 8 people ready for her! At about 2 pm my nurse checked me again and I was dilated to an 8! Chance was downstairs getting a tour of the NICU. I called him and the nurse called my doctor. Within 10 minutes I was fully dilated and the nurse told me not to laugh or cough or this baby was going to fall out! Yikes! Well, she didn't fall out, but I only pushed for about 20 minutes and there she was. The cord was wrapped around her neck and was too tight to slide over her head so the doctor had to clamp it and cut it right then. Chance missed out on that experience, but I think it is safe to say, he experienced plenty! He was right in the middle of the action and really surprised me! He was very hands on with the delivery! I couldn't have done it without him!


I was able to hold Ashlyn for about 10 seconds before they rushed her down to the NICU.

Chance went with her and her team of doctors, nurses and respiratory therapists. My placenta wouldn't deliver so I lost a lot of blood during that process. I was in recovery for about an hour. They wheeled me down on a stretcher to the NICU before taking me to my room in postpartum.

Ashlyn was on a CPAP machine initially giving her lungs a little assistance to expand. She also had an IV for fluids, antibiotics and nutrition, a feeding tube in her mouth and lots of monitors! It was pretty scary to see it all.




She progressed VERY quickly and was off the CPAP the next day and on a nasal cannula.



She needed that for about another day and then she was on room air, breathing all on her own! She was able to maintain her temperature with a couple of days and no longer needed the warmer. She was tolerating her tube feedings very well and they were going up on those fairly quickly. Her bilirubin was elevated so she spent a day under the UV lamps. She really liked laying under there, Chance told her not to get too use to it because he was not going to buy her a tanning membership!


I was able to start breast feeding trials very quickly, but the doctor told us not to expect much. 34 weeks is really too young for her to be able to coordinate the suck, swallow and breath pattern required to nurse effectively. We were doing 2 feeding trials per day, but spent most of the time snuggling while she got her food through her tube. As her tube feedings went up, the IV nutrition went down. She got rid of her IV on day 4 which made holding her a lot easier! One of the neonatologist heard a murmur in her heart. He told us not to worry about it (yeah right!) that it was most likely a patent ductus arteriosus which is fairly common in premature babies. It is a hole that bypasses blood from the lungs while in utero. It usually closes at birth, but sometimes can take a little longer to close. He thought it would most likely close on its own and never cause any problems. We were pretty worried about it, but the next doctor that saw her didn't hear it again and no once has heard it since.




On Saturday she was moved to an "overflow" NICU where they put their most stable babies. We were a little anxious about the move at first because we had gotten pretty comfortable with the staff and routine downstairs. It has turned out to be ok...the room is bigger and we can hang out with her as much as we want!

She still has her feeding tube and is hooked up to the heart monitor to check her heart rate and respiratory rate, but other than that she is wire free!

She took her first bottle on Monday and did very well. We are up to 2-3 bottle feeds and 2 breast feeds per day. We got to help with her bath for the first time on Tuesday. She didn't mind it as much as I thought she would. She settles down very quickly with her pacifier. She is gaining weight everyday and weighed 4 lbs 15 ounces tonite!


Tomorrow she should hit 5 lbs! We have finally settled in to a little bit of a routine. I come up to the hospital for her 9 am feedings and hang out with her all day. Chance comes up and brings me lunch and holds Ashlyn for a while. I meet Chance at home around 6 for a quick dinner and to do some stuff around the house...laundry, dishes...the stuff that doesn't stop just because you have a baby! We go back up to the hospital around 8:30 and stay for a couple of hours. It is really hard to leave her up there at night! They started her on some supplements to increase her calorie intake and pack on the pounds...okay...ounces and some vitamins. The vitamins look and smell really nasty! But for now they go through her feeding tube. The doctors are very pleased with her progress so far. She is what they call a "feeder/grower" meaning she is here mainly to work on taking all of her meals orally. She has to be able to eat 8-10 meals a day orally, keep it all down and continuously gain weight. We are on the right path...it just takes a while to get there. The doctor explained it really well. He said asking Ashlyn to eat 45 ml of milk every 3 hours is like asking you to do 45 push-ups every 3 hours. It is fatiguing and something she has to build up to.



We feel very blessed with the outpouring of support from our family and friends! It has truly been amazing. All of the prayers, calls, visits, texts, flowers, gifts, thoughts, etc have been much appreciated! Ashlyn is one lucky girl to have so many people who care about her so much! We feel pretty luck too! We couldn't do it without all of the support. Thanks to everyone for everything! If a thank you didn't make it your way, I apologize for overlooking it! Now that we are up to date, I will try to make more frequent posts to keep everyone updated on her progress and flooded with precious pictures of our sweet baby girl. She is a miracle...a real fighter! Keep the prayers coming and hopefully we will have our family home soon. Love and laughter to you all!

Chance, Kristi and Ashlyn