New Year's Eve

As I post this, it is officially 2008 in New York. Its hard to believe that our little Myla, who wasn't supposed to be here until 2008, is home and sleeping peacefully in her little bed. Ok, mostly peacefully if it weren't for those gas bubbles she has to wiggle out. She must be growing because she's eaten quite often today according to her dad. We gave her a new year's bath tonight too. So she smells fresh and clean right from the beginning.

Myla has a busy week coming up. She has a follow-up appointment for her eyes on Wednesday and then a doctor's appointment on Friday. And, if she's growing, its hard to imagine why she isn't sleepy more often. She hasn't been keeping us up really. In fact, the whole shift thing is working out well for us. If she goes every four hours, then the person with the second shift almost gets in eight hours of sleep if they want. We'll see how long this keeps up.

When we were in the hospital, Myla's A2 (that's Aunt Aimee) started a poll to guess Myla's departure height and weight. (All of the proceeds went to Myla's college fund.) It was fun to see the guesses go all over the board. But the winner was Grandma Witulski, guessing 16 1/2 inches and 5 pounds even. She must have had some kind of inside track...

Myla's first Bronco party

Myla had her first visit to her doctor and she weighs 4 lbs 11 oz. And the way she keeps eating we'll have to get 2nd jobs to keep up with her. ;o) Only kidding, but she does eat very well. We watched the Broncos barely beat the Vikings tonight eventhough Myla slept through most of it, she's been initiated. Maybe she'll be a 49er fan when she's old enough to decide.

It's hard to think of what all is going on with us other than enjoying our baby girl being home. We have to finish finding a good place to store all the newborn diapers the hospital gave her, they're too big right now, and fit into our busy baby-loving schedule with grocery shopping, work and the dog..... we're swamped! Kara goes to work tomorrow so it's daddy-daughter time all day long. Myla will be sick of me by Tuesday. It's hard for me to leave her in the bassinet the whole time while she sleeps, she's just so cute and I love to hold her but it's not a good habit for her to feel she can't fall asleep unless it's in our arms.

Me and Myla are going to have a grand time, when she's not asleep, and we'll have to tell mom all about it when we pick her up from the light-rail station. Haley-dog may even get a bigger doggy door in her shed, if I can do it without leaving Myla unattended for too long. The day is full of possibilities. Hope everyone has a great New Year's and we'll talk again in 2008!

Day One

Our first day together went very well. Our first night did too. We took shifts and it worked out pretty good. We were told not to let Myla go more than four hours without eating, so we did have to wake her up twice to feed her. And once we did, she had no problems remembering that she was hungry. We spent most of the night listening to her sounds of grunting and mousy noises just learning them.

The doctor said she looked super. She weighed in at 4 pounds 11 1/4 ounces, which is a pretty good gain since we last weighed her on Wednesday. It was a pretty easy appointment since she got her first round of shots in the hospital. We don't know how long she'll be on oxygen, but we go back next week for another weight check and we will ask then. All in all, we did pretty good, I think.

Home sweet home

Myla is home at last. She was discharged today with lots of love from the nurses. The discharge summary puts her weight at 4 pounds, 6.9 ounces and 16 1/8 inches. Right now, she is wrapped up in her bassinet with a clean diaper - courtesy of her dad believe it or not - and getting ready for some more food.

Tomorrow is the first trip to the pediatrician. A whole other adventure I'm sure. She will have an eye doctor appointment next week and there will be an oxygen level check on her at least once a week.

I have to admit, I'm a little nervous about her being home. She's still so small, but if we've heard anything the nurses told us over the past nine weeks its that she's a fighter. Of course, they also say she screams about three o'clock in the morning. I guess we'll put that line to the test tonight!

The day has finally arrived!

Myla passed her Room Air Challenge Survey with flying colors! And she ate 70ml of milk for me this afternoon. She's really, really coming home tomorrow to stay with us forever..... We're pretty excited, can you tell? So, now the torture on her parents begins, we no longer sleep or have time to ourselves. (but we don't mind, yet) We'll probly pick Myla up in the afternoon sometime because the doctor's don't even get around until then to do their rounds and sign discharge papers and stuff.

She's so cute and small in her car seat. At a whopping 4 lbs 6 oz most everything dwarfs her. We started bringing home clothes that she wore so the cat and dog can get used to smelling her in the house, but I'm afraid the first few times Myla wakes up screaming in the middle of the night, Haley-dog might go crazy. It was funny, Haley's first winter she got all excited about the furnace kicking on at night, having never heard it before. We'll be sure to take lots of pictures so everyone can see her biggest day yet. It'll be really cold outside so she'll be bundled up but the indoor shots will be good.

This has been such an experience, not that we want to repeat it in the near future any time soon, but we've learned alot. Alot about babies, ourselves, patience(right...), and most of all love. We have probly grown more than we really know but others around us can see it I bet 'cause it wasn't easy but here we are. Starting the next chapter...

The Greatest Gift

Myla had a very good Christmas. She got lots of books and very cute outfits and some toys to play with. She also got to wear her Christmas outfits. She was the belle of the NICU. We were able to visit with her and give her lots of Christmas kisses. She continues to makes strides toward coming home. We did a car seat challenge on Christmas Eve where they put her in the car seat and monitor her oxygen level to make sure she can sit up without having any problems. She also gained weight tonight, she's now 4 pounds 5.3 ounces. Its not a huge jump, but they did put her on a 24 calorie formula now and her body is still adjusting to the change. Its like going from milkshakes every meal to a glass of milk.

The only thing she didn't do well on was her room air challenge. That's where they take off her oxygen for a while and monitor her levels in case she pulls it off in the middle of the night, since she will probably come home on oxygen. Her levels dropped too low in under 15 minutes. So, we will try again tomorrow. Its important that she be able to stand being without it for 45 minutes to an hour, or her heart rate could drop, and mom and dad would get even less sleep than they normally would with a new baby in the house. She'll get it, we know she will, just a few more days. And we just might start out the new year all together.

We have been very blessed this year with our little girl. Its been a rough start to say the least, but she has taught us so much in these past nine weeks. We've learned not only a bunch of medical jargon, but patience, strength and endurance. She's taught us that as a family we can conquer anything as long as we have each other. We are so glad that we are a family, who is healthy and happy and together. There is no greater Christmas gift.

One more step!

We went in this morning like we always do to give our girl some love and a bottle. And as we were just getting settled, her nurse says "we're going to put her in an open crib today" and wheels it right out! So, when we had to pull ourselves away, we laid her right in it. Of course, like the high-flow and low-flow oxygen, this is still a test. Her temperature tonight was a little low - 98.1 degrees - but we left her bundled up and snuggled in so she'll be nice and warm.

This morning was her third bottle in a row. The night nurse said that they were pulling that annoying tube in her nose tonight too. She'll be on bottle feeds only! Naturally, that will be another test, because if she doesn't take all her feedings, they'll have to put it back in. But, she's done so well on all the other tests she's been given, I'm not too worried.

She got all her shots too. Three or four from the sounds of it. She was pretty sleepy, but didn't seem too upset when we held her or moved her around. In fact, she seemed pretty normal. We had a long talk today with the physical therapist about the things we can do when we go home. She gave us information on a government program that Myla qualifies for because she was born so small that can help her if she has any kind of developmental problems. Not that she sees anything - in fact, she called her darn-near perfect - but if anything should present itself later, we have this option. The nurses and doctors have all been so amazing explaining things to us and keeping us in the loop and showing us these programs. We've really been lucky - in so many ways.

2 in a row!

Wow! Back to back bottle feedings for Myla today, but that's not all, she took 5 in all today. Our nurse tonight said that once a baby hits 6 bottle feedings in a day, they pull the feeding tube. So, Myla really could be coming home sooner than we think but we're not going to jinx anything, she'll do what she can and what she wants. We learned a thing or two about patience with her tonight, sometimes we'd give up on the bottle to early when she really trucks along even after we don't think she'll take any more. I guess Myla gave so much attitude this evening that she got to swing for the first time and it calmed her right down. If only I could find one of those swings in my size....kinda like the footy pajamas....

Soon Myla will get all her vaccinations too. All in one day. Ouch. We don't want to be there for that, it will probly hurt us just as much to hear her cry. Grammy will be happy to know that Myla will be wearing her Christmas outfit on the 25th since she'll be in an open crib and can wear outfits. Like layering to stay warm, only with the Isolette she could get too warm so only little onesies in the glass condos. But she'll be so styling in her little baby's first Christmas outfit! We'll take pictures. ;o)

Our thinker

Myla took two full feedings today - one from the nurse this morning and one from mom tonight. And she took almost half of one from dad in the afternoon. She's pretty good at pacing herself and does very well eating. The doctor called her a star. She is doing everything that they want and expect her to do and she's doing them well. She was weighed again on the big girl scale tonight and came in at 4 pounds 4.9 ounces. (See, I knew that bed scale was wrong last night.) Its fun to have the nurses that have been with her since the beginning peek over and marvel at how big she is. One of them made her a "I TRIPLED my birth weight" sign with a caterpillar and prints of Myla's toes for the rocks. Its so cute! Another nurse said that babies don't usually triple their birth weight until six months, and here she is only two! She really has filled out and is looking more and more like a little baby. A very beautiful one!

Today Myla got some good Daddy lovin' since I was off from work. She took two feedings from a bottle in the morning so she got the feeding tube this afternoon and slept on me for a while. She's so cute! But later this evening when Mom and I could be there Myla took 18cc's out of her 40cc bottle, so not too shabby. She just got tired and slept on Kara. That's what she does. Eat, sleep, eat some more and grow. Maybe this weekend Myla will get to go into an open crib. I don't know, they said 1800grams, even though she's over 1800 they're not pushing it because she's not taking anough feedings from a bottle and they're afraid she'll have a hard time maintaining her temperature and she'll stop bottle feeding so we don't want any set backs so we're waiting still.

Myla is at a good gestational age for being in an open crib so we'll just see. Not much else going on today, we're trying to get christmas going still and enjoy it, we just don't have a lot of time to do some little things that we used to do. We love our little Myla-bug! And we can't wait for her to come home so we can celebrate every holiday as a family. So, Christmas Eve, Day and every day until then, you know where we'll be.

Ta da!

Ladies and gentlemen! Announcing the FOUR POUND Myla!! Actually, to be entirely correct, the 4 pound, 1.9 ounce Myla! That's right, she gained 79 grams today to be officially four pounds. The nurse weighed her three times to make sure. She's such a big girl now! We are so proud!

Myla had her follow-up eye exam today. The doctor said her eyes were stable, which means that its not getting any worse, and she will have another exam in two weeks. We're hoping that it is starting to correct itself, although he wouldn't be able to see that. Stable is a good thing.

Our big girl is also over the 1800 gram mark, which means she should be in an open crib. However, they are also building a new NICU and next week will be jack-hammering right next to the one they are in now. They closed the room that she's been in because they don't have a lot of babies. So she's back out in the main room now. Which is okay, because she gets to see more of her favorite nurses that way. But it will be loud with the construction, so she probably won't be put in a crib until its over because the isolette will help with the sound. But who knows? Maybe the doctor will pull her out anyway. I guess we'll just wait and see.

Milk mustache

Myla continues to make strides toward coming home. She finally got rid of that annoying probe around her foot today. It measured the oxygen in her blood, but she has been holding steady for a couple of days now and they decided to take it off. Now, they only measure it once a day. I'm sure its nice for her not to have that around her foot, and its one less cord for us to worry about when we hold her.

She is also taking 2-3 full feedings a day from a bottle. We didn't believe the nurses at first that she was doing that, but tonight, she did it for us too. And man, did she truck right through it. It seemed to go really fast and she did great. She's so close to four pounds - in fact, she's only an ounce away. She measured in at 3 pounds 15.1 ounces tonight and we're betting that she hits four tomorrow. By Thursday or Friday she should be the magical 1800 grams and can be in an open crib.

We have the discharge criteria on our fridge and all of these are things that they want her to do before she goes home. It helps remind us of the goals she has to hit, and its such an amazing feat to think of where she was only eight weeks ago. She's been called a spitfire, a pistol and feisty girl. But you know what they say - dynamite comes in small packages!

4 pounds of fury.

What a day Myla had without her parents! Apparently, she takes a full feeding from a bottle when we're not around, not just once, oh no, twice just today! That's a big jump from here a little there a little, even bigger than taking a bottle feeding once in a day. She's doing great and she knows it. I took 7 pictures tonight (not all posted) and then Myla slept the rest of the night and the afternoon when I saw her on my lunch break. The nurses say she gets really feisty but we haven't seen it... ;o)

I included a picture of her Isolette because soon it will be just a memory, not a fond one, but a memory none the less. She still didn't break the 4 pound mark tonight, 2 oz away so she'll probly make that up tonight if she hasn't already, which could be. We hope everyone is enjoying our little blog and getting their Myla-fix. We'll most likely keep it up after she comes home, maybe not as frequently, and the attention will ween away more than it has now.

Mom and Dad: We figure this is a good place to let out some of our fatigue even if nobody reads this part it's helpful to let it out now and again. We feel our breaking points ever nearer each day we have to leave our baby girl in the hospital and try to keep up the holiday spirit, and our spirits in general, in our home with our hearts heavy and emotions right there on the cuff of our sleeves. If it weren't for each other, our family and friends I hate to think how we would handle it all. 2 months this Wednesday. That's how old Myla will be, not including the offset of her actual gestational age, and two days longer than that is how long we've been going to the hospital every day. We're just so tired but every time we see our miracle's tiny face with her wondering little eyes falling on us, to feel her warmth as she sleeps in our arms and listen to her noises...... everything about her is magic!

Mighty Mouse to the rescue!

Myla's nurse practitioner for today said that she was on her way home. Myla just needs to eat all her feedings from a bottle and she can go home. That's great news! Now we just have to help work with her so she can get there when she's ready. Well she probly has to still work on maintaining her temperature and little things like that too.

Myla was so sleepy again this morning, we just held her and she slept, but we still enjoy it a lot. Tonight she measured in at 16 1/8" long and weighed in at 3 lbs 13 oz. Still gaining at least one ounce a day, sometimes 2 and she still looks and feels so little. Kara said she slept the whole time tonight too, minus a 2 minute looky-loo session after her ear got tickled by the nurse. She's so funny.

Her smiles are darling, and she really shows them when we hold her. We can't wait to have her home for longer bonding times and just love her all the time. Sigh...

So close to 4!

Our Myla had an eventful day. This morning, while trying our hand at feeding her, she forgot to breathe while sucking and her oxygen level dropped way down. Scared the you-know-what out of me. But the nurse said that is what they tend to do and she did come back up. By the end of it, she had taken 10 milliliters, which is about her standard right now. She then slept hard for the rest of our visit.

Tonight we went to my company holiday party and so we visited a little later. She gained 2 ounces today! That puts her at 1710 grams - 3 pounds 12 ounces - and she is well on her way to an open crib. The nurse tonight told us that they do that at 1800 grams, so she could be in one by the eighth week anniversary of her birthday. She looked really good and gave us lots of smiles and mousy grunts.

We have been working with her - as John posted yesterday - to retrain her leg muscles to be more straight out. The developmental therapist said that most preemies about this time are gaining more muscles in their legs and they sometimes need to be "trained" to have their knees point up and their legs straight, so she isn't really concerned about it, but there are some exercises that we can do to help her now. They are very simple exercises - bicycles, twisting, pointing her toes. There's this muscle from her knee to her ankle that with a really soft touch, you can get her toes to come in. Its actually pretty cute. But, I think just about everything she does is pretty cute.

TGIF

Everyday gets better and better and so does Myla. This morning she took a whole feeding from a bottle in under the time the machine usually pumps it. She looks great! 3 lbs, 10.2oz. When I saw her at noon she was wide awake the whole time, just moving her eyes all over the place and trying to move her head to see. She is so cute! Everyone in the NICU thinks she's so special too and they are really good to us, we are so blessed in this country.

We learned how to help stretch Myla's little legs and feet today, she loved it. It's going to be so good to have her home when that time comes. We're all pretty tired tonight so the update is short, sorry but we'll report again tomorrow on everything in more detail too.

Big week coming up

Its hard to believe that its week number seven already. When I look back, the days seem to have flown by and yet each time I leave Myla in the hospital it seems like its been an eternity. On our daily call from the doctor (she calls daily - isn't that great!?) she said that Myla was doing everything she was expected to do at this stage and age. The next week will be big for her, I think. She will start doing the bottle more and more and will probably be moving to an open crib soon. The doctor said that right now all her feedings were through the tube, but she expects that to change in the next 3-5 days. And once she gets that mastered, well, who knows!

She did have another follow up eye exam today. One of her eyes still at the stage one ROP, but the other eye is now at a stage two. Talking to the nurse practitioner tonight, she said that its a pretty common thing and she pointed my eyes to the box on her chart that said "normal for age." She also said that they have only had one baby a very long time ago that had to have their ROP corrected with surgery. So, I'm still worried, but I know that most preemies have this. And it is known to correct itself. So, if you would cross your fingers with us that at her next exam next week everything is starting to correct itself, we would greatly appreciate it!

And if you haven't, please vote in our poll before it ends - its been a pretty tight race this whole week!

3 pounds - and one half!

Myla hit 3 1/2 pounds today - on the nose. Its like she knows how much to gain to land right on these numbers. She hit 1500 grams exactly and now 3 1/2 pounds exactly. She's been so tired from all the growing that she sleeps a lot. But I guess that's what babies are supposed to do. She did take another 10 milliliters from a bottle this morning and that probably wore her out too.

We did another bath tonight, with the nurse raving about how good she looks and being just utterly amazed at how much she's grown. Its hard to believe, when we look back at our pictures and see the change in her. I see it more now that I'm not there twice a day. I'm starting to believe that she could hit four pounds and get her elephant standing on its head. See, with every weight milestone, the nurses give her a postcard that say "I weigh ___ pounds!" She had a mouse with a strawberry for 2 pounds, a snake for 3 pounds and the 4 pound one is an elephant standing on its head. It doesn't seem like that long ago I was telling her that was our goal, to get an elephant standing on its head. And now, it doesn't seem so far away!

What a big, little girl we have! She not only ate 10cc's of milk this morning at 6am but in the afternoon she ate 20cc's, from a bottle! Yeah, she got feisty this morning and the nurse pulled out the bottle as a last resort to calm Myla, the next thing she knew it was almost gone. So, naturally, when I got there later that morning Myla was wiped out from it, I guess it's exhausting for little babies. But that's okay, I'll try and give her a bottle tomorrow and just maybe she'll have the energy for it.

So, her head ultrasound went well. Everything looked good and her doctor thinks Myla is coming along famously. She's still gaining weight and growing out too. We so love spending time with our little baby girl, taking pictures, reading stories, singing songs, and the nurses don't seem to mind it so much either....

Kara is back to work, second day, and I'm training a new-hire at my new store, which also seems to be going well. Haley-dog though, she's got it ruff. ;o) It's cold and snowy here lately and on top of it she doesn't get as much attention or walks so what does she do? Takes it out on poor, defenseless stuffed animals, bills (lol), sunglasses but not shoes. No, those she just "misplaces" as if that's gonna get her on a walk faster.

Thanks to everyone for the clothes, cards and little things for Myla. They are big things in our eyes. Hugs.

J.K.M

First family picture

We had our first family picture taken tonight. As you can tell by our red faces, they keep it pretty toasty in that place. Myla doesn't seem to mind, she can sleep through just about anything. Today, she hardly woke up for her morning cares. Or for her first date with dad. The nurse said she must be growing. I think she was just resting for her big day tomorrow. Hopefully she'll be awake enough to try a bottle when dad comes in and she has a head ultrasound scheduled. (Its just routine, a follow up from the ones she had her first week. They aren't expecting to find anything. But of course, we'll report tomorrow!) She slowed down on her weight gain tonight - only 9 little grams. But after gaining 300 grams in a week, she's entitled to a night off. Just think, if she gains another 300 this week, she might be in an open crib for Christmas. Which would mean that we could dress her in real clothes. But we'll just wait and see. She's a fighter, they've told us that from the beginning. Her primary day nurse said that she's fighting to go home now. And we are there to help her do it anyway we can!

Starting the bottle!

So, Myla just keeps growing! That's what she does best. Although, she did take a few cc's of milk from a bottle and we tried it again today. She still needs more practice but the way she latches on to her pacifier I don't think it will be long. Tomorrow Kara has to go back to work. :o( But we're trying to work out a way to be there the same amount of time if not more. I'll go see her in the mornings and maybe the afternoon and Kara will see her in the evenings for sure and maybe real early mornings as well.

Tuesday we're going to try more aggressively to get Myla on the bottle, it's about that time anyway, so we'll report on that too. She's 3 lbs 5 oz. now, well on her way. Myla has a pretty good attitude already, the day nurses call her a "spit-fire" and the night nurse calls her a "pistol." She's probly getting hunger pangs and needs to get more milk per feeding but we'll see. She's awake before cares (feeding time) and can be quite vocal. As vocal as a Myla-bug can be anyway.

Tomorrow Myla will have her very own room! Everybody in the NICU is so nice to us and they make all three of us feel very special. We can't say enough good things about the care that Kara and especially Myla has recieved, it's top-notch! Now if only they could get my venus fly-trap to grow......

Nothing outlasts the Myla-bunny

As the snow fell outside, Myla stayed nice and warm in her little glass condo. We asked the nurse tonight and they keep it at a toasty 83 degrees in there. Of course we were there twice to pull her out and give love to our little girl! She gained another ounce tonight, putting her at 3 pounds, 3.5 ounces. And they have upped her feedings to one full ounce! My Uncle Tom figured out that proportionally its about the equivalent of a 220 pound man eating 6 pounds of food in a sitting. That's quite a bit when you think about it!

Perhaps the most exciting thing for her happened last night after we left. According to the day nurse, she was fussy and moving around last night, so the night nurse thought, "lets see what she'll do with a bottle." And our Myla did not disappoint. She took 3 cc's from the bottle, or about 1/2 a teaspoon. Not a lot, but she did it without choking and that is a very big feat. They won't start giving her one every feeding, or probably even every other one, but she's just about there. Its a big jump we can see coming!

Don't forget to cast your vote in our poll! Its in the upper left hand corner...

Posing for the camera

Overall, Myla had a good day. She continues to put on weight and look oh so cute doing it. She did have one minor setback. As you may remember, a couple of weeks ago she had her first eye exam, and today she had her follow-up. They found what is termed a stage one ROP. Now, there are four stages and one is not bad. It simply means that they saw some damage to the blood vessels in her retina, but it was a small amount. In fact, most of the stage one cases resolve themselves and the baby doesn't have any long term vision problems. Our fancy book tells us that 90% of preemies born with Myla's stats will get some stage of ROP. They will recheck it next week to make sure it isn't progressing, but they stressed to us that it wasn't something to worry about, it was a "small change" from last time. So we're guessing (cause we aren't doctors) that it isn't a full stage one, but like John said, they saw a small amount and "rounded up" so that they could document the change.

What we learned today was that all those times we think she's looking at us, she really is. Right now, she can see about 6-8 inches away from her. Still a little fuzzy, but she can see us! She was extremely aware today, her eyes going back and forth and looking for all the sounds in the ICN. She's a very curious little girl. She is now what would be 34 weeks and will start learning to eat from a bottle soon. That will be fun...

John worked to finish the nursery today. We decided to put some moulding around the windows because of the curtains that I made. It looks really nice. He still has the other window to do and then the room should be mostly ready for her. And then I'll let him take pictures. You wouldn't want to see it only mostly done!

3 pounds!

And I don't know how she didn't leave it ALL in her diaper tonight! Look at the picture and you'll understand.... It's wild to think that Myla is 3 pounds, that's right, 3 whole pounds and one ounce tonight. She is getting bigger and stronger, more aware of her surroundings and interacting with us more too. She still seems little, and I guess she is, but there's work to be done yet on her end as well as we have to help her by holding, and reading, singing, all of it.

Kara had a good visit with her doctor today and everything is good with her too. It feels like things are happening faster now, I bet they are but we don't always get to take a step back and analyze much. Hope that everyone is enjoying our blog, our little precious girl, we try to download video to post to but it's not working for us right now so hopefully soon.

Until tomorrow morning when we see Myla again and take more pictures, make more memories and share it with you all here. Love you all!

John and Kara

Roller coaster

Myla had an up and down kind of day. Her favorite neonatologist came back from a four week absence. She said that Myla looked good, but she was a little anemic. However, they expect that in preemies, and they would retest her on Monday. Tonight, she weighed in at just short of three pounds - officially 2 pounds 15.4 ounces. Myla also got a bath tonight. Then she spent the rest of the night setting off alarms when the oxygen in her blood went down. They don't know if it was really her, or if the probe on her foot was just not picking up.

Its kind of hard to sit there when the alarm is going off and you don't know what to do. She looked good to me, all snuggled up like a burrito and just sleeping. But still, when it happens a lot, it starts to make you wonder if she is really okay. The nurses didn't seem concerned, and like I said, she looked good. Hopefully tonight she will get a good nights rest, grow a little bit more, and tomorrow she'll have the quietest monitor in the room.

60 more

Tonight, mom and the nurse were talking about babies and weight gain. Ok, all day we were talking about it. Her day nurse was saying how she seems to gain in round numbers only, 20 grams here, 40 grams there, no 23 or 15. And then tonight, the nurse was talking about how they like weight gain to be between 20-40 grams a night, or an average of 30 each night for a week. And then - bam! Myla puts up a gain of 60 grams, which puts here about 2 pounds 14 ounces. As her Uncle Scott said tonight, she looks like a baby! Tomorrow night, she might not show a gain of anything. But after a 60 gram jump, that's just fine. We're crossing our fingers that she hits the 3 pound mark by the end of the week. Wouldn't that be cool!?

Another day in paradise

Myla had another day of sleeping and growing. She gained another 20 grams, putting her at 2 pounds 12.4 ounces. Mom and Dad get to do most of her cares and positioning when we are there. Taking her temperature, changing her diapers, getting her dressed. We've gotten pretty good at it too. We can rotate her from her back to her tummy without disconnecting the wires, all through two little doors in her isolette. When its time to get her out for some snuggling, we can move her and all her attachments without alarming - too much. The nurses that we have regularly know we can do it without much help and are very willing to let us. Myla is definitely the favorite of a few of the nurses too. I have a feeling that when she is in an open crib and taking a bottle, or crying, there will be many willing hands to pick her up and cuddle her.

She was very alert tonight when I was holding her. Her vision isn't really developed, and she probably sees lots of blurry dots, but she's become what one of the nurses says is a social butterfly. She was looking around and trying to locate the sounds she was hearing. It was pretty cute to watch her eyes go back and forth.

Sacre bleu!

Holy moly! Geez Louise! Zut alors! Great Scott! Myla grew 2 1/2 inches in a week! Last Sunday she was 12 3/4 inches and today she measured at 15 1/4 inches. Mom and the nurse didn't believe it at first so we measured twice. And it's true! Her head measured at 11 inches, which is perfect. She's also up to 26 milliliters over 30 minutes on her feedings. The nurse said that is one of the first steps to getting her to take a bottle. Next week, crossing our fingers, we'll start introducing her that. They have also stopped giving her caffeine, which means they think that she can remember to breathe on her own.

I just can't believe that she grew 2 1/2 inches! In a week!

The Myla Diet.

I guess if you wanna gain weight, sleeping and eating and sleeping some more is the way to go. Just look at Myla! Another whole 20g last night and she sometimes doubles that in one night, just amazing. Boy it's a good thing I gave up on that challenge weeks ago, where I was supposed to lose as much weight as Myla gains, she's too fast. In all seriousness, she's so perfect!

Being able to interact with her more has given me a lot to look forward to when she comes home, even in the middle of the night, I say that now...... We always talk about the baby but not very much about us the parents. It's been tough, for us individually and as a couple but it's a good thing we talk and support each other as well as we can. All in all we're very blessed and very much in love with all three of us.