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.