July 25, 2009

Allison is doing great! She is up 9lb, 8oz! Our little preemie just keeps growing, thank goodness. She had a visit from both grandmas yesterday and was wide awake for HOURS. It must have worn her out--here she is this afternoon--knocked out! :)

July 22, 2009

Just some recent photos of Allison--playing in her gym and hanging out with Grandpa.

July 18, 2009

We are having such a good time with our baby girl! We have our moments of tiredness (though they always seem to occur when she is wide awake and ready to play!), but they are overshadowed by moments like yesterday when we put Allison on her tummy time Teaparty playmat and she proceeded to roll over from her tummy to her back--all on her own! These little developmental victories are precious to us, because there was a time not so many months ago when we faced the prospect that she might not be able to do some of these things. She is weighing in at 8lb, 9oz. as of yesterday and continues to thrive and we couldn't feel more lucky. :)

July 15, 2009

Allison is doing great here at home. She definitely loves all the cool toys she has to play with! She can entertain herself for a good long time, especially in her Baby Gym (see above). She is a really good baby, sleeps about 4 hours between meals and really just likes to hang out in her swing or with Mommy & Daddy.

July 13, 2009

Allison is doing great at home. She loves her new toys and all the playtime she gets. Her sleep patterns definitely need some work--since she is usually up and ready to play...at 1am. She had her first pediatrician appointment today and he was amazed at her progress, even said you would never know she was a preterm baby. :) Above is a picture of her sleeping in her favorite toy--her swing!

July 10, 2009

Morning Naptime!

Allison's favorite lounge chair.

Allison is adjusting well to life here at home. She even let us sleep for 6 whole hours last night! Good baby! :)

July 9, 2009 Allison's Homecoming

Photos from Allison's homecoming from the NICU. Thank you Saddleback Women's Hospital NICU for our daughter. :)

July 9, 2009

Allison had a great night. She is 7lb, 3oz! Her nurse said she as a little fussy this morning, but they figured outfit was probably because she is ressed in a plain white hospital T-Shirt--we brought all her outfits home except for what she would need, but she apparently spit up on her outfit last night and we didn't leave any extras. Oops!

July 8, 2009

Well, we all 3 survived our "rooming in" Tuesday night! We are so glad we did it, we learned a lot about her sleep patterns and the noises she makes at night. Above is a picture of her and Daddy cuddling before bedtime--she was telling him a great story. :)

July 7, 2009

We are moving right along towards discharge on Thursday! Above is a picture from Allison's car seat test, which she passed with flying colors. (Sometimes preemies have trouble in the sitting up position with heart rate and breathing, so they test them before discharge.) She fussed for minute while getting situated, then fell right back to sleep. She also passed her hearing test yesterday and will have her last eye exam tomorrow (Dr. Weiss graciously agreed to come in after hours tomorrow night so that she didn't have to have her regular Thursday exam right before coming home). We are headed to the hospital in a little bit here to begin our "sleepover". :)

July 6, 2009

Allison will be coming home on Thursday! yay!!!! Mommy & Daddy will be "rooming in" at the hospital tomorrow night to make sure we have her routine down and can administer her medications and give her the breathing treatments she needs twice a day, then we get Wednesday to sleep and Thursday she's home! :)

July 5, 2009 Photos

Cuddling with Mommy & Daddy

Daddy's wedding ring--it fit all the way up her arm the day she was born.

July 5, 2009

Allison is doing great. She needed her oxygen for a bit between her 4pm and 8pm feeding--she wasn't setting off any alarms, but was just a little bit on the lower end of her oxygen saturation. But, after her 8pm feeding, she had it back off again and has had it off all night, so we will see how she does today. She had it off for a whole 24 hours (minus feeding time, she has to pop it back in for that) on the first try, which is excellent! She is definitely getting to be a little piggy, she ate 98 cc for Nadine at 4am this morning!!

July 4, 2009

Allison had a great night. Mommy & Daddy went back last night to give her a bath (our first attempt at this) and hang out with her. She is now 2,998 grams (6lb, 9.7 oz.) and is still off her oxygen this morning, she has only needed a little "wiff" while she eats so far and she did really well eating last night, too.

July 3, 2009

Updating from the hospital--Allison is having a great day! She is 6lb, 9oz and her feedings have been moved to "as needed", meaning they are going to let her wake up when she is hungry and eat what she wants. She took 90cc at 8:30am this morning and took 80cc for Mommy at 12 noon when she woke up hungry. She is also currently off her oxygen!!! It is just a trial, but she ate at noon with just a flow of .2 liters and 21% oxygen (room air) so they decided to give it a try. Her NG tube is back out, as well, meaning this is the first we have seen her beautiful face without any tubing. Photo is of her enjoying her swing again--LOVES that thing! :)

July 2, 2009 Afternoon

Allison had her very first time in a swing today--and she did great--she loved it! Best of all, it put her to sleep in just a few minutes--yay!!! And even better, it is the same model we have at home waiting for her so we KNOW she'll love it. :) She did really well today with everything else, too--she ate 2 bottle feedings perfectly and her oxygen was pretty steady at about 26-30%.

July 2, 2009 Morning

Our poor little pumpkin had a rough afternoon yesterday. It appears we may have reached her oxygen limit, as she just couldn't tolerate the drop from .2 to .1 and actually seemed to require a bit more oxygen % yesterday. She took all of her feedings by bottle until 3pm, she just couldn't do it--we think that was because she didn't t any sleep in between feedings (she had a follow head ultrasound and a breathing treatment and thus no nap). So, we had to put her NG tube temporarily back in and she was NOT happy--cried big crocodile tears--broke Mommy's heart. But, since that feeding she has done all the rest by bottle and done fine, she just needed a little break. To top it all off, she is a bit constipated due to the rice cereal and iron vitamins she gets. She continues to do well overall, though--her bloodwork was good and her lung x-ray was stable. So they will try again today to lower her oxygen flow and see how she does.

July 1, 2009 Morning

Allison had a great night. She hung out at about 23% oxygen and a flow of .2 most of the night and she ate like a champ--all bottle feedings! She is getting closer and closer to coming home-hopefully she'll be down to a flow of .1 today and we'll be able to tell from there if she'll tolerate being off the oxygen altogether.