Phoebe's Progress 11/15/10

There have definitely been times in my life when I really wished I could be in two places at once. But I have never wanted that more than I do now. When I am home with Chris and the boys, I feel like I should be at the hospital with Phoebe. When I am at the hospital, I love every second of holding and cuddling Phoebe, but I feel like I should be home with the boys since they had to tolerate 10 weeks of bed rest and with Chris, who earned several new gray hairs in those 10 weeks. Argh. I will be so thankful when Phoebe is home and our family is whole.

Today, I was able to spend about an hour and a half with Little Miss at the hospital. She had a pretty good day. She did have a couple "bradys" (bradycardic episodes when her heart rate drops) and some "desats" (low oxygen rate) but those are apparently to be expected with preemies. She's eating about an ounce of a special higher calorie formula via nasal tube every 3 hours and she's been tolerating those well. She has spit up a few times, but at least for now, they think it is nothing to worry about. Hopefully that will remain the case. The echo last week indicated that her PDA heart murmur closed, but the nurses are still hearing something, so as long as she is asymptomatic, they will just keep an eye on it.

I was able to change her diaper, take her temp, swaddle her and take her out of the incubator myself. It's very intimidating to change the diaper of a tiny little preemie. She doesn't have much of a bum to work with! But we managed and I loved every second of caring for her and holding her. I'll try to remember that in the future when I am half asleep and changing her stinky diapers in the middle of the night.

I called a few minutes ago to check on how she has been, and Phoebe's had a good night. No bradys since around 3:00 this afternoon, no spitting up, still eating well. And she gained an ounce today...so she is 3 lb 13.5 oz. She is almost a full pound bigger than her lowest birth weight. That may not sound like much, but when you are talking about such small amounts, it's a lot. She has increased her size by 1/4. Go, Phoebe!

Here's the pic I took for Chris today:

She's back in the leopard print onesie, sporting a hat handmade by someone from a ministry called the "Knit Wits." :-) Let me just say, people who make it their business to minister to NICU families are angels.

Back on the homefront, we are still trying to get back on schedule and get the house back in order. The house isn't as bad as I thought it would be after 10 weeks of bedrest; that's thanks to all the friends and family who helped us. The boys are still out of sorts a bit, in part because our schedule is still disrupted, but they'll settle. We had school in the dining room today for the first time since finishing 2nd grade in June and it was so nice to get back to our normal routine.

Both Joshua and David somehow convinced me to allow them to choose the Target toy catalog as their bedtime "book" tonight. I think the Christmas excitement is kicking in!

Thanks for reading about our little Phoebe and our family!