Super Baby!!

Yesterday was Adele's big 'first bottle' day. I went to visit at 6 and was nervous and excited to see how she'd do with this new challenge. At this point to come home she needs to take all her feedings by breast or bottle, and not have any A/B spells for 7 days, so I hoped that she'd suck on the bottle a little and show some kind of interest in it to give me hope that she'll come home some time before her 1st birthday ;-). Well, as usual she went way beyond what I (and the nurse) expected, and drank her whole 40ml bottle. Then she did it again for Ben this morning, and again this afternoon for me. She's a milk drinking champion!

(All that effort makes her sleepy!)

She's on 3 bottles a day now (out of 8 feedings), and they'll add another one every day or two depending on how she handles it. In addition to this, next week they are going to be doing all the tests and evaluations that I've been told they do prior to discharge, so hopefully we'll be able to take her home in the next couple of weeks! Exciting!

Fiona is also learning all kinds of new things... her new favourite thing is Elmo, and she'll stand by the TV and yell "Ehmo... Ehmo..." until I turn on Sesame Street for her. She also has a little book about Elmo that she likes to carry around with her. Here's a picture of her completely fascinated with watching Elmo on tv...

I tried to get her to smile for me but she was totally distracted and couldn't tear her eyes away from the screen!

So goofy!

Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! We didn't have time to post cards this year, so consider this your Christmas greeting. And also, happy new year ;-)

We had a wonderful time over the weekend. Ben's whole family was in town to celebrate and it was lovely to have everyone together. Here's the proof!

Mike is missing because he was at home sick, and Adele is not there, but it's almost everyone. The newest addition is Nate (back row, second from right) - he is Laurie's boyfriend who became her fiance over the weekend. Congratulations you two!!

On Christmas eve we had dinner at Bill and Ginger's followed by the traditional Hamer talent show. This year we had some fabulous talents including musical numbers...

And magic shows, comedy routines, singing, tv shows, and even synchronized swimming demonstrations!

On Christmas day we were surprised to find lots of gifts for Adele at the hospital. She got a toy from a little girl who had spent her first Christmas in special care, and it was a very sweet gift with a nice note.

We all got together at Ben's Grandma's nursing home for Christmas lunch and had the largest table in the room...

Fiona had a lot of fun clomping around in my winter boots...

Then in the afternoon we gathered at Cathy's house to exchange gifts and eat some more food! Fiona got a gift from Grandma and Grandpa that means she'll finally be some more use around the house...

It was a lovely day!

Adele continues to do really well. She's still gaining weight like crazy and is now more than 4 lbs 8oz. Tonight when I visit she'll be given her first ever bottle, so hopefully she'll like it and drink at least a little of it! She gets cuter every day...

I'm really looking forward to when she gets to come home!

Isolette Graduation

Today was a big day for Adele! She passed the 4lb mark, weighing in at 1880g (4lbs, 2.3oz). This was a 105g weight gain from yesterday, which is a lot more than her usual 30g average daily gain. She might weigh a little less tomorrow because 105g is unusual and she probably had to make a big poo or something ;-)

The upshot of this is that she was deemed ready to graduate from the isolette to a regular bassinet! They started to turn down the temperature in her little greenhouse, and I thought it would take a couple of days to make the switch but when I visited tonight the nurse said that after I cuddled with her, she was going into the bassinet instead! Of course, I did not have my camera to record this milestone because the battery was charging, but assuming she manages to maintain her temperature and doesn't have to move back, there will be pictures tomorrow. I dressed her before I left, and she is wearing a long sleeved shirt, pyjamas, socks, a hat and three blankets. Hopefully it's enough :-)

In other news, she is showing more and more interest in breastfeeding, which is great! She had her pulse oximeter removed because she's never had a problem with blood oxygenation, so that's one less wire to worry about. She is only occasionally having spells where the forgets to breathe, and she had another bath, and was less happy with this one...

But liked snuggling with Daddy afterwards...

And after she was all dried off her hair looked fantastic!

Fiona has been excited to meet all of the people visiting for Christmas and had fun at Ryan's birthday dinner this evening running around and playing with her cousins. She has been working on talking some more and yesterday was counting magnets... she only got as far as "two" but I was really impressed! She also likes to do naughty things and laugh at me when I tell her not to... that part is not so fun!

So everything is good. This week is busy because I am far from ready for Christmas on Friday, but we're having fun hanging out and visiting and eating Christmas cookies.

Tropical Weekend

You know you live in Minnesota when you look forward to a "warm" weekend of mid 20's (around -4C) temperatures... Towards the end of last week it snowed a lot and got ridiculously cold here, and although we managed to visit Adele we were too busy huddling together for warmth to make a blog update, sorry!

Adele is no longer spending all her time under the phototherapy lights! It's possible that her bilirubin levels might go up again and she'll need to spend a little more time under them, but hopefully not! This means that she can snuggle under blankets and wear pyjamas and have a cover over her isolette so that it's nice and dark inside.

I don't know if she cares about the clothes or blankets, but she definitely prefers dim light.

She's still doing well without the IV and has only had a few spells after the medicine to prevent those was stopped (and hasn't had one in the last couple of days). She occasionally has an unrelated dip in her heartrate - the nurse thinks this is probably due to a little reflux (her food comes back up a little because her digestive system is still immature) and should be something that she'll grow out of.

She's now eating 29mls of milk every 3 hours (30mls is 1oz) and they're probably not going to increase it much more. Breastmilk is about 20 calories/oz and they add a supplement to bulk up the calories and nutrition to 24 calories/oz, which doesn't sound like a lot, but to put it in perspective, she eats 1/10 of the number of calories that a fully grown adult would, and she's only 1/50 of the size!

The last news is that she's still gaining weight! She now weighs 3lbs 6oz! Go Adele!

Fiona is also doing well. She went to a party on Friday with Ben and I and another party on Saturday with Grandma and Grandpa... she's quite the party animal!

Grandma Ginger often uses an earpiece to make phone calls and Fiona is quite interested in this. I found these pictures on the camera this evening that Ben must have taken when I was visiting Adele one evening... (further proof that it was Ben is that her face was not wiped prior to photographing ;-)

And when I got home from the hospital this evening Fiona and Daddy were having a lovely time hanging out and watching Sesame Street...

Awww sweet! I'm looking forward to when Adele can be cuddled up on the other side :-)

Happy One Week Birthday!

Adele is officially one week old today, and she's still doing really well! She seems to be handling being without the I.V... she lost a little weight, but they started adding a supplement to her milky meals to boost the calories and nutrition so hopefully tomorrow she'll be a little fatter :-)

She also seems to be doing fine without the stimulants to help prevent the A/B spells... she had one this morning at 6, but when I saw her this evening had not had any all day... let's hope she continues in this way!

To celebrate her one week birthday she got a sponge bath! She did not like it at all! Here she is all snuggled up and warm afterwards.

Fiona hung out with Grandma and Grandpa while I visited Adele. When I picked her up they showed me how she earns her keep while she's there...

Good job Fiona! Tomorrow I'm going to get her working on vacuuming my house!

I.V. Free!

Adele had some changes today! Her I.V. came out (I'm not sure if it came out accidentally or if they were just changing its location) and although they tried to, none of the nurses could get it back in so they decided to just leave it out and see how she does without the extra I.V. nutrition. They'll be adding supplements to her milky feedings, and will keep an eye on her blood sugar and some other things, and hopefully she will be fine and will not have to go back to the I.V.

Another change is that they have discontinued the stimulant medicine to prevent the A/B spells... it was making her heart beat too fast, so they took her off it, and as of this evening she had not had any spells. It takes a few days to be completely out of her system, so time will tell whether they come back or not. Hopefully not!

The last exciting change is that she is still gaining weight! Today she was 1450g/3lb 3.1oz, and has officially passed her birth weight! Good job Adele!!

This evening when I visited she was awake and interested in what was going on...

"Hello Mama!"

After she had her milk she got very sleepy and was happy to settle down for a nap under her suntan lights. Sweet dreams Adele!

Gaining weight!

Well, I already failed in my "Adele every day" plan... I forgot to bring the camera to the hospital at lunchtime, and I forgot to bring it again this evening. So I'm renaming the project "Adele every day that I remember and manage to take a photo" ;-). I'm going to try to do better though, I am excited about this project!

She is still doing very well! They are planning to keep her under the phototherapy lights for a couple more days, but hopefully she'll be done soon. They have started to reduce the amount of IV nutrition that she's receiving, and I'm really looking forward to when she doesn't need an IV any more because it looks so uncomfortable in her tiny little body! They are continuing to increase the amount of food she gets and is now eating 12mls every 3 hours. She is continuing to make poo, which is great, and best of all, she has stopped losing weight, and had a big gain! She had dropped down to 1340g on Monday (2lb 15.3oz) and though it is normal to lose some weight after birth (and what they like to see as waste products are passed out) it is also great to see her now beginning to gain it back! Today she was 1420g (3lb, 2.09oz) which is almost her birth weight (1440g/3lb 2.8oz). Go Adele!!

There's not much other news... Fiona is fine, and seems to be readjusting to life with Mama again. She is very interested in electronic devices right now, and loves to play with our old, old camera. Since I didn't take any other pictures today, here's a self portait of Fiona's feet. Enjoy!