Sorry for the lull!

I've been having a harder and harder time getting to somewhere I can access the internet!

Audrey is still doing very well. Progress is slow, but she is moving forward! She is definitely getting better at eating, but has a hard time finishing a bottle. Her feeding schedule was changed to every 4 hours on Friday, and that means she is now up to 50 cc's per bottle - getting close to 1/4 cup, which would be 60 cc's. She seems to get worn out as she gets to the end of a bottle, although she does occasionally finish a whole one - but she usually get's close! She seems to average 35-40 cc's. They still give her a break between some feeds so she doesn't get worn out entirely, but she is eating at least part of 3 or 4 bottles a day out of her 6.

The temperature was turned down on Audrey's isolette today from 27 degrees celsius to 26 (78.8 F). If she can maintain her temperature she should be ready to come out of her box into a regular bassinet.

This weekend Michael was here for a visit again. We were very happy to see him. Audrey enjoyed some bonding time with her Daddy. And then on Sunday Michael's mom - Audrey's Nana - arrived. I have some pictures of Audrey and her Nana but will have to add those next time!





Sadly my mom - Audrey's Baba - had to head back to California on Monday, although it was for a good reason. She has her U.S. Citizenship test today. Good luck to her! We'll miss her, but hopefully she'll be back soon!

Growing at the NICU

Burping time!

Audrey is making great progress with eating. This morning she ate about 30 of her 34 cc bottle. That means she had about 2 tablespoons - it may not sound like much, but is pretty impressive for a tiny little baby her age!

She is still on the fortified breast milk and it seems to be doing the trick. Last night she was well above her birth-weight of 1605 grams. She is now 1717 grams, which is a little over 3 lb 12 oz. Almost to 4 pounds, she'll most likely reach that mark by the end of the week if she keeps it up!

We are still waiting for the results of Audrey's repeat head ultrasound, but we are confident that it will show that everything looks good.

I think we're still on track to get home by Easter. Audrey's isolette is pretty much at room temperature and she is getting better at eating every day. Once she can take all of her 8 daily feeds by mouth, she gets to come home! She's taking about 2.5 a day right now, so we're getting there!

Yesterday was Audrey's 2 week birthday. I can't believe it's been two weeks already! It was a bit of a sad day for us though. My mom and I went across the Ohio River to Henryville, Indiana to pick up Bridget's ashes. The Pyke funeral home up there provides free cremation for stillborn babies. We really appreciated them doing that for us. While I am so sad that we lost Bridget I am truly glad and amazed that Audrey survived.

Audrey practicing her kung fu :)

Hi everyone!

Audrey is continuing to gain weight and grow. Shs already is much more alert during her awake times. She makes lots of funny faces and little noises that we all enjoy very much.

Michael had a nice visit with Audrey this weekend, but is now back at work. We can't wait until we can go home with him!





We tried the bottle again a couple of times today and Audrey did pretty well. She still needs some practice though. She just doesn't have the endurance to make it through a whole bottle just yet, but we're working on it.

Audrey's head ultrasound will be repeated on Wednesday, hopefully everything will be all clear on that!

We still hope that Audrey will be home in the next two weeks, but we have been told it is very reasonable to expect that she will be home for Easter!

Our Weekend

We've had a busy couple of days and I haven't had a chance to get somewhere with reliable internet so I could update.

Audrey has gained 58 grams in the last couple of days. We were so happy to see her start making good gains. Especially since all she has to do to come home is eat on her own, gain weight and maintain her temperature.

She's also made progress in the other two requirements. We've started to gradually lower the temperature in her isolette. She needs to be able to maintain her temperature when the air is between 27 and 28 degrees Celsius. Her isolette is currently set at 29.7 degrees and she is maintaining or even running a little hot.

This morning we tried to give Audrey a bottle of milk and she quickly ate almost the entire thing - 25 of the 30 cc's! And then the remainder was put down her feeding tube. We were all impressed with how well she did, including her nurse. It was a very exciting step forward. Now she needs to work up to doing that eight times a day. It did wear her out a little bit so we let her sleep through her 11 a.m. feeding.

Audrey woke up again for her 2 p.m. feeding and visited with our good friends Monica & Kyle who came for a visit after we enjoyed a fabulous brunch at Lynn’s Paradise Café, a really neat, funky restaurant here in Louisville.

Michael is here for the weekend again & we are all really enjoying spending some time together.

Audrey is still off the bili-lights and is now able to wear clothes. She looks even smaller when the preemie clothes are so big on her!

She has also been off the IV for two days! She is doing so well that she could even be moved to the transitional nursery - also known as the "Feeder Grower Room." All she needs to do now to be able to go home is start gaining weight & gain consistently; eat on her own without the nasal-gastric tube; and maintain her own temperature. We're hopeful that it won't take her more than two weeks to reach those goals! They are going to fortify her milk for a little while to see if they can get her to fatten up a little.

We had some more visitors today. My boss Judge Patton & his secretary Sheryl came to see us and we had a nice visit. Audrey was even awake to see them, which was good timing since she sleeps about 22 hours a day!

Audrey and I are excited for Michael to come back to Louisville tomorrow night to spend the weekend for us. Hopefully she'll gain some weight today and make her Daddy proud.

New Pictures

My mom and I had a tasty lunch today at Calistoga Cafe & we were able to use their free wifi to add some pictures for your enjoyment!

Audrey is doing well today. Her bilirubin was back down so she is off the lights again - for now, this may continue to go up and down. Her IV is down to clear fluids, and will hopefully be discontinued in a day or two. We're also hoping to see a good weight gain today.

They did an ultrasound of Audrey's brain yesterday. This is going to sound scary - but it's really not. It showed a level one intraventricular hemorrhage. This means that she had a tiny bit of bleeding on her brain. This is extremely common in preemies and a level one means that it is not expected to have any long term consequences. But it does make us extremely glad we opted for the c-section as this was one of our concerns.

Audrey's IV's are only lasting about 12 to 24 hours. Today they had to put one in her head :( But hopefully it's the last IV.



Oh, and Audrey says hi to her honorary Grandma Caroline. We're glad you're enjoying the blog!