Three Pounds Seven Ounces

Anna Grace

Anna was gaining weight slowly at first. In fact, every time she pooped she's lose weight. But now she's on formula instead of breast milk and they are fortifying it by adding more calories. Last night she weighed 3 pounds 7 ounces. It's been two weeks, but things seem to be moving pretty quick!

When we spoke to the doctor this weekend she said that within a few days they could move Anna out of her incubator into a normal crib. This is, of course, only if she can control her temperature. She's been doing great at that. One of the nurses, the mean one, said that it's a given when she's 3 pounds 12 ounces.

We've started to dress Anna in her own clothes. They are huge! But some of you are sending us preemie outfits and they look to be the right size. I have a hard time dressing her myself because of the four cords and wires. I think the more snaps the outfit has the better!

Allison Nicole

We didn't bring Alli up to the hospital yesterday. She said she would miss Anna, but wanted to stay home and play. She really needs some "normal" time playing with her friends. Since she and her friends are all back in school things have changed alot for her. But, she's loving school and seems so grown up. She pushed me out the door when I dropped her off this morning. I love that she loves school. I hope that keeps up!

Jason

As if our life isn't confusing enough...Jason started student teaching last week. He seems to love it! There was a question about whether he'd be able to do it or not. Since he's doing that full-time he had to quit his job at the bank. Thank goodness I'm still getting paid while on maternity leave! We are doing a pretty good job about watching our spending. We're eating at home alot more. While we'll spend more on gas than before with all of the hospital driving, we can have a "family night" but visiting with Anna and having ice cream at home.

Jason made a comment last week that Saturday is now his day to sleep in. I told him that it might soon be the day that he needs to set up a lemonade stand in the front yard to earn us some extra income. He's got to be able to perform some sort of service on the weekends, right? Alli decided that she could just do some ballet dances in the circle and charge people one quarter, one dime and one nickel to watch. Dancing for money...just what a mother wants for her child.

Kelly

After being readmitted last weekend, I haven't had a fever or any problem. I'm feeling pretty good, just tired. But I can tell that it's just because I'm running around, not because I'm sick. My incision doesn't hurt that bad. It's a little achy and nagging but it doesn't keep me from doing anything.

I'm on dialysis right now. It's the first time I've gone two days at home without being dialyzed. And I can tell! I woke up this morning and my face was swollen. And then I weighed myself. I gained 5.5 kilos (that's 12.1 pounds). Yikes! So they are taking alot off today. The only worry with that is that my blood pressure will drop while I'm on. No big deal because I'm not taking my blood pressure meds on the mornings of dialysis.

Tomorrow I will have an angioplasty on my fistula. This is to make sure that the vein is the same diameter all of the way through. That gets us one step closer to using the fistula and getting rid of the catheter. Thank goodness!

Transplant has taken a back seat lately, but it's still in our site. I feel like it's not my top priority right now. Mom and Brother are on the ball and have sent in the paperwork. We'll be getting blood work done sometime soon.

Eleven Days Later

Anna was 11 days old yesterday. She is only one ounce above her birth weight, but they tell me that being over her birth weight at all under 2 weeks is good! She is getting off of the donor breast milk and onto 100% formula. This is a good thing, too. The formula is much thicker and will keep her satisfied longer. Each time they feed her they check to see if there is any milk remaining in her stomach. Fortunately she's digesting it all. And if she's anything like her big sister she'd eat all day long!

Alli and I decorated Anna's bulletin board last night. I have a picture and I'll post it soon. Alli thought that was fun.

Yesterday was a little more relaxing than other days. I got Alli up and dropped her off at school. I came home for a 2 hour nap, got ready and saw Anna at the hospital. I was able to go to the craft store, visit my grandpa at lunch, and stop at Kroger before picking Alli up at school again. We went back up to the hospital again and then had dinner at Dewey's. I don't remember the last time the three of us had dinner together...it was nice!

I'm meeting a friend or two at the NICU after dialysis today and that's the only plan I've got. Jason and Alli are in Dayton at a baby shower and I will get some more time to relax. Ahh!

Home...Again...For Now

They let me leave! Hooray! Under one condition. I had to make sure that the nephrologist and the lung doctor talk today about my procedure. As far as I can tell, the results weren't very conclusive. My white blood count was high which is normal when you've been on steroids. It also could mean an infection or inflammation. I'm leaning toward it being inflammation since women tend to have autoimmune flares after pregnancy. I don't think the doctors know enough about Sjogren's Syndrome to know what a flare is like.

When I left the day didn't get easier. We saw Anna for about a half hour, ran to Big Boy for dinner, got Alli home to change into soccer clothes and then headed to practice. We dropped off a prescription and then decided to get some "back to school" milkshakes which took an eternity. After picking up the meds we headed home to pack lunches, make sure all of Alli's school supplies were ready to go and get her in the shower. After finally settling her down and getting her uniform ready for today we headed to bed. I don't feel like I settled down much until Alli was at school and I was back home. She was so excited to start Kindergarten.

I saw Anna for about a half hour today. She's looking good...and they got her dressed for the first time! Her outfit is GIANT, but she looks so cute. I'm in dialysis now and will remain on today for 4 1/2 hours. The nephrologist is going to make an appointment for me to have my fistula fixed up and we'll start using that some time next week.

Now, it's time to rest. I have bills to pay and calls to make and then my eyes will be closed until 5:00.

Test? Right!

They called it a test...I'd call it a procedure. They stuck a small catheter in my back and in the fluid around my lungs and drained as much as they could. I thought they would only take a small amount and send it to the lab to get tested. But they drained a BUNCH of fluid. It was around 700 mLs. For those of us not into the metric system, 1 oz = 30 mL. 700 mLs is just about 24 ounces. That's two cans of soda! And I'll do the math for you...that's about 1.54 pounds of fluid! I couldn't believe it.

So the bottle of slightly yellow fluid goes to the lab and I wait to see when I can go home. The nurse said she had "lots of things to do" but would check into it as soon as possible. Don't make me get mean!

I've been posting alot about my feelings lately and lots of you have commented on being worried about me. I really do feel like I'm emotionally feeling much better. I'm bonding with Anna more than I first thought I'd be able to. I've never been much on talking on the phone, so if I don't call you back please don't be offended. I've been trying to sleep as much as I can while I'm here at the hospital and I'm sure I will see everyone very soon.

I can't wait to see Alli at home today!

Some More On Today

I met with the lung doctor. Ha, it's the same one that I had in October, which is good news. They have decided to stick a needle in between my ribs and suck out some of the fluid to get it tested. There are, like, four tests that they'll do. Two will give us quick results, within a few hours. The other two will take 2 or 3 days. He said that if the quick ones come back okay then he will have no problem sending me home to wait for the others. I sure hope so. My big hope, now, is to be able to get Alli to school for her first day on Thursday. I wasn't too emotional about it until I thought about taking her picture in her uniform with her backpack.

I finally had the guts to complain about my food. They haven't let me order what I want, which is annoying. But then they will leave something off of my tray (like steamed vegetables) and not replace it with anything else. I know that my dietary needs have changed, but if something is removed for a good reason it should be replaced by SOMETHING! I asked for a big salad with each meal and haven't gotten it yet. Blah. Now that I'm finally hungry I'm not getting enough calories!

Peanut is doing well. My dad held her for the first time. He was scared and looked like he was going to cry. So cute. I "kangaroo-ed" her again today. I think that's going to be her new nick name. I call Alli "Bubba" and now I'll call Anna "Roo."

I know...Sorry

I know, it's been a long time since I posted. Bit of a bump in the road for me.

I had a fever on Saturday night and normally wouldn't think twice about it...just take some Tylenol and see what happens. But just having the surgery on Monday sort of scared me so I called the OB. She wanted me to go to the ER and they found my white blood count and lactic acid levels were high. This indicates an infection. And I was admitted.

The fever at 10:00 on Saturday night was the end of the fevers. And my blood work has come back normal now. I spent one whole day in my room (no NICU visits because of the fever). But after taking a 36 hour break, I was able to go back down yesterday. We're waiting on a blood culture and urine test result (imagine trying to get a urine sample when you don't pee...not pleasant). Hopefully we'll get those results today and I can leave.

I feel good! No pain from the surgery and I haven't had any pain medicine in about 24 hours. Today's nurse offered it to me but I don't think I need it.

Anna Banana

They had to put an IV in her umbilical cord earlier in the week and they found out Sunday night that it wasn't placed right. There was some back-up and leaking so they took it out. No big deal. They placed another IV in her arm and it's doing fine. I got to "kangaroo" with her yesterday. I wore a gown and she wore a diaper and we got all wrapped up skin-to-skin. It was about an hour and a half and it was AMAZING! She was so calm and restful in my arms. I was so calm and restful with her in my arms. I think it was good for both of us.

My mom came in yesterday afternoon and got to hold her for the first time. She agrees that you don't realize how small she is until she's in your arms. Then Jason came up and got to hold her for a while before taking Alli home for dinner.

My phone rang last night around 9:30. "Is this Anna Grace's mom?" said the voice on the other line. "Yes...," I replied anxiously. I'm not used to getting calls at night and in fact they told us that they don't call unless there is bad news. I started to sweat and I'm sure my blood pressure and pulse went through the roof! But, it was her nurse that came on at 7:00 and she just wanted to call and let me know how she was doing.

And she was doing great! When the nurse moved her after her feeding she knocked the oxygen out of one of her nostrils and Anna did fine. So the nurse said she was going to try to get her off of the oxygen completely after midnight. Yay! She had to move the feeding tube from her mouth to her nose...no big deal. She's pooping and peeing which will help with the jaundice. The nurse had nothing but positive things to say and I think it really helped me sleep (as much as you can sleep in a hospital).

Back to Me

Doctors are down here talking to me right now. Even though I have had no fever in a while they are still concerned about the fluid around my lung. They can't tell if it's infected or not without sticking it with a needle and checking the fluid. The nephrologist is calling the lung doctor to see what he wants to do. But if they want to stick me I probably won't go home today.

And, finally, my phosphorus and potassium are high. This hasn't been a problem since I was first seen about the kidney problem. I would imagine that it's probably because I had two days off of dialysis (which is a blessing) and because I have been eating. Before I was eating so little that I wasn't worried about WHAT I was eating. Back on another medicine and on each treatment for 4 1/2 hours until we get all of the toxins out.

Still Movnig Uphill

I think I need to change the name of my blog. I haven't been blogging on dialysis lately...just Anna.

Anna is off the bili lights! Her jaundice numbers are really low so there is no need for them. She was also breathing "room air" (21% oxygen) yesterday. No more mask. They removed the CPAP and now she is just getting a little bit of oxygen through her nose.

With all of these tubes and wires removed it made it much easier to hold her yesterday! I can't believe it! I held her for about an hour and it was amazing. She fussed a little bit and I made a comment about this being the first time that I heard her cry (since she didn't cry in the operating room). The nurses said, "Really? Cause it seems like all she does is cry!" Something to look forward to when we get to bring her home, huh?

Jason changed her diaper and then we went home for dinner. When we returned, Jason got to hold her for about an hour, too. It's the most special thing ever! After about an hour, Alli sat on Jason's lap and also held her. We also finally have a picture of the whole family. I can't stand how excited I am!

When Anna starts crying, Alli has decided that we should sing her a song. So the three of us sing "Twinkle, Twinkle." Both times it has calmed her down. So special.

The doctor and nurse suggested that by Monday she could be completely off of oxygen and be getting full feeds. That means that she'll be getting all of her nutrition through breast milk and none through an IV. She'll still be getting her feeds through a feeding tube. At about 33 or 34 weeks (soon) they will try to bottle feed. She should be able to suck, breath, and swallow all at the same time. The big issues is that she's so small that she might run out of energy before she finishes the bottle.

I can't wait till she starts putting on some weight!