Day 15 @ Home

It's hard to believe Alice has now officially been at home for two weeks. Where has the time gone. It's been hard to find time to update the blog we've been so busy. But it's so nice to have her home and not be commuting to any hospital on a daily basis. The stress in our house has been lifted - I don't even think we realized there was any until it's now gone.

Max is doing really well as a big brother as well. He shares his room with Alice and is quite happy to do so. We got him a new bed for Christmas (one from Ikea that's 4 feet off the ground) so he has his fort underneath it. His own play space. When I'm in the room during the night to feed or change Alice, he doesn't hear us (or if he does, Max doesn't say anything).

It's just such a relief to get into a normal routine with Max and Alice tagging along. Max has preschool 3 mornings a week, full daycare on Tues/Thurs and swimming on Wednesday afternoons. So a busy little boy he is. He's loving preschool! Alice comes along wherever we go. It's quite different a second child than a first. With the first I remember napping a lot more and not being quite so active. Now with the second, there's definately less sleep and the second tags along to all the older child activities.

First bath at home.

Alice is doing really well. The first few days there was some extra mouthfuls of milk during the feeds and she needed help to breathe again, but now she's doing it all on her own. No non-breathing incidents for quite a while now. We've stopped topping up the feeds on the bottle so she is 100% on the breast for her meals. Alice is feeding every 3 to 4 hours during the day and night time feeds tend to vary - sometimes 3 hours, 4 hours and we had some nights with a 6 hour space. She now weighs 8lbs 2ozs. So she has gained over a pound in two weeks (you can see the double chin in the pictures below).

We had a visit with the paediatrician earlier this week and Alice is doing well. If you chart her head circumfrance, her weight and her length on a chart and compare it to if she was born on Monday (week 41) then she is bang on to where she should be had she stayed inside me for the whole time. Not sure when she'll "catch up" - anywhere from 1 to 2 years is what we've heard.

We were also at Children's Hospital yesterday for her second RSV shot. She will get two more (one end of February and one end of March) as the RSV season is November to March. The little vile of medicine for the RSV (for a 6 kilo child) costs $1,500. WOW! But if the medicine can prevent the kids from getting RSV it's cheaper than having them in the hospital.

Day 98

Well we did it and Alice is finally at home. Yesterday was a bit of a whirlwind. I was at the hospital at 8:30am and 12:00pm to give Alice her last feeds at the hospital. In between these times was at Park Royal doing some shopping (that I had been procrastinating on but realizing that my time was going to disappear, thought I'd better get on it), including buying diapers at London Drugs!

Picked Max up at daycare at 3:00pm so that he would be with us when we brought Alice home. At the hospital at 3:30pm and home by 4:00pm. Whew!

Alice has come home on renidadin (not sure of that's the correct spelling) but what it helps is to reduce the acidity and helps decrease and reflux issues she may be having. And Alice is also taking D-Drops and Iron (typical for any newborn leaving the hospital and coming home). Her weight is just under 7 pounds upon leaving the hospital - which means she gained 5 pounds over the last 14 weeks.

Alice had her final head ultrasound yesterday as well, and all is good with it.

The only thing we have to be careful of over the next 6 weeks is to ensure she doesn't get RSV (Respiratory Synctial Virus). It's the most common respiratory infection during childhood - most kids have already and their first infection with RSV by their 3rd birthday. Normally occurs January to April. Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between a mild case of RSV and the common cold. RSV is spread by droplets on the hands after someone sneezes or coughs. Wash your hands to prevent spreading it. Babies born premature are at risk for serious infection. Alice is getting the medicine to prevent her from getting RSV - she had one shot on January 9th and a second shot due on or around February 9th.

Last night was a great night - the fact that Alice has been "trained" at the nursery made things easier than bringing home a babe straight from the womb. She's being breast fed and then when she runs out of steam, we're topping her up with a bottle of breast milk (less energy required to drink from the bottle). With all this food she last 4 hours between feeds. So we had a 7:30pm, 11:30pm, 3:30am and then woke her at 7:30am this morning. And the day has followed the same schedule as well. Hopefully we can keep it up (for a while at least)!

Max is doing well and is happy to be sharing his room with Alice. We are giving him some space and trying (as hard as we can) to be more lenient than normal so that he doesn't feel like he's being pushed back in the line.

Here's some photos from yesterday. I will continue to update the blog - but probably not as much as I have over the last few months. Thanks to everyone for your support. It's meant so much to us to have you all in our lives and thinking of us and pulling for Alice over the last few months. It really, really means a lot to us.

Lots of love,

Scott, Pat, Max, Alice & Porto

xoxoxoxo

Tiny little girl in a big car seat!

Family photo (without Max as he was watching Treehouse and couldn't be disturbed).

Max is finally a big brother - and he sat by her side for quite a while last night. Either reading a book, playing the ukelele, changing her blankets and making sure she was alright.

Day 96

The week has been progressing rather well. Alice has started feeding every 4 hours rather than every 3 (the nurses are training her well for her arrival home). I'm at the hospital 2 to 3 times per day (depending on the day and Max's schedule).

Sunday was a hectic day as the nurses had snacked her in the morning which threw her entire schedule off for the day, so we sat around the house more than we wanted to waiting for her to wake up.

Monday was again the same as the other days. Feeding in the morning and at night - hanging out with Max in the afternoon. The doctor was saying Alice was doing really well and she would be able to come home soon.

On Tuesday Alice and I went for an ambulance ride back to Children's for her last eye exam. Alice was in her car seat in the back of the ambulance (along with a nurse and a paramedic) and I rode up front with the other paramedic. Very boring ride - especially because the driver did not want to chat at all. Made for a very long ride to and from Children's. But the eye test was very, very, very fast. I think it took all of 30 seconds (at the most). The doctor pry's the eyes open with an eye lash curler looking thing (or for those who have seen and remember "Clockwork Orange" and him prying his eyes open). The doctor looked at each eye (very, very, very fast) and said all looked good. Alice's retina's were fine and I was to make another follow-up appointment for 6 months time.

Now for the most exciting news - Alice is coming home tomorrow! We got the final news this morning that if all went well with her car seat test (which it did) she'd be home with us tomorrow. What a long road this has been and we start a whole new chapter tomorrow. It's hard to believe that it's happening (I'm starting to cry as I write this). It will have been 97 days (1 day shy of 14 weeks) and we're almost at her due date as well (Monday, January 18th). I think that January 14th will become Alice's unbirthday. It's just so hard to believe that we're at the end - I don't think it will be real until she's actually in the car on the way home, and then I don't think it will be real then either. The plan for tomorrow is to pick up Max at his daycare around 3pm and then go and pick up Alice - make it a family event. Have a quiet evening at home just the five of us (including Porto) and let the next part of our lives begin!

I'll post pictures Friday and let you all know about our adventure home and how the first night was as well (whether we got any sleep).

Day 92

Well we went two steps forward the last couple of days and then one step back last night.

The steps forward - Alice is no longer on caffeine and it hasn't affected her at all, which is great. She doesn't miss it at all for the stimulation. We also lost her NG tube so she is 100% on bottle and breast for feeding. And the feeds are on demand. She's going about 3 1/2 hours between feeds. She's looking great and gaining weight some nights and losing weight - but all that is normal.

The step backward - we had a desat last night (two in fact) while I was feeding her. It's been 4 days since her last big desat (which again was when I was feeding her). She's pretty good about swallowing, breathing and sucking, but still has those times when she can't do all three at once.

She's got to master all of this before they'll let her come home.

On Tuesday this week Alice has her last eye test at Children's - she'll be transported in an ambulance - and I'm able to go with her. It's the only test that I haven't seen done on her. It's supposed to be a very quick test, so it will be interesting to watch it in progress.

Day 89

This first photo of Max and Alice is not from today, but from two days ago (Monday - Day 87). It was Max's first day of preschool and then we packed a picnic lunch and he came to the hospital with me. Thought I'd see how he'd do and he did just fine (because of the "picnic" and there's a TV that can play Treehouse Cartoons - thank goodness for Diego!). Max wanted to hold his sister, and here's the photo of him doing so. He's a proud big brother (but don't call him a big brother yet cuz in his mind he's not a big brother until Alice comes home).

Alice's weight last night was around 6 pounds 7 ounces. So she's got no problem in the weight and size department. Her desats and dips seem to be getting fewer and fewer. I've now changed the way I'm feeding her - instead of a cradle position in the arms, she's in the football hold - so almost sitting up at my side and facing me and breast feeding. This way if she gets too big of a mouthful the milk can spill out the sides of her mouth rather than filling her mouth up and then she can't breathe. It's worked well.

These pictures are from this morning. She's so alert it's kind of weird. I was asking the nurse about her alertness as her personality is starting to come through in facial expressions. And yes, even though she is a preemie, she is 3 months old now so will have some traits of a 3 month old babe as well as that of a preemie. So I was getting smiles and pursed lips. Very cute!

The goal now is to get rid of her NG (the tube that's in her nose and sends the food to her tummy). The nurses got permission from the doctor to start her on-demands feed (which means when she's hungry she gets fed) - and that's either from me or from the bottle. Today I went in and fed her at 9:15am. She woke at 12:45 for her next feed and was given a bottle (with 90 cc's). Because of this large feed we figured she'd be up around 4:30 or 5:00. WRONG! At 6pm I went to the hospital and she was still sound asleep - so mummy was mean and put cold hands on her to start the wake-up process. Which kind of worked, but the bath definately work her. No later visit tonight as she probably won't wake until 10pm (and that's my bedtime).

So we'll see what tomorrow brings with the demand feeds and how long she goes between feeds. At this rate, she'll be coming home trained at 4 hour feeds (vs. the 3 hour feeds that newborns are usually at) - yay for us!

Alice also had a hearing test yesterday (which all preemies get) and she passed it. She goes for a final eye test on January 12th at Children's (ambulance ride both ways) - it should be fine as she's done fine with the previous eye tests, but it must be done and Lion's Gate doesn't do it.

Day 86

Time to share some photos. The one below is before Christmas (December 23rd) while we were still at Children's. I forgot that I had this one and thought it was a nice picture.

The following two pictures are a bit dark (but it gets dark so early and the lights at Lions Gate aren't the best). Uncle Bruce (Sister Sarah's husband) finally got his first visit with Alice. After their babies were born, the H1N1 banned all visitors at Children's so Bruce didn't get a chance to meet Alice until yesterday. Which gave me an opportunity (because I remembered to bring the camera) to take pictures of Alice NOT in her crib/basinette.

Her weight last night is 6lbs 6 ounces. So she's doing really well in the weight gaining department and really well in the eating department too. She took a bottle at midnight last night and 6am this morning. And I'm at the hospital 3 times per day (9am, 3pm and 9pm) for the boob feed. Last night she had her biggest feed with me - 78 cc's. Based on her weight she only needs to get 56 cc's. So she's a good eater.

Alice is still has her desats (although not nearly as many as at Children's - which is why she was able to move to Lions Gate) but until she has no desats for a certain amount of time (probably 3 to 5 days) they won't even think about letting her come home. We are hoping that she'll be home by the end of January. Fingers crossed!

Max came to see Alice yesterday - the visit lasted about one minute. But he was happy to see her and when we left he said "Good bye Alice. I love you."

Day 84

Things are going really, really, really well!

It was so nice to wake up Wednesday morning and only have to drive 5 minutes (including finding free parking) to Lions Gate rather than 40 minutes to Children's. I was nervous about walking into the nursery and thinking the worst, that the nurses/doctors had hooked her up to a breathing machine and Alice was going to be transferred back to Children's. But no, she was doing fine - with her regular dips throughout the night and recovering on her own. So we had a feed at 9:00am (she was raring to go) and then I went back at 3pm but she just wouldn't wake up for the afternoon feed so she was fed through her tube.

Thursday - another nice commute - and a breast feed at 9:00am (with a cuddle afterwards) and thought I'd give the 3pm feed another go - and she was wide awake. It also helped that we gave her a bath before the feed so Alice didn't have a choice but to be awake. Two really good feeds. And she took a bottle from the nurse for her 9pm feed. Alice is being fed every 3 hours but we're slowly working up to have her on breast or bottle by starting with every other feed.

Friday - 9am and 3pm breast feed. Going to go to the hospital tonight to see if Alice will take a 9pm feed from me as well. Not sure what her weight gain is, but she's definately over 6 pounds now. Size doesn't matter for coming home, it's the breathing dips that need to be gone before they'll let her out. The feeding doesn't seem to be a problem at all.

Happy New Year to everyone!