She's moving forward

The last few days have been all about getting Veda to consistently take her feedings. Two days ago she seemed to have turned a corner. She's hungry for those bottles! It's still quite a workout for her to get through a whole one, but she's doing it. Yesterday we had the feeding tube out and she was bottle fed all day. Last night all of her feedings were with the bottle except one tube feed (she's fed every 3 hours).



We are experimenting with different bottles to see what's going to be the best fit for her. Upon my good friend Molly's recommendation we tried the Dr. Brown's bottle a couple of days ago, and that was the easiest bottle feed I had ever done with her. Previously she would create a vacuum effect from her strong sucking power, and not enough air was making it's way in causing the milk not to flow. The Dr. Brown's bottle has it's own venting system that helps eliminate this. I fed her in 15 minutes with this bottle, including a burp session. It comes out a little too quickly though, and it can be a bit sloppy. They do have a preemie size nipple out there that I'm going to pick up today to try. The night nurse tried her on one of the hospitals standard bottles, to see how she would do now that it appeared she had the hang of it. She said that Veda did seem to loose less milk through the sides of her mouth and she was able to take the whole thing. The jury is still out on which one is going to be best for her right now. But once she's a little bigger and stronger the Dr. Brown's will be a no brainer for us. Thanks Molly!


I brought in a new musical toy for Veda to enjoy during her awake times. She's been waking up about a half hour before each of her feedings, and is very wide eyed and bushy tailed. I thought it would be a good time for her to enjoy the sweet sounds of Beethoven as she prepairs for her meal. It's nice to be able to drown out the white noise of the NICU as well.

Veda is up to 6lbs 2oz. She lost almost an ounce from yesterday. I think it was due to the amount of milk she was loosing through the sides of her mouth. We're going to weigh the wash cloth that I use around her mouth before and after her next few feedings to see how much she is missing out on. The scales we use are down to the gram so they're very accurate. From the looks of her wash cloths yesterday I wouldn't be surprised if they all totaled a full feeding lost.




We're not there yet, but we're close, so close I can taste it. As the doctor would say, about a week (he's been saying this for the past 3 weeks now!). I think he likes to keep us excited :)

Veda keeps things interesting

I just got off the phone with the doctor, he said Veda looked really good during his visit with her this morning. He mentioned that she appeared to be more comfortable and he sensed a positive change about her. I told him not to toy with me - but I believe this could be her week to show us what she's capable of!

To recap Veda's feeding consultation... The PT thought that her issues were a combination of some reflux, slight lack of stamina and immaturity. The immaturity is based on where most 36 weekers are at in their progress. It was determined that she was acting a week or two younger than what she is. Although that's not the easiest thing to hear it's comforting to know that she will catch up. The doctor started her on some reflux medication, we're giving it a test run just to see what happens. He doesn't think the murmur is playing a big role in all this so that's good to hear.

I asked the doctor how he felt about Veda and how she's doing overall. He gave me some great reassurance by reminding me of all the positive things about her progression. She never had to be put on a ventilator, she was on very limited oxygen only for a few days, she doesn't have eye disease, she had no brain bleeds, all of which are real concerns of a 28 weeker. So she's lagging a bit with this last obstacle of concurring her feedings - this I can handle.

I'm off to visit my little peanut now!

Oh ya, she's up to 5lbs 12 oz!

7 weeks and a small step back

I was so sure that Veda would be coming home next week, but it's starting to look unlikely. We've seemed to have hit a wall with Veda's progress. Her feedings were right on track a few days ago, as she was finishing a few bottles a day. Unfortunately the last couple of days she's moved backwards. At the most she's taking only half her bottle feedings and she seems very irritated when doing it. To me she seems to be very uncomfortable, which suggest bouts with some heavy duty reflux. She squirms and turns red in the face, and grunts (and no, I don't think it has anything to do with her being gassy or pooping) then she wants nothing to do with the food. She has been having a lot more spells (when her heart rate drops) in conjunction to her feedings as well. It's so hard for me to see her so miserable, I just feel helpless.

The doctor has scheduled her to have a feeding consultation with the physical therapist tomorrow. He wants to assess her stamina. He's worried that if it's a stamina issue then it could be her heart murmur causing her problems. I think if I had a choice it would definitely be a reflux issue. I just hope there's an easy resolution so that we can get her back on track.

She's at 5lbs 7 ounces. She had a couple of days of weight loss in there, so it's been a slow climb this week. She is starting to fill out those preemie clothes though! Don't you just want to kiss those cheeks?

May my next post bring a little more positive news!

No more oxygen monitoring

While we were visiting today the doctor said he wanted to remove the oxygen monitor from her foot. This is great progress although I'm a bit apprehensive about the whole thing. These are the numbers that often give us dipping trouble. When a dip is happening my eyes are glued to the monitor waiting for her to come out of it. It's always followed by a visit from a nurse checking on Veda, which is when they have to remind me every single time to look at my baby and not the monitor. By looking at Veda I should be able to tell if she's okay by her color and breathing. They probably got tired of telling me to stop looking at it so they decided to take it away all together. What ever helps get me ready I suppose! I'm probably more work for them then Veda is!

She took 2 full bottles last night and almost a full bottle for me today. She just gets so tuckered out, but she's almost there. She's up to 5lbs 5 ounces!!

6 weeks, 5 pounds and mommy's back!

I was out a total of 5 days, finally heading back to the hospital on Wednesday. That was the quickest I've ever bounced back from a cold. It seems the carrot juice, honey and steam really did the trick! I feel like a million bucks! Deep down I was hoping by the time I made it back to the hospital Veda would be sitting up and saying mama, and ready to come home. But it's business as usual. She is doing great though! She's up to 5lbs 2 ounces, which seemed so far out of reach only a few weeks ago. So far she's only been able to get down one full bottle, the rest have been partials with the remainder going through her feeding tube. Her breathing issues are usually during her feedings, leaving the rest of the day pretty quite. I think she'll get it any day now. Yesterday was her 6 week birthday!

Our friend Winde sent us some great head wear. She's sporting one of her new headbands in the pictures above.

Open Crib and bottle feeding!

Veda has been moved to an open crib since Thursday. As long as she keeps up her body temp. she can stay there, and so far so good. I just spoke with the doctor this morning and she has taken 2 full bottle feedings in the last 24 hours which is fantastic at her age! He also mentioned that her acid reflux is getting better as well.

I haven't been able to go up to the hospital since Thursday because I've been sick, and it's very depressing. I've been trying every home remedy to hurry this illness along so that I can get back up there but it's probably going to be another few days - UGH! So I wasn't there when the physical therapist looked Veda over, but was told everything looked good. The only thing noted was the shape of her head. I guess the sides of her head are slightly flat due to the way she's positioned. Preemies are often left on their sides and stomach which causes this problem. They'll teach us how to prepare a halo for her head while she sleeps, when she comes home. How appropriate for our little angel, ahhh.

Her heart murmur is still audible which leads them to believe it may not close. They will do a final ecco on her heart at the time of discharge to take a look at it. If it remains open we'll need to do follow up treatment when we are home. If it remains asymptomatic, which it has so far, it could be possible to avoid surgery and opt for a less stressful procedure that is offered to babies weighing at least 10lbs. Speaking of 10 lbs, our little growing Veda is now a whopping 4 lbs 12 oz!!! She has come so far!

I think that Andy has been secretly enjoying his alone time with Veda. I heard him call the nurse yesterday to tell her he wanted to give Veda a bath during his visit. When he had the nurse on the phone he referred to himself as "hi, this is Veda's daddy", I just thought it was so cute! I'm not sure if it was the use of daddy or the sweet little voice he was using, but it was pretty cute. He's been bottle feeding her and getting lots of pictures, although I've yet to see them because the camera has been at the hospital!

Hopefully I'll be back up there soon!!

Veda is over 4lbs!

Veda now weighs an impressive 4lbs 4 ounces! It may be coming on a little too quickly now and it's showing in her little hands and feet, as they're a bit puffy. The doctor is going to hold off on increasing her food intake for now. He doesn't hear any liquid in her lungs and so it appears to just be a little water retention. She had a little sodium added to her diet when she was experiencing the weight loss, so this could be a little side effect to that.

I'll be spending more time at the hospital so that I can help Veda with her bottle feedings. They want to get her moving in that direction and it looks like she just may be up for it. The quicker she can get the hang of it the quicker we'll be able to get her home. She'll be 34 weeks on Friday and they say between 34 and 35 weeks preemies really start showing great strength. It's been pretty incredible so far seeing what can happen in a weeks time. Within the next two weeks we want her to master her feedings, be able to hold her temperature in an open crib and be over 5 lbs (the weight milestone is for me - it has nothing to do with her being discharged).

We'll be meeting with a physical therapist on Friday to check her motor skills. I'll be sure to post how that one goes!