Better than bath time?!

I know what your thinking-what could possibly be better than bath-time?! I'll tell you in a minute, but first let me get you caught up with what has been going on in Brenna land because it has been an exciting week! First things first if you saw the caption on the picture you know that Brenna hit the magic preemie weight number & is FINALLY over 1500 grams & lost her snorkle gear (CPAP)!! She was breathing room air only, but did have a couple of apneas (where she forgets to breath for a few seconds) so she is on a nasal cannula (same thing that adults use when they need oxygen) just to help keep her lungs open. That was an exciting day, Dad & I hoped to be there for the big event (I mean its not like we live in the hospital or anything...), but unfortunately we were not invited to the CPAP party =(
Losing the snorkel gear is exciting for many reasons: she is a step closer to coming home (breathing on her own!), we can see more of her beautiful face & what is looking like red hair, she can wear clothes and, drum roll please, we can start to bottle & breast feed- let me tell you this (well at least for the first few times) is better than bath time! Daddy had the honors of getting to bottle feed Brenna for the first time while I was at work, I wanted it described in every detail, but ended up having to find out for myself (he can be a man of few words). Right now she is still on the feeding tube & we are only introducing the nipple (both) as a way for her to start associating it (latching/sucking) with being full. It is really cool to see her get it, start sucking & staring up at you while she does it, this, unlike kangaroo time, gives you a lot of Brenna face time. Speaking of Brenna face time, I gotta run it's time to nurse again.....

Temperature is Rising!

Yup, we have hit another Brenna milestone! We have passed the 3 lb mark, can you believe that she has basically had a 50% weight gain in the past month?! What is really neat is that now that she is filling out (& there is still a long way to go) she looks a lot more like a really cute baby and much less like a (hate to say it but a bit alienesque does come to mind) preemie. She is now 1460 grams & if you remember the magic preemie number is 1500 grams so we should lose the CPAP in the next couple of days-this is panning out to be a really exciting week!
The Saga of the Squeaky Clean Baby continues & just got a whole lot more fun-now that Brenna has gotten bigger we have graduated to a 'bathtub!' Of course, by bathtub I mean a 4 qt plastic container (4 qt=1 g, so imagine Brenna taking a bath in your gallon of milk) & for those of you who have not had a chance to meet Brenna-this is a very roomy tub. In the picture above you can see that I VERY generously shared bath time with Dad-he did great but now we are fighting over cleaning rights to the baby! The best part about bath time (& as you know I could go on & on about the virtues of bath time) is that it is really the only opportunity that we get to feel like real parents. With round the clock care we (as preemie parents) feel like visitors most of the time & I know that there can be bonding issues because of this. Bath time is one of the few times we get to do traditional parent things & see her without all her sensors & snorkle gear. Even better is that with each successful bath or diaper change we actually begin to feel as though maybe we are starting to get this whole parenting thing & that maybe we do know what we are doing. For a first time parent let me tell you that this feeling is huge-maybe everything will be ok when all the Dr's & nurses are gone & its just Mom & Dad.......I spent the rest of the afternoon on a parental high note, thinking that maybe we can muddle through this...that is until I turned into the baby aisle at HEB......

Another bath, Another birthmark

To say that I am not the neatest person in the world would be a bit of an understatement. Growing up I used to clean my room only as part of the barter system-usually as a way to not to have to eat my Mom's soup (sorry...I am sure that she has now disowned me ;)...) or as my hubby keeps telling me I seem to be the only person he knows who is able to make a mess while cleaning. Really, I can't help it, maybe it is genetic...? All that being said I must say when it comes to bath time & cleaning Brenna I am hooked & will have one seriously squeaky clean baby! As they say baby changes everything...
Bath time was a lot easier today & Bean seemed to enjoy it a lot more-we did not cry once in fact her vital signs were unchanged the whole time. I think it may have been due to her being a bit bigger & able to stay warmer (she is 2 lbs 15 oz!) as well as maybe a bit better supervision. Crib head (think really bad baby dandruff) is a big issue with preemies, especially with the CPAP, so there is a little soft brush that we use to scrub any dead skin from their heads-& use only on their heads. I was so into bath time last time that all I heard was later, brush, rinse & basically scrubbed her whole little body with the brush. I imagine that is probably why Brenna didn't enjoy bath time as much last time....but hey she has incredibly smooth skin now....
We did find out that Bean has another birthmark, it is not a permanent one but will grow in size for the next year & then disappear (sorry but I don't remember the technical term) which is a good thing because it is smack dab in the middle of her upper lip. If you look closely at the photo you can see it, close up it looks like a blood blister, on the photo it looks like a smudge. Other than that not too much to report, but expect a big announcement tomorrow as we are only 1 oz away from 3 lbs!

Beans' Big Belly

Greetings sports fans! Mom is back & let me assure you there will be no more blog delays-mainly because they are running out of stuff to take out of my belly! That & wearing pants is hard enough as is with so much of my abdomen covered with incisions....enough about me let's get to the good stuff-Brenna.
I am happy to report, once again, that Brenna is maintaining her 'boring' reputation (remember this is a good thing in preemie land) with very few changes. She is creeping up to her first big milestone of 3 lbs at a current weight of 2 lbs 14 oz (for those on the metric system 16 oz in a pound)! We expect her to be off of CPAP and at a very healthy 1500 grams by next week-& yes as soon as I can put her in her ducky outfit I will post pics! Her only issue at the moment, & in the grand scheme of things it is a very minor one, is that the air from the CPAP has caused distension in her belly. The biggest consequence of a big air belly is that it is uncomfortable for Brenna, but left unattended could cause some digestion issues. As a remedy they have lowered the CPAP setting from a 5 to a 4 to lessen the amount of air being blown into her lungs (& winding up in her belly) as well as inserting a second feeding tube to try & vent out some of the extra 'belly air.' For Dad & me the biggest consequence was not being able to hold her for 2 days because all the air in her belly made it too uncomfortable for her to Kangaroo :( Her belly seems to be a little bit better-thankfully better enough that it we can hold her again-but hopefully should be a non-issue very soon as she only needs to gain 200g to be rid of the CPAP once & for all. No new labs, x-rays or scans in the near future, we expect it to be a very boring week indeed. :)

Gallbladder… what the heck does that do anyway?

UPDATE: 8:20 p.m. - Aimee is out of surgery and everything went well!!!

So for those of you who don’t know, here is a little biology lesson. Bile is a digestive liquid continually secreted by the liver. Bile contains water, cholesterol, fats, bile salts, proteins, and bilirubin. Remember the blue “bili light” Brenna was under two weeks ago? The function of the gallbladder is to remove the water and other substances from the bile and to serve as a reservoir until bile is needed in the small intestine. If the liquid bile contains too much cholesterol, bile salts, or bilirubin, it can harden into gallstones.

And that short lesson brings us to yesterday evening when Aimee discovered that she had too much bilirubin in her system. When I say discovered, I mean she walked into the house crying and said “take me to the E.R. because I think I have too much bilirubin in my system” or was it “take me to the E.R. my abdomen is cramping worse than when I had preeclampsia and for once I’m sure there is no way I am pregnant!” Anyway, off we went to the hospital in Kyle and quickly discovered that Aimee had developed gallstones caused by elevated bilirubin levels due to her body attempting to recover after the preeclampsia and C-section.

The Kyle staff was great and transferred us to Seton main last night so that Aimee could have her surgery (scheduled for 6:30 p.m. today) and recovery in the same hospital as Brenna. As long as the surgery goes as planned, Aimee should be released sometime in the next 48 hrs, but for now, Daddy will be sitting bedside with Mom and best of all, taking advantage of Mom being knocked out on Dilaudid to steal a little extra kangaroo time with Brenna!

Rub-A-Dub-Dub, Brenna In A Tub!

Ok, maybe not exactly in a tub because she is too small, but Mom gave Brenna her first 'bath'! I never knew that two small buckets of warm water, a couple pieces of gauze & baby shampoo could be so much fun (seriously, this was the highlight of my day, cried on the way home). Fun for me anyway, Brenna did NOT like bath time-at the rate that she wiggles out of all her tubes & probes I thought she would enjoy naked time! Dad did get a couple great pics of Bean with her eyes open and sans snorkle gear, put a couple more of them on Facebook. I do have to add that-well first let me say that Brenna is my child & the cutest thing on the planet in my eyes (& she would be if she were green and had 3 eyes & 6 arms)-but she has a bit of a cone head due to the CPAP (technical term is CPAP head, seriously) that will reshape once she is breathing on her own. If it doesn't it must be inherited from Dad....;)
Brenna is still doing well, in fact no new news to report-just need for her to gain the weight, other than that just more of the same. We did get to decorate her Isolet after her bath with sheets that we brought (thanx Mom & Dad)-can't wait for her to be big enought to wear clothes because she has the CUTEST ducky romper (little duck feet...) that matches her ducky blanket! In the meantime the Nurse did say we could decorate her CPAP hat-Baby's R Us here I come!

2 Lbs 6 oz!

First, let me apologize for the tardiness of the Brennadate, but let me assure you the news has all been steady & good! Grandma’s & Grandpa’s have been in town & we spent some time getting the nursery together-now that we have a beautiful crib (thank you Grandma & Grandpa K!) we can bring her home! Well, we can bring her home when she’s big & ready…

Brenna has FINALLY started to gain weight-a whopping 4 oz in 4 days, at this rate we will be 2.5 lbs next week...only another 2.5 lbs to go… It seems that 1500 grams seems to be the magical premie number, everything ‘eventful’ seems to happen at this weight- we can lose the snorkel gear, wear clothing (we have the CUTEST little duck outfit for her to wear) & will be able to start nippeling (she is currently on a feeding tube, all breast milk though). Always the overachiever, Brenna has doubled her food intake in the past week going from 15 cc's to 30 cc's, she has been tolerating the feedings really well with less than 1 cc residual (the semi-digested leftover food, anything under 5.5 cc’s is good).

If you see the little mark on Brenna’s big ol’ belly that is her little birthmark it is small & sits right below the diaper line. At least I will not have to worry about anyone swapping out my baby-she’s markedJ!

Dr told me today to expect more of the same for the next couple of weeks; they do have to keep reminding me that in premie world boring is a good thing. He did tell me that Brenna turned 30 weeks on Thursday-I know, I know, & yes, she was born on a Tuesday…..? Apparently they track gestational age to the day (crazy, & I have no idea how) & she was born at 27 weeks and 5 days-hey anything that brings my little Bean a little closer to coming home=)