Happy Due Date

Ellie is three months old today, and today is her due date! So she is now zero, a newborn. Her development and growth will be based on today's date, for the first two to three years, rather than on the day she was actually born.

Ellie has been home for three weeks, and as of a week ago, she was 6 lb, 8 oz and 18.5" long. When she left the hospital she was eating about 2 oz every four hours, and now she's eating about 3 oz every four hours. All the hair on the top of her head has fallen off, Ian keeps saying she doesn't look like a girl without long hair. She does look more feminine with a bow in her hair (these pictures may show lots of bows, but really she spends very little of her life with a bow)! She mostly sleeps, but usually has an awake period each day, often in the evening. She grunts and groans while she sleeps, and so is quite loud, but she does sleep all night except for when she's eating.

All dressed up, with no place to go! Poor Ellie won't see much outside the walls of our house for months. If she gets sick, she could get really sick, back-in-the-hospital sick. So, she stays home to try and avoid germs (the doctor's office is the only place she gets to go, ironically, a place full of germy little kids......). Everyone has to wash their hands to be near her, change their clothes when they come home from work/school/church/the store, and stay away when they are sick. That's a little tricky when there are three little boys in the house who keep getting sick! But so far, Ellie has been healthy.

She's been busy helping me with the laundry since she's been home :). She liked this basket of warm-from-the-dryer clothes!

Ellie spent her first Christmas mostly sleeping, she didn't care much for any of the festivities, but her brothers were more than happy to open gifts for her. She finally woke up at night after her brothers were in bed, looking like a darling little elf!

And, just because I think they're cute.....

Christmas came early this year....

We got our favorite Christmas present on Dec 14 - Ellie came home!

I spent the night before her discharge in this room in the hospital with her. I didn't get any sleep, she was awake for a lot of the night!

All dressed and ready to go home! She got her feeding tube out the day before, she now has no cords, wires, or tubes! She's our first wireless baby!

Her first night at home went much better than her last night at the hospital! She actually woke up to eat (her brothers had to be woken up, several times during each bottle, when they were first home) and slept in between. Her nurse got her on a 4 hour schedule, so she eats only every 4 hours.

She came home at 71 days old, 37 weeks gestation, 5 lb 7 oz, 17" long. Here she is with her bear today, as compared to her with her bear when she was at her smallest. She has grown quite a bit!

Ian especially is really excited to have her home, and has wanted to hold her. Levi is fascinated by her, and Caleb keeps saying, as she makes noises in her sleep that we hear on the monitor, "that's Ellie on the thermometer!"

December 5

John and the boys survived their first week of work and school with me gone. They were more prepared this time for me leaving, which I think helped. Ian is actually enjoying the after school program, and Caleb and Levi like their "school." I think they're having a good time with their dad. He took them to see Santa yesterday. They saw Santa ride in on his horse, and got to sit on the horse (Ian and Levi did), then went to another location and got to talk to Santa. They've played in the snow, and watched movies. I think they're getting along pretty well!

Today Ellie is 4 lb 14 oz! She's really getting big! She has gained half a pound just this week.

I just thought this was cute, she had her first bath this week and her hair was all fuzzy and clean.

Her arm was as big as my finger when she was born, it's at least twice that big now.

Ellie moved into an open crib this week! That means she's holding her own temperature now. She is working on eating, last Monday the nurse let her try her whole bottle (she was only supposed to try 1/4 of it), which she ate, and that convinced the doctor that she should be able to try her bottles if she was ready for them. By the end of the week she was trying all 8 times, not finishing all, but at least trying. Then she got her two month immunizations, which did not make her very happy, but then today again she ate well. So now that she's breathing well, and holding her temperature, she just needs to eat all her bottles for long enough that they are convinced she can do it and she'll be able to come home!

And just for fun, some winter pictures....not sure if you can tell how steep this road is or not (the bottom of the hill is down under that highway overpass), but when it's snowy and icy it's not really a hill I'd want to be on! Thankfully now the main roads are nice and dry around here, much better than the slippery slush of the beginning of the week.

This is quite the icicle!

Talk about being snowed in.......

November 28

These pictures aren't necessarily in any order, but this first one is of the winter wonderland outside the hospital window. I'm guessing we've gotten about a foot of snow in the past week, along with sub-zero temperatures, making for a lot of snow that's not going anywhere. It is pretty on the trees, but I really do not like it on the hilly roads around the hospital!

These next pictures are mostly for my Mom, she's wanting to know what the Ronald McDonald House is like. I came here on Thanksgiving Day, leaving John and the boys at home with no Thanksgiving dinner (it was the day the roads were the best, plus the day we got a room at the RMH). They've been having fun playing in the snow, watching movies, and taking it easy on their four day weekend. The real world starts back up tomorrow..... 

I got a turkey dinner here, made by some nice volunteers. There are at least 3 hospitals served by this Ronald McDonald House and there is always a waiting list. This is the eating area, just lots of tables. The counter and fridge at the end are community property, for leftovers from dinners volunteers make, or snacks/food that have been donated.

Each family has a locked cupboard to put their non-perishable food in.

These are the kitchens - there are 4 kitchen areas, each with a fridge, stove, microwave, dishwasher, sink, and dishes. Several families share each area, each cleaning up after themselves. Each family also takes turns going over the whole dining area to make sure it's clean. I  got that chance my first day here!

This is for the engineering types, especially one electronically-minded eight year old :). I use this key thing to get in the front door and into my room, the little light turns green when I wave the "key" in front of it and it unlocks the door. My room is like a hotel room, with two beds, a dresser, desk, chair, bathroom, and closet.

And here's Ellie. Notice anything? No more nasal cannula! She got off it yesterday! So only a feeding tube (plus leads to monitor her), it's now in her nose. She's had a big week - she got off the cannula, reached 4 pounds, moved to a new bed, moved to a new unit (this is a step-down unit, for "feeder-growers"), and started trying a bottle! She hit 34 weeks this week, which is a milestone week for development. And, personally, I think she's almost got chubby cheeks (compare this picture to the last picture in this post)! I think all babies should be born at 4 pounds, they are just the right size - starting to get chubby, yet still so small and cute. She is over 16" long, and her arms, which used to be the same size around as my index finger, are now about twice that size.

She's really starting to fill out, and look more newborn-ish. And, she fits into preemie clothes!

This is her new bed. It still warms her, but when you open it up it opens the whole side so it can cool the baby off faster, thus it's used for babies who can maintain their temperature a little. At first when they even opened the side little holes of her isolette it would cool her down. One nurse called this kind of bed a "bread box" because of the way it opens. Ellie is in there, under those blankets.

This was from a week ago, but I think it's cute since she's awake. I think she's changed a lot in the past week.

November 21 Update

It's been a fun week, my sister flew in from a long ways away to stay a few days with us. My boys absolutely loved her, Ian even showed her around his whole classroom at school - he hasn't even done that for John or I :). And, she got to meet Ellie, since the airport is in the city Ellie is in. She got some good pictures of Ellie while the sun was coming in the window and she was out of her bed, here's one that shows her hair really well! It's quite red, just like we like it around here!

She doesn't like to be disturbed sometimes.

She was wide awake for a little while.

Ellie is doing well. She's going to be 7 weeks old tomorrow (and 34 weeks gestation), and she is at 3 lb 12 oz! She has gained a full 2 pounds from her lowest weight. She is still being fed milk through a feeding tube (that's what is in her mouth, it goes directly into her stomach) and within the next week or two they'll let her start trying to take a bottle. Yesterday the doctor took her off the CPAP and she's on the high-flow nasal cannula full time. Last weekend it didn't work to take her off CPAP so she got put back on, we'll see if it works this time. Then if she does okay, the next step is to slowly lower her flow on that to see if she can come off altogether. She'll probably soon be able to be out of an isolette and into an open crib, as she's getting big enough and old enough to maintain her own body temperature better. Those are the things she has to do to be able to come home - breathe, eat, and stay warm. Sounds easy! I sure hope it's easy for her :). She's doing just what she should for her gestation right now, the doctor is pleased with her progress and we can't be happier ourselves. She'll be home before we know it. My sister organized and put away all her clothes so I hope we're ready when the time comes!