Good News Is Slow

Anne is now over 3 lbs she is now a whopping 3 lb 6 oz! I think she is taking 31 or 32 mL every three hours (an ounce is 30 mL). She moved up from the smallest diaper size but the next size up is still to big she tends to make messes for the nurses. They keep asking if I want to change her... HA! I figure they charge enough to change her too. I will get plenty of opportunities to change her once she is home. She is off humidity which means her skin is doing a ton better and she can moisturize herself. She is still on a heater but not as much as before. Before they where regulating the temp of her bed based on her body temp. Now the regulate it by room temp and keep it there. She still needs that heat if her heater where to drop below room temp she would have a hard time keeping herself warm. I get to start nursing her twice a day today. They want to give her oxygen while I am nursing so we don't stress her out. She forgets to breath while swallowing. Honestly it is the most frustrating thing. She is not good at nursing at all and I have to be very very very patient. For example for a good nursing session it takes almost an hour and at the end of it she gains no weight meaning she didn't get any food out of our whole patient hour!!! Come on! Good thing she is cute and I like her enough to keep trying. Also I figure pumping and using a bottle to feed her sounds like way to much work. She gets to wear outfits occasionally but they are all huge on her! One of the nurses noticed she hasn't been wearing a bow in a while and put a new one on her. We like our nurses (most of them). They all have funny nicknames like hair nurse, no personality nurse, she Brad, Brad... you get the idea. Hair nurse is favorite and she is the one who makes sure Anne has bows galore! Well that is all I can think of. No new pictures to add sorry. I will work on that.

Non-nutritive No Longer!

Yup you heard me. I get to nurse Anne once a day! The first time they had me pump an hour before so she wouldn't get flooded. The second time I pumped just before for ten minutes. Yesterday I didn't pump at all. She got 14 mL that last time! Go us. It still honestly scares me to nurse her. She is so small I'm sure I'm going to make a wrong move and snap her neck or suffocate her. She got really mad at me the second time and just screamed. Its good the nurse was right there to tell me what to do or I just woulda given up and put her back in her box. When she is upset like that all I can think is I'm hurting her something is wrong oh no there goes her heart rate and now she is breathing to fast well now I have upset her to death... You get the idea, I'm afraid of my child ha ha. No not really, she is just so fragile. Then she suprises me with her strength and the amount of fight she has in her. When she got 14 mL yesterday I was so suprised. I honestly thought she got nothing and it was a waste. Its hard not to get frustrated. Well anyway, that is the news. Our Little Anne is still suprising the Doctors and us everyday.

Update: good news!

Anne's feedings are being moved up to 28 mL per feeding (from 18), which is just less than an ounce (an ounce being 30 mL), so that's awesome. They're adding all kinds of good stuff to her food - calcium, protein and other stuff that sounded good but I can't remember - to fatten her up and help her gain weight. Anne is now off of IV fluids, so it's all breast milk. They've taken off her IV line and the IV pick line (that went in at the wrist all the way up to her heart), so she's off of tubes except for a little bit of monitoring and her feeding tube.
They want me to start "non nutritive" breastfeeding, which basically means I pump, and then put her to breast, so she can learn and we can work on that. This is cool, because until now, we only got to hold her two hours a week. She also gets to do "non nutritive sucking" on her "wee soothie" which is smaller than a NICU soothie...even though the wee soothie is the size of her head. She was almost small enough for the "wee thumbie" but not quite.
The nurses say that Anne is really feisty, and that she's a little Houdini, that she likes to wiggle out of all her moniters and set off the alarms. Yesterday, when we were visiting, she was really awake and alert. It was the most awake we've ever seen her. Her big, big eyes were wide open, and she was so cute. She held Andrew's finger, and it was the most alert he has ever seen her. She was moving and looking around a lot. Dr. Kari (don't know her last name, sorry), who is Second-In-Command at the NICU, says that Anne is acting very age-appropriate, and that they weren't expecting her to do as well as she is doing. Her eyes and her face are a little "twitchy", which is normal for babies as premature as she is. And when her face twitches, it twitches into a smile. The doctor is having an eye specialist come in and double-check her eyes to make sure they're OK, not that they think the eyes AREN'T OK, they're just making sure.
This weekend was the big BYU football game. On Saturday, I surprised Andrew by asking the nurse if she could put a blue-and-white bow in her hair. So the nurse and I put two ribbons together and put it in her hair. And then, when I came back, I was smiling because I knew it and was waiting to see Andrew's reaction. He is a huge BYU fan, and he and I were both in our matching shirts, and Anne was in - well, just her diaper, and her bow (her wardrobe right now consists of just diapers and hair bows). He was very proud. But BYU lost the game in a horrible, embarrassing way, so she won't be wearing THAT bow again for a long time. She's back in the yellow one, which is my favorite, of course.

She is here.

Little Anne Louise was born 9/10/2009 at 2:07 pm

Weight: 2 lb 8 oz

Length: 14 in

It was a scary week. We went in on Tuesday for a Nonstress test and she failed. The nurses didn't want to let me go home again and the Dr sent me home. The next day we went in for our specialist appointment and the Dr said yup lets get her here quick. She would have been born Wednesday but Anne's lungs weren't ready so I needed steroids to help her out. After two shots and 24 hours it was time. I had a scheduled C section. Suprisingly C section... not that bad. My anesthesiologist was wonderful. Really without him I probably would have freaked out. He talked me through the whole thing and stayed with me the whole time. Now I have lots of drugs a nice little incision and a cute little little baby. Anne is still in the hospital and will be for some time. There are lots of pictures on facebook for anyone who has it. I will try to put more on here.

Sooner Rather Than Later

At our last specialist appointment last Wednesday Dr Ball said if. He looked at how our little Anne is now lagging by about 3 weeks and said if we make it to 37 weeks they will induce me then. However, if she still lags in growth or anything else goes wrong he will blow the whistle and its everybody outta the pool! He then promptly ordered me take 2 non stress tests a weeks and see him back in two weeks. That was a week ago. Two non stress tests an two AFI's and one Biophysical workup later Anne is now 4 weeks behind and I have pregnancy induced hypertension bordering on preeclampsia. That explains my heartburn. This last test which was yesterday they almost kept me overnight for monitoring because Anne is so small and her little heartbeat wasn't as high as they would like it to be. However my OBGYN ordered me home and to come back on Tuesday to check again. Me and that man will have words some day. I don't like him. Hear that DR I don't like you!!! He may be the main cause for my hypertension. My nurse on Tuesday even agreed he was a stressful man. Luckily I have a very nice specialist who kinda runs things more than my OBGYN and makes sure Anne and I are both safe. So to calm all your fears and maybe my own... Anne is still moving around a bit and still has a heartbeat and can even use her lungs. I think we will honestly probably get to meet her in person next week. That is scary and means she will be in the hospital for a long time and also that I will probably get to experience a C section. Am I worried... whatever it takes to get Anne here safe growing and taken care of. If she isn't doing her job in me then its no more free rent chicka! She only weighs about 2lb 7oz right now. She will be very small and need lots of care. Course these are all my speculations and the DR has the final say. We will be seeing my hated OBGYN on Tuesday and my beloved Specialist on Wednesday. I will try and keep ya'll posted.

A New Post!!!

So honestly I have been avoiding posting anything. Really its because there is so much to say and so little time to get it said. Sorry to all of you who have missed me.
Here is the scoop.
For those of you who don't know we are having a little girl in October. We are more than excited. Also, she has a rare disorder known as Dandy Walker Variant. Sounds cute and scary at the same time. Basically we went in for the gender ultrasound at 20 weeks and they told us we needed to see a specialist for a second opinion on something that looked "different" not bad just "different". Thank goodness for my sanity we got in to see a specialist the very next day. To make a long story short there is an odd gap in between the back halves of her brain. I would try to explain it technically with all the cool names but it would probably make more sense if you just read this: http://www.madisonsfoundation.org/index.php/component/option,com_mpower/Itemid,49/diseaseID,305/
The last three months have been a journey for Andrew and I. Worried that there was something terribly wrong, finding its bad but we don't know much but it could be OK, not knowing what to expect.... Really it is so rare that the Dr can't even tell us how it will manifest itself in our daughter. We have no idea. Bad or good or nothing. Nothing.
Faith has come to be a big thing for the two of us. For me I have always needed information facts knowledge to approach any situation. We don't have that. So I have been praying and others have fasted for us a ton. In small ways we have both been blessed and prepared for Anne and whatever she brings with her.
If you have questions please feel free to ask. We aren't being shy about this or keeping any secrets. I will try to keep everyone updated through this blog. Especially after Anne Louise arrives we may not be calling and talking to everybody but I will have time to post pictures and updates here.
I know Father in Heaven has a plan for our little family and that he loves and is mindful of us. I am so grateful for the blessings we have received and for this beautiful girl who will be a part of our family.

Gone but not forgotten!

So my laptop died and I can't blog at work so I will have to make due with someone else's computer! Oh how I have missed bragging and reading and posting. The blogosphere needs me!
What has been happening lately... lets see. Well Andrew is done with school and enjoying his summer painting job with the family painting company (Mom's Cousin runs it). I am working working working and trying to not kill those I work with. Not that they are bad people just more obnoxious when I'm prego. I'm kind of a mean pregnant woman. I felt bad about this for a while and that maybe this is who I really was I just needed some stomach aches to prove it. Then I talked to my sister and she said I am perfectly normal to want to shout at someone passing by me. I feel much better. If I shout at you please don't take it personally, I will even let you take it out on the kid when I'm done! I am how ever working on being a nicer person and not using this as an excuse. I drink more water... sometimes. I want to smile more. I try not to say what I am think which doesn't always work... and I try to be a good sport and let fun happen... even if it isn't fun for me. Now I sound crazy... for those of you who know you understand for those of you who don't know DON'T JUDGE ME!
Good story to end this up... I went in for my second Doctors appointment a few weeks ago and man did I have to pee! I know they always want me to save them some but I just had to go and they where taking way to long! So I relieved myself and went to pull my pants back up when *thud* the sound of hard plastic hitting something else hard... NO! I turned just in time (mind you my pants still half down) to see my phone slip slow motion into an already full toilet bowl! YUCK! Panic set in quickly but quick as lightening I dove in yanked out the phone ripped out the battery and dropped it all on the floor! I washed my hands several times (public toilet ew ew ew) Picked the phone back up dried it off and washed my hands again. The nurse knocked on the door and asked if everything was ok... no! I dropped my PHONE in the TOILET! She looked very concerned "don't touch it dear I will be right back" She returned with rubber gloves and a sanitary towlet that can eat through human skin to clean off my phone muttering the whole time about my health diseases and how I shouldn't have touched the phone. What was I supposed to do! If I had money to buy a new phone I wouldn't be paying you with insurance! Well good ending the water dots didn't go off thanks to my quick thinking (ha nurse clean freak) and the store replaced it!