Are we there yet?

They moved Ruby again today, this time to the axillary NICU which is on another floor. It only holds 8 babies, who are all considered growers and feeders, and therefore (from what I assumed) means they are low maintenance. So, I'll take it as a compliment!

She's still working on her bottle feedings, and I can tell it's a lot of work. She spit up yesterday, and again this morning, so they put her back on the Reglan for now, and added in Prilosec (which I take as well!) in case she is having trouble digesting. Don't babies just spit up? Hmmmm.... ok.

On the upside, we got to try breastfeeding again today, and I was so pleased at how well it went. I'll spare the details for the men reading (haha) but let's just say she seemed much more peaceful and relaxed than she does with the bottle. It didn't seem like work at all for her, and in those moments I really got to feel like MOM...

Looking into her eyes, I just wish there more I could do! All I want is to make her better, take her home, and hold her in my arms forever! And I know Louis feels the same way. I guess that's what being a parent is right? We just love her so much already, it's truly amazing. In spite of these challenges, we still feel like the luckiest people in the world =)

Who's ready for dinner?



Saying goodbye to Rachel before her big move!

3 Weeks

Yesterday Ruby was three weeks old! Sometimes it feels like time is standing still as we wait for Ruby to come home, but yesterday it felt like the last three weeks went by in the blink of an eye! It's easy to see changes in Ruby compared to when she was born. She's starting to fill out, be more alert during awake times, and make more noises too. She's always had a lot of personality, but even more so now! She makes Louis and I laugh on a daily basis...

They just increased Ruby's bottle feeds from 2-3 times a day to 4-6 times a day of 35 ml each! The is great news, and I hope she handles it. They also discontinued her Reglan, which was helping her digest, as they think she can do it on her own now. Yesterday she finished her first 2 bottles completely, although when I fed her she acted like she was being punished haha. Let's just say she's not the most graceful eater, but she's learning.

Here are a few weeks of baby Ruby at 3 weeks old:

What day is it anyway?

Yesterday Ruby got to have her PIC line removed. She no longer needs IV nutrition and is eating enough to continue to grow on her own. Another step closer to home! And one less tube to worry about =) They have also increased her feeds to 32ml and will increase her bottle feedings as she can handle it. Right now she gets three bottles a day, although she's not yet finishing all of them, but she's trying!

And in more good news, as of last night, Ruby is now 4 pounds on the dot! Hooray!

The nurses continue to adore her, and line up for "Ruby loving" when Louis and I are at home resting. It makes it a little bit better knowing she is getting plenty of love and attention when we can't be with her. Still, we can't wait to get her home and give her all the loving we want, without having to say good bye at the end of the day. It's hard to miss her all the time, but we know she's working hard to come home, and is doing great!

Movin on Up

Yesterday Ruby was moved to the Step Down/Graduate nursery! I'm so excited! She was supposed to wait until she was off of her IV nutrition completely, which will probably happen today or tomorrow. But, so many babies were born yesterday that needed to go to the NICU, that she got an early eviction notice =). On the graduate side, she will continue to work on her feedings. She is up to 22 ml per feeding, and 2 bottle feeds per day, but likely that will also step up today. She does well with the bottle feeds when she takes them, but they definitely still tire her out. She has to be taking all of her feeds by bottle in order to come home, which is 8 per day... Here is a new bath video, shorter so we could share it!



All done!

Grower and a Feeder

Today Ruby is 2 weeks old! And what a crazy two weeks it has been. Last night Louis and I were sitting in the NICU with Ruby when the staff had rounds with the doctor. Ruby's nurse referred to her a "grower and feeder." I've heard this term before from Amy, and basically it means she has no problems, she just needs to eat and grow. It was like a gift to hear those words outloud. =)

Giving Mom "the Look"



How can you not love this face?



Grandma getting to hold her for the first time



Flashing that smile!

Patience

Thanks to those who have asked how I am doing! Honestly, being too busy to think about it made healing from the c-section easier in my opinion. Despite having certain restrictions, I'm feeling pretty good, and haven't needed the motrin in a few days. I continue pumping breast milk every 2 to 3 hours, so although my baby isn't with me, I still don't get a lot of sleep during the night! Good practice right? I hope to be able to breast feed once Ruby is able to handle it, but in the meantime pumping is the only option. As a preemie, breast milk is even more important than it is for the average newborn, so I'm determined to stick with it despite how challenging it has been with the added complications of the high blood pressure and medication.

Louis is hanging in there too, and has been by my side everyday all day. I'm so lucky to have him as my husband and as the father on my darling daughter. Sometimes I just stare at him because I love him so much. He's taking such good care of me, and he gave me my daughter after all! I am so thankful for him...

Ruby continues to do great each day that passes. Today they moved her to her big girl bed! The standard "crib" that newborns get... They've increased her feeds to 20 ml, and she continues to digest it well. She still gets to try bottle feeding twice a day, although earlier she only ate 5 before passing out. (Last night she sucked it down!) She still has a few events each day, but they are usually brief and resolve on their own. I can't wait for those to go away! But I know they're normal for babies at this stage... We know she'll get there in time, and I just continue to remind myself to be patient. I want her to come home, but I want her to be healthy more. But needless to stay, each night I leave my heart in the NICU.

...But in other good news, Ruby now weighs 3 pounds 5 ounces! Hopefully as she continues to eat milk, it will only go up from here =)

TGIF

So apparently our baby bath video is too giant to upload. We're trying to figure it out, and suggestions are welcome =)

In the meantime, Ruby is continuing to digest her feedings well, and is holding at 15ml per feeding for now. We attempted breast feeding yesterday which was challenging for both of us, but its good practice for when she's really ready.

I got to feed her by bottle yesterday and today, and she did a great job! Although it's VERY different bottle feeding a preemie compared to the average newborn. As an added bonus, today she burped! She'll be as good as her mommy in that department in no time.

Here are some feeding and burping video clips for those needing a Ruby fix:





And here is Ruby making eyes at me and her dad... Beautiful!



Diving in for kangaroo care:




Laughing at how tired mom is?




And back to sleep with a full tummy...

Small Miracles

Everyday my daughter amazes me. Tuesday morning I called the NICU as usual to check in with the nurse when I woke up. I was greeted by Yohanna, who I must admit, has been my favorite nurse so far. Yahanna gave me the best news yet, that they had taken Ruby off of her CPAP and she was now breathing room air! I was over the moon! Not only because she was now breathing all on her own, but because I knew just how uncomfortable it made her and how much she hated it. My heart fluttered in my chest...

Next Yohanna told me that they moved Ruby from the warming bed to an isolette, or as we call it, her baby condo. This too was a step up! And finally, they had put in a pic line and would be removing her umbilicial line. Also a necessary step up! Louis and I were both so excited we headed to the hospital to see her as soon as we could and spent all day holding her and just enoying being able to look at her little face and see how content she seemed to be so "free". We both know that is all she really wants...

The highlight of the day was when Yohanna asked us if we wanted to give her a bath. Of course! Another first for both of us. We had to use gauze to soap, then rinse, then dry each tiny part of her body. It turned into the longest baby bath in history, and Louis recorded every second! Thankfully Ruby was very patient with me, and didn't cry at all =) You have to check out the video, although it's long, she's wide awake and makes some great eye contact with her daddy! I'll upload it today...

Yesterday I went for a blood pressure check at my doctor. Still high. I have to keep taking my medication until next week when I have my follow up appointment and they'll check it again. Hopefully by then it will have come down? We'll see...

After spending the rest of the day running errands, then holding Ruby of course, I called the NICU at about midnight again to check on my little one before laying down for bed. The nurse gave me MORE GOOD NEWS! Ruby, who had been having trouble digesting the 2 ml's of breast milk she'd been getting every few hours, started "rooting" during her last assessment, so they decided to try giving her a bottle. And she drank 5 ml's! She only had a 1.5 ml residual, which means this is the most she's ever eaten! The doctor ordered to have her get a bottle every other feeding now. Then this morning we were told that the doctor tried just letting her eat as much as she wanted, and she took 12 ml! Now she'll get a bottle every feeding, and whatever she doesn't finish will be put in her feeding tube. And wehen we go in today they want me to try breastfeeding! I'm just so proud of my little girl, and everyday my heart swells with love and excitement. I just can't wait for her to come home!

Ruby's Progress

For those that have asked Ruby is doing very well. =) She is still on the CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) although it is a smaller one that doesn't force air in her nose, and she seems to hate it less, hooray! They keep decreasing her dosage of the respiratory medication too, so once she's off of that, and still breathing as well as she has been, we should be able to get rid of the CPAP! They are still tube feeding her, through a tube that goes in her mouth and down into her tummy. She is getting 2ml of breast milk every 6 hours now, instead of every 4. It was reduced since the CPAP is getting a little air in her tummy and making it harder to eat. So once that CPAP is gone she should be able to eat more and start growing for us. Yesterday, Louis and I got to do what is called Kangaroo Care. Basically this consists of putting Ruby in just her diaper and hat against the skin of our chest, down inside your shirt. This skin to skin contact has been found to help outcomes for preemies, and was also just a wonderful feeling! It was almost like having her back in my belly, feeling all her little squirms and dancing =)

Here's a little video:

And the next day it was Daddy's turn!

6 days after she was born, Dad finally gets to hold his little girl =)

Here's the video:


And some pictures:

Holding Ruby for the First Time

I've never felt so much joy as the first time I got to hold my baby girl, when she was 5 days old.

Here is the video:



And a few more pictures:

Ruby's First Week

Pictures from Ruby's first week...

My sister's emails

**This is the brief synopsis of what happened, as told by sister Nicole:

Ruby Marie Whites was born Monday night at Sharp Mary Birch Hospital on Monday night, 07-07-08 at 7:48pm, weighing in at 3 lbs 3.3 ounces and 16.5 inches long. Kelly was at 32 weeks when she developed pre-eclampsia (aka high blood pressure), necessitating an emergency c-section.

We knew last week Kelly had some high blood pressure, and she was waiting to get some test results back. On Monday morning, the doctor asked her to come to the hospital for further testing. When she arrived, they ran more tests and agreed Kelly would need to be admitted and put on immediate best rest. We hoped to have at least a couple days to get some injections of steroids in Kelly’s system to mature the lungs of the baby. They also started a regimen of medications to reduce Kelly's blood pressure. However, her blood pressure spiked at 208 over 120, and they had no choice but to deliver the baby. They rushed her to the operating room, and 30 minutes later, Kelly and Louis were parents to a small but feisty newborn. They couldn’t be more excited and relieved to meet their daughter.

Baby Ruby was born kicking and screaming her new little lungs out. The nurses had to pin her little legs and arms down while they took vitals because she wouldn’t stop moving! Ruby is getting some oxygen but is otherwise breathing on her own (so take that doctors). She has long little fingers with a good grip and looks a lot like her mommy. She has some brown hair and light reddish brown eyebrows. Ruby will have to stay at the hospital for 3-4 weeks. We're hoping Kelly will be leaving the hospital on Friday, 7-11, in time to celebrate her 29th birthday with a good night's sleep at home. Kelly is recovering quite well, and anxious to spend as much time with Ruby in the NICU as possible.

Kelly’s doctor happened to be on call, so she was there to deliver the baby. The nursing staff has been so kind and supportive.

I am doing my best to make sure new daddy Louis remebers to eat and try to sneak some rest. We are so grateful that everyone is healthy and okay. Kelly says hello and thank you for all your thoughts and well wishes. Here are a couple of pictures of Ruby. Holding my hand, you can see just how small she really is. What a wonderful and exciting time!!

Aunt Nicole

***

Kelly has been admitted to Sharp Mary Birch due to very high blood pressure, 160 over 100, as a result of pregnancy induced hypertension. She will remain in the hospital until the baby is born, and monitored for preclampsia. Unfortunately, the only cure for preclampsia is delivery.

They are giving Kelly injections of steriods to speed up the maturity of Ruby's lungs over the next 48 hours. She is also on two meds for high blood pressure. The short term goal is to give the steroids time to work, in case the baby needs to be delivered in the next couple days. The next goal would be 34 weeks, which is just two weeks away.

I will keep you posted and thank you for your sweet thoughts and kind words today. Kelly is in room 488.

Aunt Nickel

Happy 4th Everyone!

32 weeks! I still can't believe it. I am overcome with urges to clean, organize, and decorate our home and the baby's room =) I think they call that nesting...

Our living room is still full of all the baby goodies, and just yesterday we added to the loot with the purchase of our travel system! My managers at worked pooled together to get me a gift card to get it, and I'm giddy that it's sitting here...



Back to cleaning out my closets, and then off to bbq'ing with the family. I hope everyone has a great holiday!