3 Months!

Little Olivia is already 3 months old, how is that possible?  She continues to gain weight well and though we do not have official doctor's scales, she seems to have surpassed the 9 pound mark and is creeping toward 10 pounds.  She is officially outgrown her newborn clothes (for the most part--she still wears a few select outfits), so if feels surreal that the little baby that started at 2.4 pounds is doing so well now.

Good news: At her eye exam on Friday, the doctor said her blood vessels have officially attached to the retina, so we have no more need for check ups every few weeks.  We will now not have to go back for another 4 months and at that point, its just a check up (none of those scary eye tools). 

Olivia as a unicorn

 Olivia is starting to really develop into a more predictable little girl, she loves looking at the mirror at herself and having her hair brushed, she loves snuggles and eating!  She tolerates tummy time and bath times and hates having her diaper or clothes changed (despite the factor that her mom wants her in ALL THE CUTE OUTFITS). 

We think her rock n play is a lifesaver, as are baby carriers.  Both of these help me keep my sanity!  This past week we were blessed with beautiful weather, so Olivia and I got out for quite a few walks--nothing like a little fresh air.  And even got to model the cute dress below (those thighs make me smile considering how tiny her legs were to start).

Olivia got her these beautiful bracelets from her nephews and she looked so stylish wearing them!  Every girl loves her accessories!  Her favorite position is to be laying against your chest, it reminds me of all the kangaroo time we did with her when she was so little.

After her big ER scare, we have made some changes to the way she eats.  She now gets just under 3 ounces about every 2-3 hours during the day and about every 3-4 hours at night time, she consistently takes in about 24 ounces a day of milk.  This less food more frequently has helped her little tummy digest and she seems to be happier for the most part, though she gets some gas discomfort every now and again. 

I wish I could claim that she is a perfect little angel all the time, but that is not so.  She has her moments, thankfully they are few and far between!  But there are still nights when she cannot be calmed with anything it seems.  It is those nights when we wished she were more fond of a pacifier.  We basically have to force her to take one and even about half the time we try to get her to take it, she gags herself on it (anyone else have this problem?)  So the crying nights are the hardest cause after we have fed her, changed her, cuddled her, tried a pacifier, we are at the end of our rope.  Any thoughts on other options would be lovely.  

We still feel so incredible blessed by this little bundle of joy.  Her faults all seem to be washed away when she looks up at your face with those beautiful eyes and ever so rarely gives a smile (even if its just gas).  Her dad and I fall more and more in love with her every single day :)

An Olivia Update (this is a long one)!

I hope everyone enjoyed a lovely Valentine's Day and felt very loved.  We celebrated by sleeping for like 3-4 hours and attempting to function the following day--FUN!  In all seriousness, Marc and I enjoyed a nice homemade dinner at home with little Olivia by our side.  We definitely feel full of Love these days!  I figured we were overdue for a little update on precious Olivia. 

First things first, she celebrated her first Valentine's Day in style thanks to Auntie Tiffany for the outfit!  In the season of all things heart-related.  Let's tell you about her cardiology appointment last week.  We finally got to meet the cardiologist, who we have heard amazing things about, and he did not disappoint. If anyone ever needs a pediatric cardiologist, I would highly recommend Dr. Doug Allen.  He explained everything much better to us about this heart thrombus or shadow that is showing up on her echo. Basically because of the umbilical IV line she had after birth, she got this clot around her heart.  He explained that if we did echos on all preemies with this umbilical line, we would see the thrombus on all of them. The body will natural absorb it on it's own, it just takes time.  The thing is most preemies do not have a need for an echo.  The MRSA infection that Olivia got in the hospital made her at risk for bacteria getting into that clot, so that is why she has had to be monitored so much.  He was mainly looking to make sure the area does not expand over the course of the antibiotics, which it did not.  But it does take time for her body to re-absorb it.  So after another echo last week, he confirmed that it is still looking good and he thinks in a year or two her body will take care of it on its own, so we do not have to follow up again with him for another year and he is hopefully that we will not see this time next year.  But assured us that she will have no adverse effects from this going forward, they just need to watch it and sign off that it disappeared.

Olivia is really developing a bit of a predictable personality, which is fun to see.  She is a relatively chill baby, until she is not and then she is ready for food/diaper change/ burp like NOW!  and I mean NOW.  She can go from totally chill and asleep to screaming maniac in 3 seconds flat, which surprisingly is not enough time to go to the kitchen, grab her bottle, attempt to heat it up, grab a burp cloth and get her situated to feed her.  I keep telling the little bit that if she could just nurse, her food delivery service would be much quicker.  But she knows what she wants (Miss Independent). 

She has also taken to sporting her Blue Steel look more often, Derek Zoolander watch out:

 

We have been practicing tummy time and if you follow me on instagram, you saw that she can successfully pick up her head and move it from side to side to see either her mommy or daddy, we are very proud parents!  At her most recent Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy appointment, they said she was tracking like a 1-2 month old, which is great cause as a preemie, they look for her milestones on adjusted age, and her adjusted age is just 1.5 weeks.  So the fact that she is now doing things that a 1-2 month old can be doing means that for now, she does not need additional appointments, we will follow up with monthly phone calls to see how she tracks going forward and may very well require PT or OT services in the future, but we are thankful for the good news for now.

Olivia has been killing it on the eating front, we have said it before and will likely say it again, girl loves to eat!  After her pediatrician appointment a week ago, she got to come off her high calorie drink cause her weight gain has been great, and for all y'all that are curious, as of Wednesday, she is 8lbs, 1 oz!  This is a huge praise because she seemed to be super uncomfortable after she ate that formula drink, so now she is on just breastmilk, which hopefully will help her belly to feel all around better.

Olivia also had a follow up eye exam, which we hoped had showed her eyes were caught up to her age (which is a newborn), but they are still currently underdeveloped so we follow-up again with them next week.  We are very hopefully that her eyes will be caught up then, cause if so we will not have to go back for another 6-12 months.  We also would like to not have too many of those appointments because they are hard to be a part of.  Imagine our surprise when we walk into the room and see this on the table:

Yes, that metal tool is used to keep her eyes open for the eye exam and while the nurse holds her head in place, I had to hold her arms down while she screamed bloody murder.  I kept my eyes closed because I could not bear to look at it, Marc did watch and said it was rough to see.  So, obviously the less of these appointments the better.  But we keep at it, cause we know what may be hard and uncomfortable now, will mean a better outcome for her in the long run.  The doctor also said we have about a 50/50 chance that she will be in glasses by the time she is in kindergarten. 

And lastly, we had our first big scare since coming home. Last Saturday, Olivia began projectile vomiting up two of her feedings, well then on Sunday she did it after 4 of her feedings, so we called the doctor's office and the on-call doctor said that because of her prematurity and her not being able to see her, she thought it best if we took her to the ER.  So on Sunday night at 9:30 pm, the day before Marc was getting ready to head back to work after paternity leave, we packed up all our stuff and headed to the city to the pediatric ER closest to us, which is about 30 minutes away.  After waiting just a little bit, they took us back, took her temperature (which was fine), took her weight (she was up from the doctors just a few days earlier), and got us to a room to wait for the doctor.  After about 30-45 minutes, he checked her out and got some information from us and concluded that it was like just a bad case of reflux, so he suggested cutting down her feeding but feeding her more often (every two hours veruses every 4 hours like we were doing before), and then keeping her upright for 30 minutes after her feeding.  The doctor said he could not rule out Plyoric Stenosis, which is a much more serious condition, but said it is likely just bad reflux.  After a follow up this week with our pediatrician, they think it is also unlikely it is anything more than reflux, but we are keeping an eye on things and following doctor's orders (which is hard for a baby that loves her food).  Also, we definitely looked and felt like first time parents leaving the ER with our arms full of diaper bags, cooler, pumping supplies, baby in a car-seat, and a diagnosis of reflux. But with our precious little baby, we did not want to take any chances!

So all in all, we have so many things to be thankful for, including me surviving my first week with Marc back to work.  Olivia and I definitely missed him but we managed on our own.  We continue to feel your love, support and prayers and continue to appreciate all the prayers we can get for our little miracle baby!  And can we talk about those cheeks?  I am in love! 😍

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Love,

Olivia (and her Mom & Dad)

We are so thankful for all the LOVE from all our friends and family over the past few months.  Know that we love you all too :)

P.S.-- Ms. Olivia is now officially 8 pounds!  More updates in the next few days :)

Happy Due Date, Olivia!

As I think about Olivia's due date, it makes me full of all kinds of emotions. Happy that we have a healthy, beautiful almost 12 week old daughter with us already.  But also sad about the pregnancy I missed out on, sad about not being able to provide our daughter the safety of my womb to protect her. Sad that our first days and weeks with her were spent behind a plastic box.  Sad that for many friends, it will be months before they ever get to meet our sweet girl.

When we became pregnant, I was nervous for delivery, but no amount of anxiety could ever have prepared me for the traumatic way we would welcome our first child into this world.  You picture, the pains of childbirth coupled with the beauty of holding your sweet girl in your arms.  There was no way I could have imagined that after giving birth, it would be 26 hours before I would even see my child for the first time.  It would be 2 days before I would hold her for the first time, 4 weeks before I would change her first diaper, it would be 6 weeks before I would be able to nurse her for the first time (this is one we are still working on to this day), and 9 weeks before we would get to bring her home with us.

There is so much beauty in the road we have walked, trusting complete strangers to care for your most precious gift and then having those complete strangers become a family you did not know you needed.  Having people that we don't even know praying for us and our family.  Having such beautiful gifts, meals, and cards sent to us in all forms of support!  Just knowing we having an amazing community of support is so beautiful.  When I went to my 6 week follow up appointment with my OBGYN, she had seen me day after day in the hospital and she asked me how I was doing.  I said I was doing as well as can be expected given the circumstances.  And she said without hesitation, I do not worry to much about you cause it is clear you have a great support system.  What an amazing truth--We absolutely do!

So as hard as it is to believe, I should be preparing for childbirth rather than snuggling my 13-days-shy-of-3-monther in my arms while I type this, I think Marc and I both agree that Ms. Olivia came into the world in the exact way she was supposed to and we are so thankful that God has blessed us with this beautiful miracle baby!


Thanks for following this journey with us, from here:

to here: 

And here:

To here:

 This week we are celebrating her birthday with a follow up eye exam, doctor's visit, and cardiologist visit.  If you would be so inclined, please pray with us that:

1. Olivia's eye and retina would nave no linger effects of her premature birth,

2. That her weight gain will be good enough that she can come off the calorie rich formula that we give her twice a day, but also cause her to have gas pains, and that she would be able to just have breast milk going forward.

3. That the shadow near her heart has shown some decrease in size and/or would totally be absorbed by her body by now.

The Day with 3 outfit changes...and counting!

Today started like any other day, the struggle to get out of bed was real and the only saving grace was the two adorable faces I get to wake up to (and no, I am not referring to the pets).  Today was business as usual, which for us on leave from work is basically trying to soak up all the sleep we can and figure out when to get a shower and pump (for me) and snuggle our little baby girl.  Well as I was in our room pumping, Marc was changing Olivia's diaper when she spit up all over her first outfit of the day, no big deal, these things happen and she needed a bath anyway.  So we got her ready for bath time, washed her and put her in outfit #2 had some lunch and continued on our way.  I should say here that Marc let me sleep in this morning, so I suggested he take a nap to catch up on the sleep he missed last night.  Right about then Olivia started getting antsy so I went to change her and Marc came with me.  Cocky as ever, I said "I think I can manage changing her diaper by myself, go get your nap!"  Famous last words, as I was taking off her diaper, Olivia peed on her second outfit of the day.  No big deal, right?  These things happen.  Well I figured if she just peed she would not need to go again, so I picked up the naked baby (who needs diapers if everything has already come out for the moment?) and started cleaning her off with baby wipes cause we were not going for two baths today.   Well right as I picked her up to hold against me so I could clean up the mess, she decided she had not quite finished her business and that is how Mommy ended up needing a new outfit too cause she managed to get not just my top but also my jeans when she peed.

My ego in check, I went to put sweatpants on while Dad finished up with Ms. Olivia.  I guess sometimes I do need help afterall!

I only look sweet and innocent :)

Hopefully we are done with the outfit changes for the day...