2 Pounds of Awesome

Between snow storms and the Super Bowl and one crazy toothache, I did not get to writing the blog yesterday.

So as you all know she popped her eyes open Saturday night, but then she kept them tightly shut all Sunday. I guess she is not ready for all that light and stimulation, though our nurse said she opened them briefly this morning when they were changing her so we'll see.

Sunday was a pretty low key day (I would say "quiet" day, but the nurses think that word is taboo and will jinx us, so we won't use it). She got another blood transfusion for her anemia and they told us we would notice her energy go up. By the time we were leaving on Sunday night, we saw the new energy. She decided she did not like how she was positioned and put her body in the push up position so she could move her head around. Needless to say they bundled her extra tight after that, but soon they are going to have to watch her with her wires because she is quite determined.

After that we stopped by our friends Super Bowl party for a little while before heading home. We got in around the 3rd quarter and I must of passed out immediately because I woke up to the commercials to buy the Patriot's championship t-shirts. When we called to check-in on Natalie during the night, they told us she has officially hit 2 lbs - wahoo!

This morning was the first morning that Jimmy did not drop me off. For anyone living in the area you know how awful the weather is this morning and the roads are terrible. I found this morning extra hard because Jimmy was not with me and I think it will take a few days for me to get accustom to this new schedule and the lonely feeling.

I got here in time for the doctor's rounds and got a real good update on Miss Natalie:

She is off her IV fluids and relying completely on my milk which they fortify with all that extra goodness she needs. She has gotten it since yesterday and she is doing very well on it. They are raising her feedings from 11 mls every 3 hours to 13 mls. They are going to wait a couple of days and make sure everything goes well and then they will take out her pick line since she is off the IV. They mentioned that her heart murmur is getting louder, which is a positive thing because that means that the holes in her heart should be closing the way they are supposed to. She is still desatting, but not as often as she was. In general, she is doing very well.

As for us, we are doing pretty good. Jimmy going back to work full time today is going to be a hard transition for both of us, but I am sure it will work out in a few days.

As for the pumping issues? They are much better, I am still having a hard time with my hospital issued pump at home, but they think it is malfunctioning so we are trading it in. This would have been good to figure out a week ago, but I am glad we are figuring it out at all. The lactation specialist told me today that she was concerned that my PCOS might be part of the problem, but she didn't tell me on Friday because she did not want me to stress out and wanted to see if changing certain elements made an improvement. There has been a huge improvement and that is obviously not part of the problem but I was surprised to hear that this could have been a factor.

PCOS stands for Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and is a hormonal disease that I have known I have for about 7 years now. It is nothing serious if you know about it, it effects weight and often people have problems getting pregnant (that is usually when they find out they have it). If not addressed it can sometimes lead someone on the path of getting diabetes. Treatment is a diabetes medication and sticking to a certain diet, so it is not anything crazy. Natalie was our third pregnancy (we had 2 first trimester miscarriages before her) and each time it took us between 7-10 months to get pregnant, so PCOS definitely affected the situation, but I did not know it could be a problem for anything else. So basically, this is just an FYI for anyone reading this that has PCOS or knows someone who does. And, no, PCOS had nothing to do with Natalie arriving so early. We are still waiting for them to figure that out, but that would not have anything to do with it.

That is the update for the past day or two, we should be doing some Kangaroo Care soon. We were not able to do it yesterday with her blood transfusion - it would have been too much for her. So I am excited to hang out with her again.

I have run into many people, some I do not know very well, who are following this blog. I began it just to keep my family informed without spending my life on the phone and also as a sort of journal of the situation in general. I thank you all for following along and keeping little Natty Bear in your prayers. Many people have commented on how strong we are being, but we have no luxury of choosing otherwise and I really do believe most people would do the same - but we thank you for your compliments.

So here we go with another daily dose of Natalie Rose (I thought I would post a couple of her temper-tantrum photos, don't worry there is a cozy picture as well) -

Mad Natalie ripping at her wires

Yelling up a storm

Happy and cozy girl back to sleep