So close...

We are so close to having Charlotte come home BUT she just isn't quite ready yet. She is still not taking all of her feedings by bottle and that is the only thing holding her back. The doctors aren't really sure why eating from the bottle isn't clicking for Charlotte since babies her age normally have figured it out by now. They are also saying that Charlotte just doesn't seem as alert and hungry as they expect her to be at feeding times.

As always, they will draw her blood on Monday and make sure that everything looks normal. The only level they have been really watching is her iron level. If her iron level is low she may be anemic which may be the reason why she isn't eating as well as expected. Keep your fingers crossed that the blood test come back normal and Charlotte is just taking her sweet time.

6 lbs!!!!

Hello, it's Dad again. As soon as we walked into Charlotte's room on Tuesday, I saw that she had reached the 6 lb mark. Hard to believe that she has doubled her weight in a little over 7 weeks. She tried taking a bottle while we were there but she would have no part of it. Charlotte kept her eyes closed to tell us that she'd rather sleep than eat. Afterwards, we had our meeting with the head neonatologist, head nurse and the rest of the NICU gang. This meeting was planned so that they can inform us of Charlotte's progress thus far, any areas she needs help in and what we should expect. It was a bit daunting at times but it is always good to hear the doctor say that he is happy with her progress. The only thing she is "slow" on right now is her bottle feeding. They aren't concerned at the moment but if she doesn't pick it up by next week, they may have to run some tests. That of course worries Mom and Dad so we had a little talk with Charlotte afterwards to remind her to work hard on the feeding part. The doctor also mentioned again to us how preemies can be susceptible to some developmental issues, which always puts a scare into us, but the hospital actually has a program which will keep in touch with us, track Charlotte's progress and work with Charlotte if needed. It is comforting in knowing that the hospital will still be there when we need them after we take our girl home. So it seems that we'll be spending some of our Thanksgiving with Charlotte in the NICU but that is OK. We're already thankful that she is here with us, healthy and just looking so damn cute. Did I mention that my little girl is cute?!?!?!?!

Stubborn little girl!

Charlotte continues to improve and gain weight. She is now 5lbs. 13 oz. Hopefully by Thanksgiving she'll be our 6lb. Butterball! The only thing that has changed is she now has to eat her formula within 30 minutes. Before they gave her 45 minutes to eat but they have shortened the time so she has more time to rest in between feedings. They are hoping that this will give her more strength to eat from the bottle.

Our little princess has decided that she likes to be fed when she doesn't have to "work" for it. She will eat from the bottle but she rarely will take the whole feeding that way. She is just fine getting fed through the feeding tube. The little stinker doesn't know that once she masters 'Bottle Feeding 101' she gets to go home! If she only knew the accommodations at home are much more luxurious than the NICU!!

Not much is new with Charlotte but the doctor has upped her feedings to 50 ccs. Since she has been gaining weight like they want, they have dropped the calories from 24 per feeding to 22 per feeding. She'll remain at 22 calories per feeding as long as she continues to gain weight. Besides that everything remains the same.

As you can tell by the pics - she likes to sleep a lot!!

Chunky Monkey

Our little girl is getting bigger by the day and is up to 5lbs 11oz and is 19 inches long! She is also measuring in the 15 percentile for her age for weight and height. I was told that some preemies aren't even on the chart so for her to be in the 15 percentile is great!

I met with the head nurse who caught me up on all the things that have been going on with Charlotte. She passed her hearing screening - good news! The eye exam that Owen talked about in a post was passed with flying colors - good news! She is up to 4 feeds a day by bottle - good news! Of the feedings by bottle, she eats about 75% before they need to finish via the feeding tube - good news! Charlotte still has not had (knock on wood) and breathing episodes that have needed intervention - good news! The nurses think Charlotte's Mom is so nice and laid back that they ask to watch over Charlotte - GREAT news! I know, I know, they say that to almost all the moms but it is still nice to hear!! :-)

I can't wait to get out little girl home so please continue those positive thoughts and prayers. Hopefully with a few extra prayers she'll be home by December. Thanks!!

Charlotte is up to taking three feedings a day by bottle. She still is not taking an entire feeding by the bottle but the doctors and nurses want to build up her strength so they are pushing her a little bit. While I was there this morning they changed the type of bottle she is using to one that has a faster flow. They are hoping that Charlotte won't need to work so hard and she'll start to take the entire feeding by bottle. She got really close today and took 38 ccs! She's getting there...hopefully it will 'click' soon and she'll be eating with no problems.

There hasn't been really any new news on Charlotte for the past couple days. Her breathing has become much more of an involuntary action as her brain is now more developed. She has gone a whole week without having a Brady where the nurses needed to intervene. She has had a few but she recovered on her own!

She is still learning how to eat from the bottle. She is getting better but she needs to get stronger so she can take the whole feeding that way. She is up to 48 cc's per feeding but she is only taking about 1/2 of that by bottle. Charlotte only attempts the bottle twice a day as the doctors don't want her to expend too much energy during feedings. Once she is able to take the entire feeding by bottle and maintain her weight they will give her the bottle more often during the day.

Charlotte's big news is that she is up to 5 1/2 lb.s!!!! She is getting chubbier cheeks and has a little chub on her fingers and toes. She is fast becoming our little pork chop!

The doctors still can't say when Charlotte will be able to come home as everything is up to her right now. Since her breathing has become more stable the main focus is now her eating. They want to make sure that she can eat everything by bottle and still maintain her weight. They have to remind us that she is only 36 weeks and she is right on target so we just have to be patient. Easier said then done since she is so dang cute and we just want to get her home!

Steady Progress

Our little girl continues to make progress. She took two partial feedings by the bottle today. It was a little less than she did yesterday but she ate it in a shorter amount of time. We just need to build up her endurance so she can take the whole feeding via bottle. She is still at 44 oz per feeding but she is tolerating that amount so they might up her again shortly.

The best part is that she hasn't had a Brady, that needed nurse intervention, in over two days!! Her heart rate and oxygen levels have dropped a couple times in the past 24 hours but she recovered on her own and the nurses didn't need to help her. She is at about the age (36 weeks) were the part of the brain that controls respiration is fully developed. This doesn't mean that she won't have any more Bradys but hopefully they won't be as severe.

Growing like a weed

Charlotte is over 5 lbs.! She is up to 5lbs. 1oz. When we were there yesterday she spit up a little on her outfit. As good parents we didn't want her to sit in dirty clothes so we decided to change her. We took out another preemie outfit and started to put it on her when we realized that she was too big for it! Yay! She is starting to grow out of some of her preemie clothes.

Little Stinker

For all of you parents out there you can appreciate my experience today with my precious baby girl. For such a small package she can have a pretty big "blow out!" She was very good and just had a wet diaper during my visit with her this morning but she had different plans for my visit this evening. Before Charlotte is fed the nurses always check her vitals, take her temp. and change her. If Owen and I are around we try to take her temp and change her.

Tonight was no different than any other day except for Ms. Charlotte. When I went to change her, she had pooped in her diaper - no big deal. From the amount in the diaper it looked like she hadn't pooped in a week - still, no big deal. My problem was that she was WIDE awake and was practicing her dance moves...legs all over, booty moving around in the full diaper - all while she is attached to her monitors which have wires that kept seeming to find their way into the poopy diaper. I think the nurse got a little amusement out of watching me struggle to get Charlotte cleaned up and in a new outfit. Luckily, she helped hand me wipes to clean her up because the three that I brought over to the crib were no match for the uber-deuce!

It took a little bit but I got her cleaned up and in her new outfit and then she was ready for dinner. At dinner she took 22 cc's via a bottle and the rest through her feeding tube. After she was done feeding I put her back in her crib for another peaceful night of sleep.

Charlotte is one month old!

There is so much new news with Charlotte I don't know where to begin. As Owen said yesterday, Charlotte is in her "big girl" bed. It is so nice to be able to interact with her with out the isolette in the way.

Charlotte is really starting to spoil us with her good behavior. When we visited her today we got more good news. She is up to 4 lbs. 6 oz! Yes, you read that right...4lbs. 6oz. She is growing like a weed and is now 16.9 inches long. So, in a month she has grown 1.4 inches and packed on 1lb. 6 oz. She is still working on taking food via the bottle and she took 15 ccs for the nurse this afternoon.

We are taking things day by day but tomorrow can't get here soon enough. Charlotte is working really hard to get home so she can meet all of you.

Another Big Day

Today marked another big day for Charlotte. The day included a move to a crib from the incubator, more bottle feeding and a visit from Great Grandma. We arrived today to see her room with only a crib and no more incubator, what an exciting thing to see for us.! Charlotte's body temperature has been steady over the past several days so they decided it was time to move her into a crib. Then as soon as we saw her new crib, it was time to feed her too. She took about 15 cc's from the bottle and then took the rest from her feeding tube. When she is done feeding, she goes back to sleep as she expels a lot of energy feeding from the bottle! Throughout all this, Great Grandma Mickow got to meet her Great Granddaughter.

Mom's back

I couldn't wait for Daddy to have a chance to update the blog 'cause I'm so proud of our little girl. She took a bottle twice today! The first time she took her whole feeding and this evening she took about 10 cc's. I was there tonight and was able to hold her and give her the bottle. The nurse was there to help me and Charlotte with the whole process. She told me what signs to look for from Charlotte about when she was ready for the bottle and when she was done. She also made sure that Charlotte was pacing herself properly. We're still making sure that she is not working too hard and burning too many calories.

In addition to Charlotte being over 4 lbs. she has to be able to maintain her body temperature in order to be moved into a NICU crib. The nurse mentioned she will monitor Charlotte's temperature tonight and if she is able to maintain a steady temp through out the night she might be in a crib when we visit her tomorrow morning. Interacting with her would be so much easier in a crib - especially when it comes to changing her clothes and diapers! Hopefully in the next entry we will have a picture of Charlotte's new crib!!!

Happy Halloween

So, Daddy is back and was able to spend Halloween with Charlotte. Charlotte didn't dress up this year but as you can see, her pumpkin hat will probably still be able to fit her next year. She was sleeping the entire time we visited her as she had a long day. The ophthalmologist looked at her retinas and gave us the report that everything looks good. She didn't eat anything from the bottle as they didn't want to wake her so they'll just try again on Saturday. Our little girl is up to 4 lbs 1 oz now so the NICU may place her in a crib pretty soon.

Great day!

It was a great day for little Ms. Charlotte. She has put on a little more weight and is about 5 grams away from being 4lbs. Once she reaches that mark she'll be big enough to be put in a "crib" in the NICU. Hopefully then we can get some better pictures of our little angel! Per the request of her fans we'll try to get a full length shot so you can see how big she's gotten.

Another good piece of news that I got this evening was that Charlotte took 20 cc's of food from the bottle today!!! This is a huge accomplishment for her and we're so happy. It took her about 8 minutes to eat all of the 20 cc's but the nurse said that she did it without any struggle. We hope that she keeps up the good work but they won't push her. She'll only be given the bottle maybe once or twice a day and probably not for the full feeding of 35 cc's. They don't want her to burn too many calories working at eating. They want to make sure that she keeps gaining weight and getting strong.

I also met with one of the physical therapists and she said that Charlotte is doing good with her excercises. She is tolerating them very well and there isn't anything that Charlotte does or doesn't do to raise any red flags.

Other big news (for Mom) is that Charlotte's crib and dresser came today!!! Yay! Now she'll have a place to sleep when she gets home. I'm sorry that there are no pictures today but I was so excited about all the good news that I wanted to get home and let you all know and I forgot to take a picture. In my defense, she does look about the same - just maybe a smidge cuter! Daddy will be home tomorrow so you'll be back to your regularly scheduled programming...

More from Mom...

I had a couple visits with Charlotte today and both went well! Her Grandpa Seegers came with me this morning and Charlotte as a very good girl for him. Her weight is up again and they have upped her feedings to 35 ml every three hours. At this rate she may get to that 4 lb. mark by the end of the week. That will put her a little closer to getting out of the isolette and into a crib.

My visit with her tonight was uneventful - just the way I like it! I did the skin-to-skin holding and it was great. She fussed a little when I first held her but after about 2 minutes she found a comfortable position and she went straight to
sleep. She is our little trooper that earned that sleep by putting in another hard days work of growing big and strong! We couldn't be more proud of her!

Mom's View

Since Daddy is out of town it is Mom's turn to take a crack at the blog. I went to go visit Charlotte today and she was a good little girl both times. I was there for the 11am feeding and the 8pm feeding. I held her both times for about an hour and a half and she was on her best behavior.

The evening nurse said that Charlotte didn't have any Brady's todays so hopefully our little girl is getting the hang of the whole breathing thing! We can expect her to have more episodes but maybe this is the start of less alarms.

She is still at 32 ml every three hours but all that food is paying off. She is up to 3 lbs. 13 oz. today. I'm hoping by the end of the week/month she'll be 4 lbs. The picture I took tonight is a little dark but hopefully you can see the start of some chubby cheeks!!

We began Sunday with a visit to the NICU's annual Halloween party. Every year, the hospital's NICU sponsors a Halloween party for all the preemies who have been at Central DuPage Hospital. We were able to see all the healthy kids who were at one time a preemie baby and it was a positive sight for Donna and I to see all those kids! I'm already looking forward to seeing my girl being one of those kids screaming for more candy! After the party, we stopped in to visit our little Charlotte. She was doing well and slept pretty much the entire time of our visit. We met with one of the doctors who said again that she is where she should be at her age. He mentioned that he may increase her caffeine dosage in the near future as her Brady episodes are still quite frequent and an increase in caffeine may help this. Charlotte is now up to 32 ml's every 3 hours and weighs 3 lbs 9 oz. As you can probably tell by now, she is gaining about one ounce per day. This is something the doctors watch for so we keep telling her to pack on that weight!!

3 weeks!

So we have passed the 3 week mark now and Charlotte is getting bigger by the day. OK, she only gains about an ounce a day but that is big in our book. The visits the past few days have gone pretty well except for Friday which was a bit stressful. Charlotte had an episode on Friday night at the end of her feeding while Donna was holding her. Her heartrate dropped and she turned a bit blue as she forgot to breathe. She seems to have this at the end of each feeding due to reflux. The nurse came in and helped get her back on track and she calmed down after we put her back in her isolette. While the nurses tell us this is still the norm for a preemie, this was the first time in a while that she really made me nervous. I think she just wants to keep Daddy on his toes and man did she do it that time. On Saturday everything was back to normal and Donna held her without any issues at all. On Saturday night, the Robey family was in town and we were able to tell the Charlotte story all over again. OK, so I became a proud Papa again as I was able to brag about my pretty girl and how good she is doing. So thanks Robeys to listening to our story and how excited we are for the weeks to come.
(Here is another picture to show how big she is getting. Notice the ball is from the 2005 World Series where a certain great team won the World Series.......)

Wednesday morning Grandpa Seegers came to visit. Charlotte was on her best behavior as he held her for quite a while. She is up to 3 lbs 5 oz and eating 30 ml's every three hours now. Donna met the therapist again yesterday who discussed a few more signs to look for when we're holding Charlotte. Since she is so young, she can get stressed out quite easily so we have to watch for these signs and when they show, we need to do certain things to help relieve that stress. Last night, Donna picked me up from the airport and we went straight over to the hospital to see my girl. She had a small episode again as her heartrate slowed down but she got herself out of it. I know we should be used to these episodes but as soon as the alarms go off, it still scares us. But the visit ended well as she again was sleeping when they put her back in her incubator.

Day 17

Tonight's visit was another good one. I changed another diaper and it was only a wet one so I was glad for that. I'm still getting the hang of changing diapers so I'm cool with easing into it. Donna visited this morning too and went through 3 diapers as Charlotte kept going (both 1 & 2) while being changed. Not exactly a blowout but as close as you can get for a 3 lb baby! So, I'm glad Charlotte kept it easy for me. She is up to 1451 grams which is just over 3 lbs and she's also still eating 27 ml's every three hours. Since she is getting a little bigger, her body temperature is starting to stay steady. So now, she started wearing clothes in the incubator. Before she would only wear a diaper in the incubator and we'd give her an outfit to change into when she came out. But now, she can start to wear all the outfits Donna has for her. I have to admit, she looked amazingly cute again!!

Grandma and Grandpa Visit

Last night's visit went well again. Nothing much is new as she continues to progress but Charlotte received a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Burritt. Grandma also got her first chance to hold her grand daughter! Charlotte responded by opening her eyes from time to time to say hello. Grandma looked really good and happy holding her and Donna and I can see plenty of baby sitting in her future!

The past few days visits' have gone well. Charlotte is back up to her birth weight of 3 lbs and doctors said she will gain a few grams each day. She is still off the iv and oxygen and is reacting very well. The doctors have seen no reason thus far to reintroduce her to the iv or caffeine she needed before. Each day we try going to visit her around one of her feeding times so one of us can hold her while she eats. She was full of spunk yesterday afternoon and last night while Donna held her as she was looking around and taking it all in.

Dad is unfortunately out of town for a night so Donna visited Charlotte a few times yesterday and both visits went great. Donna was able to hold Charlotte via the kangaroo method. This is where the baby is held skin to skin with a parent so the baby can feel Mom's warmth and hear her heartbeat. Donna said that Charlotte calmed down while doing this and the nurses said they highly encourage it for both the baby and the bonding it can create between us and Charlotte. Donna changed another dirty diaper as the nurses continually encourage us to do as much as possible when we are there. They are slowly introducing us into all the deeds of parenting and we fully welcome it!!!!

The IV is out!

Today's visits went well yet again!! Both times we were there, Charlotte was mostly sleeping without any fuss. One of the first things we noticed this morning was that she didn't have an IV in her arm. They had taken out her little IV and she was doing OK without it. We gave Charlotte a little high five!! The hospital also performed a head ultrasound, which is usual for preemies, and we found out tonight right before we left, that everything looks normal. More good news for Donna and I! So we left the hospital feeling good as Charlotte was sound asleep.