Egleston Day 10/11

This is the first picture where you can see my dimple on my left cheek, just like my Daddy!

This is me in my very first dress! I like it because you don't have to undo any snaps to change my diaper!

Me and Daddy on the Boppy!

Well we have survived another day/night with Avery! We are trying to get used to sleeping with all of her alarms and IVs going off, but we are definitely feeling sleep deprived and a bit stressed out. We have been trying the routine of sleeping at the hospital every other night and that has been working out ok. But, when we are not there we feel guilty for not being with her, but also know that we need our rest and we need to stay healthy, so it is an ongoing battle.

Avery is such a chill little baby! She gets mad when she realizes she is hungry, but when she is awake she just looks around and we read books and sing and she is just happy. She sleeps alot too and really enjoys sucking on her pacifier. She makes a really loud sucking noise, like Maggie Simpson, so we call her maggie sometimes!

She continues to have green output from her stomach tube, which we are waiting to go down and get clear. After that happens they will take the suction away from the tube and Avery will push it out on her own. Then after that gets better, she may get some food. We are content to wait until Avery is ready, I'll wait as long as she needs to get healthy!

My new favorite way to snuggle with Mommy!

Egleston Day 9 -Pictures

This is the face I get when my head is being washed! AHHH, it feels so good!

I am so smart, I can hold my own pacifier, even if it is bigger than my hand!

I'm trying to sit up on my own!



I love my Daddy!

Egleston Day 8/9 - Will the bells ever stop!

We have spent our second night here at the hospital and Avery is doing so great through the night, she isn't the one waking us up, it is her IV pumps and monitors that go off about every 2 hours. Then the nurse has to come in for an assessment every 4 hours. SO.... we are a bit sleep deprived but not for the usual reasons!

We gave Avery another bath last night and she did so good. She didn't cry at all and she was so happy after we finished. I think she was awake for about an hour and just looked at us and smiled and cooed, it was awesome.

Well it has happened, Lance has approved a "baby gimic". After proclaiming that he will not use any piece of extra baby stuff, he has become a huge fan of the Boppy pillow. He loves holding Avery on it , he wears it like an innertube and places Avery on it and they play and sleep together. It is really cute!

I forgot my camera at home yesterday, I know, I can't believe it! I was just so excited to get up here and see our little girl, I left it on the table. So, no new pictures for the day, but will get it tonight and new pics will be up soon.

Egleston Day 6/7 -The big Poop!

We are still trying to get settled into a routine in our new room. Avery is doing great, her stomach drainage continues to go down and get clearer. She also has really strong stomach and bowel sounds, which is very positive. The biggest news is that she pooped last night! Never thought we would be so happy to see a dirty diaper, this means that her intestines are really starting to rev up.

Avery is alittle fussier now that she is feeling better. She is really hungry and we can't feed her yet so it is a bit challenging trying to come up with ways to distract her from her hunger. She loves the pacifier, loves having her head rubbed and loves having pressure on her feet. We continue to learn all the things that make her happy and make her mad.

We got to spend the night last night with her and she was awesome, she only woke up 2-3 times and just need alittle comforting to go back to sleep. We gave her our first bath too, she screamed through the whole thing, but calmed down when we put the lotion on her. She also got to try on one of her onesies, it is a bit big, but cute nonetheless. Avery now weighs 6lbs 3 oz, we weighed her before her bath, which we will do every night now.

So we continue to wait for everything to wake up and get going. The doctor is still impressed with how well she is doing and Avery has charmed all the nurses with her big eyes and chubby cheeks. We are so blessed to be receiving all this wonderful care here at Egleston. Hopefully we'll have another poop soon!

Egleston Day 5 - The big move

I wrote this Tuesday night, but didn't get a chance to post it......

Hello to all, we have had another big day! Avery got to move to her new room today around 1pm. We were super lucky.... we got a private room, with 2 sleep chairs, so if we want we both can stay overnight and sleep with Avery!!!! We have our own bathroom and I have my own breast pump in the room so I don't have to go down the hall to pump anymore.

It is very relaxed on this side of things. We can change her, hold her, and play with her anytime we want. We can even give her a bath if we want. I am planning on bringing in a lot of her toys and clothes to make it feel like home tomorrow.

This move also comes along with more responsibility, we get to help her when she is crying or upset and we are learning what helps her calm down and what makes her mad. So far we are handling it ok. I am glad to have Lance beside me, he is an amazing Dad already and Avery loves it when he holds her!

From a medical side of things, Avery continues to be breathing well on her own. Her heart rate goes up when she spits up stuff from her belly, which is to be expected. Her belly incision looks really good and there is no redness or irritation lately. The newest and most exciting thing is that you can hear some new bowel sounds with a stethescope, which is a fabulous sign that her intestines are starting to wake up, YEAH!

So, all in all, another great day for our rockstar little girl.

Egleston Day 4 - Avery's breathing on her own!

Avery had a great day today! When we got to the NICU this morning, she was already extubated and breathing normally on room air! She doesn’t even need oxygen.

She had a lot of firsts today too. We got to hear her cry, hiccup, sneeze, and coo. She also was able to use the pacifier for the first time. She got rid of all of her lines, except the PICC line and the tube going into her stomach.

She is doing so well, she gets to graduate to the transition/step-down unit tomorrow! It is still considered the NICU, but it isn’t as critical and we can stay longer with her and even spend the night with her!

It is amazing how much she has changed everyday. We love her so much and can’t wait to hang out with her all day. She still loves to bring her left hand up to her chin and really loves being held. She sleeps when we hold her and when we put her back down we get a good 10-15 minutes of alert time where she just looks at us and coos and smiles, it is such a great feeling.
We are looking forward to our new room tomorrow and can’t wait to see what else Avery will do! Thank you again to everyone for all the prayers and well wishes. Please keep them coming, Avery is doing so great because of all of you

Egleston Day 3 - Happy Father's Day!

Lance got to change his very first diaper today, on Father's Day! He did such a great job and made it look so easy, even with all her lines and tubes. Avery had a great day. She looks really good, her skin is more pink and she was really alert. She did get her PICC line, which is a special catheter line for medications, but the only place they could find a good vein was the right side of her head. So... she got her first haircut where they had to shave it to put the line in. She likes her new hairdo!

We got to hold her for the first time!!!! She spent about an hour with each of us and slept most of the time. She seemed really content and when we put her back in her bed, she was awake for about 15 minutes and just looked at us and played with us, it was really cool!

The plan for the day tomorrow is to get extubated and get Avery breathing on her own, so we will keep our fingers crossed that she doesn't have any problems with that.

We continue to be so impressed with Egleston. We love the nurses and everyone is so helpful and happy and we feel really well about everyone taking care of our daughter. We hope everyone had a great Father's Day! Update again soon...

Egleston Day 2

Finally, I am getting to this blog. I am very new at it so I apologize for any errrors. My plan is to update this as Avery gets better and keep everyone informed of her recovery.... we'll see how it goes!

I was finally released from Piedmont this morning around 10 am and we went straight to see Avery. She had had a good night and was alert when we got to her. She has gone down on needing help on the ventillator and they said that she will go down again tomorrow and maybe off of it by Monday or Tuesday. She was getting morphine for pain, but only needed it twice today which is much better than yesterday. She still has a large amount of stuff being suctioned from her stomach that isn't moving into her intestines, which is normal at this point, this is one of the indications that she is ready for food is when the fluid is clear. Her belly looks good, as you will see in the pictures it looks like a large scab, but the darkness is actually a bunch of tiny stiches that are pulled together to create a belly button like scar.

We loved getting to spend the day with her. Our favorite time is when her eyes are open and she is alert, it is so fun to just sit and watch her. We are even learning her little quirks already. One thing we have noticed is that she loves keeping her left arm bend and by her head/neck. It must be how she was in utero. I got to change her diaper today! Ah, the little things in life sure change...

So we will go again in the morning to see our little girl. The nurse said that we may even get to hold her! That would be so awesome, we can't wait!