Life with Our Itty Bitty Baby Girl

Great news!  They turned off Becca’s IV fluids yesterday!  She’s totally on milk now!  They pulled the PICC line (as it is an infection risk), but she will still have the feeding tube.  She can’t take a bottle yet, both because she can’t suck, swallow, and breathe at the same time (a skill they usually develop [...]

Becca’s doing great and seems to have the pooping thing down now!  She’s 4 days away from being on full feeds (meaning all milk and no IV’s), and she’s gaining weight like a champ!  Last night she was 1 pound, 7 ounces, and she’s in a trend of gaining just under an ounce a day [...]

Just wanted to check in and let you guys know that Becca is still doing great!  She’s up to 1 pound, 4 ounces (WOW!) and is getting 4.4 cc’s of milk every 3 hours – meaning that she’s eating almost 1.5 ounces every day!  She’s tolerating the feedings well, so they keep bumping her up.  [...]

Not much to say today, but I couldn’t wait to get these pictures of Becca up so you could see our fancy girl in her favorite purple dress!  In fact, I’m not even waiting for John (the picture guru), so there’s no telling whether I’ll get these up properly, but it’s worth a shot.  This [...]

I forgot to mention one of the coolest things we learned about kangaroo care.  Apparently, it’s essentially been done for a long time in countries that don’t have the highly developed NICU’s we have.  When a preemie is born in a developing country, they often use kangaroo care to keep them warm, and their life [...]

Yep, that’s my husband: Captain Kangaroo. 
Yesterday we got to start “kangaroo care” with sweet Becca.  Being the mom and all, I got to go first, but John got his turn today.  Hence, the names:  John is now Captain Kangaroo, and Becca is my sweet little Roo.  John does not yet know about his new name.  [...]

Hey, guys!  
Again, this will need to be short because I’ve only got 15 minutes before shift change to see sweet Becca.  (We aren’t allowed to  visit during shift change so that the nurses can give report, etc.)  Becca’s had a rough day or so.  She started looking really puny last night, and some of [...]

I feel a little funny posting this, but since so many of you have asked what you can do to help, I thought I’d just put this out there.  What we seem to need the most these days are gas cards.  With gas prices the way they are and having a 40-mile commute (each way) [...]

John here.  Becca looks much different already from the day she was born.  Here are a few of my favorite pictures:

Life is crazy these days.
Like most new parents, our days are structured around feedings (and, no, I’m not talking about feeding my dear husband).  Those of you who have kids know that when baby cries their hungry cry, all else has to stop until baby is happily fed.  Our schedule is a little different in [...]