Series Finale

Jason and I started this blog to keep family and friends updated on the progress of our Georgia, Livia and Nina. We knew being born 4 months early came with lots of ups and downs and it was easier to have a forum to post day to day happenings instead of telling the same story over and over again. The past months of daily reflections, hopes, fears, dreams have helped us to cope with the overwhelming journey we were on. We hope through our tears and recent triumph you realize how precious life is and not to take one day with your family for granted.

We want to thank all of you for being a part of our lives and supporting us with your wonderful, heartfelt comments.

We are now going back to our anonymous, quiet-(maybe not we have new baby) blog free lives.

Love, Judith, Jason, and Nina Rose

Smiles all around

Cousin Ally, Aunt Amy and Grandpa are all smiles !!







Aunt Paula loving her Godbaby up!

There's No Place Like Home

We're Official!

Check out Nina on the Abington Web Nursery!! Make sure you check out all 4 poses. It's official we are in general population!

Had my baby shower today! Thanks to Mom and Mom Fox for putting together such a wonderful party at such short notice! Nina received tons of great clothes and toys and Jason and I received some neat baby gadgets. Thanks to all who attended! It was fantastic!

We had our first home nurse visit today and she's great. We really like Cindy. Nina did too.

Settling down AT HOME

Last night was wonderful to have Nina home in her bassinet . We probably would have slept if it wasn't for the pesky loose leads alarm on the monitor. It's pretty annoying since Nina is doing great. She had her first peed appt and we like our new Doc (Dr Block-huge Beatles fan) Nina weighed in at 4pounds 5 oz. She is eating like a champ. Her last bottle she drank 82 cc!!!
Today Nina met her cousins Ada and Ben!





Nina is very easy to take care of (so far) She eats every 3.5-4 hours and then goes back to sleep.
We love the freedom of having her home and holding her whenever and wherever we want!
It's amazing! She's amazing!

Day 102- DISCHARGE BABY!!!

Exhale!!!!We made it through!!
HOORAY US!!! HOORAY NINA!!
HOORAY ALL YOU BLOG READERS!!

Doc Schrager (go Phils)-our discharge Dr)



Doc Snyder(he was in the delivery room the afternoon our babies were born!) Doc Snyder was with us for Liv and Georgia's deaths and we are so happy he was here with us to celebrate Nina!



Matt --Nina's respiratory specialist from her delivery! Thanks Matt!!




All dressed up for the car ride home!

Day 101 - Holy S#%&, We're Actually Leaving!!!!

After 101 days in the Abington Special Care Nursery we are finally leaving!!!! Yesterday we got the official word that we would be coming home on Thursday June 21, the first day of summer. Thank God it's June and not RSV season.

Judith and I would like to send a special thanks to our employers, Verispan and Cenlar. Not only have they been so supportive of every aspect of our journey so far but they have been very understanding and have stressed to us that family comes first. THANK YOU!!!!

Well, today has been a whirlwind. We both put in a few hours of work and then it was on from there. First a trip to Babies R' Us for bottles, nipples, bassinet sheets etc. Then to the hospital for a feeding, training on the O2 and apnea monitors we will be using, another feeding and watch a car seat safety video. Unfortunately Nina did not pass her car seat test, she studied really hard but no luck. I guess she will be going to Slippery Rock and not Dickinson! For the first few weeks Nina will have to use a car bed, after some last minute scrambling we found one -- thanks to big sister Amy and Grand mom for getting us a car bed and bringing it down to us. What stinks it that we have a really cool car seat that will have to wait to be used.

Tomorrow is the big day. Most likely she will be discharged in the afternoon and then she is all ours. Stay tuned for a special retrospective of our time at AMH, Nina herself wants to be involved so it will be extra special.

Here is a picture from tonight, Judith and I giving Nina her first big girl bath:

Day 100- Are we there yet???

Sorry Nina you are still too mini for the car seat, but not too mini to come home! When we take her home it will be in the comforts of a super hip car bed.

Go Phils!


In other news...
Nina graduated from slow flow nipples to regular flow. She's drinking about 2 oz each feed (thanks Nurse Grace for having Nina be a part of NICU Boot Camp! (notice the walls in Nina's area are empty) We are clearing out!

Day 99- "Wakeover" with Nina!

Yes it was not much of a sleepover if you ask us! But it was truly wonderful to have Nina all to ourselves!

Here we are looking super confident(?) as Nina gets wheeled down the hall into our overnight room.

Nina did really great, she ate every 3.5 hours and I think she was nervous b/c she was not a very good burper. She slept, she pooped, she smiled, she cried... all under our watch and we got the OK from Nurse Laura that we did a good job with her.

Thanks Aunt Paula for the sweet outfit!
Taken at 4am

Day 98- Daddy's Little Girl

Happy Father's Day Jason!!!

Nina had her eye exam today and Dr Koller said Nina's stage 2 ROP had regressed and that her results, in fact, were favorable! Finally! Good news.

She's up to 40cc a bottle and doing great! Nina has a few tests this week: hearing, car seat, possibly feeding without O2...

Weight today 4.3

Tomorrow night Jason and I are spending the night with Nina in the Parent's Room. Yep, they are going to bring her in and she's all ours. She will be hooked up to monitor at Nurses station in case we need a hand. Needless to say, we are a bit excited, anxious, thrilled about this .

Here's part of Nina's fan club sporting limited edition Nina shirts! Thanks Ben, Ada, and Appie for cheering Nina on!!

Day 97 Rally time (for real!)

OK so Nina did well with the bottles and her NG tube (feeding tube) is history!
Tomorrow night she will get her eyes checked for progression of ROP. If all goes well with this appt, there's no stopping us!

Day 96- Dreaming of home

We asked a lot of of Nina today. She was to take every feeding by mouth, and she did it! She seems to like sitting up to eat instead of the usual sideline feed. She gobbled up all her bottles. We are mixing it up with formula and she is doing well with it. We are hopeful sometime this weekend will be the last with the NG tube. We can't wait to see her tube-free!
Thanks Nurse Grace for helping me today! You are a wonderful teacher!

Day 95

Every blade of grass has its angel that
bends over it and whispers, 'Grow, grow" -Talmud

Thank You Nurse Sharon for being Nina's Special Angel.

We are winding down our time in the Special Care Unit. Please say extra prays for Nina as she enters the home stretch.

Day 94- so far so good

Nina had her eyes checked tonight and so far the ROP has stalled at Stage 2. Dr will be back in a week to check again.
She had a good day and is drinking her bottles like a big girl. She is getting two bottles in a row then a tube feed. Unfortunately for Nina, Nurse Laura has to hold her feeds until later tonight b/c of the eye exam. (eye drops) She's gonna be one hungry little lady!

Day 93- Great-Grandmom Mary

Nina got a visit today from her Great-Grandmom.
She was very pleasant and loved being held by her GG Mary.
Nina has been in the crib for a couple days now. She's maintaining her temp and is now weighing in at 4 lbs 1 oz!
While GG Mary visited today, I gave Nina a bottle and she did great. Doc have increased her bottle time to two in a row.

Day 92 - Tell Me This Smile Won't Melt Your Heart

Happy 3 month birthday little girl!!! We can't wait for you to come home!!!

Love, Mommy and Daddy

Day 91- Chugging like her Daddy

Nina is able to drink 36 ml ( over an ounce) in less than 20 minutes. This is huge b/c a few days ago it took her about 35 minutes. She is taking a bottle every other feeding to build up her stamina and it seems to be working. Can't wait to get that NG tube off her pretty face. We are hoping this coming week will bring her out of her isolette for the last time and more chances bottle feeding.

Here she is stretching out on the beautiful quilt her Aunt Heather made. Thanks so much Aunt Heather!

Day 90--24 hour notice-evicted from crib

So Nina did not quite get the body regulating thing down so she's back in the isolette. This is common and she'll try it again soon.
She is still trying to master the bottle drinking. She needs to finish strong (instead of turning a "dusty" color the Nurses tell me about. So she'll be on O2 while eating and continue be on it for the 20 minutes after. The O2 she is receiving is the same setting she would get if she comes home on O2.
She is weighing in a 3.14 oz and is at full feeds. We on knocking on Mr Four Pounder's door!
Today Jason,Chris H, and Bill R are painting Nina's room. I think it's finally time.

Day 89- CRIBTASTIC!

No more isolette for Nina! She moved into big girl digs last night.

Last night Nina also got her eye exam from Doc Koller. He said her Stage 2 ROP did not progress and he'll check back next week. Let's hope it stays stage 2 so she does not need operation!

In the feeding department, she is going to be given a bottle for every feed! Nurse Linda (with Nina) noticed Nina needed a little extra boost during her feeding time, so for now she will be on the cannula, getting only a tiny bit of O2, during her bottle time. She is up to 35 ml every 3 hours.

contentment

It's been a long road, we are ready to take her home now. Please let it be soon.

Day 88 Practice makes perfect

Nina and I are getting better at bottle feeding.
Nina is getting an ounce every 3 hours and she is tolerating it great. No spit ups, no residuals.

Day 87 Mommy has to breathe!

Feeding a Mini Nina Preemie is pretty stressful. It's stressful b/c she has to stuck, swallow,breathe to drink her bottle. It's stressful b/c if I don't watch her the entire time she is eating, she may drop her heart rate. While I feed her my upper lip sweats and I am just nervous. I need to just relax b/c she needs to take bottles from Jason and me so WE CAN TAKE HER HOME. Mommy breathe!

Nina's off the IV (It blew last night at 4am) She'll be up to 28 ml tonight and they are increasing her milk intake pretty aggressively so we should be up at full feeds soon. She is receiving milk with fortifier.

She is off the caffeine, her breathing treatments have been discontinued, she is off the diuretics. (We told you all Nina would kick NICU Ass in June)
The next obstacle we face is the eye exam later this week. Nina has Stage 2 ROP and we will see if it has progressed to the point laser surgery is needed.

All we need to do is take every feed on a bottle and get past the eye test/maybe surgery and she will be
Nina -don't- let- the- door- hit- ya- in- the- ass-on- your- way- out Fox!!

Day 86 Sponge Baths and Bottle Feeds

Nina has been practicing bottle feeding for the past few days and she's now getting 20ml a bottle(30 ml = 1 oz) Nurse Josephine taught me to hold Nina sideways while feeding b/c it helps her breathe better during the feed.
Thanks Josephine! We think this is going to work out for us! (Me burping Nina with Josephine)

Weight check today: 3 pounds 13 oz
TPN done!

I also got the chance to give Nina a sponge bath tonight. We could not put her in the water b/c she still has IV which is coming out tomorrow.

Daddy's Turn

After watching mommy feed Nina a few times daddy figured he should take a crack at it. At about 9 pm to night I gave my little girl her first bottle feeding. I was a nervous wreck... was I holding her head right? is she getting enough? how do I know if she burbed? All legitimate questions I might add but after assurance from mom and nurse Laura that I did an ok job I felt a lot better. It is really amazing the joy you get from doing something so simple!!!!

As Nina grows she continues to be much more interactive. After tonight's feeding Nina was wide awake and wired. She stared at us as we talked to her and was fixated on me as I sang what I hope will be our song, "Whenever I See Your Smiling Face" by James Taylor. She was so fussy that even as we leaving tonight around 11 pm she was still wiggling around until nurse Laura put Nina on her belly.


She is continuing to progress as her feedings were moved to 12 ml every 3 hours which will change to 14 ml's at midnight. Nina also continues to breathe without any support. We also learned that tomorrow will be the last for TPN as her feeds continue to increase and approach what they were before her GI study.

One less wire!

Today I got to feed Nina and she did great. The Drs are going up on her milk intake very slowly. She is only getting 8 cc every 3 hours.
Dr Fry(GI guru) came in today and said Nina looked wonderful and we cannot rush the belly so slow and steady we go.

I washed and brought in some of Nina's mini preemie clothes today(very exciting for us) She is slowly getting weaned out of the isolette so she is able to wear her little outfits now. She is weighing in at 3 pound 9 oz!













Since Nina's doing great breathing on her own, the pulse oximeter monitor was removed! This is great for Jason and me b/c it's one less number we have to worry about on her monitor screen. (Yes we know Nurses, we should be looking at the baby and not the monitor :)

Got Milk?

Big day for Nina! She drank from a bottle for the first time! She took in 7cc (the whole amount b/c we are starting off small b/c of GI studies) and it's only up from here! I gave her the bottle and burped her and she did great! Thanks Nurse Karen for making this happen for us!! Today Nina also started weaning out of her isolette. Maybe next week she'll be in a big girl crib on full feeds. Let's get this thing going! We are sick of the hospital! We want to go home soon! Come on Nina!!

Today we said goodbye and congrats to Adelina.
Adelina was born along with her brother and sister 5 days after our girls were born. Addy was a NICU scholar and we hope to follow in her footsteps. Jen and Vince are in our thoughts tonight as they put Addy to bed for the first time in their loving home along with big sis Gianna!