Welcome home!!

Iveys home!!! 8 weeks 3 days old one day shy of her 2 month bday! 5lbs 1.1oz. It's been a rough journey but I'm so happy we made it! Lots of love to everyone!

amazing little ivey rivera

Ivey has been doing great! She's 4lbs 13oz, shes up to 5-6 nipple feeds a day. She will most likely be @ 8 in a few days! That's the number we need for her to come home! Only tricky thing, I forgot she can't have brady for 5 days straight, she had one Monday and then again yesterday. So if she doesn't have another in five days and is at 8 bottles she can come home. So I say the count down is on!

Hopes

IM feeling so hopful tonight. I just got off the phone with Iveys night nurse. She thinks Ivey could be home really soon. She said most babies don't do as well with breast feeding, but Ivey is doing awesome! In fact she's better at breast feeding then bottle! I thought she HAD to do 8 bottle feeds a day to leave, she says I can nurse her and those times count. So the plan now is to go up at least twice a day to nurse. Ivey is still off oxyogen and now she has her pulseometer off. She's has 40cc of milk at each feed, and is gaining weight!! Yeah go Ivey! I cleaned her carseat today and put clean sheets on her crib. Her dresser is full of her clothes and I sorted all her cloth diapers. I'm going to keep the nesting up. I want this house ready for her arrival! Also, tomorrow the LC will do another per and post weigh in. So we can see just how much breastmilk she is transferring.

Ivey must not know the price of gas!

Today i went to breast feed Ivey at her 2:30 touch time.  She would NOT wake up! I had her latched on for almost 30min and nothing!  We ended up doing the gavage feeding.  If she wouldn't wake up for a breastfeeding, she surely wouldn't wake up for a bottle!  The DR has now ok'd Ivey to have 4 nipple feeds a day.  So far she's doing pretty good, today was the first day she was to tired to nurse.  She's taken a few full bottles and some just half.  When she doesn't finish a bottle she gets the rest of the feed threw the gavage.  Me and Cri are going to go up for her 8:30 touch time, hopefully she will be awake enough to breastfeed!  Today Ivey weighs 4lbs 9oz.  Ivey is 7 weeks old today, she has now been in the NICU for 49days.  I've been driving 20miles one way for 49 days, sometimes i go twice a day.  I can't wait to have her home!!!!

 Iveys 1st Easter!

 Ivey getting her nightly weigh in

 Kangaroo care with Mama

 Ivey 7 weeks old 4lbs 9oz

 Sleeping in her open crib

One of Iveys MANY nick names

It's hard to believe Ivey has been in the NICU for 6 weeks now! I'm just 6 weeks away from my original due date too. She's up to 4lbs 4oz. Breastfeeding is getting better each day. Yesterday she nursed for a good 15min, then she only required half of her gavage feeding. Yesterday was the first time for me to give her a bath too. She loved it! I can't wait til her next bath day (it's every 3 days). You have to keep preemies swaddled in a blanket when they bathe. It's really different, but I did a good job! Yesterday they started weaning her off the prolacta and onto the neosure junk. By the end of the week all of her feeds will be fortified with neosure. Still not too happy about this. All I can say, if she starts spitting up and not gaining, I'm throwing a fit! I've already complained about it to the DR but he won't listen. I don't want to upset the DRs to much. At this point I just want her home ASAP. They tried to give her a bottle on sat, she only took 8m of her 38m. So not very good. Hopfully shell take more this week, when they try again. Still havent needed the blood transfusion yet, will know more in a few days.

Vampires aren't the only blood lovers

Its true, Ivey has had two blood transfusions already and MAY need another! Her red blood count is still low. We will find out soon. Poor baby! In good news she's up to 1810g or 3lbs15oz! Also today we officially got to try breastfeeding! The dr ok'd two BF session a day. Not sure if I can make it there twice a day. I thought life was already stressful! But really if I want to BF and not bottle I need to make myself available. Today the LC showed me how to BF using a nipple shield, those are recommended for preemies. I didn't think it would help, but it really did. Since her mouth is so tiny it just helps her be able to hold the whole nipple in her mouth. Hopfully won't need that for too long, it's just one extra step.so today she did some REAl bf for about 3-5min then she had her regular tube feeding. I only was able to hold her for an hour, I needed to pump. That's going to be one of the most challenging parts of all this. She won't be able to just nurse alone. I'll nurse her, bottle feed and then need to pump!! I'm already worn out, thinking about it. But it's all for the best!!!!!