h-u-n-g-r-y!

natalie's mom and dad are very tired! whew! it's been a busy several days.

not only is she off oxygen, weighing in at 5 pounds 1 ounce AND tolerating her increased food intake---but she's taking it from a bottle! once a day she practices drinking from a bottle and so far she's done very well finishing the whole thing most of the time. the rest of the day she is getting her food in one "meal" every two hours and taking it with no problems.

since she isn't being feed all day long through her feeding tube now, she knows what it's like to be hungry. and boy is it funny to see her hungry! here is a video of natalie saying "FEED ME!" she even tricks herself into thinking her hand is food a few times.

getting bigger!

natalie is almost 4 weeks old. one month! how is that possible!?

mike and i arrived to a great surprise on sunday when we got to the hospital---natalie had a smaller nasal cannula in her nose because she is on almost no pressurized air AND her feeding tube is in her nose now. that means they changed her feedings. now she has two hours of continuous feedings (slowly over two hours), then she gets a "meal," (one dose all at once), then an hour to rest. this is a change from slowly being feed all the time. she is up to 4 pounds 11 ounces. seems like she's taking those feedings pretty well!

and since her mouth is free....she got to practice bottle feeding today! and i got to help!! she did really great sucking away for about 45 seconds. then she tuckered out. ha! but the nurse was really proud of her. she didn't fall asleep, didn't cough. didn't have bradys or apnea. this was all good the nurse said. we will try about once a day and let her get comfortable with it.

she is such a sweetie. and such a little squirmer. she makes funny gassy faces and cute little coos. mike caught some on video. i think that red, frowny face means i was about to change a poopy diaper.

we passed!

Mike and I took an infant / child cpr class last night....and we passed! Whew! :)

To celebrate, we went to hang out with Natalie. She was snoozing hard. She's so cute when she snoozes, sometimes I don't want to disturb her by picking her up. But then I do anyway...ha!
She didn't seem to mind that Mike held her one bit.

with a few days off for spring break, i've been spending lots of time with natalie. today we discussed how big the color turquoise is for spring and decided to complement her purple jumper and ducky blanket with a big blue bow headband. as you can tell, she LOVED it :) (thanks mimi and auntie andi for the accessories!)

we rocked and talked for a very long time. well, i talked and she listened. i wanted to get a pic of her eyes open which is so precious. but since i was holding and taking the pic they are a little "extreme close-up." plus she is SUCH a snoozer. "natalie! open up!"
you will notice a lot of tape on her face. it seems her new favorite activity is to yank her nasal cannula out. twice i've walked in and it was in her mouth. another time it was sitting on her forehead. WELL, at least it's good to know she doesn't NEED it to breath. whew! did i tell you she also pulled out her feeding tube one night? so....more tape!

there she is! "oh, mom!" she's totally over all this photography..plus mom takes about 50 shots. we'll ask dad to take photos next time!

big girl bed!

Mike and I got a great surprise on Sunday when we went to visit Natalie---she's in a big girl bed! Well, by big girl I mean 4 lbs. Ha! She has kept her temperature up on her own for almost a week and is now over 4 pounds so they decided to move her to an open crib instead of the isolette that kept her warm her first two weeks.


Lookie here!

She likes it very much and doesn't even mind the yippy nurses talking about their bratty kids, ski trips, how much they need a Starbucks or what they bought on their lunch break. See? Zonked.

I'm kidding (kind of). Most all of the nurses have been SUPER nice. On Sunday the nurse increased her oxygen flow a bit to give her a break and see if it would help the bradys (when her heart rate drops). She hasn't been having more, but does keep having them. And no apnea problems at all which is very good. It's hard for me to hear about but I KNOW she WILL grow out of these little problems in just a few weeks.

Then when I came up later Sunday night to bring her more milk (oh, boy, she eats a LOT) they had taken her extra blanket and hat off. She was doing great in her new bed!

My sweet snoozer!

Photo Bonanza!

almost two weeks!

I went back to work today after a clean bill of health from the doctor. It's hard to not come and go from the hospital but I am saving up all the days I can to use when she comes home. Then we'll relax together! I took her "lunch" today and got a quick head pat in. Back at 4pm for some kangaroo time!

Natalie has had several good days in a row and is almost back up to her birth weight of 4lb 15oz after she went down a bit. Breathing is hard work! ;) Speaking of breathing, they are weening her lower on oxygen...she's barely getting any. Just some fresh air to sniff. They are adding calories and vitamins to her milk to pudge her up a bit. She is taking milk well, but still by feeding tube. And she is a very good sleeper!

Here is just a quick picture---I love those little eyes! -Leah

one week!

on wednesday natalie was one week old! the seven days really flew by and i'm hoping the next few feel the same way. i couldn't help but take some birthday "flare" up for her room so i decorated a bday card designed by auntie robin to take to natalie. it'll be a fun little countdown.

here's our little snoozer

while we were there the physical therapist came to see her. they do stretches and work on flexing her muscles....all while she's asleep. that's a workout i'd like to try! she also makes sure her rooting and sucking reflexes are good by sticking a finger in and around her mouth. we've watched her with her pacifier and knew she'd make an A+ on that one!

wednesday was also dad snuggle day! natalie was very happy with that. better than stretches for sure!

and when we got home there was a BIG box of goodies from mimi kathy and auntie andi full of anything a girl could want! here's just a few of the MANY cute things

we love love love her and wish we could snuggle her every second. she's doing really well, resting up and getting bigger and stronger each day!

almost a week old!

grammy teresa and i went to see natalie today and i got to hold her for the first time. YEAH! after snoozing...well, most of the time....she opened up her eyes and we talked for more than 30 minutes. maybe she did, maybe she didn't...but i REALLY felt like she heard my voice, knew who i was and maybe even could see me..maybe fuzzy me :) but i haven't seen her awake that long since she was born and it was so special to have that talk and snuggle time with her. i also got to change the first of MANY poopie diapers. ha!

i think it's time to get dad in on this next....the snuggles AND the poopie diapers. ha!

March 2nd