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This was the first 4 hour stretch she has slept since we brought her home from the hospital. Usually she’s up at least three times before Casey takes over. I’m actually shocked at the amount of sleep I got in the last 24 hours and in good blocks too. Believe me this is rare and hopefully a sign of things to come!

I’ve actually dropped 1-2 pumping sessions in the last week since I’ve been given the OK to nurse more. Casey helped with some of the feedings and changings – I didn’t do it all but was trying to provide an idea as to how often she’s eating/sleeping.

I was able to get a shower today. This doesn’t happen everyday but was nice to be able to have that as part of this post.

I noticed that I only put that I was online during certain times. Those that know me, know that my laptop is on pretty much the entire time I’m awake except for those periods when Brady’s actively being fed or I obviously can’t be on the computer and say doing the dishes at the same time. I need to get someone to take a picture of our typical family situation – Casey and I at opposite ends of the couch with our laptops, one of us holding Brady, and both the dogs between us. We only have room for one more baby and that’s a few years away. Our couch can’t hold anymore!

Last Thursday was another big to-do accomplished…I actually got our Christmas tree taken down and put back in the basement! We had the idea in our head we were going to keep it up and take belated family Christmas pictures. Well one thing led to another and we just never got around to it and March is just way too belated and we got over the idea.

Well, I think that’s all I wanted to add. Meow.

Brady hates tummy time. I told the pedi this and she said even so, it’s still necessary to do a minimum of 5 minutes a day. Now that it’s past her due date, lying on our chest no longer counts. So today during time she was fussing again and she rolled herself over! Afterwards she was a little stunned by what happened and momentarily relieved to return to her back. This was at the end of the 5 minutes so I picked her up and praised her. We’ll see if she can do it again tomorrow or if it was just a fluke…

I forgot to post this little tidbit last week but thought it might be interesting to some of you. In the 4 weeks since Brady was home (as of last Thurdsay, now it’s been 5), she went through 251 diapers. I guess the average baby goes through 200-300 diapers their first month home so she was pretty much in the middle of the road. My mom said her first month home with me I went through 400 diapers! Once all of these newborn diapers are gone, I’m pretty confident Brady will be ready for size 1! She’s getting so big!

Well actually 10 weeks.  But Brady did have her 2 month doctor’s appointment yesterday.  We got all of her measurements and her shots.  The good news first.  Brady is knocking on the door of 8 pounds!  The pedi wants her to gain 1/2 to 1 ounce a day and it had been 21 days since her last appointment.  Best case scenario the pedi was expecting Brady to gain 21 ounces – she gained 26 ounces bringing her to a grand total of 7 pounds 15.5 ounces!!!  She probably would have weighed even more but didn’t eat a full bottle before we left.  And she’s up to 20.5 inches long!  Now I mentioned in an earlier post that because she was born premature she would be on an adjusted development chart since being born early doesn’t mean she would grow any faster.  So based on her gestational age of 1 week old her height and weight she’s in the 75th percentile!  This means that 75% of babies are smaller than she is.  Based on her actual/chronological age she is only in the 3rd percentile for height and weight.  This is because she was so tiny when she was born and her height and weight don’t even show up on growth charts.  The pedi is still sticking by her statement that sometime between 6 months and 2 years she’ll start falling in a more normal range on the growth charts.  Hopefully sooner rather than later at her current rate!

Now the bad news.  Brady got her 2 month vaccinations yesterday.  While the pedi had told us at her last appointment this meant only one shot and one oral vaccination (Rotavirus to prevent against viral infections), it ended up being 3 shots and then the oral.  At Robin’s suggestion, I gave her some Tylenol before her appointment but all of those shots in her little thighs was still pretty traumatic for both of us.  She did really well and other than crying immediately afterwards and until I got her dressed she did really well until later in the evening when she had a meltdown.  I think the stress of the day just got to her and she bawled and bawled.  I started crying just listening to her.  When she woke up for her 3am feeding she was back to herself and you wouldn’t have even known she had shots.  I gave her some more Tylenol just to make her feel comfortable and so she could go back to sleep (the pedi said giving her Tylenol for 24-48 hours was fine) but it didn’t seem like she needed it.

After that, I was planning on holding off on her next dose until closer to time for her Synagis (RSV) shot.  The nurse came as scheduled and was really nice about everything.  She is a former employee of the hospital where Brady was born and I used to work and was very personable.  Everything went very smoothly and Brady only ended up crying for less than 30 seconds afterwards.  I gave her a little dribble of sugar water on her tongue (advocated by the NICU and the Washington Post) but other than that I hadn’t given her any Tylenol again since her last dose and she did so well!  Once the nurse left we decided that since it was pretty nice outside today (about 67) we would take Brady for her first walk.  I asked the pedi about this yesterday and she said it was fine since we wouldn’t be around other people that could possibly get her sick and that now was the perfect time with the “heatwave” we’re having.  Brady ended up falling asleep promptly after we left the house but we still enjoyed getting out of the house and I know the dogs did too!

That’s about all that’s been going on with us right now.  Enjoy these recent pics!

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The day has finally come.  Brady’s due date!  I can’t even imagine her just now arriving or maybe me going over my due date and her not being here yet.  Because she was a preemie for the next 6-12 months doctors will be using her gestational age (starting from today) to calculate milestones.  Just because she was born early doesn’t mean that she’ll start maturing any faster so in order to measure her growth the doctor will look at both chronological age and gestational to see how she’s measuring up.  For example, when Brady goes to her 2 month appointment next week the doctor isn’t going to expect much in the way of development since her adjusted gestational age will only be one week.  However, so we’re able to determine if she’s on track to developing along with those of her chronological age the doctor will also look at things she can or can’t do that a 2 month old would be able to.  I honestly don’t think we’ll have to adjust her age much or for very long she’s doing so well!

Brady had another ophthalmologist appointment today.  This appointment was *much* better than the last one.  The doctor said the vessels in her eyes have entered into zone 3, the outter most zone of the eye.  They haven’t gotten all the way to the edge yet but the doctor seems confident that it’ll happen soon.  At this point there is no cause for concern and issues will not require treatment.  The doctor is still saying that Brady’s nearsighted (which aren’t all babies?) but we won’t need to address that in more detail until she’s more mobile at around a year old.  Brady won’t have her next follow up appointment for 6 more months just to make sure that the vessels have finished their journey and no other issues have cropped up.

Enjoy these pics of Brady from the last three days – Sunday – 2 month birthday, Monday – 9 weeks old, Tuesday – due date!

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Thursday we received a call from the pharmacy that our insurance uses regarding Brady’s synagis (RSV) shot. They wanted to let us know they were shipping it overnight and that we needed to be home when it arrived because it had to be refrigerated ASAP. So Friday the shot arrives and we get everything refrigerated and call the nursing association that’s supposed to come by and give Brady the shot, well she doesn’t plan on coming out till next Friday. If they don’t plan on giving her the shot for a week, can you please tell me the rationale in overnighting something that’s going to sit in our fridge for a week? Why not overnight it on Wednesday for Thursday at the very earliest? It makes me a little nervous having a shot that the NICU told us costs $1,000 a vial sitting in our fridge. A better question yet, is why did our insurance decide that they would rather have the shot sent to us and have a visiting nurse come by than have us go to the pediatrician? So it seems this will be the monthly routine (the shots only last 28-30 days) through April for the RSV shots.