Author: letterstoholland

Hello Baby, you had a great week. You gained weight and now weigh in at 7 lbs and 13 oz. You enjoy your new formula, even though its thinner than your last you have transitioned well and seem to have no problems with it in your swallowing. Your tummy is much less upset these days. We are still waiting for you to poop a little more often without help. The last formula we put you back on glycerin to help you so now you are coming off that. Overall we think you like this stuff more. You have been more peaceful this week. You are still just below your goal on the amount of formula you take by bottle. You go for a few days eating it all and then you need a little in your tube for a few days. So, the doctors keep postponing your surgery for the permanent tube. They have started teaching us how to put in your temporary tube, with the thought of possibly going home on it. We feel like this would be best case scenario, because you will be guaranteed enough food and not have surgery. Everyone agrees that this wont last long and you will soon no longer need help. Also, this is good news because if the doctors all agree on the temporary tube then there would be no real reason to keep you here. Hooray!! I am not allowing myself to get excited yet though. One thing I have learned is to not plan on anything because its sure to change. Either way we all love you and can’t wait for you to come home, whenever that may be.

Hello Baby, you had another good day. You did not meet either of your 12 hour goals yesterday. You also lost weight again. So we will not be going home this week. That’s okay. This has led us to try something new that I have been hoping for. We are completely switching your formula to a more broken down and easier to digest formula. The reason why we haven’t tried this before is that you weren’t old enough and they cannot mix this as thick. You had previously been moved to a thicker formula to help with your swallowing. I think you’ve mature in your swallowing enough so that you may now be able to handle something thicker. I have felt for a while that all of these problems comes from your inability to easily digest your formula. You have had lots of stomach discomfort your entire life. This is pretty common for babies born as early you. So, today we will try the new formula and hope over the next few days we will see much less discomfort. I am hopeful about this change. I am hopeful you will feel better and in turn eat better now. So, its back to the usual routine and NICU life. This isn’t a setback but possibly a big step forward. We all love you bunches and hope this will make life easier and more comfortable for you.

Hello Baby, you had another great week. You gained weight and now weigh in at 7 lbs 10 oz. The doctors had rescheduled your surgery for tomorrow to see how you did for another week, in case you increased above the minimum feeds and would no longer need the tube. Well you did well and they have cancelled the surgery. We are still really close and it could still be scheduled again. For now, you are eating right at the minimum. They say if you eat your goal for 3 consecutive days and gain weight, then you can be discharged and come home. As of right now you have eaten your goal for 2 consecutive days. So, if today you meet your goal and gain weight when they weigh you tonight, we may go home tomorrow. I am trying not to get too excited as anything can change, but its hard not to. We are all ready as soon as you are. We also don’t want you to come home and then have to be readmitted and go back to surgery.  So I will patiently wait to  see how you do today and try not to pressure you too much. I will probably write you another letter tonight just to fill you in on how it goes. Either way we all love you and are super proud of you. Thank you for being so wonderful!!

Hello Baby! You had another great week. Your surgery got postponed, because you were eating so well. You were knocking out full bottles left and right. Well, as soon as you got the doctors to do that, you went on a bit of a break. So, its been back and forth all week, but we got another week in the NICU, but also another week to figure out stuff before surgery. They are just now giving you Pepcid to see if it helps you with your stomach aches. Basically, whenever you show  signs of discomfort you don’t want to eat. That’s pretty understandable, we just want you to feel better.

You weigh in at 7 lbs and 6 oz today. You are as awake and alert as ever. Everyone notices how much fun you seem to have. You still love visitors, and interacting with all the staff. When you feel good you are always happy, but when your stomach is upset you want to be held. We all love you so much and can’t wait for you to be home!

Hello Baby, You had a great week, but unfortunately the time has started ticking. Your feeds have been pretty  much all over the place. You will finish most bottles for a few days then have seemingly not want to eat for a few. So we now have a deadline. You have a surgery scheduled for Monday the 18th to place a more permanent feeding tube in. This would be used for 6-12 months and we would be going home 2-4 days after your surgery. We don’t want this, but it’s okay either way. It’s very important for you to consistently get the nutrition you need. The good news in this is that you will most likely be home the end of next week with or without your new tube and everyone can be happy about that. You really have been enjoying life in the NICU lately. You are smiling more often. You love your massages and how everyone wants to hold you all the time. You still get lots of visitors and greet most of them with your beautiful smile. Your stomach seems to be treating you better since the doctors cut the iron supplements. All around you seem to be a very a happy baby. You weigh in at 7 lbs 2 oz. You also turned 18 weeks old this past Saturday. You are loved by so many in this world, and we are all excited for you to come home and grow up in this world.

Hello Baby, We had a good week. You kept growing. You now weigh in at 6 lbs 12 oz. You have adapted well to being back in a normal room. You had a follow-up eye exam and the doctor says he expects you to have no diminished vision of any kind. He says you have responded exactly as expected. You also had a swallow study done. You were showing signs that you may not enjoy bottles as much as usual. So we went down to radiology, and the basically feed you bottles of different  consistency liquids that show up on a video x-ray machine. So we taped you eating these different liquids and as they expected you were getting a little liquid in your trachea with every swallow. The good new is that as the liquid thickened, the problem disappeared. So we have changed your formula to a thicker consistency to help fix it. You seem to enjoy it a little better, but I don’t think it has solved all your feeding issues yet. You seem to take the formula faster and more comfortably, but you still become uninterested after about half. You seem tired and a little backed up if you ask me. The doctors discontinued your iron supplement hoping to speed up your digestive tract some. I think it’s helped a little too. You have been taking about 60% of your formula by bottle the last 24 hrs. Everyone is pretty calm and just says you need a little more time. So, while this may seem a little frustrating, but we are all following your doctor’s lead. We love you and you make us so proud. You are such a big beautiful baby. You have found your voice the last week or so. You like to cry when we take your temperature. You even had a single little tear this morning. It was adorable.

 

Hello Baby, you feel much better today! You now weigh in at 6 lbs 8 oz. Your first memorial day weekend was eventful. We started off in the care by parent room. Mommy and Daddy loved it, because we got to spend so much time with you. I think you liked it too, because you were held basically 24-7. You may have been  little spoiled.  This less wonderful part of the weekend was the boring room you were in. Trust me, you will like home much more.  You started off great eating above you fluid goal. I think this may have worn you out, because the second day you dropped a little, and even more the third day. You began to rebound on day 4 but it wasn’t quite enough. We were moved back to a normal hospital room and you were given a feeding tube back. As soon as you got your belly full again you took off. It was clear you felt better. You ate really well yesterday and then got a little tuckered out by night time. My friend here says you just are a little inefficient in your suck pattern. That’s no big deal and you can catch up in no time. I think we can hang here another week and practice more eating. We aren’t worried and are still amazed at what you have overcome. We are still just as proud, and definitely love you just as much. Everyday you are mu highlight. You are simply beautiful and amazing. You keep learning and we can get home in no time.

Hello Baby! We have had  a great couple days here. We left your old hospital room, the only room you’ve known, and moved a couple of doors down. The only real change is there is a shower in this room. This is the “Care by Parents Room.” Here Mommy and Daddy do all of your care. The nurse still comes in to check on how things are going, but we really do all your feeding s and diaper changes and give you all your medicine. The reason they do this is to make sure you are ready to come home, and we are ready to have you. We were supposed to spend 48 hr minimum here. We really just had to gain weight and keep eating the same amount. Well you have gained for two straight days, so that’s great! We did good on you feeds the first day but we had a drop off the second day. You ate about 80% of your goal intake for the final 24 hours. We have come to the conclusion, that the change in scenery, lots of visits by other staff members here, all the discharge training we did in you room, and just constant stimulation, may have upset your schedule a little. I really feel like I should have recognized the problem, but you didn’t really sleep all day yesterday. This made you tired, so as soon as you ate just a little you would get drowsy, and not finish, then we laid you down to sleep and you got hungry quickly, and wouldn’t sleep. It kind of cause about a 12 hour cycle of poor feeds and poor sleep. So then, when we got you to eat a bunch, it was hard to wake you up, since you were so far behind on sleep. Anyways it looks as if we are back hitting our mark on feeds and we hope to go home tomorrow, after 72 hour stay in Care by Parent. We aren’t really counting on it, because who knows what tomorrow brings, but we are happy either way, because you are doing so well. We love you bunches and we can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings

Hello Baby, you have had a great dew days! You have gained a bunch and now weigh in at 6 lbs even!!! The doctors have changed your feeding plan. In the past they have measured out your bottle to the exact amount you need and if you finished great, and if not they would tube feed you the remainder of your bottle. Well they have changed you to a 12 hour minimum. So, now you eat as much or as little as you want each bottle every 2-4 hours and they track how much you eat and tally your total every 12 hours. If you are short of your 12 hr feed they tube feed you whats left. Well you have been on this for 36 hours now and you have eaten over your goal every 12 hours so far. This leads me to believe you will have your tube out asap. In fact you pulled it out again today and they aren’t going to put it back in unless you need it. So, if you continue eating this much, and continue gaining weight, they say you could be discharged as early as Friday. We are trying not to get too excited, but, well never-mind, we are freaking out! There are a couple tests left to pass. You have to sit in your car seat for a half hour and have nurses monitor you. Mommy and daddy have to stay in a little hotel room in the NICU for 48 hours taking care of you by ourselves. The staff will all be there, if we have questions, but we have to do all the work. You have to keep eating and gaining weight for 3 days and we are headed home. Everyone is excited! I have been trying to get you in pictures with all your staff. They are all trying to stop in and see you before you leave. Everyone is happy and just a little sad.This NICU is a beautiful and even as excited as I am to leave, I will absolutely miss it too. The people here are angels working miracles. I love it, I love them and most of all we all love you. We can’t wait for you to come home.

Hello Baby, You’ve had a great stretch of days! I know I haven’t been writing to you as much, I have been busy with work. Every time I am up here now I just want to hold you instead of write. It loads of fun holding you and I get to pretty much just walk in and pick you up until I have to leave. So as the amount of letters have decreased your holding time has increased. You don’t seem to mind the trade off.  It seems like you get held most of the day now. Between Mommy, Nana and I, your day crib time is pretty low.  Your bottle feeds have gone so  well lately. I would say you are about 75% of your formula intake by bottle. Remember, you need to be over 80% for a little bit before you can go home. I would not be surprised if you are released in as little as a week from now. You weigh in at 5 lbs and 14 oz now. So you have a small chance of being 6 lbs by your due date in 2 days. That would be pretty exciting.

Your personality is showing lately. You are calm and happy mostly. You only seem to cry when you have digestive problems. You grunt a lot trying to move things a long, but mostly you smile and look around. Its very clear how much you like being held. You really make everyone around here really happy. The staff here all love you and you can tell they know your days in the NICU are coming to an end. You get visitors constantly. Nurses from all over stop in just to see you. You make a lot of people smile everyday, especially me. We love you and can’t wait to bring you home!