Off With Her Cannula!

Teagan Leigh with our wedding rings

Today's post is brought to you by, Papa Ian, Master Cleaner of Baby Bottles. Can you believe Teagan is almost 2 MONTHS OLD!?!  Today is Day 60 in the NICU.

Holding Mamma's Finger

The last week has been a bit of a roller coaster.  As an experiment, April, our day primary care nurse, decided to take off Teagan's cannula altogether and see how she did.  The tape that holds the cannula in place was proving more of an irritation that the oxygen was helping. She handled it well  for a full day and a half and is back to low oxygen.  We'll try again soon!

Kangaroo Care can work up quite the appetite!

Teagan also had her second eye exam.  One of her eyes has stage 1 ROP.  The other eye was too immature to tell.  Nobody knows entirely what causes ROP, but it mainly happens to premature babies and is due to scar tissue forming on the cornea.  If it advances to higher stages such as 3, 4 or 5, it could result in permanent eye damage.  The good news is that Stage 1 ROP can sometimes cure itself.  If it does advance to a higher stage, they now have a couple different surgeries that have very high success rates in terms of curing the problem.

Should NOT have tried to nurse yet....

Back to the good news.  Teagan is now up to 1204 grams, and gaining on a regular basis.  This is a bit over 2 and a half pounds.  If she keeps this up, we'll have a normal chubby baby on our hands in no time!

We have also been working on getting Teagan's bedroom at home put together.  We installed a dimmer switch (with Sam only mildly electrocuting herself) and put together her bassinet.  It took under 5 hours and all parties involved were sufficiently impressed.

Our Quality Control Department, Edward

The Master of Disaster with his Allen wrench.

The completed project

Also, Miss Teagan has been spending a lot of time supine (on the back) in her isolette, and the nurses have been picking out cards from friends and family to put on top of the isolette for her to look at.  Any new pictures or cards are ALWAYS appreciated!

We have also started reading her Peter Pan, which Sam reads to her on her Kindle.  If you have any book recommendations - let us know!  Thank you as always for everyone's love and support!!!

You Spin Me Right Round Baby Right Round...

The best things DO come in small packages!

Today was hospital rounds again!  Every week I get to sit in on a panel of all Teagan's specialists and listen to them talk about how awesome she is.  Today she is 1008 grams!  OFFICIALLY over 2 lbs!  I even made her a little sign. 

High five for the Big Girl scale!!!

She has been moved to a regular nasal canula and her oxygen levels are down to 1 liter of pressure and oxygen at 21 - 24%.  This is pretty close to room air, which is great.  She is also getting quite good at getting her canula out of her nose by any method possible.  Medications are just caffeine to help her lungs, vitamin D and iron.  She also gets 28 calorie formula mixed with her breast milk and she's up to 6.2 mL per hour on feeds.

YAWN!  This gaining weight business is hard work!

She's doing really well, on target to start bottle feeding as soon as she's able to suck, swallow and remember to breathe at the same time.  She's also on target for coming home early October.

Chillin'.  Lovin' life.

Getting peeved with all the picture taking.

Sunday marked Teagan's 7 Week Birthday!  I can't believe she's almost 2 months old already!  I counted and we're at Day 50 in the NICU.  She's really starting to "chub up" and is looking more and more like a real baby - just a miniature one.  I even noticed that she has a little chin dimple - SO CUTE!!!

Omigosh - are they watching?  Can I get the canula out?

We've been taking turns with Kangaroo Care.  Since starting on the regular canula, she's having a little trouble handling the stress of being held and will have her little "A's & B's" (apnea and bradycardia events - you forget to breathe and your heart slows way down).  We've been able to hold her for an hour or so at a time.

So Daddy, lets talk about the toys you need to buy me.

It's so much fun to hold her - it makes my whole day.  All the stress of trying to get everything done just goes away when she looks up at me with those huge blue eyes and that funny little face.  I just love her to pieces.  And I can't wait to spoil her absolutely rotten.  We have her registry set up (shameless plug, I know) and I purchased her bassinet (thank you, Bernie and Mary Ann!).  It should get here in the mail tomorrow.  I plan to have a fun post about Ian putting it together.  Mayhap a video?  I take special requests!!!  Also, her preemie hat with the kitty ears.  (CURSE YOU AMAZON AND YOUR ONE-CLICK PURCHASING!)

Making things is one of the ways that I de-stress, and one of the nurses mentioned to me that they need more blankets like the one Teagan has on her isolette.  These fleece "tie blankets" are about 43" by 60" and are super easy to make by making cuts all around the outside and tying the strips together.    They're perfect size to fit over the isolette to keep warm air in, block noise and keep the isolette dark for preemie eyes.  I've made a couple to donate to the Evergreen NICU, but if you like making these and would like to donate one, they would love to have them!