Less than a week?

Quick update to last night's Eliza post. The doc just called and spoke to Brenna. They've taken Eliza off the caffeine for brain stimulation. They will now watch her for the next five days and if she has no bradies, she will come home on Friday. Wow! We never anticipated it could be so soon. Very, very exciting, but also a little nerve wracking. Watch this space for additional updates.

Fillerups descend on SLC

Over the last four days Brenna had her first extended stretch of silence since Savannah was born. On Wednesday Savannah, Hunter, Madison and I piled into the van and headed on a road trip to SLC. My niece, Kelsey, got married on Friday, and we were headed over to be part of the festivities. Brenna wanted to go with us of course, but the draw of staying near Eliza and being able to spend a lot of time with her made Brenna's choice to stay home fairly easy. So, Bren spent four or five hours a day at the hospital and loved the opportunity to really feel like a mom to Eliza. On the other hand, the silence at home was a bit unsettling. All in all though, I think she wouldn't mind being unsettled in that manner once a year or so!


As for the rest of us, we partied and lived off the fat of the land (that is, off the generosity and kindness of my family). We stopped the first night in Vernal with my oldest sister and her family. Always a good time in Vernal--I was able to go to soccer practice with my nephew and then hoop it up with my niece and her gang later that night (a fierce rebounder is Sara). The kids enjoy spending time with their older cousins, and Aunt Jeanne always makes them feel important and loved. Ron and I get to chill on the couch and talk sports, and it's simply a good time all around.


The next day we headed to SLC where the family was gathering. After a few hours at my parents house visiting with Beth, Linda, mom and dad, we headed to my niece, Rebecca and her husband, Davis's, house. They're housesitting for his grandparents while they are on a mission in New York. So, we were able to stay in that lovely home and be the recipients of even lovelier hospitality. Rebecca and Davis, you did yourselves proud. Thanks for taking such good care of us. I especially enjoy watching how much Madison is just drawn to Rebecca. It's really cool. It started 1 1/2 years ago at Beth's wedding when Rebecca took Maddie under her wing. Time did not diminish the affection Maddie has for Rebecca. Nothing is as good for a parent's heart as knowing their children are loved and in good hands. The below pic is from Beth's wedding, but it beautifully captures how comfortable Maddie is with her.

Anyway, they picked up right where they left off, and Rebecca even made them their favorite for dinner--Kraft macaroni & cheese. Woohoo! You just can't beat it. Thanks, Rebecca for the pot stickers and egg rolls for the rest of us--very much preferred to the mac & cheese.

The rest of the SLC visit was just fantastic. We picked up a baptism dress and scriptures for Savannah. Hunter and Maddie were so distraught that they weren't getting scriptures that I went ahead and bought them travel-size copies of the Book of Mormon. It was priceless watching Hunter during the rest of the trip because he would frequently sit down with the book and just read--his finger tracing the words and his lips mouthing them.

The wedding was Friday afternoon at the SLC temple. I met Jordan for the first time, and was not at all surprised that the man Kelsey chose to marry is an absolute gentleman with a confident air coupled with a sense of humility. Very impressive. The wedding was so beautiful. I loved being in the temple and sharing that time with family and friends and especially being there to see Kelsey get married. After spending several days with her in London last year, I gained a real appreciation for the person she is. It is really cool to see nieces and nephews grow up and become an example that I enjoy looking up to.

I also got to meet Heidi's fiance Isaac, who is ridiculously impressive as well. Just surrounded by good people everywhere I turned. I love them all. Thanks Bryon and Sandra for raising Kelsey right so we all had a wonderful excuse to get together.

Now, for a couple of anecdotes: one funny and one serious.

Funny: at the wedding reception Kelsey and Jordan had their first dance and then invited everyone else onto the dance floor. I was dancing with Maddie when Hunter walked up to me with sad eyes and said he needed someone to dance with. I suggested he dance with Savannah, but he told me she was already dancing with Elise. So I suggested Aunt Jeanne, but he said she was too tall. So I apologized and said I was out of ideas. He turned away, and I kept dancing with Maddie. A couple minutes later I spotted him across the dance floor and he had found Jordan's youngest sister, Breanna to dance with. She is also six years old and in kindergarten, and they were an adorable pair. Needless to say, they attracted quite a crowd of picture takers and admirers. So, for those of you who took a picture of this moment please forward to me so I can post it (Brenna is seriously disappointed in me for my lack of picture taking during the trip, but I told her that lots of people took pictures, and I'm expecting my inbox to soon be flooded).

Serious: as we drove away from my parent's house on Saturday leaving the whole family behind I had the most wonderfully conflicting feeling in my heart. I was incredibly anxious to get back home to be with Brenna again, but at the same time I was so sad to be parting from my family. It brought tears to my eyes to think of the incredible influences they have been in my life and in my children's lives. Nothing can compare to the joy of family. From basketball games (side note: Hunter made his first unassisted basket on a 10 foot rim on Saturday) to Easter Egg hunts to E*Trade commercials to M&Ms to Wii to grand snackers and everything in between the past several days have been an absolute joy. Thanks, family. I love you all very much!

Leaps & Bounds

I finally was able to go back to the hospital today and spend some time there with Brenna and Eliza. Brenna very proudly took Eliza through all of her cares and showed me how well Eliza is doing with everything. The nurse was never even involved tonight--Brenna did everything! Bren has really enjoyed being more involved and feeling some sense of being in charge of Eliza's cares and progress. As she continues to grow and gain strength the parents are able to take care of more and more of her needs. It's a wonderful feeling!

As for specific developments this week, Eliza is progressing by leaps and bounds. She is up to 4 lb 11 oz and gaining daily. Tomorrow will be six weeks since she was born, and she has added about 2 lbs since then. It's fantastic to watch her grow. Brenna worked really hard on the nurses this week to get them to allow Eliza to take the bottle. Thursday was technically Eliza's 34 week mark, so Bren was pushing for her to try the bottle that day. The nurse was hesitant because they generally round down on the day of birth to the nearest week. So, in their records when they say she was born at 28 weeks, that means 28 weeks exactly. Consequently, the nurse felt that Eliza wouldn't be 34 weeks until tomorrow. Brenna persisted, so the nurse, with trepidation, allowed her to feed Eliza from a bottle. They had just upped her feeding amount to 40 cc's that day, so the nurse was doubly concerned. Well, the concern was unfounded. Brenna said Eliza just attacked the bottle and downed it completely without any trouble. The nurse was absolutely astounded at how well she did. So they have continued to feed her from the bottle, and she continues to do very well. They started with two bottle feedings a day (again, this was on Thursday), and when we showed up tonight the gavage was gone and Eliza is now being completely fed by the bottle. She took 70 cc's tonight and polished it off in about 20 minutes or so. Like I said a few weeks ago--a regular Paul Bunyan!

She also passed her hearing test today and hasn't had a brady for several days. The nurse tonight told us that she believes Eliza doesn't understand how old she is. They are simply floored by her progress, and we are very grateful to be participating observants (I'm pretty sure that's not a proper phrase, and generally people don't observe something and yet participate at the same time, but that's what we're doing here).

So, I guess what I'm getting at is that if things continue to go well, the timeframe for her triumphant discharge is going to be sooner rather than later. I will continue to tell people probably four weeks away or so, just to limit my own hopes and expectations, but in my heart I believe it will be much, much sooner than that. Eliza has exceeded all expectations, and we are thrilled with her tenacious spirit.

Leaps and bounds, indeed (shout out to Trent with the usage of that word!).

A few pics and a new video:


So peaceful. (We did have to ask the guard bunny to stand down to get a clear shot of her for this pic).


Brenna feeding Eliza her 70 cc bottle Sunday evening.


Still pretty tiny. It's hard to tell in this pic, but the blue pacifier is a regular full size. If you remember the purple one from the first few weeks, she has graduated to the larger size. It's still ridiculously huge in her mouth, but at least she's getting the real mccoy now.



There is no question in my mind that Eliza loves her mommy!

Continued Progress

Eliza is out of her isolette! They moved her into a regular crib on Sunday evening. She is now over 4 lbs and doing extremely well. She's doing great with her oxygen levels, her body temperature, her bradies and everything else she's tried. Now it's mostly a question of feeding. We're looking forward to her starting on the bottle either late this week or early next. Everything seems to be going well, so we're keeping our fingers crossed and sending prayers heavenward. Still no real time frame for her coming home, but it's likely four to six weeks or so. Seems like a long time, but when we think of how long she'll be with us we know we can wait these few, brief weeks to ensure she is completely ready to come home and be part of the family.

In related good news, and hopefully as a foreshadow of things to come, Eliza's first roomies, Preston and Sophia went home this last week. We didn't get to see their parents before they left, but Brenna spotted the Polaroid of them on the departure board. We're very happy for those fine families.

The only downer this week is that I didn't get to see Eliza at all. In most senses of the word I feel perfectly fine, but I do have a small tickle in my throat that leads to three or four coughing outbreaks a day, and the risk of getting Eliza (or any of the other premies) sick is just not worth it. So Brenna has been representing the parental units for our little one and doing a better job of it than I could muster anyhow. She comes home from her visits looking radiant. It is so fun to hear her talk about Eliza and see the growth of our daughter through Brenna's eyes. I'm glad Eliza has her for a mom.

It's been a while since I mentioned the effect this is having on the other three children, and the reason for that is because they are handling the situation like champs. Of course, having Brenna home with us and nearly back to her regular self makes all the difference. The kids are anxious for Eliza to come home, but since they don't know any differently, they are just rolling along from day to day and looking forward to seeing her. I'm really excited for that moment--I know she will be loved to the brink of danger when she makes her grand entrance. Of course, there will be a full report when that day arrives.

In other news, the kids and I are heading out to Utah this Wednesday for my niece's wedding. The kids are on spring break, so it's perfect timing. I'm excited to spend time with family and to be a part of the wedding. My nieces and nephews are such a blessing in my life. I really admire the people they are. And, I appreciate the fine example they set for my children. It's a great comfort to be able to point my children to any of their cousins and tell them it would be A-OK to follow in their footsteps.

Brenna will be living the high life for a few days and spending a lot of time with Eliza. She's even threatened to do a bit of organization around the house. I will be eager to return home to see how serious she is about the threat!

Now, we do have some picture updates this week, and our little girl is definitely changing. Without further ado...

This was taken about mid-week, I believe. You can see she was at 3 lb 11 oz at that point. She is now up to 4 lb 2 oz. It's amazing how she has just taken off. Perhaps by next week she'll be up around 5 lb. If she keeps going at this rate, she will be. But I guess I should slow down and just take one step at a time.

I love this picture. It really shows how much she has changed. She looks more filled out and older, somehow. For one so small a couple of weeks is a long time, and she is getting older. My heart just goes out to her. Her journey to our home will always amaze me. Life is simply incredible.

Yay! No more isolette. Eliza is the envy of the other premies as she enjoys her open-air crib with personal guard bunny. All the premies received bunnies on Easter, and it does serve to remind that Eliza is still pretty tiny. Frankly, the position Brenna has the bunny in for this pic is a little worrisome. I'm afraid the bunny is going to pounce. Reminds me of Monty Python's infamous "large, wooden rabbit."

All snuggled up with no isolette to regulate her temp. Don't you just want to hold her?

Week 4

Well folks, I'm afraid it will be a short update this week. Brenna saw Eliza on Monday, and I saw her on Tuesday and Wednesday. After that we were both sick with the sniffles and coughs and other various minor ailments. Not enough to truly consider ourselves sick, but enough that the hospital wanted nothing to do with us visiting the NICU. So, we've been anxiously trying to get ourselves better and calling down to the hospital for updates. A pretty big downer for us, but definitely good for Eliza in the long run. The last thing she needs is an overzealous parent to pass a bug to her. The doctor was emphatic that for a baby born at 28 weeks she is doing phenomenally and that we should stay well away until we are a day or two past completely better. So, we're biding our time and thinking of Eliza often.

The news on her end, once again, is all good. Early last week the NICU had another influx of premies, so they had to do some shuffling of babies in the various rooms to even out the workload on the nurses. Consequently, on Wednesday Eliza was moved to a new room. Goodbye, Sophia and Preston. We're sad to not get to spend time with their wonderful parents anymore, but Eliza's new room is actually quite a bit larger and very quiet, so we feel good about her new digs! Brenna hasn't been to that room yet, but she's looking forward to going down tomorrow (assuming we don't get too much snow here in Denver--they're talking about 18" overnight--yikes!). I'm still a few days away from being able to go down for another visit.

The updates we've received in the latter half of the week are these:

• Eliza is now up to 3 lb 8 oz. She's flying along! At 4 lb they will take her out of her isolette as they expect she'll be able to maintain her own body temperature at that point. I'm hoping for another week to 10 days there.
  
• She will be moved to "low flow" oxygen tomorrow, which basically means they will no longer be blowing any air in to help her keep her lungs open--she'll have to do that on her own. She will be receiving slightly more oxygen than room oxygen, but she is pretty low on that scale as well.
• She will start bottle feeding probably next week, or maybe the week after. Before coming home she needs to go 24 hours without being fed through the gavage. So, we have a while to go there.
• She's still having an occasional brady (drop of the heart rate). They consider them serious when they get down into the 50s. Eliza has been having about one of those a night, but she corrects them on her own without external stimulation, so that is good. She has to go five days without a brady before she can come home.

So, once she's over 4 lbs and still gaining weight, maintaining her own body temperature, being completely mouth fed and having gone five consecutive days without a brady she'll be able to come home. She is certainly headed in the right direction. I won't try to prognosticate a date for her to come home, but I'm very hopeful it will be before her due date. We look forward to that day with great anticipation!

Sorry, no pics this week as we didn't take the camera with us on any of our trips as we usually wait until the end of the week to get our photos. Just look at last week's pics and imagine her about 1/3 lb bigger!

Week 3

All good news this week! Eliza is getting extra calories with her feedings and she's been handling it very well. This evening she weighed in at 3 lb 3 oz. She's a regular Paul Bunyan! Here's hoping she keeps it up. She's still on very low oxygen flow and she wasn't under the lights at all this week. So she's doing very well. Every time we go in to see her she is just snuggled up like a papoose, and we feel bad about waking her up to take her temperature and change her diaper. But it's such a pleasure to see her wide open eyes and watch her stretch and wiggle around.


Tonight she had pulled the little oxygen tubes completely out of her nose and was breathing wholly unaided when I arrived. I don't know how long she had been like that but her oxygen level was exactly where it needed to be and the nurse (who is a very good nurse) was surprised to learn that the tubes weren't even in her nose. She was impressed with Eliza's lungs and we agreed that she is getting closer to the time when the tubes will be removed permanently. Every day we're getting a little nearer to her coming home.


As a side note about the hospital, we've really enjoyed getting to know Eliza's two "roommates" and their parents. Eliza is in a co-ed dorm with Sophia and Preston. They will both probably go home in the next three weeks or so, so they're a bit ahead of Eliza, but it's been fun to share the joys of seeing our children progress with those parents. It's comforting to be able to share experiences and realize that they know exactly what the difficulties are. In fact, both of them have had a far rougher time than we've had. Sophia was born at 26 weeks and weighed only 1 lb 8 oz. while Preston was born in a rural area at 31 weeks, but had no high tech equipment to monitor him and keep his lungs going, etc. Both sets of parents have had some stressful times over the last few months and we are so impressed with how they have handled everything. We're enjoying becoming part of that little community and are glad to have friends we can cheer for as their children do well.


At home Brenna is making great progress. She's been driving for the past few days and will make her first solo trip to the hospital tomorrow. That's a huge jump from where she was last week. She still gets worn out a lot more quickly than she used to, but every day is getting better. She tries to limit her trips up and down stairs, but she has resumed her role as boss, and the children are loving having mommy up and functioning. I'm pretty happy about it, too :-)


My oldest sister was in town for the past week and she did a great job of fitting right in and helping us wherever help was needed. Thanks, Aunt Jeanne, for your love and your willingness to help. We love you for it. And, thanks to the Cushings for letting us borrow their mom. We have been so fortunate to have family members willing to come out and help. What a huge difference that has made. We're so far in people's debt that we'll never be able to make it up, but the comforting thing is that we know people simply do it out of the goodness of their hearts. I was telling Preston's mom tonight that we read so many terrible things in the newspaper and see so many dreadful things on the news about what people do to each other, but my life's experiences have taught me just the opposite. There are so many good people who want to help and take care of others. People from all walks of life--we're all just people and kindness is something everyone can understand.


Anyway, enough verbiage. For this week just a few photos to share. Thanks everyone for your continued prayers and support. We know there are heavenly forces at work here.




Week 3 close up. We really enjoy the time we have with her when her eyes are open and she is looking around.





Here is Eliza's space--basically just her condo. When we come for a visit they bring in a glider (or two) for us to sit in. And that is how we spend our time with her.




Here's the first photo of all three of us. I'm looking forward to the first photo of all six (!) of us. That will be a very fun day.

Week 2

Eliza will be two weeks old tomorrow, and she is still doing very well. The only frustration we have is that she is not putting on weight. In fact, she closes out this week at only 12 1/2 ounces--still down by 1 1/2 ounces from her birth weight. Not drastic, but we'd rather see her gaining. They did put some additional calories into her milk for a couple of days, but that did a number on her stools, so she's back on straight milk now. The nurse said they'll try the extra calories again in a few days and may opt for a bit of a different recipe.

Eliza does enjoy her pacifier. When we put it in her mouth she will suck at it, and it seems the most natural thing in the world. It's just funny to see how big it is in her mouth. Tonight the nurse squeezed a few drops of milk onto the pacifier while it was in her mouth, and after a couple of minutes Eliza started sucking at it for all she was worth. It was really fun to see her reaction and understand that she was enjoying the taste and was having such a positive reaction.

Other than that not much has changed from our previous updates. It appears it will be a bit slow and go from here, but I'm just thrilled to say that no problems have arisen, and she is plugging along. She's doing great with oxygen and reacts well to pretty much everything that comes along. Just pray for her to grow.

A picture and a few videos from this past week:

Generally when we arrive Eliza is sleeping pretty soundly. But after we check her temperature and change her diaper her eyes are usually wide open. This is a good example.

And, a video showing those wide open eyes. She's doing great!

I love watching her go after the pacifier in this one. Not sure how long before they'll let her try a bottle, but her sucking reflex is pretty impressive. Also, her cap is just adorable. That will be one of my favorite keepsakes.

Love that little smile!