Saturday, November 24, 2012

Thankful

It is hard to believe that Thanksgiving is done and Christmas is just around the corner. The last 6 months have been an absolute roller coaster for us and we are thankful that the ride has slowed down during this busy time of year. Farrah is doing great! We think that she must be over 9 pounds now, which will be confirmed next week when she gets another vaccination and is weighed. Farrah had her first RSV shot two weeks ago and handled it like a champ. Farrah is growing and growing. She has pretty much outgrown all of her newborn clothes with footies and moved into 3 month clothes. Unfortunately, Farrah's umbilical hernia appears to be growing and not shrinking, so we have scheduled a consultation with a pediatric surgeon to see if they think that future surgery is necessary. It also appears that the hernia is causing Farrah discomfort, which we worry about. We have learned through research that surgery for this type of hernia is not typically done on such small babies, but we hope and pray for Farrah's sake that the hernia will go down on its own. Time will tell.

We have noticed significant positive changes in Farrah's interaction with us in the past two weeks. She maintains fabulous eye contact with whomever is holding her or talking to her. Farrah coos and "talks" with us while kicking her feet and moving her arms. Farrah is enjoying awake time in her swing and bouncy seat. Farrah's eyes can track us as we move around her. Farrah is eating more and sleeping more. We are still up at all hours of the night but it seems like Farrah is more comfortable than she was when we had her on a higher calorie fortifier.

We have developed a very nice relationship with Farrah's pediatrician and her family, and we were invited to their home for Thanksgiving. This relationship came after I met one of their daughter's, Lauren, through my bookclub and became friends with her. Lauren helped Ray to get his current job when he found himself unemployed the day that Farrah was born. She has been so helpful and kind to us, and her family has done the same. For Thanksgiving, their family prepared a delicious meal. Ray's sister has been in town for the long holiday weekend, so she also enjoyed the delicious meal and helped us keep an eye on the video monitor while Farrah slept upstairs and we all ate downstairs. It was a wonderful evening and we are so thankful to have found more friends here that we can spend time with.

We wish you all a wonderful start to your holiday season!

Thanksgiving Day
 
Holding Farrah the day when I got my flu shot
 
Farrah on her boppy pillow on 11/24/12.
 
 

Monday, November 12, 2012

4 Months Old

Life with Farrah at home, Ray working full-time, and me working almost full-time from home and now one day per week in the office is BUSY. I used to update the blog late at night but now I am starting to go to sleep since we are getting up at all sorts of different times in the night. No day (or night) is the same with Farrah, so we try to get enough sleep between the two of us to cover Farrah's feedings at night while still allowing us to function the next day.

Farrah has a good appetite and weighed in at 8 pounds, 3 ounces at her 4-month appointment today. She is snuggly fitting her newborn clothes and we have started using some of her 3-month clothes in the past few weeks. She is now 20 inches long. I have been to lots of follow up appointments with Farrah - ophthalmology, pulmonology, pediatrician, early intervention, newborn intensive care follow up program and we have some more appointments on the horizon - cardiology and pediatric surgery to look at Farrah's umbilical hernia. All of the doctors are very pleased with Farrah's progress. Farrah is starting to do tummy time a little more every day and we are still working on her breast feeding. She gets bigger andstronger every day and it is such a joy to watch her changes from week to week.

RSV season is just around the corner here in AZ, so we will continue to hunker down and keep Farrah isolated. Family members who will be spending time with Farrah this winter are getting the Tdap booster and their flu shots. Other than family, we have had very few visitors, and it will probably remain that way until the spring. Farrah cannot be around anyone who is sick because her immune system is still pretty fragile, especially with how much she went through respiratory-wise. Farrah qualified for insurance to cover a series of 5 RSV vaccines that must be administered every 28 days, and we will start with those later this week.

Hopefully I will be able to update a little more frequently in the future. I've added some of our newer photos below.

Photos from Farrah's 'newborn' photo shoot two weeks after coming home:
 
 
 
 
 
 
Photo from this past weekend 
 
 

Friday, October 12, 2012

Request from Meghan and Ray

Thanks to Ray's mother, Ash, Ray and I will have a print out of this blog and want Farrah to be able to look at it in the future. A lot of people have said that they have had problems trying to post comments on the blog. If you have been touched by Farrah's journey, included her in your prayers or prayer chains at church,  or just want to share a thought or quote, please send me an email at m_masterson310@yahoo.com (please note: there is an underscore _ in between the two m's). If you have already sent a message or card to that effect, don't worry about re-sending... we are saving everything we've received for Farrah.

We would love to know who has been following along with us and want to be able to share that with Farrah down the road. In the past four months, we have received so many encouraging emails and texts that have really helped to carry us through from one day to the next.

I will be sending out a birth/coming home announcement with a bunch of very belated thank you cards. If you would like to receive one, please email me your address.

Now that Farrah is home and doing so well, I plan on continuing to update this blog but it probably won't be as often as before. As you can imagine, Farrah keeps us very busy from sun up to sun down and everywhere in between. I like to say that Farrah is so happy to be home that she wakes us up all the time to tell us so.

As of yesterday, Farrah is up to 5 pounds, 5 ounces. She has outgrown almost all of her preemie clothes. As I was folding up her preemie clothes and reorganizing her newborn clothes in her dresser drawer, I couldn't believe that she has already gotten so much bigger since coming home only two weeks ago. Farrah takes a 2 ounce bottle every 2-3 hours. If she is up for drinking more, we give her whatever she'll drink. With all the bottle feeds, our bottle warmer is a life saver - a big thank you to Joe and Kim for that thoughtful gift!!! Farrah has also been breastfeeding once per day. Hopefully we can increase that as Farrah gets bigger and stronger. Farrah had some tummy problems her first week home, so we've been giving her plain breast milk as her tummy calms down. Hopefully as we add the fortifier and extra vitamins back, she will be able to tolerate it ok. It is pretty funny to be talking about a little one's bowel movements so much, but my mother tells me that it comes with the territory of being a parent.

We are loving on Farrah every chance we get. Farrah is very good about telling us when something is amiss and then we play a quick guessing game to figure out what she needs. Once we've changed her diaper and given her a bottle, cuddling seems to always do the trick. Early Intervention will be working with us in the near future to evaluate any areas where Farrah might be struggling. This is a benefit provided to preemie parents to help their children stay up to speed with developmental milestones and with addressing any challenges they may have down the road. We are looking forward to working with them to see what will help Farrah the most. We will do whatever we can to help give her the best start possible.

Now...some long overdue photos...

Lots of Mommy and Farrah cuddle time after she received her next set of vaccines on 10/10.


Farrah in a milk coma on Mommy's lap.
 
Farrah has been smiling a lot, but this is the first one that I caught on camera.
 
Farrah fast asleep on daddy's chest.
 
 



Friday, October 5, 2012

Update From Home

It is so wonderful to have Farrah home! As you can imagine, our sleep schedules have been drastically changed, but we are so thankful for the changes and recognize how far Farrah has already come. Farrah has been thriving at home with us. She acts more and more like a newborn each day and is growing like crazy. As of today, Farrah weighs 5 pounds! Some of the preemie outfits that were too big for Farrah only a few weeks ago don't even fit in her any more length-wise. Farrah has been seen by her pediatrician twice this week for weight checks and in order to keep a close eye on Farrah. I took Farrah to a follow up appointment with the eye doctor and he did not see any signs of  ROP (retinopathy of prematurity), which is great news. We don't need to check back with him for another 6 months. Farrah will be seeing a pulmonologist later this month to have a baseline check up regarding her lungs. She will need to be followed for a while as we keep an eye on Farrah's lungs and see if there will be any long term issues from when she was on the vent. Early Intervention will be doing an evalution of Farrah to see if she shows any early signs

Our time to update the blog is even more limited these days, but please know that we are all doing well, especially Farrah. I plan on updating at least once a week. now that Farrah is home. Thankfully, our cats did not have any issues adjusting to a baby being in the house. They want to be around Farrah and come looking for her when they hear her crying. We still put them in the laundry room at night and watch them all the time when they are around Farrah - just because you can't be too safe around animals.

I hope to get some more photos posted online soon. Thank you for all your communication about how happy you all are that Farrah is finally home!

Friday, September 28, 2012

Finally Home

Today, on the 85th day of her NICU stay, Farrah came home, and on her due date none the less. Ray and I were called this afternoon and told that today would be THE day. All the doctors and nurses are so proud of Farrah's progress, especially in the past month. Ray and I couldn't be prouder of our little girl. Farrah has been through so much in her 85 days of life and now is she acting like a newborn. We can't get enough of her little grunts, cries, and squeals. As we walked out of the hospital with Farrah in her carseat, we were both filled with so much appreciation for that very moment.

So many prayers answered, so many positive thoughts felt...we are blessed beyond belief...

So excited to bring Farrah home!
 
Last bottle feed in the hospital
 
Farrah in her coming home outfit.
 

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Getting Closer to Home

Even though there have been no posts for a few days, everything is going very well. When we realized that Farrah could be home as soon as this week, I called in reinforcements to help get the house ready for Farrah's homecoming. My mother flew out here on Friday morning and stayed until today. Together we were able to get the nursery ready and get odds and ends that I had not been able to pick up. We put together baby items that still needed to be assembled. Who would have thought that a baby bouncer seat could be a challenge to put together? Ray built the stroller on Saturday night and ours\ cats were quick to scope out all the new items. Now we are way more ready than we were on Thursday. My mother and I also had a really nice visit and had a blast folding all the tiny little clothes and decorating Farrah's room. There are a few finishing touches for Farrah's room and then I will post some photos on here.

Farrah had a great weekend. She passed the car seat test on Saturday night. For those who aren't familiar with the test, a NICU baby needs to sit in a car seat for 90 minutes without any drops in heartrate or desaturations. Farrah passed the test! That means that Farrah is one step closer to coming home. Farrah has been able to continue bottle feeding without any trouble and is up to 60 mLs each feed. During her feeding times, Farrah starts off very alert and then gets sleepier and sleepier as the feeding goes on. All the milk she is consuming is adding up, as tonight Farrah weighed 4 pounds, 4.5 ounces.

We made a decision about Farrah's vaccinations and will only be giving her one set while she is in the hospital. Then we will follow up with Farrah's pediatrician for the rest. We pray that Farrah has no setbacks after receiving her shot. On Tuesday night, we will be "rooming in" with Farrah as part of the NICUs encouragement to parents to spend 12 hours taking care of their baby before bringing him/her home. Rooming in is supposed to give parents an even better idea of what to expect and oftentimes brings questions to the forefront that parents never knew they had. On Wednesday morning, we will be attending the discharge class. We keep writing down questions for the class since it seems like coming home with a preemie is a lot different than coming home with a full term baby. We need to go over infant CPR too. Everything is coming together and now we wait to see what day Farrah will be able to come home. If Farrah comes home by this Friday or Saturday, that will be right around her due date. It will

Some of you have asked about Ray's work situation. Thankfully, he has been able to sell cars while looking for other opportunities and he will be starting a new position with another company on October 1st. One of our local friend's opened up the door for him to interview with this company and now he will be working there. While I was out of the office earlier this summer during my hospital bed rest and then recovery from my c section, my time off came from disability and a corporate leave. Now that we have a dependent child with medical needs(prematurity with a low birth weight and chronic lung disease), I quality for FMLA, or federal leave. We are so happy that I will be able to take some time off when Farrah comes home. It is a HUGE answer to prayer.

Farrah is such a cutie! We are more in love with her every day.

Friday, September 21, 2012

No More Tubes

Yesterday, Farrah got a little fussy and pulled out her nasal cannula. There was an order in to leave it out if she pulled it to see how she did on room air. Well, I am pleased to report that Farrah has been on room air ever since. After that, she pulled out her feeding tube in between her feeds, and now she has been on bottle feeds only for over 24 hours. That means no tubes! Farrah is not always satisfied after having her bottle, so the doctors wrote an order today for ad lib feeding, which means that if Farrah shows signs of hunger, her nurse does not need to wait until it is time for the next feeding. A typicaly bottle that Farrah drinks has 35 mL of milk, but between her 11 am round and 1 pm today, Farrah consumed 75 mLs. She is one hungry little girl! The more Farrah is eating, the more she is sleeping. The more she sleeps, the more she grows. Farrah was also moved to an open crib today and done a great job of regulating her temperature.

We are proud to report that Farrah hit the four-pound mark tonight! She seems to have one foot out of the NICU door and the rest of us are trying to catch up with her.