Blessings

The best things come in small packages... When I think about how blessed I am it brings tears to my eyes. We are so "lucky" to be where we are right now. A year ago at this time Cate was in the NICU. The day before Thanksgiving Duke's dad was in the hospital with heart complications. That night Cate's dr said that they thought she had NEC (an infection in the intestines that can be fatal). Yesterday I kept looking at Cate and thinking back. I am so thankful for how far she has come, and for how well her little sister is doing. I could have never imagined all this. This past year has been the most difficult year of my life and definitely the most rewarding. I am also thankful for Duke. He is a wonderful husband and father! I thank God everyday that I have Duke along with me on this journey.

Chloe is doing great! She is now 4lb, 5oz. The dr increased her to 4 oral feeds a day. He said there is a 50/50 chance that she could go home by this time next week!! Please pray that she keeps improving at her oral feeds.

4 Pounder Club!

Chloe is now 4lb, 1oz!! She is still attempting three oral feeds a day, by breast or bottle. The other five feeds are done by feeding tube. She sleeps a lot so she is not always awake enough to do an oral feed, or she will be awake but falls asleep during the feed. They tell us we need to be patient and not push her--this is all normal. She should still be in my belly for 4 more weeks... Chloe is 36 weeks gestation today. The nurses keep telling me that she is calm and content. I love hearing those words. We are hoping it stays that way. :) The nurses described Cate as stubborn and a little fighter. Being a 28 weeker, I think it is good that she was the more fiery one. Thank you all for your prayers! If you would continue to pray for Chloe's oral feeds to improve we'd appreciate it.

Things are going well with Cate, although I don't see her much. I am at the hospital most of the day. We are missing her sooo much! Thanks to Duke's mom and my mom we are able to be at the hospital a lot more than we would be otherwise. I don't know what we would do without all their help right now. This would be much more difficult. Cate is saying new words everyday. One of her latest is "dada-wow"! She enunciates the wow part very well. She's hilarious. For as much as she cried non-stop when we brought her home, she never cries now. She is so happy! What a fun age. She is such a sponge right now. She is not the biggest eater. She likes solids much more than the bottle. The dr has her on pediasure right now for weight gain. When we give this to her we need to let her watch her favorite TV shows to distract her. We have two Oprah's tivoed that she watches for all bottles--Michael Buble and Black Eyed Peas. She smiles and claps whenever it comes on (4 times a day). Thanks for checking in on our girls!!

Crib Time

As of today, Chloe is out of the isolette and in a crib! This is a big milestone. Just that much closer to going home. She has been maintaining her temps, so I guess they were okay with her coming out of the isolette before she's at 1800 grams (4 lbs). She currently weighs 1740 grams. She was 1750 grams (3lb, 14oz) at birth. They have upped her to 3 oral feeds a day. So 3 out of 8 feeds we will attempt bottle or breastfeeding. Once she is successful at 3, they will move her up to 4. She was not "successful" at 2 feeds, but they still moved her up. She is really doing great! Everyday when I talk to the doctors they say they don't have much to tell me, that she is doing very well. That's exactly what I want to hear. Please pray for Chloe to be successful with bottle and breastfeeding. Thanks for checking in on us, and thanks for your prayers!!

Bottle Feeding

Duke and I had a good day with Chloe. She is off all her monitors except heartrate. She started bottle feeding today and will start breast feeding tomorrow. Once she is successful (feeds for 10 minutes straight) at 2 bottles/breast feeding then she will move to 3 times a day until she is taking 8 feeds a day without using the feeding tube. She currently weighs 1750 grams (3 lb, 11oz). When she is at 1800 grams they will move her to a crib. That could be in the next couple days. We also gave her her second bath today. She seemed to like it a little more this time. She is doing so well. Please pray that her oral feeds go well.

Ultrasound Results

Chloe's head ultrasound came back normal. I love the word normal. I couldn't be happier to hear that. That ultrasound would show if there are brain bleeds and signs of cerebral palsy. She had another ultrasound done yesterday that did not come back normal. Chloe is at risk for having a tethered spine. The dr said that Chloe's ultrasound showed that her spinal cord "is a little lower than they would like to see". He said that there are a lot of false positives with an ultrasound. She will have to have an MRI in 1-3 months to get a more definitive answer. He said if it shows that she does have a tethered spine on the MRI they will have to go in and de-tether it. He said at that point she would have to see a neurosurgeon. I am praying that this is a false positive. Besides getting this news, today was a good day for Chloe. She was feeling good--they upped her feeds to 15 cc's and lowered her i.v. fluids. She did not poop today, so I'm hoping that she'll have pooped by tomorrow morning. Chloe's nurse took a picture of her this morning trying to crawl out of her isolette. This is something we caught Cate doing on occasion. She said that this is not something that all babies in the NICU do, only the Perfect sisters. :)

Bath Time and Kangaroo Time

One Week Old

Chloe is one week old today! She was spitting up a little more than usual last night and this morning. Dr. Needelman decided to cut her feeds in half to 10 cc's and he increased her i.v. fluids. They also ordered an x-ray because she had visible bowel loops. All looked good on the x-ray. They will do another one tomorrow morning. They said her belly felt soft (which is good) after that. They also gave her a suppository and she then pooped twice. Her head ultrasound was done this morning. The dr will go over the results with us tonight or tomorrow morning. I will update this post if I hear anything tonight. Her jaundice was up a little so her bilirubin light is back on. Please pray for good results on her head ultrasound and her x-ray tomorrow morning.

I was getting ready to post pictures of Chloe this morning when I was at home. I couldn't find the usb port and found out that Duke had it at work. Someday I will get it done. :)

Room Air

As neonatologist Dr. Needelman says, "Chloe is doing great!" Thanks to my cousin Megan's prayers, Chloe is pooping a lot--4 times alone yesterday. What a relief it is to me to see consistent pooping. That was a constant worry with Cate. She now weighs 3lb, 9oz. We are hoping she starts gaining weight soon. They say it can take a week to 10 days for them to start gaining weight. She is still on i.v. fluids, but a step down from what she was on. They may take her off i.v. fluids completely tonight. Then she will be getting just breastmilk through her feeding tube. She is now at 21 cc's every 3 hours. But the biggest news is that they just took her off heated high-flo. She is breathing room air just like you and me, no oxygen, no support. So far she is doing great without it. Please pray that that continues. I will try to post some pictures tonight. Our internet hasn't been working away from home so I have had trouble making time getting them posted.

A quick note on Cate... She is also doing great! She now has two toofers! Both are on the bottom. So cute. We are now able to put her in her crib without rocking her to sleep first. She decided to grow up before her sissy comes home. Thanks for checking in on us.

Off the Vent

Things are going well. Chloe came off the ventilator Friday night and has been off it since. They put her on a nasal canula intermediate support (a little more support than basic oxygen). They keep checking her blood gases to make sure she is handling it okay. They keep coming back really good. All of her vitals are good and stable. She was getting 4 cc's of breastmilk through a feeding tube every 3hours since yesterday afternoon, and now they have just increased it to 8 cc's. Her breathing has been a little bit labored with this, so we are hoping she is able to go #2 soon. Please pray for poopies. :) Infection is always a concern. Chloe now weighs 3 lb, 11 oz. Her weight should start going up now that she is getting breastmilk. We got to hold her last night. That was wonderful! More later... Duke will try to post some pictures tonight.

Chloe Hazel Perfect

Cate is going to have to learn how to share now that she has a younger sister. She will start with this blog. :) Chloe was born by c-section (Mom is doing good) on 11/5/09 at 12:44PM. She was much bigger than expected at 3lbs 14oz. She didn't want to breathe right away so she went on the ventalator. The doctors are hopefull she will be off of it in a few days. We will update more later.

Baby Will Be Here November 5th

I went to the perinatologist this morning. Everything looked good (blood pressure, amniotic fluid, heartrate, blood flow, etc), but the baby has not grown much over the past 2 weeks. She only grew around 90 grams (1.5 ounces). When I heard this I knew what the dr was going to say. He gave me a shot of steroids. I will go back tomorrow to get another dose. This will give the baby a boost to her lungs. He scheduled a c-section for this Thursday, November 5th at noon. So baby Perfect will be here very soon. She weighs approximately 3 lbs, 1 oz. (1425 grams) and is measuring as a 29 weeker, although I am 33 weeks today. Please say some prayers for us. We are so excited to see our girl and are happy that we have made it 5 weeks farther than last time. However, after everything we learned with Cate we can't help but be a little scared. Thanks for thinking of us!

Cate's Birthday Party

Cate had a wonderful birthday party! She loved the attention and was definitely ready for a nap when it was over. :)