So... it's been a while...

Heh, sorry. I have been a bit pre-occupied as of late. Zoey is 8 weeks old and doing awesomely... she has some acid reflux so she's on baby Zantac, which typically works great, but every once in a while she'll still completely soak through the thickest burp cloths and bibs... she likes to do this in public... she really likes to miss the burp cloth and cover the front of my shirt.

She's in her colic stage, but I'm counting my blessings. Breastfeeding has slowed waaaaay down... I still do it periodically but the milk machine is coming to a halt. Yes, it's true... it's my fault though. I started pumping less often to purposely pull back the supply because we had no room left to store the milk, plus I was hurting from creating 10oz every 3 hours... I mean, seriously, it's difficult to lug that around... pumping less meant the supply went down to 10oz every 6 hours... and now I'm at about 7oz every 7 hours. I pump enough for 2 meals each time I pump so I am just scraping by without dipping into our freezer... but it works. On top of cutting down the pumping sessions, I started birth control to keep the PCOS... well... under control. Happy ovaries mean a happy mommy. We finally did buy a deep freezer so now we can put big people food in our regular freezer. I've decided I'm going to start doing formula at night to help her sleep better and keep the breast milk going during the day... stretch that stuff out longer before we have to do exclusive formula. Zoey eats better... she no longer has these feeding spells... just the reflux problems, but she'll eventually get over it. I wish I could have exclusively breast fed from her day one, but I'm just thankful I've produced as much milk as I have and that I'm able to give it to her. It saves us money and gives her the live antibodies she needs.

I'm now only 5 lb away from my pre-pregnancy weight! This means I only have 25 lbs to go before I'm where I want to be weight wise. Instead of buying Shape Ups, I bought Tone Ups... these are SO cute... I got them in the mail and ended up having to send them back for being too small, but I'm waiting for my new pair right now... what do you think?
They're half the price of Shape Ups, perform the same, and perfect for summer weather. Who wants to wear socks and heavy shoes in 90 degree humid weather? Not me.

Okay so that's about it on the baby front... here are a few pictures for your viewing enjoyment...

...at a friend's house...

...having an underwater adventure!

...hanging out on daddy's lap...

Mothers Day!

Best Friends :)

Home Sweet Home.

I think I'll be perfectly content never stepping foot in Centennial Women's Hospital again. Don't get me wrong. The staff is awesome. But now that 8 weeks of my life has been given to that place... 8 weeks that felt like 8 years... I am content to never go back.

We are finally home with Zoey. On April 18, we finally got to bring her home. None of it seemed real until we were being walked out to our car by the discharge nurse. She is finally ours. After 3.5 weeks in NICU, she is ours.

She is doing well. She still has some issues with feeding. Being a preemie, her suck/swallow coordination is a little off and she forgets to breathe in between sucks, so we have to help her with that and burp her very frequently. The pediatrician says it's a reflux thing she'll grow out of as well. I look forward to her growing out of it.

I'm back to breastfeeding a little more. We figured out why she kept choking... well, we knew it was because I couldn't control my flow, but we found a solution. Pump first, then feed using a nipple shield. Works like a charm. Sometimes I just go ahead and feed without pumping and she's improving. We can't give up the shield yet, but we're getting closer. Sometimes we bottle feed my milk and that is going okay... she had a horrible choking spell in the hospital on April 6 using the Dr. Browns, and we were afraid to try them again, but she's taking them just fine now...

Home life is great. I love having her. She's a good baby! She sleeps good between feedings. She only gets fussy when she can't get a burp out or when she has hiccups, which she does have all the time, but she doesn't fuss the whole time. The dogs have kissed all over her, the cats have been sniffy, but not once have I heard a hiss or growl from any of the furbabies. So far everyone gets along just fine.

I'm glad the hospital nightmare is over. People ask me how I feel about a second child. My feeling is... I want one. But don't expect it for at least 3 years. I don't even want to discuss pregnancy until then. I love my daughter and am so thankful for her after the journey we've been on together. The hospital was a small chapter in my life that I am pleased to end. Motherhood post-hospital is a brand new chapter that I look forward to continuing.

Let's hope the rest of 2010 is much better...

Sweet moment between father and daughter in the hospital

A Hospital Update on Zoey

I am going to try my best to blog via BlackBerry so please excuse my typos...

Zoey is now 13 days old. The only thing keeping her in the hospital is the infamous spell count. Zoey has to go 5 days without forgetting to breathe... This week she went 4 days, we were asked to spend the night, getting ready to take her home... and then she had 5 spells in one day. I lost count of how many times I cried. I only completely lost it once though. When does this cycle end? PCOS, vasa previa, and a baby who can't breathe. Everything else with her is perfect. She eats a little over 2 oz every 4 hours right now and breastfeeds well.

Speaking of breast milk... Oh my goodess... I have a problem, but a good one... I over-produce. I can pump more than a day's supply of Zoey's meals in just 15 minutes. I'm not kidding. My freezer is too full right now... I pump ever 3-4 hours and only nurse her once a day... Can you imagine how much milk that is? In a day I have a week's worth of meals for her. This is definitely one thing I wanted very badly and I got it. I can produce 6-8 oz each time I pump so we're definitely in the milking business.

We have worked on decorating Zoey's room some more and boy is it cute. It's good to be home with my furbabies but when I get up in the middle of the night to pump instead of breastfeed, I feel like crying. I worked so hard for her and I don't have her... The hospital does. She is sweet as can be, such a cuddler... I miss her horribly when we leave in the afteroon. Eventually she will grow out of her preemie stage and remember to breathe. Right now it's just what preemies do.

I guess that is all I can update... I will try to blog more but right now I only can via BB. The internet is off at home until I make more $ again.

We've been discharged...

I'm no longer a patient in this hospital, but we've been allowed a courtesy stay for tonight. Zoey is progressing but I still won't be able to take her home just yet. I'm going to have a very difficult time leaving her here tomorrow night.

My milk supply is rapidly increasing. Thursday, I started out with 0.5mL of colostrum every other time I'd pump... today (Saturday) I've gotten 23mL of actual milk. Zoey eats 20mL right now, which means she can exclusively have my milk as long as I can keep producing. Today we attempted to actually breastfeed and she latched right on, but she was so sleepy, she didn't really feed. She felt comfort though, she just wanted to nuzzle and cuddle and stay latched on, but she didn't really drink. It was the most amazing feeling in the world. What upset me was that the nurse decided "we shouldn't force the breast on her but she needs to eat so I need to wake her up." She took her from my arms, woke her up, and bottle fed her my milk. Why couldn't we wake her to feed off me? That is why I am here. I didn't understand this... they also told me we can only try the breast once per shift, so I can't try again until tonight, but I at least have 23mL of milk pumped to give her just in case she doesn't want to latch on tonight.
Each day she has progressed big time and they have been able to take her off all breathing help. She is quite lovely... becoming more aware of Glenn and me... she just stares at us and we've been able to comfort her cries with our voices and touch. It's wonderful to be able to do that for her. Last night was the first time I got to hold her and it was wonderful. I've been limited on holding her because she has the feeding tube in her umbilical, which is in a major artery, so they've had to limit contact with her. That is supposed to come out tonight and an IV is going in her hand instead. I should be able to hold her more now.

I hope to have her home for Easter. She is a progressing steadily so I don't see why we couldn't... we just ask that everyone pray for her and that she keeps her strength up. She has lost almost a whole pound and is now down to 5lb 10oz, but they said it's okay because she had a lot of fluid to work out of her little system. As for me... well, I am progressing, too. My feet and ankles are bigger than they were when pregnant because of the c-section so that really sucks. They told me it'd get worse before it got better but I just need to keep trying to move and rest as much as possible.

Here's hoping for a quick recovery for little miss Zoey...