New Pictures

Alexa's new pictures are on the link at the right, or here

http://picasaweb.google.com/seabass2020/AlexaSPhotoshoot?authkey=T6K9JZ8C4Hw.

Feel free to leave your comments on how cute you think she is.

Transfusion

On Monday, a photographer came by and took several pictures of Alexa. It's done by a professional photographer who volunteers her time and resources for all babies in the NICU. She doesn't charge anything and even gives us all the pictures on a CD and a copyright release so we can have them printed. A lot of them turned out really good. We'll put them on her Picasa site.

Alexa received her blood transfusion today. The doctor is hopeful that she will start perking up, since her red blood cell count was so low. They have also changed her reflux medicine just in case that was also causing problems. She looked really pale this morning, but she has really got alot of her color back since receiving the blood. Things were a little scary this morning with all of this going on, but as I was thinking about it, I had a really good feeling come over me about the whole thing. And something about that made me know that Alexa was going to be OK in spite of everything that had happened. We really appreciate everyone who has prayed with us and for us. I know it's working - just look at her!

Another Delay

Sunday the nurses and doctor told us we would be able to take Alexa home Friday. We decided not to tell anyone, for fear of bad karma. Last night we were still on for staying the night with her and taking her home Friday. We said bye to all our friends and took pictures with all the nurses. Then, this morning our nurse told us Alexa had a serious episode last night that required oxygen to stabilize her. So, they've delayed her going home again. I guess it's a good thing she's not going home until she's ready - we're just ready for her to be ready. The doctor doesn't know what's wrong with her yet. He's concerned that her episodes are becoming more frequent and that she's having a hard time maintaining her body temperature. They did some tests on her this morning and because her red blood cell count was low, they decided she needs a transfusion. They'll do that today at 1:30.
As always, your prayers are much appreciated, felt, and needed.

Petersen Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Family search - Vintage photos

Four Pounds!!!

Alexa finally made it to four pounds! A landmark that has proven to be somewhat of an illusive white rabbit. Our next goal is to take her home. The Ronald McDonald house (where we have been staying for the last 6 weeks) is having their 10 year anniversary this Saturday. There's going to be a huge celebration and Ronald himself is going to make an appearance. He might even be coming to the NICU for some photo ops. I really, really, really hope we're home when all that goes down. Eating with Ronald is one thing, but a visit and photos is just a little over the top for me.

Alexa is eating really well, and doesn't seem to have any problems besides her occasional heart rate/ breathing episodes. We really just want to take her home - but at the same time we want to make sure she's ready too. She's right at two weeks shy of her expected due date, and we've been in the hospital for just under 7 weeks now.

Car Seat, CPR, and Monitors

The past couple days have been more waiting around and two more disappointing scheduled departures that have come and gone. Alexa has had a few heart rate and breathing episodes these last couple of days. It hasn't been anything major, just one or two a day. The doctor doesn't know whether it's because of acid reflux or if it's sleep apnea. All the nurses think it's reflux. They have medicine that can help that, but the doctor is hesitant to start her on anything until he knows for sure what it is. The regular ENT doctor is on vacation, so we've had to wait a couple more days for a surgeon to come look at her (I can't wait to see that on our bill). So tomorrow morning he'll look at her throat and decide whether she has reflux or not. Also, tomorrow we are getting trained on the heart rate monitors. They're planning on us taking a monitor home for a while, so we have to get some kind of training. I don't really see what there is to train about - if it goes off, there is something wrong, how hard can it be??

Alexa did her car seat test Sunday. They like to put them in their car seat and let them stay in there for awhile on the monitors to make sure they can still breathe and are comfortable. There must have been 5 or 6 nurses in there with us. One was putting her in the car seat and the rest were telling us how small and cute she was.

We also had to watch a CPR video. It took us an hour, and that was with me fast forwarding all that parts I thought were irrelevant or repetitive.

Chasing the carrot

Alexa had a few breathing / heartrate episodes yesterday, so the doctor decided she needed to go home on a heart rate monitor. This turned out to be kind of a blessing, because they weren't going to give us a monitor unless she had a reason to. We were really hoping to have her on a monitor just for a little peace of mind. The bad news is she will have to stay for another couple days because we have to get trained on how to use the monitors. I'm starting to feel like the donkey chasing the carrot. It seems like we're moving, but not getting any closer.