3 months old

Can you believe it? Miss Paisley is 3 months old now!!! I feel like especially with her time is flying by. AT 3 months Paisley is 9lb, and is 20 and 1/4 inches long. She is cooing, and smiling largely now. She can roll from her back to either side but can't seem to get herself all the way over quite yet. She is my "high maintenance baby". She loves to be held and snuggled all the time, which isn't conducive to getting anything done around the house. She is continuing to love nursing and takes some of my milk pumped in a bottle fairly well. She is very gassy at times, and I wonder if she has any allergies or something that we are not thinking of.... Sleep is a huge challenge right now. She doesn't like to be put down at all, and therefore someone is going to have to hold her throughout the night. Right now she sleeps on top of me as we have been trying to get her to sleep longer....

My big girl

I had a follow up with the pediatrician today for Paisley. I am happy to announce that her weight has taken off finally. The doctor was hoping that she would gain between 15 and 30 grams a day. Paisley has intermittently gained less than 15 but never more than 22grams since we have been home. Well her weight gain this past week has averaged her out to 37.5grams a day!!! I am beyond excited about this. It is always so frustrating to have a great milk supply and to work so hard to get a NICU baby to latch on only to have them not grow well :-( It is something I certainly have beat myself up about. I can't keep them in until they are full term, so I always hate that my milk doesn't make them grow chubby :-( Well maybe Miss Paisley will end up being my chubby girl. I am really hoping that will be the case. Now we don't have to go back to the pediatrician for a little over a week this time, and it will be for her two month check up! I can't believe she will be two months old already! Time flies :-)

6 week check up

Today I had my six week check up. My weight is great, I am 21 pounds less than when I got pregnant. Unfortunately my blood pressure is still not back to normal :-( I am so discouraged about it. It really isn't high when it comes to the parameters that doctors set, but it is higher than before I got pregnant. The OB also recommended I contact the cardiologist "sooner rather than later." So unfortunately I have to schedule that now too. But all in all it was a great appointment. I am so thankful to have the pregnancy behind me, and praising God that He protected Paisley and I throughout the whole thing. Hard to believe the little miss is 6 weeks old today! Her smallest weight was 3lb 13oz and she is up to 6lb 4oz!!! Growing like a weed. Unfortunately this week has been a little bit rough for her. I am not completely sure what is going on, if it is something that I am eating that is upsetting her stomach, or if it is reflux. But she has been spitting and puking with just about EVERY feeding. Poor girl seems to have some discomfort with it too. We will be headed back to the doctor on Monday.

Story Time and Paisley's weight

I used to take Sophia all the time to story time when she was little and she loved it. I was thrilled when I was able to get Preston into a toddler story time at our local library. He absolutely loves to be read to, and loves music and singing as well. All three things are in abundance at story time. So today we went for our first time. I was a little surprised and how distracted he was and how he didn't sit as well as he usually does for story time but he did well. They read three stories that were about fall and leaves. After the stories they played some music and the kids got to dance and play a little bit. And then they got to do a little coloring activity where they colored on paper that had a leaf underneath. So he got to make his first leaf rubbing. Yesterday I brought Miss Paisley to the doctor. I am thrilled to report that she is up to 6lb exactly! She is growing so big. It isn't exactly as much as they would like her to be gaining but she is gaining at least. It averages out to about 22 grams a day versus the 30 that they would like. She is also seeming to be spitting up more and more often. I am praying that this isn't anything to be concerned about, and rejoicing that she is still gaining with all of the puking. Preston is so cute with her. He says "I hold it mommy?" when he wants to hold her. And then is so thrilled when I lay her on his lap for the thirty seconds that he wants her.

Another weigh in...

Dr Trish came back to the house to weigh Miss Paisley again today. She gained two ounces! She is now up to 5lb 2oz! I am so relieved and feeling so thankful that she gained! We have to go back to the doctor on Thursday for another weight check, we also will have to do an ultrasound of her hips, within the next couple of weeks or so because she was breech and that can cause a problem with their hips. She currently is feeding every three hours around the clock, she is nursing as well as being supplemented every other feeding with my milk fortified with extra calories. Unfortunately the fortifier seems to be bothering her stomach and she becomes very gassy and spitty whenever she gets the bottles. IT is an exhausting process. I nurse her and that takes about half an hour to forty five minutes start to finish. And then three hours later I have to pump and give her expressed milk so it feels like it is only about an hour and a half in between feedings. But it is so wonderful to be home and to be reunited with my family. Tomorrow is Sophia's first day of kindergarten! I can't believe it! She is very excited and is thrilled to be riding the school bus. Our town is cool as they allow the parents to go to school on the first day with the kindergarteners. I was in the hospital on Sam's first day and was heartbroken that I missed it. I had been anxious all along this summer that I would miss Sophia's first day as well but praise God I will be going too. Matt will go to school with her on the bus, but I will go and meet them at the school to meet her teacher, and experience kindergarten with her.

Our first weigh in with Dr Trish

WE are so incredibly blessed to have such an amazing doctor caring for our family. She actually made a visit to our house to weigh Paisley and check in on her today! Paisley's discharge weight on Friday was 4lb 15.4 oz. When Dr Trish weighed her today (different scale so there is a little room for error) she weighed 5lb 0oz, which unfortunately means she hasn't really gained well over the weekend. But other than that she was thrilled with how everything else with Paisley looked. We will get rechecked tomorrow. My mom has continued to be a tremendous blessing and has continued to come and help us with laundry, cleaning, and of course snuggling and loving on my kiddos. So so thankful

Tubby time

Miss Paisley got a bath today. She fussed initially when they put her in the tub but then she relaxed and was just floating with her legs crossed. The nurses are so wonderful, I feel so blessed to have such kind women caring for my girl. She is doing so well. She is up to 4lb 11.7 ounces now. She is taking almost 1.5 ounces when she bottle feeds, and is nursing for anywhere between 6-15minutes per feeding. Right now she eats every three hours, and we are alternating between breast and fortified breast milk to give her extra calories to help her grow quicker.

Lots of loving

Paisley is growing so well. She is now 4lb 7oz! And she is officially bigger than Sammy was when I brought him home from the hospital, as Sam was only 4lb6oz. So she is doing phenomenally well. The biggest issue that she is still having is that she won't eat very much by mouth. She is probably only taking 30-40% of her intake by mouth. We had lots of visitors today. Meme' came and snuggled Paisley for a while, and Grammie Shuttle and Gail came too. Grammie Shuttle mentioned my grammy and it made me so sad. It is so sad to know that Paisley and Preston will never be rocked and sung to this side of heaven. I also had a doctors appointment today. Unfortunately I had an allergic reaction to the steri-strips they used to close my incision. So I have blisters all over the incision and some of them the doctor believes are infected. So I started antibiotics and prayerfully nothing else will happen with it.

I'm a big girl now!!!

Paisley is doing so incredibly well. They were thinking about taking her out of the incubator tomorrow but she kept her little self so warm today that they had to take her out of it today so she wouldn't be too hot!!! She continues to gain weight well and is up to 4lb 5oz. Auntie Chantal came and loved on her today which was so nice. It is so nice to be surrounded by so much love and support. The kids at home are being loved on by tons of people too. I think it is still really hard, wanting to be at home and wanting to be with Paisley but we are just so blessed with so many people willing to help. I was really struggling last Friday feeling so torn between Paisley and my big kids. Sam had IVIG (which praise God Auntie Paula went with him to), Sophia was having tons of pain in her mouth and had an emergency dentist visit.... Preston is just missing things being normal at home.... I just want to be everywhere at once.