Week 2

Amelia started looking yellow again toward the end of her first week. We asked the staff to check her bilirubin levels, and they were quite high (17.something) so she had to go back in the special UV crib. Her levels went down after a couple days, so she went back into the isolette. After a couple days in there, she was able to spend her last two days in a regular crib - hurray!

A couple days after my milk came in (which took almost a week), Amelia became strong enough to stop using the SNS line. She started gaining weight rather than losing it, so Dr. O'dell let us take the IV out of her forehead. One of the nurses immediately replaced it with a bow, much to Tim's chagrin (they used KY gel to make it stick, which is really difficult to remove from skin once dried). I was happy to hold her without worrying that I would inadvertantly rip the line from her head and scar her for life.

On Sunday, the doctor told us that Amelia was almost ready to go home. He said she could go home either Monday or Tuesday, and we opted for Tuesday. It was bittersweet news - on the one hand, it would be nice to take her home and cuddle with her as long as we pleased. On the other hand, as much as I hated all the lines and IVs and monitors, there was a certain comfort in knowing that if she stopped breathing or pumping blood through her body, a team of specialists was within ten feet who could come resuscitate her.

Hospitals have strict rules about taking home your child - especially for preemies. The night before her discharge, she had to sit in her carseat for 2 hours while connected to all her monitors to make sure the carseat angles wouldn't impede her ability to stay alive. If she had any "episodes" (heart rate lowering, etc.), she would fail. Luckily, she passed the first time. I sat and watched her the entire time, just in case the monitors failed. We laughed a lot the first time we put her in a car seat... she looked even tinier than usual.

Even though Amelia was finally gaining weight, Dr. O'dell was a little nervous that she wasn't getting as much as she could be, so he instructed us to supplement her nursing with 40-50 mls pumped breastmilk every other feeding, and 2 ounces of a special preemie formula once a day. We could have used the SNS system, but since I have to go back to work eventually, we decided to introduce bottle feeding instead at that point (don't worry, we were working with a lactation specialist). If she had started to reject my breast, we would have discontinued bottles for a while. Happily, this has never been a problem.

Finally the happy and terrifying moment came... we took our little sweetheart "home" to my parents' house.

We decided not to fly back to Boston immediately since her lungs were still premature compared to full-term babies, so we stayed with my parents for a few weeks. We were so luckly to have friends and family who showered us with baby clothes, quilts, and burp cloths. In addition, a special woman named Shawna let us borrow a bassinette - I have no idea what we would have done otherwise.

Having little to do except fawn over our baby, I took roughly a kajillion photos per dium.

We were under strict orders to let the baby sleep as much as possible and cry as little as possible so that she could use all her energy buidling the fat stores that are so necessary in order to regulate her body temperature. We were also under strict orders to severely limit her contact with other humans. We did pretty well, but did have a few very special visitors, including...

My good friend / cousin Marsha:

My parents (who weren't really visitors since we were staying with them):

I love this picture of Amelia holding my dad's finger with her tiny hand.

A close up:

My brother Lance and his wife Dani, who were really, really good about coming to visit us. They both brought various baked goods and treats to help fatten me up, which in turn helped fatten Amelia up. Actually, I probably didn't need to be fattened up, but I ate the doughnuts, cinnamon bread, and other treats just to be safe.

My friend Melinda, who grew up across the street from us and is like a sister, came several times and kept bringing presents. She said she just couldn't stop. We went to the Walmart where she works, and she called all of her coworkers over to see the baby. A few minutes later, a complete stranger tracked us down in the diaper aisle and said, "Melinda said I had to come see your baby."

While we were in the hospital, Amelia wore preemie-sized clothes provided by the NICU. When we came home, we realized we only had a couple preemie outfits, so we went to every store in Cache Valley and bought every preemie outfit we could find. Unfortunately, preemie sizes are hard to come by, so we ended up buying several outfits meant for boys. When she was wearing such outfits, my mom would say, "Oh, what a beautiful baby boy you have."

I have serious anxiety regarding SIDS and infant suffocation, so I was surprised to go through my photos and find this picture of Amelia wrapped *loosely* in a blanket. That would never happen these days. :-)

Man, I love this baby.