Input, output, sleep.

Laurie's been doing most of the blogging lately but I thought I should get one in before the end of the year!

Things have been pretty busy since Emma came home. Caring for a newborn that has her days and nights reversed and a three year old drama queen doesn't leave either of us with much time to spare, but having to deal with the baby basics of input, output, and sleep (or lack thereof) is a refreshing change after months in the NICU. It's hard to express how after all that we've been though, a bit of partially digested breast milk and a diaper filled to capacity is nothing. I'm just happy that Emma is eating well, and that all the various outputs are within normal parameters, or at least from an acoustical perspective they seem normal for anyone who has inherited characteristics of my digestive system. (I expect she'll be a beer drinker.)

On a more personal note, I would like to thank all of you for your support over the past six months, and extend our warmest wishes to you and your families. May 2006 bring you happiness, health, and prosperity. See you next year!

Emma Discovers....

the joys of a play gym :)

Back On the Charts

Emma is finally, finally, back on the preterm infant growth charts. Although her birth weight of 678 grams (1 lb., 8 oz.) placed her at the 50th percentile for her gestational age of 24 weeks, due to Emma's early health problems, she had fallen off the growth charts. In fact, until today, her growth/weight gain had been beneath the 3rd percentile. Even though she was consistently gaining weight, it was never quite enough for her to get back on the charts.



Today, however, Miss Emma has bounded back on the charts and she sits comfortably just above the 3rd percentile for her gestational age. We had another session with the lactation consultant at the Special Care nursery and the appointment showed that Emma has gained really well over the past week. She weighed in today at 7 pounds, 3 ounces! Her "half-pound cheeks" are getting even pudgier :)




We've been sticking pretty close to home since Christmas, because Big Sister has a nasty cold. Michaela was feeling a bit better tonight though, and agreed to pose for a family photo:



...and further proof that Miss Michaela shares her father's sense of humour :)

Merry Christmas!

We have the bestest, most precious gifts under our tree this year :)





Emma, Michaela, Eric and I wish you all a Wonderful Holiday Season filled with happiness, love, and laughter...

Happy Birthday Big Sister

It's hard to believe, but our first baby is 3 years old today!



We celebrated Big Sister Michaela's 3rd birthday over the weekend by having a small party. Opa and Grandma and Uncle Dean came from Barrie and were finally able to hold Emma for the first time (last time Opa and Grandma saw her, Emma was a very sick little girl and couldn't leave the confines of her isolette).





A small group of family and friends joined us for the party and were *finally* able to meet Emma in person. She's doing really well, just eating and sleeping and growing. Emma still seems to enjoy sleeping most of the day and is ready to party for much of the night (gee, you'd think she was a teenager, hmm? :) It will be nice when she gets the whole day and night thing worked out so we can get back to a more sane sleeping schedule. We're not complaining, though. We're really enjoying the "normal" life-with-a-newborn-in-the-house activities :)

More Good News

Sorry for taking so long to post a new update to the Emma Report, everyone... Thanks for being patient :)

The past 10 days have been a bit crazy around here.... Between Emma and Michaela, we've had six (!) medical appointments. Eric was out of town for a bit, so I was flying solo with the girls and just about asked Nancy to send me some of her WW undies :) Thankfully, things should slow down soon (well, after Michaela's 3rd birthday party this weekend), and, apart from the run-of-the-mill sleep deprivation, we're all doing well.

Emma has broken through the 6 pound barrier and is regularly hoovering down all of her feeds and demanding MORE!! We're still restricting her fluid intake somewhat (she still has some trouble with fluid retention and we don't want to overload her lungs), but we might be able to give her as much as she wants soon.

Even better than her weight gain news, though, are the results of her hearing test today. As I mentioned several weeks ago, Emma didn't "pass" her preliminary hearing test at the SCN. This in and of itself isn't unusual in a micropreemie, but we were still worried and were anticipating that she might have some sort of hearing impairment. Today, we went to CHEO and had a more detailed 2 hour assessment with the Audiology Clinic. While the results show that she does have mild-to-moderate loss of hearing in the low frequency range, the audiologist was quite certain this was a temporary finding, completely related to a build up of fluid in Emma's ears (a relatively normal occurence in a newborn). The audiologist was able to factor out the impact of this fluid during one portion of the test, and the overall results indicated that Emma's hearing is NORMAL!!!

According to today's findings, there is no indication that Emma's early health problems and prolonged ventilation/oxygen requirements have impacted on her hearing. However, as there is still a small chance that she might develop some hearing loss over the next 18 months, Emma will be followed closely and will have three more of these detailed audiology assessments (at 4, 10, and 18 months corrected age). For now, though, we're breathing a big, huge sigh of relief!

And, for your viewing pleasure, here are a few pics from this week:

Day 122: Four Months Old

Miss Emma is four months old today (or just over a week old, depending on how you look at it).



Not much to report.... She's doing well and we're just enjoying having her home at last :)



We're off to the pediatrician for her 4 month check up tomorrow, so we'll have a better sense of her weight gain then... hopefully she's added several ounces since last week.