We don’t like getting shots!

BabyBug has been pretty slow to gain weight since she hit 6 lbs, but she is at 6 lbs 3 oz now. Yay!

Leah got her 2-month vaccines yesterday and today, so she is pretty out of it and is running a little fever. She was very sleepy yesterday, and was a little bit more alert today but was still relatively lethargic. They’re giving her some Tylenol tonight.

Not much else to report besides more of the same – breathing issues, leaking Mic-Key button, inflammation at the insertion site. The surgeons are keeping an eye on it and we’ve been told the leaking should stop as she gets bigger.

Here are some pics for you!

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Cousin Jenna visiting!

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“Mommy, why did you let them steal my hands?”

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“Whew. That was an exhausting cry.”

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I haz a tubeless baby!

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First Kangaroo with Mommy since the Mic-Key button went in. She’s right back to her favorite spot.

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Smooshy face

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Pinchable cheekies

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Wide-eyed Buggy

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The many faces of Ms. Bug

Family-Filled Day

BabyBug had a busy day today! She got visits from her Uncle Bryan, her Aunt Corine, and her cousins Sasha and Savannah. Her cousins Oleg and Soleil were too young to come say hello. Gran was here today as well. After the visits, we all went out to lunch at “The Melt,” where everybody but me had grilled cheese sandwiches. < insert self-pity here > After lunch we went back to the hospital and Uncle Ralph came by to visit. After Ralph and Gran left, Mamas gave the BabyBug a bath and then it was time for feeding. Well, it was time for an attempt at feeding that was largely thwarted for the first 45 minutes because the little bug was trying really hard to produce a diaper for us. We tried everything possible to console her while she was in the isolette, but in the end we finally gave up and held her (with rocking and pats on the back), which is really probably what she wanted all along. BabyBug gets her way. I guess we should get used to it.

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Our feet are even more cute today in our little bunny outfit from cousin Savannah.

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Bunny Feets

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Peaceful Bug

Baby Conga
Baby Conga

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Uncle Bryan

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Aunt Corine

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Our girl is Ruff ‘n’ Tough!

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“Another BabyHawk, Mamas? Hasn’t Aunti Staci had her fill yet?”

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Baby finally goes to sleep after much effort from the Mamas.

Actual updates – how about that?

Three updates today:

1) BabyBug hit 5 lbs on June 20, and today she hit 6 lbs! Good Buggy! If she continues to gain at this rate she should hit 10 lbs in early October.

2) The doctor said it looks like Leah’s ASD has gotten a little bit smaller and was hard to see on the echo. She said the VSD is still a moderate size (i.e. not small, but not large), but it may have gotten a little bit smaller too. In the back of my mind I keep thinking maybe the fact that the Bug was screaming at the top of her lungs through the whole echocardiogram possibly affected the reading, but I’m not a doctor, so… I’ll take it.

3) We had our meeting today with the ombudsman and head nurses to discuss what happened with BabyBug’s feeding tube. I like that they have a process through which parents can voice concerns in a non-adversarial setting and the nursing staff can identify ways to avoid a repeat in the future. We felt listened-to. That’s so important for parents, especially when babies are in the NICU for long periods of time.

That’s about it for today. I did promise pictures, and was reminded of this in an impatient text message from a certain sister of mine… so here you go. Are you ready for this?

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We present to you… Luigi, our little Super Mario Brother.

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Signor Baby taking a nap before she goes off to rescue the princess.

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Little Luigi wore herself out from all the screaming.

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Tiny Luigi toes, good for swimming in a frog suit and running through pipes while avoiding man-eating plants.

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Luigi still attempting to master the art of thumb sucking

Updates and piccies

BabyBug is 5 lbs 11.5 oz! She is taking ages to get to 6 lbs, but I remember we felt the same way about 5 lbs and she got there eventually!

Just a few small updates. Leah has been on liquid antibiotics for a few days now for the inflammation around her Mic-Key button, but the surgeons are not happy with the rate of recovery so they are giving her IV antibiotics now. This means she has a boxing glove again. Leah has also been pulling out her tube pretty frequently – I think it’s three or four times in five days at this point. Her doctor suggested we put her in mittens. This will also help with another new problem: She scratched herself! This is the second scratch in two days. I think that when she is upset she has a tendency to wring her cheeks to express the depth of the torment to which she is being subjected, and now that her nails are growing, she’s drawing blood in the process. So we will start putting her little paws into mittens. The last update is that she is making that scary rattling sound more frequently and needing to be suctioned more often. She did it again today, even with the tube in, and it took removing her tube and cleaning it out fully in order to make the sound stop. Poor kid. It can’t be fun to have that thing coming in and out of her throat so frequently.

In other news, 4/5 of the babies in Leah’s NICU pod (including Leah) have very similar names. It’s pretty funny.

Picture time!

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“Awwww Ma, that was a terrible joke!”

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“Ladies and gents, I introduce to you… Mommy!”

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“Whuh? Where did my hands go? OMG WHERE DID MY HANDS GO?????”

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This is what happens when we don’t hide her hands.

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BabyBug never looks too happy when her tube is out (mostly because it usually only comes out when there’s a problem), but apparently being petted helps.

Sorry for the delinquency – but hopefully these pics will make up for it

Whew! What a difficult couple of days! BabyBug is getting more and more fussy, especially before feedings. I think she is still hurting from the Mic-Key button insertion; it is leaking a bit so they have to put gauze around it, which means they’re messing with it a few times a day, and she screams every time. She has also had a hard time with her repogle (the tube that goes down her throat). This morning we heard her making that rattling breathing sound that she was making the other day when she pulled her tube out, except this time she had her tube in while it was happening. They’re having to suction her mouth and nose more frequently and she’s still having issues. They are going to keep an eye on it and possibly increase the suction if necessary. In the mean time, she gets really uncomfortable and gags and coughs a lot. Poor Bug!!

In other news, we put a dress on the tiny tot today. A frilly dress. She was pissed. She was mostly angry because it was pre-feeding and she didn’t understand why we would do something as petty and pointless as put clothing on her without making sure her tummy was nice and full first. Unfortunately we don’t have a whole lot of control over when she gets fed, so we went ahead with the dressing anyway. Then we tried to comb her hair into a babyhawk – but I guess you can’t do that with dry baby hair or else you get some sort of beehive do that Marge Simpson would be proud of. So that’s what happened. See for yourselves (below).

Incidentally, it being after midnight right now, we can officially begin to celebrate LeahBug’s 2-month birthday! Yay!

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We must have said something so funny!

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Baby toeses!

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Shnuggles

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Deep in conversation with cousin Beth

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“Ooooh nooooh! Not the suction!”

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Snuggling with Grandpa Bill

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A high-five for Gran!

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“Really, Mamas?”

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Empress Leah sitting pretty before her subjects

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Look how our little feet poke out!

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Humiliated baby. “Look at this dress! Look at this hair! What did you do to me???”

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Much happier post-meal.

Happy 4th of July!

We FINALLY have some new pictures for you! We had a lovely 4th of July which started out with a nice snuggle session, morphed into an epic tantrum, and ended with viewing of fireworks from atop the hospital’s parking structure.

So yes. We had a nice visit this morning, but then Babygirl had a hoooooorrible tantrum. She was screaming nonstop for probably ten minutes and we could not figure out what was bothering her. We think she’s still getting used to the slightly bigger suction tube she has right now (this isn’t the first time she’s had it) because she kept pawing at her tube and at one point she completely ripped it out, tape and all. Little troublemaker! Between the two of us we finally got her calmed down and tucked into her Boppy, and then we popped out for a bit to visit some friends at their 4th of July party. We came back a little while later and Leah was in a much better mood, so we took some photos for your enjoyment. 🙂

After some more snugglage and a visit from Uncle Ralph, we trekked up (okay, took the elevator) to the rooftop of the parking structure, where we could see the entire LA skyline exploding with tiny fireworks. It was pretty awesome.

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Snugglage. Ignore the horrible profile – look how SWEET this baby is!

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Isn’t our little jumpsuit adorable?

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“I love you Mommy!”

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Snugglage

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Epic tantrum

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Epic tantrum part II

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Post-tantrum incarceration

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Ah, that’s better!

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Several hours later she was much happier.

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Still more snugglage.

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How sweet are we???

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Independence Baby!

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“Happy 4th of July, giant humans! Today was supposed to be my birthday!”

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Cutest baby on the planet.

A belated update

Sorry for the belated update!

BabyBug is doing well and recovering quickly from her Mic-Key button placement surgery. She got the breathing tube removed yesterday, and the nasal cannula came off around noon today. She was having some trouble breathing still so they restarted her Lasix early, but other than that she seems to be doing well. They took out the IV in her hand (the boxing glove) but she still has the one in her foot (the snowshoe). Leah is already on full feeds again, and they are no longer fortifying her milk with cow’s milk formula, so she is exclusively on breast milk. Yay! She is still pretty fussy, especially as it gets closer to her feeding time. We’ll see how she does over the next couple of days!

Leah has lost a little bit of weight – she was up to 5 lbs 13 oz but now she’s at 5 lbs and just under 10oz. Hopefully she will gain it back soon!

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BabyBug yesterday, cute as ever. If you look closely at her blanket you might see the ladybugs (although they might not be visible in this pic). LadyBugs for LeahBug!!

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Leah with her cousin Abby! I love this because Leah looks like she is trying to smile for the camera.

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Ready for her close-up

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The Thinker

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This is a photo from Katrin, an Instagram friend in Russia. She and her baby sent this sweet message to Leah while she was still all wired up and recovering from her little surgery. I love that there are people all over the world who care about Leah and follow her progress. Thank you!!!