Category Archives: Recaps

Not too much of an update…

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…but when I don’t post everybody says, “Where’s our update??” so I figure I should write something in here. 🙂

Leah is 4 lbs 12 oz today. While I was holding her this afternoon she was suuuuper fussy. We tried everything (except feeding, which we can’t do on demand) – the nurse changed her diaper while I held her, we vented her g-tube, suctioned her nose and mouth (oh, she was not happy with that), and still she was fussy. Ultimately it took a whole lot of rocking and singing to calm her down, though she started fussing every time I stopped singing. Have you ever had to sing non-stop? You think you know a ton of songs but when it comes down to it, you start running out sooner than you would think. I went through my entire repertoire of soft, melodic Shabbat songs and other songs sung round the campfire at summer Jew-camp (as well as my one Yiddish folk song), moved on to humming the tunes to my favorite soft, melodic Israeli folk dances, to which I don’t know the words, and then started on Indigo Girls songs (yes, the soft and melodic ones), at which point I was joined in harmony by Mandy, who by that time had returned from snack-time in the waiting room. Yeah. We kept the kid asleep for a good while with this method. We might have to make a recording of mama-song, because if it takes that much singing to keep her asleep, we’re gonna wear out our voices within a week of bringing her home!

But really, I love it.

Echo update (update update update)

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Leah had her echocardiogram this morning and the holes in her heart have neither grown nor shrunk. The cardiologist who read the echo also suggested that Leah’s pulmonary valve looks small, but Leah’s doctor suspects what the cardio might be seeing is excess blood from the holes flowing through a normal-sized valve; she thinks it just looks proportionally small because of the excess blood. They will keep an eye on it either way. We’re relieved that the holes have not grown, but would have liked to hear better news about shrinkage. But I guess we’ll take what we can get. The docs started Leah on Lasix and her breathing rate has already improved a bit. She definitely seemed a bit more calm today – or at least less agitated.

Not too many pictures today as I spent half of the day holding Leah and most of the other half out in the NICU waiting room with a loaner baby while my BFF Auntie Z visited with Mandy and LeahBug. Baby Ry Ry (a.k.a. the monster truck baby) and I had a good time in the waiting room. We chilled, took selfies on my iPhone, watched “The People’s Court,” played “no, you can’t have my glasses,” and took a nap. Well, Ry took a nap. I tormented my back learning how to use a Baby Ergo. It was good times. When Mandy came out so I could have my turn visiting with Auntie Z and Leah, I set him down on the seat next to Mandy and he got a giant grin on his face, as if to say, “Hey, I know YOU!” He loves Mandy. Well, he loves both of us… but Mandy smells like milk.

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Auntie Z and BabyBug

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“Where’s Ry Ry? There’s Ry Ry!”

At long last, a pictureful post!

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Our sweet baby girl was a little fussbudget today. I don’t blame her – she was a gassy little mess and was having trouble pooping most of the day (hey – you come to a blog about a baby, you get a blog about a baby), so her tummy was hurting and distended and she was making little straining faces and turning red all day. Someday she will hate me for this post.

We did get a chance to talk to the doctor today. They are going to start Leah on Lasix to help her with her breathing, and they will do another echocardiogram tomorrow instead of next week to check on the holes in her heart. Here’s hoping they haven’t gotten any bigger!!!!

On the bright side, today baby Leah got a visit from her cousin Kim, who was sick for several weeks (i.e. in exile from the NICU) and therefore hadn’t seen Leah since before Mandy was released from the hospital. Cousin Kim used to babysit me and bring me to class when she was in college and I was a teeny tiny infant, and I used to babysit her kids when they were tiny – and for that matter, Kim’s mom used to babysit my dad when HE was little, and I’m pretty sure my dad used to babysit Kim… You see where this is going. Anyway, Leah and Kim had a lovely reunion and Kim was very impressed at how much Leah has grown, even though she’s still a wee bug.

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Cousin Kim and LeahBug, together at last

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The cutest feet on the planet

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Beautiful precious doll with beautiful precious hair

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Another photo for proportion’s sake, and also because it’s cute.

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“I’mwideawakeIdon’tknowwhattodowithmyselfbutI’msoverywideawake.”

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“Oh noes, I think Mama saw me! Quick, self, pretend to be sleeping!”

Long day!

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We had a long day in the NICU today! Mama Mandy and Gran stayed with LeahBug this AM while Mama Lisa went to the ER again (come on now – this is getting ridiculous). Later in the day, Aunti Staci came to visit, and then this evening, BabyBug got to meet her cousin Zach! Didn’t take too many pictures today but this is my favorite – Zach was asking about the glowy band wrapped around Leah’s foot and the nurse explained that it measures her oxygen saturation level. I noted that for grown-ups this would usually be attached to our finger, and then commented that our fingers probably aren’t that much smaller than Leah’s foot. And then this picture happened. Itty bitty baby feets!

feetsies

A month and a day

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Slow day on the picture-taking front, largely because Mama Shutterbug was feeling L-for-Lousy. Leah is still hovering around 4 lbs, 9.5 oz, but we think they’re probably going to increase her calories-per-feeding tomorrow, so hopefully we’ll see some more weight gain. BabyBug had a nice long visit from her Uncle Ralph today, but otherwise mostly just kicked back, relaxed, and pooped. ‘Cause she’s a baby and that’s what she does.

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Whoever invented the Boppy is brilliant. Makes snuggling with SwaddledBug so much easier!

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Wee baby fingers saying hello to Mama Mandy

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Because I know you have all been very anxious to see BabyBug meeting her great-grandparents. So anxious that several of you have demanded the photograph by email. Hehe.

Happy one-month birthday, BabyBug

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Today (technically yesterday, June 8) was Leah’s one-month birthday! It’s so strange that a whole month has passed, and yet it’s so strange that only a month has passed.

Baby Leah met her other great-grandparents today (again, technically yesterday). We had a great visit and I’m awaiting permission to post a picture. 🙂 Leah also gained back the weight she lost the day before yesterday. She’s 4 lbs and a little over 9 oz.

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GoofyBug! She looks so funny in hats that are too big for her. She will grow into them!

Promised photos, delivered in full!

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WHAT A DAY! Little bug lost 0.3 oz last night, but we’re hoping she’ll have gained some back tonight. I don’t know though – she had a rough day. Early on the day wasn’t so bad – she had a nice visit with friends Cathy and Gene, and was held (in full swaddle) by both mamas. But her afternoon was pretty hard. They’ve started putting gauze over her g-tube to cover it up while we do kangaroo time. I think today was the third day they did it, and the nurse used a particularly huge piece of gauze this time. Well, while I was holding Leah she was really squirmy and fussy even after she was fed, so we put her back down to see what was wrong. As it turned out, the big piece of gauze was stuck to the g-tube and had edged it out of her tummy about half an inch. No wonder she was squirmy! Resolving the issue was even more uncomfortable for her, especially since they had to take the tape off and reposition the tube. It broke our hearts to see her crying so hard. Thankfully once it was back in place she seemed to calm down a bit, and was thoroughly tuckered out after that ordeal. I’m sure she got a great nap after that.

Thank you to everybody who has wished me well before and after my procedure this past Wednesday. I’m pretty much recovered from the procedure itself, but it may take a few days (up to a week) before I’ll know whether it actually worked. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Not much else to say today. We’re still stunned over the mass shooting in Santa Monica today. This one really hits close to home, literally but also figuratively. I hope you’re all safe tonight, dear LA friends and family! I hope the worst thing that happened to you today was that you got stuck in traffic because of the President’s motorcade.

Now for the pictures I promised!

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This is how my little bug looked when I saw her for the first time in over 24 hours.

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That really is a normal-sized finger. She’s just an itty bitty finger-thief.

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Baby kangaroo

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The almost-thumb-suck. She’s kind of gnawing on the knuckle. Really she’s just doing her impression of her Uncle Ralph posing for a picture.

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Blankie of the day

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Requisite scrunchy face

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Dreaming of dancing pacifiers

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This is the “I know you’re there and I want to open my eyes but it’s too much work” face.

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Content little bug

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Wide awake!

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BabyBug is starting to sprout real non-invisible eyelashes! Any day now her eyebrows will grow in too…

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Visit from Pammi

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“People, I had a hard day. You don’t even know.”

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There’s a baby in there somewhere…

Another quick update

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Leah is 4 lbs 8.8 oz today. It’ll be another short entry because I didn’t see my tiny bug until late this afternoon as I was still in bed sleeping off the anesthesia from yesterday. Mandy was there all day yesterday and today but you just try to get her to blog! Hehe. (I’m working on it…) Anyway, as sooooon as I got to the hospital, they had to do a bedside surgery on another baby in the room, so we couldn’t go in there for another couple of hours. I missed my little LeahBug! When I finally did get to see her we had kangaroo time for over an hour, and for the first 15 minutes her eyes were wide awake and she was looking around the room going, “Hmmm. This is a new angle.” But she finally went to sleep as I sang “Soft Kitty” and the Meow Mix jingle to her and told her all about her big brothers Lobo and Jeepers and how they can’t wait to meet her.

It’s funny how Leah looks so much bigger than she did when she was born, and yet she’s still smaller than you realize until you see her in front of you. We got her some more preemie shirts this weekend and they still look huge on her. The preemie diapers are pretty freakin’ huge on her too. She’s just a bitty bitty baby.

Pictures tomorrow, I promise. I forgot my camera today in my rush to get to the hospital after not seeing my baby girl in over 24 hours!!

Mostly pictures today

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Not much to report today, largely because I didn’t get to go to the hospital at all today. 🙁 I had my procedure this morning and then came back to RM House to recuperate / sleep off the anesthesia. I’m still a little groggy, but otherwise okay.

Mandy spent the day in the NICU with Leah, and reports that she is just over 4 lbs 7 oz today. She is now getting all of her food via “bolus feeding,” which means that she feeds every three hours and when she feeds she gets all of the food at once instead of having it spread out over a period of time (yesterday she was getting her food over half an hour).

Still a little loopy so I’ll get right to the pictures!

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Sleepy precious bug

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Sweet babydoll

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Angry baby!

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Magically calm baby! And look how cute our shirt is!

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Baby resists sleep

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Adorrrrbs

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Toesies

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New shirt

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Cross-eyed baby

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“But I don’t wanna go to sleep!”

Brief update

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We had our family conference today with the surgeons, Leah’s NICU doctor and the social worker. Aunti Staci came too so she could ask fancy medical questions. I think in terms of Leah’s progress over the next few months we didn’t hear anything really new new – this was mostly explaining in more technical and concrete terms what we already sort of knew vaguely – that we’re waiting to see how long the gap is between Leah’s esophagus and her stomach, what the surgical options are depending on what the gap looks like, and what potential post-surgery outcomes we can expect. The first time we met the surgeons they reviewed this information briefly, but once we heard “five months” come out of their mouths everything pretty much sounded like Charlie Brown grown-ups (“Wa wahh, wah wah wah wahhhh”). It was nice to be able to meet with them again after having had some time to process what we’re going to be facing these next few months.

So here’s the substantive update for now: Later this month they will take the g-tube out and put a “Mic-Key” button, which will allow BabyBug to only be hooked up to the feeding tube during the times when she’s actually feeding. The rest of the time the “button” will be closed. For right now this probably doesn’t mean much to her, although her mamas are SUPER excited about getting to put her in all the adorable onesies we have waiting for her at home. But if she still has to feed by tube when she’s a little older, then it’ll make a bigger difference to her as it allows for more freedom of movement; kids can run around wearing these things. When they do the procedure to put in the Mic-Key button, that’s when they will do the contrast study to visualize the gap and also check on some other issues that could potentially arise with her condition. So hopefully by the end of this month we’ll have a better idea of what the next steps look like. Either way, they’re still planning to wait for surgery until she reaches about 9-10 lbs, for a variety of reasons both general and particular.

Other than that, not too much news to report today. BabyBug went through epic numbers of diapers, and things got really messy a couple of times. She thinks it’s adorable to wait until the diaper’s off and in the process of being changed before she really gets going. And we’re getting to see the fussy side of Sweet Calm BabyBug as she’s finally starting to experience hunger. She was on continuous feeds but slowly they have been shifting her to interval feeding. At this point her feeds are about 40mL over the course of half an hour, with 2.5 hours in between each feed. By the end of that 2.5 hour stretch, BabyGirl is HUNGRY and FUSSY and REALLY PISSED OFF. Then about 20 seconds after they start the milk, she calms down. It’s magic!

In other news… this afternoon I went downstairs to the cafeteria today to heat up Mama Mandy’s lunch for her. When I came back up I sat in the waiting room for a few minutes and then looked around and noticed it was awfully crowded today and some people had rearranged the chairs in the middle. And they had installed new vending machines. A few minutes later I looked up and saw somebody being wheeled out of the double-doors next to the waiting room. I thought to myself, “Why are they wheeling a man out of post-partum???” Then I realized it was the cardiac wing. Wrong floor. Whoops. Baby brain!