A Studio

I recently got a new camera and in addition to getting that I ordered myself a studio. A studio?! What does that mean you might ask - well it means that I ordered a mini studio to set up at my house.
I have used in three times and I think I've already gotten my money out of it. A trip to JCPenny's for pictures in their studio - easily would cost me a minimum of $40 each trip simply because I can never choose what pictures I want. Having done three sessions, I'm only a few dollars away from paying for my investment. I do need to do some research in a better place to print my photos - the upload/transfer to Snapfish breaks down the quality of picture and so I'm not getting as crisp of a picture when I get them printed, but I know there are excellent options so I'm not worried - just on the list of research to do.
The first session, I was so eager to get to snapping that I didn't even bother steaming out the wrinkles in the backdrop. Mae was just so smiley so I got going right away with it. :) I also was only using my point and shoot. My DSLR hadn't been acquired yet.
The next session I was looking to acquire some pictures to put up of the kids. I needed updated shots of them :) and so why not take some really updated one. I started with Mae while Ace was napping and then I worked with the two of them after Ace woke up and then when Mae was done I did some of just Ace.

This order of picture taking seemed to work out really well. It's Easter time and so time to do Easter pictures and having done so well with the order of picture taking before I wanted to give it a go again. Mae wasn't AS smiley this time, but still very happy and agreeable. Ace was very excited to play with eggs and was a good boy to placate his mother. ;-) Hope you enjoy them as much I as I enjoy taking them!

hehe

Grammie's Visit

Yes, as the previous post states Grammie came to visit! A BIG thank you to Auntie Dawn who made this trip possible! You see we got out of the hospital on Tuesday, March 22nd and Loving Husband was prearranged to be gone the following week. It worked out well that we got out of the hospital when we did, so no arrangements had to be canceled or rescheduled. However, the idea was overwhelming to me. Alone with two kids - one of whom was just getting better after a hospital stay and the other in a very needy-state after his mommy had been gone for an entire week because of said hospital stay. Thankfully my mom was able to come and help.

It was great to have her here. I was able to have a little 'me' time to sew and do a few things that needed to be done. I was able to run errands with only one kid (most of the time) and it was in general nice to have the company. :) We didn't do much, only left the house a couple of times - but Ace and her had a lot of fun. And Mae eventually warmed up to her for a few short stints of time.

Ace and Grammie

Reading with Grammie

Grammie being amused by Ace's excitement to eat his apples

Grammie lets play legos!
Concentrated on something on tv

Final hugs and kisses before heading to the airport!

"Thanks for visiting and playing with me, Grammie!" ~Ace

One Week

Mae has now officially been in the hospital for one week. Today, Day Seven appears to be the last day as well. WOOHOO! She has officially been off oxygen for 31 hours and counting. :) And they are rumoring a likely afternoon release!


So happy to be off oxygen!
Yesterday was a great day. She had a few rounds of destating when she slept in the morning and early afternoon - similar to the day before. However THIS time she wasn't on oxygen so I wasn't as discouraged by it. She slept well though even though she was still not breathing as deep. It wasn't labored breathing it was just somewhat blocked breathing by the mucus. By evening though when she snoozed she was only causing the bell to go off (below 88) a couple of times and some of that was positional. In the night she was 95 or higher the entire time. WONDERFUL!

During the awake time during the day - she was so happy! She was smiley and talking up a storm. We had a good day smiling and cooing at each other. She was also super happy to move her legs around a lot - causing the oxygen monitor to go all crazy many times because it just couldn't read when she was kicking so much. :) She also is starting to get better at grabbing (or pulling towards her mouth) toys. Not quite entirely purposefully yet, but she knows what she wants to do and she gets it every now and again - and this time she was so excited to finally get the mouse to her mouth!


Success! I got it! Yum!
She still received 4-5 rounds of deep suctioning, but less to keep her stats up and more to just get the junk OUT. I continued to use RT Vibrations to loosen up the junk in her lungs and to get her to cough it up and it seems to have been productive - she sounds CLEAR in her lungs both the nurse and the resident doctor said this morning! Yay!!

My favorite two boys brought me some dinner and I was able to sit with Ace while I ate dinner in the family room, and I read him a few stories that they had in there. It was nice. to have a little time together again. We also found a place to measure him and Ace is officially 3ft tall! Loving Husband got to see how good Mae is looking and spend a little time with her. Even though she had some separation from mommy anxiety. :( She calmed down and got a good snuggle in with her dad.


Reading with momma
Her nighttime nurse came and got everything ready to settle in for the night - we weighed her and she has more or less maintained her weight since entering the hospital. She weighed 9lbs 10oz and she weighed in last night at 9lbs and 6oz. :) Not too shabby! The nurse swaddled her into a little burrito and she drifted off to sleep by 10:45! Woohoo MUCH earlier than many of these recent nights when she was squirmmy and awake until midnight or 1am! Eeek! After falling asleep at 10:45pm she slept until 4:30am before needing milk again - and honestly she probably would have kept sleeping, but she had to be poked and prodded for her vitals and so she woke up enough she wanted a snack. But she is working on some good stretches of sleep!

She continues to snooze this morning, but as mentioned both the nurse and the resident have said she sounded good and after the attending signs off on her release we can start the discharge process! Things we're up to this morning after she wakes up will be a BATH - it's been two weeks almost since she's had a proper bath. We are once-a-week bathers for her and her bath was due to be had the morning she went to the ER... so we're a bit behind. ;-)

We are so blessed that this was caught and that she ultimately fared very well. It could have been much worse and while we've been in the hospital for a week, it has been relatively positive experience. All the nurse and doctors are wonderful and we were in wonderful hands here at Children's. ... although I am sick of PB&J.... ;-) Thank you for all the prayers - continue to pray that we avoid any more illness this cold and flu season!

Peaks and Valleys

We begin day six of our stay in the hospital and today Mae is 10 weeks old. Yesterday was a good day overall, it began taking out her IV drip and taking her off monitors for respiration and heart rate. (PEAK!) She continued to have good diaper output all day even after she was well off the IV drip (PEAK!) Her oxygen was turned down to 0.3. (PEAK!) Around 4pm or so, she started to desaturated when she slept. (valley...) Oxygen was turned back up (valley...) IV was taken out (PEAK!) Deep suctioning didn't help desaturation (valley...) Sitting up and using some RT vibrations caused lots of coughing (PEAK!) Deep suctioning brought up some thick mucus. (PEAK!) She slept or went back to sleep with help of the nurses from midnight until 8am (PEAK!) They took her off oxygen at 2am (PEAK!) She had great saturation for six hours (PEAK!) After her first feeding with no oxygen her saturation levels dropped into the lower 80s when she slept (valley...) more suctioning brought it back up to low 90s while she is asleep and that is where we are at. (the middle.)

That's the major rundown of where things are at. There are a lot of highs and a few frustrating lows that continue to present themselves. She has a lot of mucus in her lungs that still needs to get out before she is better and some of that mucus is still affecting her oxygen levels because she can't breathe as deep. I'm hopeful that with a little more awake time we can work on getting some more coughing and getting more of that junk OUT!

Yesterday for the first time in five days Mae wore clothes! Yep I put a onesie on her for a bit to keep her arms warm while she was waving them around the cool mist we have around her to break up the mucus and thin it out. She was happy and even a tad warm with the clothes on.


Not quite sure about these 'clothes' things anymore
Mae yesterday was talking up a storm, even when she was unhappy. One of the nurses during the suctioning (so this particular incident not as happy) swore she was calling out 'mama mama' in between the suctions. I heard it, but then I WANT to hear it.... so to have the nurse say it too was pretty impressive. Not exactly when I want to hear my daughter's 'first words' while she's being tortured, but at the same time it's heartwarming to know that she knows where her safety and comfort is. I'm not willing to stake a claim on that as her first word but I'm hopeful that soon enough it will be ;0) That same nurse also at a later time said "She's the smartest two month old that I've ever seen" :-D Always nice to hear people that are around a ton of small people on a regular basis say so! They also can't get over how strong she is. She can arch her back so much during that suction and has a good grip and pull down on the nurses hands during the suction too (she most of the time gets swaddled because of this) And last night when I laid her on her back to change her diaper, she decided to do this. I'm pretty sure if the bed wasn't in her way she could have completed the roll.


I'm outta here!
Today marks another day of getting the gunk out of her lungs. RSV is nasty in that it creates SO MUCH mucus it 'chokes' the cilia (little hairs) in the trachea. The cilia's function normally is to move around and break up mucus and allow it to avoid the lungs. The problem is with RSV the mucus makes all the cilia sticky and immobile leaving the 'moving on through' duty up to the owner of the lungs. So for adults it simply means a lot of forceful coughing and nose blowing. For babies that can't do that... it means suctioning a lot. That's where we're at. That final piece of the going home puzzle - suctioning. We've gotta get it out of her. She's been doing well coughing it up, but there is still a lot to be moved. Continue to pray for movement of the mucus and that we can get outta here soon!



My baby girl without any tubes and sleeping so peacefully!

My *Favorite* Visitor

Mae has been in the hospital for 5 days now on isolation. Which means a few things: 1. We get our own room, 2. Any food or drink that comes in the room cannot go out, 3. You must use antibacterial when you enter the room and again before you leave the room, and 4. No guests under the age of 10 - no exception. Including Ace. :(

The longest I had previously been away from my boy was last May when I went to California over Memorial Weekend. I was gone from Saturday morning until Monday afternoon. That's it. Until now. The last time I saw him was Wednesday around noon. He's either been with the grandparents or dad since then. He's done very well and made me that sweet card the other day. I've called him the last couple of nights during bedtime and sang him a few songs and that has been nice for us both... but what we really needed we got today. :)



I've missed him sooo much!
The boys came to visit! They arrived around 10:45 and Loving Husband and I did the switch while Ace waited with our nurse Elva outside the room. LH and I coordinated a little bit and then I left the room, got Ace, and we headed down to the Starbucks that is on the first floor. Ace and I enjoyed some pumpkin bread and he had a juice box and I had a short decaf peppermint mocha ;-)



Talking to Elva and waiting for usAfter that we headed back to the room to check on dad and sister and grab my phone which I had forgotten. We headed to the gift shop to roam around - there are lots of little toys around there and so it was nice to let him play around with some of the things - and we got him his first Pez! He chose a Sally from Cars and he was excited - as we were checking out he says "Mom can I get something for sister?" and I said "Sure, what did you have in mind?" and he walks around and says "Hmm I think a butterfly." Where does he come up with this stuff? I love it! I started to search for a butterfly, he found one on a pen - our 10 week old doesn't need a writing utensil, so we moved on... and then he found something that had butterflies! I was impressed, because I had missed it. :) He brings it over to me and he says "Sister needs this one." I said ok and we headed to the register.


A present to sister from her brother
We brought it back to the room and he stood at the door and watched as I handed it to his sister. He smiled and the two of us headed out again to run around outside for a little bit. After some good running around we came back upstairs and the boys headed out to grab us some lunch. Upon their return I was nursing Mae and so I ate my food in the room and they went down the hall to have theirs. After nursing Mae I went down and traded out with Loving Husband. I helped Ace finish his lunch during which time I sang songs to him. After he finished we walked back and said good bye and that I'd see him soon... and he said "Ok, but you should stay and help sister get better." Such a good sweet boy. I love and miss him so much. Can't wait to be home with him and Mae for good.


Ace made a good choice Mae loves it...
Look close and you can see the butterflies.

Trending Upward!

Another day and more progress! Hooray! Yes, if you're counting with me - today marks Day Five of our hospital stay. I am surprisingly well rested all things considered, but I'm still pretty tired. Did I just contradict myself? I don't think so. I think for anyone who has ever had to endure hospitals for a lengthy period of time would understand what I mean. I'm not 'hospital' tired, I'm just regular 'new parent' tired. I'll take it.

Yesterday was another good day. Mae's mucus was a bit thicker and did require deep suction but while that seems like a negative (and it is) it is also a positive in that she was getting it OUT! She had good coughs off and on all day. Did not see the RT until after 9pm and did everything mostly on her own! Great job little girl.

She is talking up a storm. It's the most adorable thing... ever! After a cough or something she'll start to chatter and talk to me. It's so sweet and she continues to smile a LOT. Mae is also quite smart and aware - she starts to fuss immediately when the suction noise is heard - and that isn't even when it's near her yet. She also in the past few days has shown some great insight - like when her IV had 'fallen out' (she worked that sucker until it was entirely out of her foot a few days ago...) she raised her leg up over and over again into the nurse's face. It was so cute. She's like 'HEY look at this!' She is also quite crafty in working her oxygen tubes off her face and she does it quite sneakily. If you note in later pictures her little sticker has been moved so she wasn't able to accomplish this. ;-)


Maybe nobody will notice if I do this...
Mae passes her time with lots of things... eating, sleeping, playing with her toys and a new favorite yesterday - watching the lines on her monitor. She was a happy girl during her wiggle time to just sit and watch the lines go up and down - and with three different colors of course she would be. :) Mommy was able to pass some time too with a visit from Bri who brought me lunch and watched some SATC with me for a while. :) Thanks, Bri!


Looking intently at those lines and chattering up a storm


Playing with the bunny her brother gave her
Our night went well - the worst of it was that it didn't start until 1am. Yep little miss has her schedule ALL a mess... Yikes! She was content to wiggle and get herself to sleep in fact she was still awake when I gave up assisting and told her good night. She eventually put herself to sleep and slept until nearly 6am. So all that fighting sleep resulted in a good 5 hour stretch! Yay baby girl. At that time we did some deep suctioning, followed shortly by some olive tip suctioning, followed by some sleeping next to momma.

This morning has been a super encouraging start. Our nurse Elva came in and did the icky deep suctioning again and then took Mae off her IV entirely (IV is still in for now) and took her off her leads (monitor for heart rate and respiration levels)!!! YAY! AND lowered her oxygen from 0.5 to 0.4 - SO EXCITED! She's doing so well and we're that much closer to going home. We will continue to stay as long as her mucus is as thick and plentiful as it is - as we do not have the equipment at home to do the suctioning that she needs to ultimately get better, but the fact that she's hydrating well and her HR and RR don't need to be monitored constantly is a GREAT sign!


Look! Less wires!!!
Today is off to an excellent start! Continue to pray that we can wean her off the oxygen, her mucas would decrease/cease, and that her lungs start to sound clearer! She's doing so well!


Such a sweetheart through this all!