December 8th

Ok. I know what you're thinking. . .it's about time! Well let me boil things down to this. Maddie came home on December 2nd and the craziness has begun. Jackson's first meeting with Maddie went well. He greeted her with a smack to the face and the only thought that came to mind was "and so it begins". So far things have been going pretty well. Unfortunately, it's concert season so Danae has had to deal with most of the work of the two demons. Maddie is doing well. You'd think the sunlight would be a big sign that daytime is when we stay awake and the dark time is when we sleep but I'm sure she'll eventually get it. There's still alot to keep an eye on for her. She has to take iron every day because her hemoglobin counts have been low. Her weight is also a big concern. Maddie's still at 4 lbs. 15 oz. It's a far cry from where she started but she hasn't really been gaining a lot since she's been home.

November 29

It's amazing how nice it feels when you can finally see the end of Maddie's NICU time coming up. After speaking with the Dr. this morning, Maddie is holding at 4 lbs. 13 oz. She took ALL of her bottles yesterday (another benchmark down). She also pulled out her NG tube for the last time because they will not be putting in another one. We are waiting for a bloodtest on Monday and the results of a 12-lead EKG. She'll need to do a carseat test to make sure she doesn't desat while sitting in the carseat but I don't think that'll be an issue seeing as she was in a swing for a while and never desatted. Thank you all for all the well wishes and prayers. We are so grateful for all the support you have shown us. Hopefully we will have a full family photo to put up on Tuesday.

November 27

Ok. . .so where to begin? Well we have had some major positive breaks. Maddie is up to 4 lbs. 12 oz. and 19 inches. She had a follow-up brain ultrasound which had no abnormalities. She had a 12-lead ekg for momentary abnormally high heart rates but we won't find out anything on that until Monday. Maddie is now taking all of her feedings by bottle. She is also in an open crib. The Dr. seems to think that she should be able to come home by early to middle of this coming week. Needless to say, we're extremely excited but Mommy and Jax have been under the weather so once everyone is healthy we'll be even more excited. Thanks again for all the prayers!

Thanksgiving Day!

Sorry, we have been slacking lately with updating this. Maddie is doing well. They have decided to attempt to take her off the caffeine again and see how she does. She is now 4 lbs 10 oz (hope she still fits in the premie clothes when she finally comes home) and 19 inches long! Definitely going to be bigger then our brother. She is up to taking every other feeding and really starting to get the hang of it so hopefully things will move a little faster now. The pediatrician has taken over care now. Mommy and brother are sick so daddy has been going to see Maddie a lot.

November 20th

Sorry this didn't get updated yesterday. We are currently at 4 lbs 2 oz (getting chubby :), we are taking 2 bottles a day, one on day shift, one on nights and doing okay, still trying to get the hang of it. We really like to pull out our NG tube (nasogastric tube- how she gets her feeds if not by mouth) so right now we have an OG (oralgastric tube). Every day we start to look more like our brother. The caffeine was restarted because of our "episodes" and we did have 2 on night shift and 1 so far on days but resolved them ourselves. Things will hopefully keep moving in the right direction.

November 18

Well, progress is happening which is a major positive. The somewhat negative is that it is SSSLLLLOOOOOWWWW. Maddie is now up to 3 lbs. 15 oz. !!! That was a huge gain from yesterday. Maddie also got the opportunity for the first time today to have a bottle instead of using her feeding tube. Mommy got to feed her and she took almost all of the 38mL. She had about 5 left that got pushed through the tube. We still consider that a big accomplishment. Here's to quick progress from here. . .let's hope!!!

November 17

Maddie is doing well. She lost about 10 grams last night. On the brighter side of life, the only wires left on are her monitor and feeding tube. They disconnected her caffeine (which was used to stimulate breathing). She's had a couple spells but last night's spells were not major. They said as long as she doesn't have anything major tonight, we will get to attempt a bottle feeding tomorrow. Here's to hoping for a great night!