6 Pounds

Just a quick update. Aimee is now 6 pounds 2 ounces. She's getting big. 4 more ounces until she has tripled her birth weight. She goes to the pediatrician weekly for weight checks. 

Her sodium is low again so she has to take sodium by mouth 3x a day. She has to go for blood work on Saturday morning to see how her sodium levels are. I hope they are going up. 

She continues to have eye appointments every 2 weeks. There still isn't any change so that is good. 

Laying on her play mat. This is a 7 pound onesie and it is actually a little small on her.

Licking her toy

Aimee's first picture with Santa

Sticking her tongue out at me

Photo Shoot

Here is a link to my Facebook album with the pictures from Aimee's photo shoot last week. There are too many to upload them all here.

Aimee's Photo Shoot

Due Date/Neonatal Follow-Up

Yesterday was my due date. Aimee had her first neonatal follow-up appointment at McMaster. The doctor seemed surprised with how well she is doing. She was amazed at how alert Aimee is and how well she can hold her head up. She said that by next time we come in (on February 21, 2013) Aimee will be rolling onto her side and holding her head up much better (although she holds it really good now). Just after she said that, Aimee almost rolled onto her side and the doctor was like "oh, it looks like she's trying to do it now."

Aimee weighed 5 pounds 12 ounces and is 17 ¾ inches long. She gained 7 ounces in a week.

Aimee also had an eye appointment yesterday and also had to get blood work done. The eye appointment went good, there is no change since her last one 2 weeks ago. She has to go back in 2 weeks again. Hopefully, if there is no change after that one then we won't have to keep going back. She had to go back to the Cambridge Hospital for her blood work yesterday afternoon. When she got discharged from the hospital, the doctor took her off sodium and wanted to see if her sodium was still good or if she has to go back on the oral sodium. She currently takes iron and vitamin D daily.

Here are a whole bunch of pictures.

Sitting with mommy

At her first doctor's appointment last week

I love all the different faces she makes

Sticking her tongue out

Fast asleep

I sat her down in the car seat for a minute and she fell asleep

She learned how to suck her thumb this week

Getting burped by daddy

Smiling at me

Yesterday she figured out how to hold onto her soother. She kept pulling it out of her mouth and waving it around.

Not so happy this morning

Just laying around

She keeps trying to hold the bottle when I am feeding her

I set up her play mat on Wednesday. She's too small to reach the toys but she likes to look at them.

Home

Aimee came home last Monday (November 5) after 62 days in the hospital. I was told the Friday before that they wanted to make sure she continued to take all of her bottles over the weekend and they wanted to see about her getting her RSV shot and she could possibly come home Monday. She also had to do car seat trending, where they sit her in her car seat for 60 minutes and make sure her oxygen saturation doesn't drop below 88.

Car seat trending was one of the times during her hospital stay that I was most anxious. I didn't even want to stay at the hospital while she was doing it. The room I was staying in with Aimee was right outside the nursery and I could frequently hear monitors going off. If I had stayed in there and heard it, I would have been a nervous wreck for an hour. We decided to leave and get a coffee while she was doing it. By the time we came back, about 40 minutes later, she was still going and the nurses said that she hadn't made a sound (at which point she decided to make some sounds). 20 more minutes went by and she passed. We were so happy.

Monday morning comes and I am waiting for the doctor to come and talk to me. We were hoping but not expecting her to come home. He came to talk to me around 9am. He took a look at Aimee and asked how I thought she did over the weekend. After about 10 minutes, he finally said the words we had been waiting to hear "you can take your baby home." I don't think I have ever been so happy in my life.

She had a doctor's appointment on Thursday to check how she is doing after being discharged. She had gained weight and seems to be doing well. She has her first neonatal follow-up appointment this Thursday (November 15) as well as an eye exam. She has quite a few neonatal appointments over the next 2 years because she was born under 1500 grams (quite a bit under, she was only 960).

The picture at the top was from a photo shoot we got done last Thursday. Sylvia Pond is an awesome photographer and I definitely recommend her to anyone in the Kitchener/Waterloo region looking for a photographer. She was very good with Aimee. I can't wait to see the rest of the pictures. She also had a contest on her Facebook page for tickets to the Stork and Stroller show in Kitchener next Sunday and Mike won. I am going and Mike and Aimee are going to spend the day at home together.

Doing car seat trending

The nurses put this on her bassinet the day before she came home.

Sitting in the front entrance of the hospital while daddy pulled the van up

First change at home

Sitting with mommy at home.