Fifty days old today!

Sorry for the lapse in updates.  I needed a few days to catch up on some other things around here and to get to bed early so something had to be left undone.  Hopefully everyone had a chance to spend time with family and fill their bellies with delicious food as we did (twice) with our family this weekend.  I really enjoyed taking a moment to think about what I was thankful for, and not to get all Oprah on you, I need to do it daily.  I am such a fortunate person and have so much to be grateful for.  Thanks to the parental units for lovely meals and time spent together these last few days.  

We are in the midst of the great painting adventure here at the less pink palace, and if we can choose a colour and like it the first time we might be done by Christmas.  Today I will begin stripping the wallpaper in the master bedroom.  I feel badly for the people 30 years down the road who will be stripping the ultra-modern wallpaper that is popular right now.  I can't bring myself to put any up on my walls for that very reason, having stripped so much lovely vintage wallpaper.

It's snowing and the roads are terrible, so Sadie's nurse said to come in for her afternoon feeding since she will probably be sleeping through her 11:00 feed.  So we'll strip wallpaper and take a break for snowmen perhaps.  This crazy weather is thankfully going to change for the weekend (21 degrees on Saturday?) so we'll try to enjoy this taste of winter cheerfully.

Sadie is 1600 grams, or three and a half pound.  She's still gaining well and taking about half of her feeds by bottle.  She has been off her nasal prongs since about 4am and is so far doing very well.  I can't wait to get in there and see her face without the tubes.  She may need to go back to having a little whiff of air again if she gets tired, but she doesn't seem to need any extra oxygen. 

Her doctor told me yesterday that the feedings are the only thing keeping her in hospital at this point, so she figured maybe she'd be home by the weekend.  It would be nice to bring her home on a balmy day and not have to worry about her getting chilly on the way.  In the meantime, we will keep visiting her in her cozy cot at the hospital. I was telling my dad that it's a bit like being a grandparent right now.  I get to pop in for a visit, do a few of the glory jobs (feeding bottles, dressing, cuddling) and then leave her in capable hands and go home.  I guess it's all the lactating that sets me apart!  We're all healthy again, so even the boys were in to see her yesterday.  Ollie had his first chance to touch Sadie's head and said to me later "I not hit the baby".  I am currently honing the eyes in the back of my head.  

Back to work on the house for me.  With any luck we'll be in a little bit less chaos by the weekend if the tiny bird is ready to come home.

Proud Big Sister

Sadie was a good baby today.  Nothing new or exciting,  just a little more weight gain and a bit more enthusiasm while nursing.  She was tired later in the day when Sophie and Nana joined me for a visit so she wasn't very interested in a bottle, but Sophie was excited to help out anyway.  She just lights up around Sadie and was hoping to stay and watch her for even longer.  I had to bribe her away with the promise of brownies baked by Kendra and her little sidekick Ollie.  He was more involved in sampling than helping I believe.  

She is looking pretty cute these days and hopefully will be able to go tubeless in the near future.

I had mentioned in the last post that this would be a good time to fill the freezer in preparation for Sadie's arrival home.  I'm pretty sure the sleepless nights I'm going to spend staring at her chest moving will pretty much sap my desire to cook.  Popcorn for dinner is fun... once in a while.  Coincidentally, Greg came home from school with a whole bunch of home cooking from the families of his students.  We are completely touched by this and so grateful.  We clearly have many, many things to be thankful for this holiday weekend.  Wishing all of you a wonderful weekend.

(Greg now writing)  I haven't been in to see Sadie very much in the last two weeks as I have been fighting a cold.  I have been following the visitation rules very carefully to keep Sadie and the other babies safe from my germs.  Hopefully I will kick it in the next few days so I can be more involved in her care at these final stages of her time in hospital.  I also want to take a second to send a big thank you to all the parents and students who have been so kind and generous to our family!  

Our aromatic baby

Things are busy around here, so the computer has been gathering dust for a couple of days.  Greg has gone back to work for a couple of days before the Thanksgiving holiday and it has changed the timing and pace of things.  Luckily fabulous cousin Kendra has stepped in to be our part-time nanny/co-mommy with me so we will be able to make a smooth transition.  She is truly gifted with children, and her energy is enviable. Ollie is smitten and Sophie has stars in her eyes!
Sadie is still a perfect princess, though apparently she was a bit of a stinky princess.  The nurse gave her a bath (her first) in the middle of the night a couple of nights ago.  I was a bit disappointed to miss it, but I know from experience that clean baby smell is much more appealing.  Her hair is quite fuzzy and cute.  I have been rushing in and out for feedings like a hurricane, and haven't felt relaxed enough for  a photo shoot so this post is lacking in the visual department.  Maybe I should take pictures of the paint colours we are contemplating and take votes.
I continue to be most impressed with her care.  In the past few days she has seen an audiologist, ophthalmologist (I had to look that spelling up!),  a dietitian, and had a head ultrasound.  All the results have been within the norms, however I can see that our calendar is going to be full of appointments at the Children's hospital as there are many things that need to be re-checked regularly as she develops.  Sadie is getting stronger by the day (not stronger smelling anymore) and is over 1500g now.  I have done all of the baby laundry and we are ready for her here.... mostly.  Perhaps we will try to fill the freezer up a bit in the next couple of weeks while we are waiting for her arrival,  Kendra is pretty handy in the kitchen!
I will take a picture of the downy little duckling today in her jammies for the next installment.
It's -10 here and Sophie is going to the corn maze today with school, time to go get bundled up!  Brrr.

Full steam ahead

Everything is starting to happen very, very quickly.  I am practicing my deep breathing as I type to slow myself down.  Sadie is a superstar.  We knew it.  You knew it.  The doctors and nurses knew it.  Such a superstar that she is going to be getting herself a ticket on the Wildwood express in the next week or two by the sounds of things.  Yes, our three pound baby will possibly be coming home a few weeks earlier than expected.  We are elated, and quietly freaking out all at the same time.  They tell us that she will not be sent home unless she is ready, and she has more work to do before she meets all the criteria for coming home.  The doctor told me this morning to get prepared for her to come home soon because she is progressing so quickly. Part of me is saying "SLOW DOWN!!,  you are far too little to come home", and the other part of me just can't wait to have the little birdie safely home in her nest, within arms reach at all times.  Tomorrow's job is to clean up the car seat for her.

She is getting much bigger, she has outgrown 2 hats

She has enough body fat to have lips now!

In the past couple of days Sadie has been very busy.  She had visits with all of her grandparents, and big sister Sophie came in to gaze at her and stick pretend kisses on the isolette.  Besides her busy social calendar, she is now feeding every 3 hours instead of every two, and she has been taking about half of her feeds by bottle.  The learning curve has been steep for her with the feeding.  Today when I fed her a bottle she was like a tiny barracuda the way she was chomping on the nipple.  She was equally enthusiastic about breastfeeding after some technical help from her nurse and the lactation consultant.  It's a little trickier than with a big baby, but we'll have lots of time to practice.

Proud big sister Sophie

The last big piece of news is that she is now in a cot instead of an isolette.  She seems quite content in her big girl bed.  Perhaps it's because she gets to wear clothes now.  She has been able to maintain her body temperature quite well, and is getting some meat on her bones to keep her warm, so as long as she's not losing weight they will keep her in the cot.  She is twice her birthweight, another milestone to celebrate today.  

Sadie in her cute little sleeping bag ready to be swaddled

Tonight we are getting ready to paint, paint, paint.  The pink must go.  We have decided that the wall colour is quite similar to the colour of your tongue.

Ollie has been in bed since 5:30 tonight since he spiked a fever and barfed on me when we got home from the park.  Hopefully it is a two year old specific virus.  We are washing our hands like crazy around here.  We have so much to do to to get the nest ready, we can't get sick.  Off to do some laundry.....

Some new numbers and new accessories

A few milestones today.  Sadie hit (and surpassed) THREE POUNDS with series of impressive weight gains this week.  She also kicked her caffeine habit, which was helping her to remember to breathe in the beginning, and seems to be doing fine without it.  Hopefully there is no caffeine withdrawal symptoms for babies like there is for grown-ups.

She also wore socks for the first time!  I brought the tiniest pair we had in for her and they are still baggy.   I confess I enjoy playing dolly with her and have a little nightie all picked out for when they move her into an open bed!

She is also apparently 36 cm long, or about 14 inches.

Not very big!  Forty-two days old and still 5 weeks away from her due date.

Chugalug

Another good day.  We practiced with the bottle a little bit today and she did really well.  She took 10mL before getting too exhausted to suck any more.  It was a very impressive effort.  She seems to get hiccups when she is overwhelmed or overtired from drinking.  Me too!

Here we are, learning together.

The bottle is pretty large relative to Sadie's size.  She manages just fine.  Her nurse suggested we shouldn't try to progress too fast with oral feedings, but just to try once or twice a day as she's still pretty wee.  She seemed quite enthusiastic about the bottle, so that's a good sign.

She was wide awake even after I fed her and tucked her in tonight.  Maybe she is even more like her siblings than we can imagine.  Sophie is very excited that Sadie is learning how to drink from a bottle.  She has already called "dibs" on feeding her the first bottle when she comes home!

Twice as much Sadie

Sadie is 1305g tonight, which means that she is twice as heavy as her lowest weight of 650g.  I can't believe she has doubled in size. I think we need to eat some cake to celebrate. Greg is going to notice a real change when he shakes his cold and gets in there to see her again.  
Sadie seems to have a nice period of alertness around 8:00 in the evening so I'm going to try my best to be there every night so she can nuzzle, nurse, or have a bottle at that time.  She took a little bit of her feed from a bottle 3 times in the last 24 hours.  That's a huge step forward for her and takes a lot of coordination on her part.  It's tricky to feed her, as I discovered tonight, because she doesn't know how to pace herself like big babies do.  Definitely a learning process for both of us.  She needs a little break after every 2-3 sucks right now so she can swallow, breathe and recover enough to open her mouth and start again.  She did very well, I wish I'd had my camera there to get a picture.  I left in in the living room where I was taking pics of Sophie and Ollie building a train out of cardboard boxes.  So many good uses for boxes.
Tomorrow is our last day of doglessness (I know, I made that word up).  The lovely and kind dogwalker Laural has been caring for Charlie so that we could have one less thing to do in our day.  I must admit we have missed the furball and are looking forward to having him join us here now that we are somewhat settled.

A picture of the fur-baby for a change!

Time to go eat cake and celebrate giant babies.  It just so happens that one of our new neighbours delivered cupcakes this evening.  How convenient.