Before long we hope to have Morgan home, so these updates may come less frequently!

Let’s start with the feedings – Morgan is at 56 ml’s and was nipple feeding 6 times per day.  Several times this week, she took over 60 ml with breastfeeding (we know this by weighing her pre and post), and usually takes around 60 ml's with a bottle.  They have also changed Morgan’s vitamins from 0.5 ml doses twice a day to a 1 ml dose once a day.  The first day she didn’t like this much and managed to throw up on Dad just before he was heading to work.  Welcome to the little joys of parenthood!

Mom went in one morning only to discover that Morgan no longer had her feeding tube in her nose.  At first, Mom thought that she was already up to 8 nipple feedings.  She was excited, scared and overwhelmed all at once, and immediately called Dad to share the news.  Well, as it turns out, the little squirt pulled the tube out on her own (there was tape on her hands to prove it).  They decided not to put it back right away considering she was going to be nipple feeding most of the day.  She made it up to 6pm, but then got tired and couldn’t finish that feeding.  So the tube went back in, much to her chagrin.

Based on how well she was doing, the doctor today said that she could go up to 8 nipple feedings.  Assuming all goes well, she could be home in 2-3 days !!!!!  Hopefully she'll have the nasal feeding tube out tomorrow, this time for good.  – update, she did get this out this morning!!!!

Morgan also had a blood test on Wednesday where we learned she was anemic.  Luckily, her readings were low but not at a critical level.  We are in a wait and see mode.  There is a VERY small chance she might have to get a transfusion to get her readings to the proper level.  The doctor was encouraged by her bone marrow production, and hopefully that will solve the problem. (Mom’s going to eat more iron too)

Morgan now weighs 6lbs 10 ounces – we like to call her a moose – or Mo for short.

This morning Morgan had an ultrasound to follow up on the intermittent heart murmur. The u/s showed that she has a little hole that still needs to close up, that is referred to as a PFO (http://www.clevelandclinic.org/health/health-info/docs/3400/3454.asp?index=11626). they say It really isn’t a big deal and that is should close on its own, but we will continue to watch.

The last items we need to do before she goes home are the hearing test, the car seat test and a cpr refresher course. We are so close!!!!!

A police officer came to the house this week (no Loki is not in trouble again) to install our car seat.  He was extremely nice, although it freaked me out to see his gun in his holster.  Anyone living in Dallas that wants their car seat installed, I have several of his business cards.  He does it for free and you can’t pass up service of a home visit!

On the home front the nursery is now complete.  (I still need to work on the walls) The final piece of the room, the glider chair, was finally put in place on Saturday.  Mom and Dad are very happy that the room is finished!  Many thanks to Dan for his truck and heavy lifting.

Dad had his first out of town trip this week since Morgan was born.  It was only a 3 day trip, but he was very excited to see her on Friday.

Mom had her first soccer practice this week (season starts in a month).  Her legs were a little sore, but it felt great to get back out there.  Hopefully when the weather is warmer, Dad will be able to take Morgan to a game.

Saturday night we went out to celebrate David’s birthday with the family. We had a fun time at the local Hibachi restaurant!

We will let you know when Morgan can finally come home.  Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and prayers!

I wrote this last night. This morning we were told Morgan would come home tomorrow. I just received a call from the Dr saying she is not coming home after all. She had a few feeding Brady’s (which are no big deal, it was just a new nurse that didn’t pace her well – grrrrr) but Morgan also had a sleep Brady around 10am – which she came out of on their own, but they are watching her as a precautionary measure. So many peaks and valleys!!!! So the newest homecoming date we have received is this Saturday. Stay tuned

As always I have posted pics for you to enjoyJ http://thehowarths.spaces.live.com

So another fun week for us.

David and I are very encouraged by Morgan’s progress.

She started at 3 - 4 nipple feedings a day and is now up to 5 a day at 52 cc's.  We were told 5 can be really hard on preemies because that means one of the 8 nipple feedings would be back to back.  It turns out Morgan is doing better than we could have hoped.  She has come close to mastering bottle feeding, finishing her bottle almost every time, including consuming up to 60 cc's of milk!  She also is doing much better with breast feeding, which is harder work than bottle feeding.  The last 2 times we breast fed her, she took 48 cc's.   

We also reached another milestone, this time with her weight.  On Saturday, Jan 19, she tipped the scales at a healthy 6 pounds!  She seems to gain a few ounces each day. 

Hopefully the doctor will move her up to 6 nipple feedings a day very soon.  At this point, they will get her ready to come home by laying her crib flat and removing everything from her crib, including positioners and her air pillow.  After demonstrating that she can handle 6 nipple feeds, they move her up to 8!

We anticipate the car seat test this week, which will be one of the last tasks Morgan has to complete to go home, after she is able to complete all 8 feedings. We are so close. 

Morgan gave Dad a fun surprise this week.  The nurse helped Mom put some ink on Morgan's feet to make a footprint on a birthday card for Dad.  Dad is proudly displaying it in his office.  Dad is heading to Boston this week, so hopefully Morgan will come home Saturday once he is back in town.

We really appreciate all the calls, emails, letters, gifts, food, etc that our friends have sent our way. We are excited to share Morgan with you all.  While we would love to have visitors over to meet her we are going to ask that you understand it may be quite some time before we are able to introduce her to you in person.  The hospital has told us that her immune system isn't very strong.  With cold and flu season in full swing, she is very susceptible to picking up an illness. 

As always I have posted pics for you to enjoyJ http://thehowarths.spaces.live.com

As for dad, it looks like he is definitely going to have a lens surgery, one to take out his current lens and another to reconstruct a new one.  L

Thanks again for your prayers for our family

Morgan is doing pretty well again this week.

I am excited to announce she has gained a pound and a half over her birth weight, and this week finally reached 5 pounds!!! I thought the day would never come. (As of last night she weighed 5lbs 6 ounces!!!!)

The doctor is very encouraged by her progress – no “REAL” A’s & B’s for a week (we have seen a few, but they were eating related) so as of a couple of days ago, Morgan again was taken off the caffeine.  It takes 10 days to wean her off caffeine during which time she can't have any A's or B's.  After 10 days, she then has to have 5 straight days without any A's and B's and then she has passed the second to last test before going home. 

The final test is taking all 8 of her feedings through a nipple, either breast or bottle.  They upped Morgan’s feedings to 46 cc’s and encouraged bottle / breastfeeding 3 times a day.  She has not had the stamina for 3 full feedings, so we are taking it slow.  The most she has done in 1 day is completing 2 of the 3 feedings with a bottle, which was extremely exciting.  After she completed 2, the doctor offered to increase her to 4 nipple feedings a day, but we honestly don’t see how we can do that given how wiped out she gets.  Hopefully her stamina will increase and we can move towards the final goal of 8 a day.

The one issue the doctor brought up today was an "intermittent" heart murmur.  He claims that this is very common with newborns, and he can't hear it all the time.  Thus the "intermittent" qualifier.  I think we just monitor this and hopefully it doesn't become an issue. 

As for mom, I got a flu shot this week, to be on the safe side (Dad still needs one).  I went to the gym for the 1^st time, and it didn’t kill me (Soccer season starts next month).  I had a wonderful family shower last weekend, where Morgan continues to get spoiled.

Dad and Dan picked up the nursery furniture, and Dad was able to put it all together.  So now Morgan’s room is close to being complete, although we need decorator Megan to come over and work her magic.

My biggest stress now is the car seat we ordered which was initially backordered.  But Mom was able to search the dark reaches of the Internet and found it on another site.  Since Morgan can't go home until we have one, it is being expressed to us and should be here in the next couple of days. 

As for Granddad Anthony, he is feeling a bit better. The swelling in his eye is WAY down and looking better. As for vision he still is not able to see out of the eye. He goes each week to have a checkup. He may need another surgery, but for now it’s just a waiting game.

For update pictures you can check out - http://thehowarths.spaces.live.com

We have had so many milestones in the last few weeks. We were told to be prepared for peaks and valleys. We are now in what we would call a plateau.  Little Morgan has made so many incredible advances and now it seems we are in a bit of a holding pattern.

Here is the latest:

The big positive news is that Morgan was moved from the NICU to the special care nursery(12.30.07).  This was a very big move since now she just needs to learn how to eat and grow.  She gets to have her own room and doesn't have to be surrounded by the other preemies, many of whom were much worse off than she ever was.  She still is connected to a monitor, but her room allows her to sleep in a private and quiet environment.  There is also couch that folds out into a single bed and a chair that reclines almost fully for parents to spend the night; so when we get a chance and Dad gets over his cold, we will try to do that.  As for size, Morgan is now 4 lbs 10 ounces (started at 3 lbs 13 ounces, and dropped to 3 lbs 6 ounces in the NICU).  She is also 18 inches long (started at 16).  We are so excited by her growth and David feels that she definitely looks bigger.

In order for Morgan to come home, she has to pass 5 tests.  She has already passed 3 (oxygen control, temp control, growing) of them, but is still trying to outgrow her apnea / bradycardia (A's & B's, heart rate dropping below 100 & not breathing) episodes and learn to take all of her feedings through a bottle or breast, as opposed to the gavage feeding she does now.

Just before moving to the special care nursery, Morgan was put back on caffeine because she was having a ton of A’s & B’s.  They say this is pretty typical for preemies, but we were just hoping she had outgrown it.  She hasn't been able to yet.  We were also told sometimes the babies go home on caffeine and if so, they also go home with a monitor.  The monitor has a lot of false alarms, so if we end up bringing it home with us, we are liable to go insane (or become as ambivalent as the nurses) when it goes off.  We are hoping that she can kick her A & B episodes and bring her home monitor-free.  However, it takes 10 days after they stop giving her caffeine to wean her off.  Then she has to go 5 days without an A or B.  So this makes us believe it will still be quite a while before she comes home.  What could allow her to come home earlier, but with caffeine and a monitor, would be if she learns how to take all of her feedings through a bottle or breast. 

So onto the feeding update.  It is hit and miss.  She is given 40 cc's every three hours, and gets to try breast feeding once a day and bottle feeding once a day.  There are some days, like yesterday, where she took 20 cc’s from breastfeeding this morning and 20 cc’s from the bottle at night.  Then there are other days, like the day before, where we are lucky if she gets 4 cc’s from either.  It can be VERY frustrating.  Sucking, swallowing and breathing is something full term babies just know how to do, but preemies have to learn it at their own pace.  So we have some time to wean her from caffeine while she learns the feeding process.  We certainly don’t want her to come home before she is ready.  But her grandfather was able to come up to the special care nursery yeasterday afternoon and hold her during the 3pm feeding.   This was his first time to hold her!

On the home front, we now have a cool stork sign (contact Jen Olson when you are blessed to have a reason for your own stork sign - jennifer.olson@ans-medical.com) in the front yard announcing Morgan's arrival.  Dad also was able to put together the closet system in the nursery, so her room is getting closer to being ready.  The last step is to pick up furniture and put it all together.  Which may happen today!

Happy New Year to all!