Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Day 60 - Mama I'm Comin' Home

Did I just quote an Ozzy song? :)

Yes, it's true - we have a date for Ryan to come home! She'll be leaving with a monitor so we have training on that tommorow afternoon and I'll be rooming in with her Tomorrow night. If that all goes as planned I'll be bringing her home with me on Friday. Normally this would all be Heather's territory but given our current circumstances I'm filling in for her. Here's a video from last night (shot by Sam and Madi).

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Day 57 - No Tubes!

That's right, Ryan had her feeding tube removed today so she's all bottles now with no backup system in place. She's been growing like crazy too, weighing in at 5 lbs. 4.5 oz. It's amazing how much she has changed. Here are a couple of pictures from tonight...



And a little reminder of where she started!

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Day 56 - Busy Week

This has been a really busy week for us with Heather having to make the trek down to Emory University Hospital several times. I've had a hard time getting updates posted so you'll have to forgive me. Ryan is still doing really well. She weighed in last night at 5 lbs. 1.5 oz! They obviously can't give us a time frame on when she'll be coming home but it appears that there is a reasonable chance she will be cut loose by the end of next week. My mom is coming back to town tonight so that should free up some of my time for doing important stuff like posting on the blog ;).

This video is from last Sunday, Nov 9th.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Day 47 - Are We There Yet?

So, could day 47 bring better news than day 46? Perhaps. Ryan is now 4 lbs. 10 oz.! That's not the news but it is a great sign. The real news is right here inside this video. Make sure you watch it BEFORE you go on to read the rest of this or it will ruin the fun...


Okay, so little miss "on my own agenda" has had a history of just deciding out of the blue that she's ready to do something. For example, one day she was on her air (and needed it) and the next day she went without it and has been going along perfectly ever since. It seems that today is the day she decided that she's ready to drink from a bottle. Literally 24 hours earlier they were concerned about her reflux and how long it might take before she could actually hold an entire bottle in without ralphing it back up. Those are some powerful prayers you people! We went to see her today and she had already had 2 bottles without any problems and Heather fed her a third while we were there (she eats 35cc every 3 hours). She's had two since that one and not one spit-up today. That might explain the 4 oz. weight gain. Her nurse told us that given her sudden desire/willingness to eat that we should start looking for our car seat so that we can bring it in and get it approved. Yes, they do have to check it and approve it before they will let her leave. I don't know that it necessarily moves her go home time frame up any, but I would think that it makes it much more certain that she'll be spending Thanksgiving with us. So it begs the question... What constitutes a miracle? ... and ... Are we there yet?

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Day 46 - Short Timer?

Okay, a quick update...

We saw Ryan today but I forgot the cameras at home so I don't have any new pics. While we were there we talked to one of her doctors and during our discussion she made the comment that Ryan should be ready to come home in TWO to THREE WEEKS! That's before Thanksgiving people! She is doing really well. Her one hang up is that she's still having some reflux that needs to get under control before she comes home. So, if you remember to, please pray that she'll get over that and will be able to keep her food down the way she is supposed to.

Oh, and as promised, I checked on her length and she is now 16 1/2 inches and still floating around 4 lbs. 6 oz.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Day 42 - 4 & 4

Lots of updates coming in today. Ryan weighed in at 4 lbs. 4 oz. last night! She's been gaining weight steadily lately which is awesome. You'll also notice in the video that her nasal cannula is gone! They took her off of it yesterday morning and she's been doing great. It's nice to see her with just the little feeding tube and hopefully that will be going away soon as well. Her nurse called this evening just before she left and said that they moved her out into the big room. That's actually really good news because the next move she makes will be HOME! That may also indicate that she's going to be starting up the bottle feeding before long. We'll keep our fingers crossed.