Our little sweet pea is progressing so well!! Since we have been so busy working on the new house the last two days, we went up to see her late this evening to participate in her bedtime activities. We got to weigh her and she is up to 3# 8oz!! She is doing well with her bottles (at times drinking the entire thing!) and the Dr's are switching her to room air which will transition her to a regular crib.

She is getting close to accomplishing her NICU goals so that she can come home soon!!

Packin on the... ounces :)

Called in for an update on our little peanut and got a fantastic report!! She is up to 3# 7oz!! All night last night and all day today she has been awake for all of her feedings!! She took anywhere from 26mL to the entire 30mL by bottle!! Dr didn't change anything for today... just to keep working on bottle feeding and once she gets a little heavier, they will begin to wean her from her isolette!! :)

We will visit her tmw and post a pretty new picture :)

I Am Growing!!

Our little Addison is growing everyday!! She weighed in last night at 3# 4oz! She also set a new record with drinking from her bottle. She took 15mL this morning and has been doing well. The Dr. increased her feedings to 30mL (1 whole ounce) every 3 hours! All of her vitals are stable.

She is starting to be awake a little bit more and she even smiles at Mommy and Daddy. She is so precious and we are very thankful to have her! :)

Hungry Hungry Addison!

Since last night, Addison suddenly started liking her bottle more! She took 9mL for the night shift nurse last night and 11mL 2 of her 3 feedings for day shift today before we got there. Tim and I were there for her 6pm feeding and she took 13mL with Tim!! That is almost half of her feeding!! We were so proud :)

We hope she continues to improve. In order to come home she has to take ALL of her bottle feedings around the clock for 2 days straight. The nurses are starting to "test her" tonight and slowly wean down the temperature on her isolette to see if she can maintain her body temperature. She is also on a portable monitor which the nurse said usually means they will probably be going home within 1-2 weeks! All very good news!!

Thank you as always for the continued prayers!

Another productive day!!

We are so encouraged after our night time phone update. The Dr. saw her this afternoon after I left and he increased her feedings to 28mL every 3 hours! I had tried to bottle feed her while I was there at lunch time but she only drank 2mL out of the 24mL :(. Apparently she sleeps all day and is awake all night.... super! The nurse was able to bottle feed her 8mL at her 9pm feeding which is the best she has done in a long time!! She mentioned there might be a smaller nipple to try and she might be able to eat even better. I wish I had known that because I would have suggested it last week!

Her weight is up to 3#2oz!!! Her bilirubin came down from 8.9 yest to 8.3 today. She should continue to trend down and be safe from going back under her phototherapy light!! :)

We continue to ask for prayers that she will keep gaining weight and start taking more of her feeding from a bottle and putting less through her NG tube.

Here is a pic of her awake!! Also one with Daddy's hand on her head (which always settles her down) ;)

More food please!!!

I called in for an update this morning since I will not get up to GR until this afternoon. The Dr saw her already and DID increase her feedings from 20mL to 24mL every 3 hours!! Her little belly likes Mommy's milk much better than the formula!! She still does not take much by bottle, but hopefully that day will come soon!!

The one concern they are still watching is her bilirubin level. She had come out from her phototherapy light just a couple days ago and her levels have rebounded. They do expect that the levels go up the first few days but then it should plateau off and decrease on its own. Addison went from 6.1 to 8.6 to 8.9 this morning. The Dr is giving her one more day to see if she can turn it around on her own. If she is higher again tomorrow, we will have to get her sunglasses back out :(.

We are thankful for her ability to tolerate more milk, but pray for the bilirubin to go down!!

No more IV's!!!

Baby Addison continues to make good progress. She had yet another IV go bad during the night (#7) and was so close to not needing anymore TPN/Lipids/IV fluids that the nurses convinced the Dr to leave it out :). She is tolerating 20mL every 3 hours well!! Still not eating much by bottle-- most of it goes through her tube. She is just too small and gets tired quickly. They will probably increase the amount tomorrow to 24mL!!

Daddy had a heck of a time changing his precious little sweet pea. I let Tim change her poopy diapers since he wants all the practice he can get. I was holding her and noticed that all too familiar smell and passed her off to Daddy. He put her in the isolette and gathered his supplies. After opening the diaper, sure enough, poopy. He started to wipe her, and she shot out more. Daddy got another diaper out, which she pooped in again before he even had it fastened.... and again a third time!! You would think the 3rd diaper would be the last of it.... but Addison had other plans... the pee went flying. She slept through Daddy's whole ordeal.. but Mommy saw a little smirk. Four diapers later and she was set :). And not a drop on her outfit or blanket!!

We just love our little peanut and are enjoying every moment we have with her. We cannot wait to get her home!!

We just called in to get our "bedtime report". Addison has tolerated 2 more feedings of 20mL each with hardly anything left in her belly prior to feedings. She has also gained another ounce! She is up to 3# 1oz! Her highest weight yet!! We are truly seeing answers to prayer!!

We received another good report when we arrived in the NICU today! Addison's feedings were increased to 20mL every 3 hours since she did so well the last 24 hours with the 16mL. Because they were able to increase it, her TPN is turned down to 2mL/hr and her lipids will be taken off!! If she tolerates the 20mL until tomorrow, they will increase her again to 24mL and her IV's can be turned OFF!! We are praying for this since today she had already gone through 2 IV sites when we got there. (She has had 7 IV's total already).

She still needs to improve on her bottle feedings which will come with time as she gets older. As of now, she bottle feeds between 7-9mL of her total feeding and the rest is put through her tube. Because she is so small, she tires easily and the nurses said they expect that. Mommy and Daddy keep encouraging her to eat like a big girl so she can come home!! :)

We love dressing her in premie outifts although that is creating more laundry for us! She is a pooping machine! Two dirty diapers for Daddy in the 3 hours we were there :).

1 Week Old!!

Baby Addison continues to make great progress!! Her bilirubin level was down to 6.1 this morning so she does not have to be under the phototherapy light!! Tim and I got to put her in her first little outfit from home today. We also brought her blankets from home to personalize her isolette.


She continues to gain weight and is back up to her birth weight at 3#. The Dr increased her feedings to 16mL every 3 hours and she has tolerated the increased volume so far today. The Dr also turned down her IV rate again. Still on track to have the IV's off by early next week!! :)

Here is Baby Addison in her first outfit from home!

Baby Addison gettin' her tan on!

Here are just a few of the cute pics of Addison under her phototherapy light :)

She is also good at holding in her paci! The Dr's and nurses are very impressed with how much she can do as little as she is!! I wonder where her determination comes from?? ;)

I'm a BIG girl!!!

Our precious baby Addison made a HUGE step today! She took breastmilk through a bottle!! She drank 9 out of the 12 mL of breastmilk like a champ!! No drop in her oxygen and tolerated it well :). If she takes a couple more bottle feedings without difficulty, we can try breastfeeding! Addison seems to think she doesn't need her NG tube anymore because she decided to pull it out last night. The Dr is hopeful her IV's can be OFF by early next week.

Yesterday, her bilirubin finally came down! She had started at 7.8 and then kept creeping up... 8.0, 8.2, 8.4, and 8.6. She has been under a phototherapy light almost around the clock. 0300 this morning it dropped to 6.9! She is not jaundiced at all and can hopefully come out from under her light tomorrow. Then we can start dressing her in cute little outfits since she won't have to be tanning in just her diaper anymore!!


We also just checked in with the nurse and her weights have improved too! She was 3# when she was born and then dropped to 2# 12oz. She slowly gained 1 oz per day until today when she gained 2 ounces!! As of tonight she is back up to 3#. :)


Tim and I would like to thank everyone for all the phone calls, text messages, cards, and most importantly prayers. We buried our little Landon today and knew there were many people thinking and praying for us.


We love you all!! We have absolutely amazing family and friends!!

July 19-20

Addison is turning the corner!! The doctors had decided that either the tube or more probably the formula she was getting was irritating her belly. So they decided to restart her feedings but with breastmilk ONLY. They started slow at 1200 on the 19th by giving her 4mL every 3 hours. For those of you who don't know... 30mL is equal to 1oz!! So she gets tiny amounts for her little belly. As of today (the 20th), she is up to 12mL per feeding and tolerating them very well!! I was able to talk to the Dr today and he said if she continues to progress at this rate, she can hopefully have her IV's OFF by early next week!!

The next bit of good news is that her feeding amounts are high enough that tonight they are going to start putting the feedings in a bottle for her to try versus putting it through her NG tube!! If she does well with that, she will be able to start breastfeeding as well.

All the prayers are being felt!! Keep them coming!!

July 17-18

Addison had a slight set back in her feedings. The nurses check how much is left in her belly via her NG tube before giving her more feedings. She started having too much left in her belly that she was falling behind in her "oral intake". The residual (what was left in her belly) which was pulled back also started looking very bloody so they had to stop feeding her through her tube. She is currently on TPN, Lipids, and IV fluids. If she is unable to tolerate oral feedings through her tube, she will need a PICC line for long term TPN/Lipids. :(

Addison, days1-4

 LOVES posing for pictures, we may have a future model on our hands

 Already has more hair than her dad

 Like to sleep as much as mommy

Isn't quite sure what to think about bath time yet

Our Angel: Landon John

Our little man, Landon John

Stillborn 7-16-2011

Our Precious Little Girl: Addison Joy

 Proud new Mommy

 Look at my pretty blue eyes!

Loves to hold Daddys hand, well fingertip!

Here's the latest...

Tues and wed (july 5-6) I was at ZCH as a pt for preterm labor. They were able to stop my labor and get me the antibioitcs and betamethasone injections to speed up lung development. babies both looked great the whole time I was there.

This past Tuesday I didn't feel great but have had too much going on with buying a new house and selling ours. So I rested tues and wed and called the dr. I wasn't feeling the baby boy move anymore but had just read that multiple pregnancies at my stage feel less movement cuz there is less room (obviously)! Went in thursday morning to my regular OB check up and there was no heartbeat. Went to hospital for U/S and confirmed. Same afternoon went to GR and saw a high risk OB specialist as to what my options were. U/S measurements revealed baby girl wasnt growing well so we induced labor on friday afternoon.

Addison Joy was born 11:43 pm on July 15; 16 inches long and 3#

   She is in NICU but doing AWESOME!! No breathing help at all since birth; 100% on RA. We can take her out of her incubator and hold her anytime. She has an NG tube and is tolerated her feedings yesterday well and she sucked her pipe the whole time (to associate sucking with eating). Hopefully we can bring her home soon!!

Landon John was born 12:06 am on July 16; 17.5 in long and 3# 15oz. He had a ton of hair too and BIG feet. Looks so much like his sister :) He is up in heaven playing with all his great grandparents :)

We dont understand why this has happened especially after everything we have already gone through. This is the most difficult thing I have ever had to deal with and really puts the small things in perspective. We are trying to deal with the mixed emotions of happpiness/excitement for Addison while still mourning the loss of Landon.