March 1, 2011

Jaela was released from the UofU hospital on February 26 (her 1 month birthday)!!! She brought many pieces of equipment for us to learn how to use and get annoyed by in the middle of the night because the cords do not pick up the correct information all of the time. You would think they would come up with a better design for infants because the oximeter does not like to pick up her saturation level when she moves, and she moves A LOT!!! Thus, when it does not pick up, an alarm goes off. :) I kind of feel like some of the commercials on TV. I don't remember what they are advertising but they always kept saying "we have and ap for that". I feel like saying that every time something happens or needs to happen "oh, there's an alarm for that".

She came home with oxygen and a nasogastric feeding tube (ng-tube for short). We have a pump at home for her feedings, currently she is back up to 50ml Q3hrs given over a 1 hour period due to her reflux. The breastmilk is supplemented to 24 cals (I believe breastmilk is originally around 20 cals.) We have a powder that we just mix in the bottle and either give by bottle or by ng-tube. She has been pretty mellow, the first night she slept pretty much all through the night, only to wake up when we changed her diaper. However, the second night, the little stinker decided to sleep all day and be awake all night. There are two things she needs in order to keep her calm and to sleep: one is her binky and the other is her mobile that comes equipt with a motor to spin it, music to play to her, and her very first projector (which plays pictures of the same 4 animals over and over again). The best part about the mobile is that it came with a remote control so that we do not have to get out of bed to turn it on when it automatically shuts down every 20 minutes. I have learned how to sleep and push the button all at once. Stacey asked me the first night if it just keeps playing all the time and I said no, that I just kept pushing the button (you can tell how alert she was :)). The extra money for the mobile just to get the remote was the best $50 we've spent:)! However, we are not so lucky with the binky. She LOVES her binky and every time it comes out she lets us know. It tends to come out more often than not.

Also, she came home on a plethora of medications. She has a medication for her Thyroid gland and one for her relux problem. She also has a multi-vitamin and a vitamin D supplement. And then she has her Tylenol for her pain. We 4 medications are given Q 24hrs and the Tylenol is PRN every 6 hours. We were also told the day before she came home that she does have moderate peripheral hearing loss (which could be a good thing). She doesn't have to listen to all the background noise. Although I did turn on a basketball game the other day and I must say that she LOVED IT!! :)

We stayed at Grandma Naegle's house for the weekend and then made a trip up to Logan on Monday to meet with our new pediatrician, Dr. O'Dell. They did a weight, height, and head circumference. She is continually growing, which is good. She now weighs 6 lbs. 9 oz., is 16 inches long (that is as good as estimate as we could get because she still does not like to bend at the hips), and I think the head circumference was around 35 cm, but I can't remember for sure. After the appointment Stacey and Jaela got back in the car to drive back down to SLC to stay with Grandma and Grandpa Naegle (and auntie Ryan) for the week. Since there is so much to do for the little girl, we decided it would be best to have extra hands while I had to return to work. So they are trying to come up with a schedule, routine, and regime for little Jaela. By that I mean, we are trying to come up with a bedtime routine so she knows when to sleep and when not to sleep. We are also writing up a meal plan and when to give her all the medications. Stacey made a big chart with her cricut machine that includes when to feed her and when to give her the medicines because some of the medicines have to be given on an empty stomach (which is virtually impossible with infants) so they are given 30 minutes before meal time. Other things such as her vitamins tend to come right back up if they are not mixed in with her food. So they are given at a certain time as well. All of this in intermixed with us eating, taking showers, pumping breastmilk, and cleaning up after her :).

She is getting better and better everyday. We are SOOO grateful for everyone's love and support, we are sorry if we have not responded to everyone's question but hope that you all understand. The last week in the NBICU was kind of a crazy one because we were trying to get everything in line in order to get her out. We have won our first fight but are still in the front lines of the lifelong battle. God lives, He loves all of us. Jesus is our brother and did atone not only for our sins but, our sorrows, weaknesses, strengths, trials, and tribulations. He lifts us up when we fall and carries us when we have no more strength to stand and persevere.

We love you all!