Caterpillar #2

I assure you, she wasn't screaming and throwing her hands up in defense of an imminent blow. Constant motion provides interesting frames every once in awhile. I thought this was a much better caterpillar picture. This outfit actually fits her.

Charlotte is 1960 grams or 4 pounds 5 ounces. She is starting to put the weight on a little more quickly these days, I think we will make 5 pounds in no time. We did get her length remeasured and I was right, she didn't shrink. She was 42.5 cm on Monday evening, which is about 16 3/4 inches.

Now we just need to get the doctor to order the bottle feeding. Maybe this weekend.

4 pounds 1 ounce

High five everybody.

OPEN CRIB!!!

Charlotte was moved to an open crib today and yes, I think it is three exclamation point worthy. We had a double bed room for awhile to see if she was going to hold her temperature and she did great, so the incubator was wheeled away.Charlotte's caterpillar picture was a little difficult to do today. Since she is having to maintain her own temperature for the first time, we didn't want to unwrap her too much and make it more difficult for her. In a few days, I will snap one when we have her undressed for a diaper change or a bath and post that.As of last night, she weighed 1735 grams or 3 pounds 13 ounces. They measured her length at 40.5 cm, which is 1 cm shorter than last week. We told our nurse tonight and she said she would measure her again. I know it isn't an exact science, trying to measure a moving target, but Charlotte is working so hard on getting bigger, I don't want them to take anything away from her.

Day 39 and itching to get out of the incubator

Charlotte weighed in at 1,700 grams or 3 pounds 12 ounces tonight. Only 114 grams away from 4 pounds. We are hoping that some time in the next week she will move from the incubator into an open crib. I am also telling anyone that will listen she is ready for a bottle. She is really working on that pacifier and she consistently roots for a nipple before every feeding and anytime I am holding her. I figure, if I tell enough nurses, it will make it into the chart notes enough times to prompt the order. I also plan to meet the new Attending on Monday and will see what she has to say about bottle feeding.

In other news, we are starting to get a more complete picture of what hurdles Charlotte has to overcome before coming home. She must:

• maintain her own temperature (closing in on this one).
  
• have no bradys for seven days (heart rate dropping below 80 beats per minute).
• be weaned from the nasal cannula.
• be weaned from her daily dose of caffeine.
• be able to take all eight feeds from a bottle.
• pass the car seat test. They basically feed her and then promptly place her in a car seat and monitor her for bradys or desats (desaturation of oxygen in her blood stream).

Unless they spring another one on us, we think that is it. Quite a lot for our little girl, but I know she is just around the corner from all of it. Also, most of these things will happen simultaneously.

That's all for now.

Yummy food, mystery gifter.

Aaron and I received a box full of goodies from a company called Company's Comin' and there isn't any indication of who sent the very generous gift. We're curious, let us know if it was you.

Date Night

Aaron and I decided to take advantage of our $4,000 a day babysitter and went out last night. We had the best casserole money can buy, courtesy of Mike and Alisa (thanks again guys). It was delicious and we had a nice time being "normal".

Charlotte is now 32 weeks. She is 1,575 grams or 3 pounds 7 ounces. She spends more of her time awake and alert and has started following us with her head when we move around her bed. She is doing a great job of keeping her temperature up with out much assistance from the incubator. We still have a 240 grams to gain before she is four pounds, but she is making good progress toward an open crib.

We hope everyone has a fun and safe evening ringing in the New Year.
Love Katie, Aaron and Charlotte

With clothes in the way, Charlotte's caterpillar picture progress (say that three times fast) may not be as apparent, but we will take them all the same.
She weighed in tonight at 1,500 grams or 3 pounds 4 ounces and she is now 41.5 centimeters or 16.3 inches long. Slowly but surely, she is getting there. She gained 2o grams over the last 24 hours and we were thankful for that after all the poop that has been coming out of that small little body. I think her digestive system has finally hit it's stride. We need to take the diaper genie up to the hospital, it was a stinky affair today.