Our sleeping angel!!!

This is definitely my favorite pic! It was after the bottle and she is very full and sleepy...it is blurry of course but look at that cute tongue!!! lol

Our pretty baby with no tape on her face!!!

Big girl's very first bottle!

Her face is red from the tape...we dont like tape!

The first time we have seen Bayley without tape on her face in over a week.

Today was overall a good day for Bayley. I called at 5am and she had gained back to 1330 grams which is 2 lb 15 oz. She has grown from 15 inches long to 15.5 inches long. She had an increase in her residual overnight but today during the day it decreased. Dr. Mena decided to take advantage of the decrease in residual and put her on the lowest dose of the fortifier. Donna, her nurse today, explained that it was empty calories to boost the calorie content from 20 calories per serving to 22 calories. The will eventually boost it to 24 calories per serving. She is up to 23 ml of milk per feeding. Her billireuben dropped from 10.7 to 10.2. It isnt going down as quick as they would like but it is going down so they arent overly concerned. I forgot to mention a few days ago that they took her IV out so we are no longer on any additional fluids. I got to do kangaroo care for the 1st time today. We had 30 minutes of just me and Bayley. I have to say it was pretty much heaven. Bayley is 32 weeks today and she got her very first bottle feeding today. She did really good. She got it at 5:30 so thank goodness Brian was there because I was pretty anxious to say the least. Premies dont know to suck, swallow and BREATHE...that is pretty important. lol She did good though. The monitors only dropped a few times which about made me stroke out but the nurse was sooo calm and so good with Bayley. The nurse seemed to not be worried which helped me relax a lil. Before the bottle Bayley had pulled her feeding tube out AGAIN so Donna took the tape completely off her face which was so exciting because we havent seen her without it in over a week. She has such a pretty little face. When Donna first tried to give her the bottle Bayley was more interested in her monitors and looking around. She was cracking us up. She is so alert at times. She took the whole bottle and didnt have to be fed any of it through the feeding tube. There are still so many things she has to get through but we will take today as a small victory and hope tomorrow goes just as good. Sydney called me tonight. I miss her so much it isnt even funny. You never realize how much u talk to someone until they arent here lol. All of the nurses asked about Sydney today...they missed her too lol. Sydney is definitely the photographer of the family because the pictures from today are pretty blurry. lol I cant wait until she is home again. More tomorrow.

Today has been strange and stressful to say the least. I called the NICU at 5 am like normal and they said Bayley had a good night but had lost weight again down to 1310 grams which is 2 lbs 14 oz. She is back down to exactly her birth weight. We went to church like normal. We came home and I cooked and tried to help Sydney get her stuff ready but that didnt go very smoothly. I got to the hospital & ended up talking to Dr. Strange three different times about Bayley. She basically says that we arent gonna worry about her weight at this point. Dr. Strange said that we will definitely have to add a fortifier to her milk but we cant do it until she stops spitting up. The fortifier will add calories and hopefully help her to gain weight. Dr. Strange said that it is her bodies way of reminding us that she is a 29 week baby. So progress with Bayley has definitely slowed down. I left the hospital at 6 and came came home for just a minute and then headed to church at 7..too bad church starts at 6 o'clock... I think Im losing it. lol This is gonna be a LONNNNGGG week without Sydney here to keep me straight. Keep Bayley in your prayers.

Bayley had a pretty good day today. Her weight was down just barely...from 1330 grams to 1320 grams which is still 2 lbs 15 oz. Our nurse Emily said that Dr. Mena reviewed Bayley's chart and that he didnt want to make any changes at this point. She is getting 22 ml of milk at each feeding. Her billireuben was up again but they didnt put her under the lights they are gonna wait and just recheck it. She had good bowel sounds and a really good dirty diaper. I got to hold her for about 45 minutes. She was so sweet. After we left the hospital we went to WalMart and did some shopping to get Sydney ready for camp. We were up pretty late getting Sydney packed and ready. More tomorrow!

Bayley's weight stayed the same at 2 lb 15 oz. Her billireuben stayed 10.7 today but Dr. Strange said that she wasnt concerned because she is having good dirty diapers. Bayley was very alert today and stayed awake for over an hour and half and seemed to be staring at Syd for a lot of it lol. Bayley spit up twice today so they kept her feedings at 19 ml for a long time. They did decide to bump her feeding to 22 ml at the 5pm feeding. I called at 9pm and checked on her and she had tolerated the increased feeding ok. Friday was my 1st day to try to decrease my blood pressure medicine by leaving off 1 of the 5 doses. It didnt go so well and I ended up having a major headahe and my BP went back up so we had to double the dose again. They are still going to try to decrease the Aldomet but I am inceasing the other BP medicine. We did a little shopping Friday night trying to get Sydney ready to go to camp Sunday. I am gonna miss her a ton next week!!

Today was a much better day!!! Bayley has gained up to 2 lbs 15 oz. She is up to 18 ml of milk per feeding. They are going to advance her to 19 ml later tonight. She had 3 dirty diapers!!!! YAY... We have quickly learned that dirty diapers are a good thing in a premie's life! lol We had a great nurse Christy. She took great care of Bayley. I got to hold Bayley for about 30 minutes today!!! She looked so cute in her new clothes. Sydney stayed home and got her stuff together for camp. She leaves Sunday and I am so gonna miss her. I know she will have a great time though. Keep our Bayley in your prayers that she will continue to do good & we will get her home soon & safely.

Yes I have given up and joined the blogging world. It will mainly serve as a way to update people about my precious two daughters…Sydney 13 who is completely amazing and I personally think breaks the mold of the typical teenager & Bayley Lauren who is 1 week 3 days old. I have included updates from the past week or so to have a record of Bayley’s beginning in this world.

Today was a not so great day. My daddy came to get us and took us to Sydney's dental appt. Thanks Daddy. Bayley was doing good. The nurse said that she was up to 16 ml of milk each feeding. She stayed the same on weight at 2 lbs 13 oz. We brought her clothes in today. The nurse said they will dress her after her bath on night shift. (Thanks Aunt Cindi for being our personal shopper!!!) We had only been there an hour when they closed the stinking NICU for 2 hours again for a 24 week baby being born. When we finally got to go back in I asked about getting to hold Bayley. The nurse said she would check...that is when things went a lil strange. We basically never saw her again. I noticed Bayley's diaper was wet...and I couldnt do any thing about it. They wont let us turn her onto her back to change her diaper....so she sat in a wet diaper for 1 1/2 hours. No joke at all...it was an hour and a half before the nurse came back and do u know what she said...I will be feeding her in 20 minutes and I will change her then & it is too close to her feeding time to hold her today. I nearly had a stroke. I had asked the nut and hour and a half before and she has the nerve to act like I waited too late to ask....well it was no secret i was upset. I didn’t say a word to her ....but she knew. Brian came in and the nurse came back and offered to move back her feeding time so we could hold her. That made me even madder that she was willing to let our baby be hungry & interfere with her feedings...if she was so concerned why didn’t she check on it and come back with an answer when I asked her about it an hour and a half earlier. She was MUCH nicer as by this point I am fighting tears. I explained to her that we would never jeopardize Bayley's feedings or her well being just for us to be able to hold her. The feeding at 5:30 went well but it too was stressful time as they were waiting for another lil 25 weeker to be born & so we thought we would get kicked out again at any minute. I cant tell u how much I enjoy our hold time & how hard it is not to get it. It is hard to leave her and not worry constantly...I mean I am supposed to be able to trust that they are taking care of her...and we didn’t see the nurses for 1 1/2 hours...what kind of care is that? The 2 nurses we had today have basically 1 more day ....if I ever see Bayley get treatment like that I will go to Mr. Brookwood himself if necessary but I will make sure they never touch her again. I have tried so hard to not make waves in the NICU & just keep my mouth shut and concentrate on Bayley...but I will not tolerate my baby being neglected period. I know she is not the most critical baby and I am very thankful for that. I just pray that the night shift changes my babies diapers and checks on her better than the dayshift did today. Say a prayer for my Bayley tonight.

Today was a MUCH better day than yesterday. Bayley has gained to 2 lbs 13 oz. She is up to 15 ml of milk per feeding. She had one feeding that didnt go so well. She had 3 1/2 ml residual milk in her tummy after 3 hours. It was the feeding after I held her. The nurse said that it is just hard for her body to digest other than on her tummy. The holding time with her is important to her developmentally so we just have to hope her tummy will quickly learn to tolerate the holdings. Her head ultrasound was completely NORMAL!!! YAY I was so relieved. They were looking for malformations and brain bleeds...scarey stuff. She is down to 1.5rating on her fluids and they may back off them completely tomorrow. Her billireuben was back up today so she will probably be under the lights again tomorrow. They moved her IV out of her head because it had started to cause her pain. It is now in her arm. Bayley finally weighs enough to wear clothes so it was a happy day! More tomorrow.

Additional Info: Stefani came to see us at the hospital today. She loved Bayley of course. Sydney stayed home for the 1st time today.

Today ended up being not a great day. Bayley had gained another ounce so we are up to 2 lb 11 oz. They have increased her feedings to 12 ml. Her electrolites were off so they were messing with her fluids. They did a head ultrasound on her today. Dr. Strange said that they do it on all their babies but it is so hard not to worry. They said it may be as long as Wednesday before we will find out the results. The nurse tried to feed Bayley while I held her and it didnt work out too good. She spit up twice probably totalling atleast 4ml. I called and checked on her after her 8pm feeding and she had tolerated it good. Today was extra hard because the NICU was closed for over 2 1/2 hours. One of the tiny babies that was right behind Bayley died today. It was heartbreaking to even think of that families grief and even more of a reminder of how lucky we are. Please continue to remember my Bayley as well as all the other babies in your prayers.