Tuesday, April 14, 2009

I finally caught up with the blogs I follow on my reader. Not only do I love blogging, but I love reading blogs too.

Elden is doing great. He weighs 3 pounds 7 ounces. He is up to 30 milliliters of breastmilk for his feedings. I keep forgetting to mention this: there is a powder that they put in his milk to add extra calories. It is called "Human Milk Fortifier". It cracks me up that the company used the word "Human". I don't know why because that is exactly what the powder is for, but I still think it's funny.

Elden now gets to drink out of a bottle two times a day. One at 2:30am and the other at 2:30pm. I feed him the 2:30pm one. Though I like to be here for his bottle feedings, I don't want to ride a taxi at 2:00am just for that. I'll let the nurses handle the early morning one.

Since he is over 1500 grams in weight, he is now learning how to control his own body temperature. Before he had a monitor thing on him that would pick up how warm or cold he was and the bed would automatically make it warmer or colder for him. Now though, the nurse will check his temperature and manually adjust the bed. He can wear a onesie and socks during this process. Once the bed reaches 29 degrees Celsius, AND he can still maintain his body temperature at around 36.6 degrees Celsius, then he can go into an open crib. (Which is one of those clear plastic boxes.) Well, one other stipulation, he has to be drinking all of the milk from two bottle feedings too. He needs to be able to eat well because if he can't, then he'll just be burning calories to stay warm and when it comes time to bottle feed he won't have enough energy to to drink well. Elden is the only one now in an isolette up in the smaller NICU room. But he is also younger gestationally than all the other babies too.

Two "scares" I've had the past few days. Last week Lee was in Las Vegas for a training conference for the Army. He was to fly out of Las Vegas at 12:35am (yes, very crazy!) and get to St. Louis at 7:35am. Some people he met at the conference told him if it's a government-booked flight, he can call and change his flight. He called and it couldn't be changed.

Thursday night I was in my room watching a movie on the bed with the lights off. Someone knocked on my door. "Yes?" No answer, but another knock. I got up and turned the light on and stood by the door. "Yes?" I asked again. Still no answer. I was thinking, there is no way I am opening this door. But then I heard a familiar voice. I opened it up and it was Lee! He DID get a different flight and was able to leave Vegas at about 2:30pm instead. It was great to see him. He sure surprised me and scared me a little!

Then today I went up to feed Elden. I was putting my stuff down and I looked in the isolette and he wasn't in there. I did a double-take just in case because Elden is small, maybe I was just looking wrong. I quickly scanned the room and did not see him. I asked the other nurse, "Where is my baby?" She told me the other nurse was holding him. Whew! I was not expecting that. The nurse was by the computers holding him. She told me that he was screaming (we were all surprised at that--even the nurses) and he had pulled out his feeding tube. She also put new tape on his face to hold the tube in place and lotion-ed him up. It was time to feed him so I think she was just holding him waiting for me to come.

I also wanted to write that the choir we had for the Saturday night adult session for Stake Conference was GREAT!!!

Also last week my friend Emma surprised me with a visit. Her daughter is so cute! I am glad they found me!

Kirsten and Shanna have been partners in crime, I mean partners in beauty, the past few weeks. Once again their creative side shinned through as they demonstrated their new make-up line Lena named Blatantly Blue. Quite fitting.





Clark and Cal spend Easter at Deborah's. They had a great time.


Is Cal trying to be that lion trying out to be the Cadberry Bunny?




And here's a picture of Haley just for fun. It was from June of 2008.

6 comments:

Nostrebor said...

That's pretty crazy about Elden "screaming". I guess that's what happens when a baby doesn't cry for a whole month. After a while they just can't keep it in any longer.

Photo Crazy! said...

It really sounds like he is doing amazing! I can't believe he likes a binki already! Wow! He is a tough kid!

Sarah and Todd said...

Elden is so cute! Just one more month or so, huh!? It sounds like he's doing really well. Love the blue make up line. Today my main goal is to wipe my house out of any and all possible dissaster things. Ashton has been finding everything he can possibly make a terrible mess with, markers, paint, nail polish, sticky candy, gum, etc. Did you gain much weight with the pregnancy being gestational diabetic for the time you were pregnant?

Scogin Family said...

Sounds like Elden is growing like a weed. It is amazing wow fast they grow! I hope he continues to do well and is in an open crib soon:)

Josh n Betsie said...

Thtat is great that he is doing so well. That is wonderful that Lee was able to surprise you. how sweet!

Shannon @ Lifelong Impressions said...

Cute girls. There is an unwritten law regarding girls having to get into makeup. It is so amazing how different the girls look. Does Shanna look like either of the boys when they were her age? Haley looks like the the three boys to me.
Glad to hear Elden is doing his growing and feeding!