The Zelly Zone

Coming Home!

we finally get to bring our little girl home -- 6 weeks after she's born. She's a whopping 3 lbs 12 oz.

We are a FAMILY..

.. we've got our little Zel-ly.

Yes, she's home. We are now parents-in-fact instead of parents-in-
waiting. She was discharged at around 11:45 and we immediately went
across the street for an eye exam. Her eyes are fine and we'll go
back in 4 weeks for a followup. We'll go into the pediatrician
Thursday to weigh her and do a blood test. We're watching her for
possible anemia, a common concern in premie babies.

Boy am I ever glad we got a diaper genie. She's been home about three
hours and I've relieved her of three poopy diapers already. She
filled them all in the last hour -- obviously she was holding it for a
while.

Wendy and Zelly are watching the Rosie O'Donnell show. It's
important to start teaching her about culture early and about
sleeping through loud laughter. The cats think she's some wierd
little creature, they are satisfied to peek at her and leave it at
that.

Her weight today is 3 lbs, 12.5 oz. I think she'll be 4 lbs this
weekend, which will be what she should have weighed at birth. She's
16 1/2 inches long (2 inches more than at birth). Do we have a
volunteer to buy her basketball shoes?

Well that's all for now. I'll get another report out later in the
week. Thank you to everyone for your encouraging messages.

Getting Bigger

Hey, folks! It's time to reward your patience and give you pictures
of the miracle girl. I finally got comfortable with the scanner and
software so that I could get good images and save them in the correct
format. Hope you all like them.

[note: photos in photo section now]

Zelly weighs 3 lbs and 5.6 oz today. She's taking more and more
feedings from the bottle, without needing her tube. She's still not
getting much from breasfeeding but she has more patience for it each
time we try. She's only 36 weeks gestationally this weekend so she's
still doing things appropriate for her developmental stage. Included
in that development is moderating her body temperature well enough to
be in an open air crib.

Zelly's been practicing her facial expressions. She's very good at
angry, hungry and blissed out. She's got a lot of skill in pursing
her lips and wiggling her eyebrows up and down. And she has a little
smile that makes you think she's got secrets she's not sharing.

When her grandparents (Kathy and David) visited last night, she
was a bit stubborn about opening her eyes. Many photos were
taken anyway. I don't think she was sleeping, she scrunched up
her eyes each time the flash went off, I think she was just showing
her independence. After a nice long visit and much holding and cooing
by the grandparentals, I settled Zelly back into her crib to sleep. I
put her on her side, with her friend Piglet and then she did it. She
opened her eyes. And smiled her secret smile.

I've attatched three pictures. The first is a picture of Zelly at 41
hours. We're having skin-on-skin time (also called kangaroo care).

The other two are from last night. One is of Zelly and the Piglet
that Grandpa gave her shortly after she was born. Piglet has been
keeping watch over her ever since. In the second one it's hard to
tell but she's yawning not howling.

Coming home soon?

Well I remember saying awhile back that she would probably be
able to come home at the end of January. If all goes well, my
estimate is prophetic. Unless there are counter-indications over the
weekend, Zelly will be discharged into the loving care of her moms on
Monday, 1/31/00. How's that for the end of January?

She weighs 3 lbs and 10.5 oz and is spunky and full of
personality. She knows how to impersonate various animals: she
grunts like a little piglet (is she trying to communicate with
her crib mate?), she can mewl like a kitten, and she knows how
to play possum when she's not in the mood to take her bottle.
And she can purse her lips like the Church Lady.

We're going out today to complete the car seat acquisition and get it
checked out by the nurses. I'm planning on spending an extended
period of time with Zelly tomorrow, away from the monitors and nurses
in a seperate room near the nursery. That's supposed to help me gain
confidence in my ability to take care of her. The reality is that the
prospect of finally bring her home fills me with exhileration and
terror. All you parents, tell me, is that normal?

Ok, nows the time to REALLY send us the positive vibes, we're
about to become full time parents.

Up to 3lbs

This update will be short, but sweet, like our Zelly.

She's topped 3 lbs this week! Today's weight is 3 lbs and 2.6 oz.
That's a 2 oz gain over yesterday's weight. Yesterday's weight also
represented a 2 oz gain, up to 3 lbs .6 oz. So who wants to place
bets on when she'll top 4 lbs????

We're still working on nursing and bottle feeding. We work on
nursing twice a day and she takes a bottle for some of the other
feedings. That's a big step for her. She's still pretty tuckered at
the end of the day and getting those feedings mostly through her tube
(special delivery, straight to the tummy).

Big Yawn

... Really, she's not crying, she's yawning.

Zelly and her Friend

Zelly naps with her buddy, Piglet. Her grandpa gave her Piglet while she was at Swedish in Seattle. Piglet watched over her isolette and inspired her to make grunting noises.

Transfer to Olympia

Zelly is *finally* being transferred to the local hospital here in
Olympia. Swedish okayed her for transfer Monday evening, but the
insurance companies (we switched jan 1) were fighting over who was
responsible for transit expenses. Our company finally agreed to pay
the cost themselves in order to expedite the move. One of the
insurance carriers will probably end up paying anyway, but they may
not resolve it for months; and since corp. essentially "co-signed" for
the payment, Swedish had their authorization. So once that was taken
care of, we could have moved her yesterday, but the nursery down here
was full! Today they have room, so Zelly is currently en route!

We are very excited to have her closer. Cam has been working on
breastfeeding for the last 3 nights and it will be much better for her
and Zelly to be able to practice several times a day. Zelly's getting
the hang of it, but is getting most of her food via a tube, and will
continue to do so for a couple weeks. Once she can get all food via
breast or bottle, she can come home!!!!!!

I've joined the preemie-l list, which has been interesting... ya know
being in a straight space after so many years on this list is kind a
weird. I did get a pretty amazing message last night from a straight
woman on the list applauding our decision to have a baby. And I've
met a lesbian in Seattle who had a preemie at Swedish 2 yrs ago.

well, I've gone on long enough! Zelly is up to 2 lbs, 13.5 oz and
looking more like a little girl every day.

I also wanted to thank all those that sent messages to me... I don't
have time to reply to everyone, but wanted all to know that I really
appreciate the messages.

New Kid In Town

Ok, our patience has been rewarded. Zelly will be coming to
Olympia this morning to begin her next phase of learning to be a
baby.

Last night we had our third nursing session. Zelly's starting to get
the hang of it, although it's still recreational -- she still gets her
main feeding through her tube. She opened wide and searched around
and clamped on (ow!) and sucked. I think she's going to figure this
out pretty soon.

She's up to 2 lbs 13.5 oz. She may slow down a bit with the
transfer but I'm hoping we'll have a 3 lb baby by her 4 week birthday
on Monday.

Thanks again to all of you and your positive thoughts and
supportive messages. Good-bye for now from Olytown, soon to be
home to the wonderful, magical Zelly.

25 days old

Hello to Zelly's fan club

Well, she's getting fat and sassy! As of last night she weighs 2 lbs,
13 oz. Wanna bet on when she'll hit 3 lbs? She's wearing tiny little
preemie clothes now (thanks Cyndi and Joe!) and looking cute. There's
a puffy little pink hat that we put on her when she's out of her
isolette and it makes her look like a little mushroom baby. She's got
the Combs forehead and eyebrows, her maternal great-grandmother's big
feet, her maternal grandmother's frown line and her mother's lips,
chin and nose. Her hair is showing a tendancy toward blonde, at least
for now, and but we can't tell what her eye color is going to be yet.
As for personality, she's got tons! I have a feeling Wendy and I are
always going to be struggling to keep up with her.

She's been ready for transfer to our local hospital in Olympia for two
days now. That means that she's off the IV, off the oxygen and
getting her feedings every three hours instead of continuously. She's
regulating her body temperature almost well enough to be out of the
isolette. So she's been doing her work just fine. We're not
surprised that she's goal oriented like her moms.

Even though she's been ready to move on, the transfer has not
taken place. Unfortunately we got caught in an insurance limbo
(we just switched to a different insurance company at the first of the
year). We've spent a lot of time and long-distance phone money
getting this resolved (mostly screaming at the right people at our
corporate office so they would resolve it). I'm happy to report that
we've just received word that the transfer has been approved and Zelly
should be moved to Olympia tomorrow morning. Hallelujah! Merry
Christmas and Happy New Year!

This is great because Zelly and I are learning a new trick -
breastfeeding. With her in the local hospital, we'll be able to
practice more often and hasten the time when she can come home. That
will be quite a happy day.

Wendy and I have the crib set up, finally. Right now it's home to
Zel's stuffed animals since she'll be in a bassinet for a while.
We've gotten several beautiful pieces of clothing -- most of which are
too big for her now but will look lovely on her in the coming months.

Thanks to all of you for your positive thoughts and good wishes. It
means a great deal to us that we have such a strong and loving
extended family.

Thanks

Thanks to all who have sent messages to me and the list.. we're going
to put them all in the baby book (or rather, the baby box!).

Wanted you all to know that Zelly is now up to 2 lbs. 11.6 oz. She's
finished phase 1 of feeding protocol, so all her nutrition is coming
from Camey. They've currently got her on fortifiers as well for 2-3
days. Then she's starts phase 2 of feeding protocol: moving from
contiuous feeding to every 3 hrs. This is a 3 day process, starting
with feed 2hrs, off 1 hr; then feed 1 hr, off 2 hrs; then feed every 3
hrs. When she's done with this, she gets to move to Olympia. This
will probably happen next Monday or Tuesday. We are very excited to
have her closer to us.

A couple of big milestones:
1. clothes! nurse Kristina put her in a onesie on Sunday night, so we
got to change her clothes on Monday night. Of course, we had to unhook
and rehook her IV and feeding tube, but it's great to see her in a
onesie.

2. bath!!!! we got to give her a bath on Wed. night. What an
adventure that was. We used one of those hospital basins, ya know
the ones about 12 x 6 x 6in deep that are great for doing dishes when
camping. The nurse put a towel in it, draped over one end. All the
monitors were removed and in she went. I had her head/shoulders with
one hand, held her iv hand/arm out of the water, and cam washed her.
Zelly would NOT keep her legs still. I think she was trying to do the
breast stroke kick! At one point we ended up with her suspended
totally in the air... while Cam washed her back. I swear zelly looked
at us like "what the HELL are you amateurs *doing*?"

3. She should be getting her IV out today. We'll find out when the
nurse calls with the update this afternoon.

Well, that's it for now. We are still in a really weird space: being
moms without a baby at home, but shopping via ebay for her has helped
me out!