Saturday's update

Things look more positive today! Audrey is not sunbathing anymore, and her color looks better. It seems like her energy level is higher, and she ate better today. Here she is in her turtle jammies.

Friday night update

Audrey ate better tonight, and she will be under the jaundice lights until midnight. In the morning they will test to see if her bilirubin levels are down far enough. Things are looking a little better, and I'm off to bed. Night, everyone!

Normalcy!

Realizing that my blog used to be (mostly) cheerful if not sarcastic and (sort of ) funny (on a good day), I'm making an effort here to post something happy.

So here's Genny and I making cookies! It was a lovely normal thing to do. She was quite excited about it. We're going to take the cookies to the NICU nurses tonight. Don't you love her chef's hat!?

Thursday night / Friday morning update

Well, last night was pretty awful, which is why it's 11:15 and I haven't posted anything yet.

Audrey is having a tough time nursing, and a tough time keeping her food down. She's not keen on a bottle either, so we are still dependent on her feeding tube. Last night she had one of the many episodes of her heart rate dropping and her breathing stopping. Usually they don't happen while we're there, but this one was while I was holding her. She was unresponsive for a short time. All of this together really made it clear--she's not ready to come home, and she may not be for a while. We had been thinking Sunday, but it's now Wednesday at the earliest.

She is still under the lights for jaundice and will continue that probably until tomorrow. The good news is that it's helping her bilirubin levels, which will probably in turn help her other concerns. We'll work on getting some good news to post tonight, ok?

Snow in Amarillo and a Baby Tanning Bed.

Hmmm... nope it's not lack of sleep making me hallucinate, it REALLY did snow (a little) last night, and Audrey REALLY has a baby tanning bed at her disposal.

Her jaundice has gotten to a point where she needs some light, so here she is getting some sun today. Don't you love the little sunglasses? Not an unexpected turn, and we're sure it will help her with her feedings if she can get her bilirubin levels down (because elevated levels make her lethargic).

Seriously, I'm not sure what day it is anymore. Surely Blogger will date this for me....

Sorry that the pictures are blurry. Can't use a flash in the NICU, and the lights are rather dim in there. Anyway, the first picture is Audrey's crib with a picture that Genny colored for her. The next is Audrey on the scale Tuesday night at her weigh-in. And the last is Robert feeding her Tuesday night.

Today has been a rollercoaster. We started the day with an unbelievably good feeding. Then in the next 2 hours, Audrey had 3 episodes of apnea in which her heart rate dropped and she stopped breathing. This was followed by a dismal feeding. ugh. As we get ready to head back up to the hospital, we hope that this evening's weigh-in and feeding will go well, and we will get to at least talk about the next steps of bringing her home soon.

And here's a little video we made for Genny to see her sister....

Genevieve comments on Dancing with the Stars

Genevieve loves Dancing with the Stars.

She cheers and comments her way through it. I think sometimes that she could fill in for Bruno.

On last night's premiere, Edyta (above) had her usual lack of clothes on. Sorry I couldn't find a full-length photo--the bottom half was weirder than the top.

Gen's comment: "That is a funny dress. Someone should get her a new dress."