Kangaroo Care for Zoe

Days of our Lives

Thanks for the lift, Dad

My First Mother's Day

I believe in making the most of a difficult situation and so I held my baby girl for an hour and a half this morning, thoroughly enjoying my first Mother's Day. It obviously was not exactly how I pictured it but we had a good time nonetheless, thanks to her wonderful nurses. Zoe had a great day today. She even managed to take some time away to make me a card with her hand prints and foot prints on it. Very cute - she is already a thoughtful little girl. She lost some water weight this week, but is slowly starting to put on real weight and is back up to 2 lbs. 13 oz. We are anxiously waiting for the 3 lb. mark!

Ups and Downs

As you all know, this is a roller coaster of an experience. I think I've said before what an understatement that is. It's true - nothing can prepare you for it. Zoe's been off the ventilator for almost a week now and has her good days and her not so good days. She's got preemie lungs - lungs that are damaged from being so early and needing oxygen support. She'll grow more lung tissue, but it takes time and all that will really help her is growing. So, this past week, she has had her good days and bad days. Today was a good day and her oxygen needs were down slightly. She got her first eye exam today which she definitely did not like. They're checking for retinopathy of prematurity, which is essentially abnormal blood vessels growing on the retina. Everything looks o.k. so far, but her eyes are still immature so they'll check again in a couple of weeks.

Zoe looks amazing. She is alert and really getting a personality. She gets angry when we all mess with her which she typically displays by getting very red all over and making a seriously mad face. She doesn't cry much, but definitely shows her dissatisfaction in other ways. She has been processing food (a.k.a pooping) really well. In fact, today, she had four dirty diapers in a row!

She weighs about 2 lbs. 14 oz. now and we're hoping to get her to 3 lbs. soon. We can't wait to show her off to all of you, but we've got a long way to go. She really is amazing and we are so proud of her every day.

I'm Getting Bigger

5 Weeks, 1200 Grams