Merry Christmas!

I hope you have a very merry Christmas!

Allie asked to write this post to all of you, here is her message:

Do you like my outfit? I love it and it fits me! That might not mean a lot to you, but when you weigh 4 pounds (as of today!!) and are only 17 1/4 inches long (as of today!!), it is hard to find clothes that fit. Even those preemie clothes are really too big for me. But, they do seem to be starting to fit better the last few days as I got close to this 4 pound weight.

This beautiful outfit has a story behind it. My Granma Connie and Grandpa Hugh and my Aunt Tammy and Auntie Trisha went shopping in Chicago and had the idea to go to the American Girl Store. American Girl is a Doll store and they make beautiful outfits for their dolls. So, Granma, who is excellent at measuring and sewing and all of that girly stuff (that I, Allie, will love and my Mommy knows nothing about) went in and diligently measured outfits and found the exact fit for me. She was hoping her measurements were accurate given it had been weeks since she had seen me and didn't measure me exactly when she was here. Her work and experience paid off. The dress is a perfect fit and is my First Christmas Outfit. When I get older, she is going to take me to the American Girl store and get me an American Girl Doll and this outfit will fit on her. It will be fun to hear about how I wore it in the NICU when I was only 5 weeks old!

Oh... as for the NICU... the nurses are wonderful. They all helped me get dressed since I have a lot of monitors and wires and things that make it difficult to put tights and cute dresses on. The nurses were terrific and I think they had fun, too. Daddy seemed a bit nervous worrying that I was cold or that my oxygen wasn't acting right or that I should be bundled up more. He worries about me a lot. Mommy tells him that it is okay because that is his job. But, her job is to play dress up with me, so that is what she and all the nurses did. They had a lot of fun. I slept through the whole thing, but that is okay because I'll hear all about it every year. It was a lot of fun and the dress is so beautiful and made wonderfully, too. It didn't scratch me at all because it was put together so nicely. I love my hat and shoes, too. I was so excited when we tried the hat on the night before and it fit so perfectly. What a wonderful Christmas present! Thank you, Granma and Grandpa (and Aunties!) See you soon!!

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and that Santa is good to you. Merry Christmas!

A REAL Bath?

Yes! Allie is doing so great these days that she is able to keep her temperature up. This means several things for our little hero. She now gets to wear clothes (tiny ones of course) and she can now have tub baths. Mommy got to give her one with the help of her nurse, Jennifer. This was so much fun for me and Allie did wonderfully. She loved the warm water and just enjoyed the whole experience.

Here is a comparison of how Allie has changed from a few days
after her birth to about 4 weeks later. Our little girl is just growing and
getting bigger and stronger all the time!

Allie now weighs 3 pounds 8 ounces and is beginning to learn how to use a bottle again. After her experience on Sunday, November 16th, it has taken her a few days to begin bottle feeding. But, she is doing great and increasing the amount of milk she is taking. On this day, she preferred to sleep in Mommy's arms instead of eating, so Daddy and Mommy did all the tricks. We took her nice comfy clothes off, wiped her down slightly and tried again. She woke up, but still only took a little milk before being too tired to continue.

Now that Allie can wear clothes, here are some pictures of her dressed up:

She is such a sweet girl (no.. I'm not biased). I'm sure she would say Thanks for looking at my website - if she could. Good night and Happy Christmas Eve from Ms. Allie and her Mommy and Daddy and her Puppy Dog Brother, too.

Santa Claus Came to NICU!!

Allie's first visit with Santa Claus!!! Allie got a special treat this day. Santa and Mrs. Claus came to visit her in the hospital! Santa and Mrs. Claus were dressed to the hilt and Allie just loved meeting them. Of course, she slept through the whole event, but she loved it... I know she did!

It was really a funny event for the new Mommy. I knew I wanted to dress up my little girl, but hadn't had a chance to ask the nurses if I could dress Allie or not (she has a lot of wires and temperature gages and that sort of thing). So, as many of you know me... I had several outfits - basically, I had a back up plan for my back up plan. I arrived as soon as NICU reopened to begin to dress her and got the best surprise! Allie's nurse - Linda - or Mama Linda as Allie calls her - already had Allie dressed in her Christmas sleeper that Auntie Shea gave to her. Linda did tell me that she wasn't sure what I wanted since I had this sleeper, a short Christmas onsie, a Christmas vest and a hat. She did very good and picked my first choice!

Then, Linda held up a stocking and a blanket (yes, more back up plans) and asked what my plan was for these items. I wanted to put Allie into the stocking, but wasn't sure if that would be taken as some form of inhumane baby treatment. So, I had the Christmas blanket as a back up. Luckily, the stocking was acceptable and we put her in it and this is what you see. Santa filled my stocking with what I've asked for for years!!

I was also a bit unsure that I wanted Santa to hold Allie. Afterall... how many of you have held her yet? Exactly! Plus... I hadn't talked to Santa in years... was he the same honest and trustworthy man I knew as a child? I'm told this is the MamaBear Syndrome (MBS) and although my claws didn't come out... I was very protective of my 3 pound daughter. So, my first picture is of Santa, Allie and yes... Mommy holding her baby. After seeing Santa for a bit and watching how wonderful he was with the other children, I asked Santa if he would be so kind as to hold my child and let us take another picture. So, I actually let him hold my baby... only for a split second, though. I'm so glad I did. I love this picture and I'm sure it will be fun to show to Allie later when we are ready to visit him. (Which she will LOVE, right?)

Merry Christmas to everyone!! We hope Santa fills your stocking with everything you've been asking for, too!

Itty Bitty SetBack for Itty Bitty Girl

No alarms need to be sounded, but try to tell that to a new Mommy and Daddy. Allie has blood tests run regularly and on Sunday, December 16th they found something wasn't quite right in all of her tests. Basically, her color wasn't as good as it has been and she was working extra hard to breath, so they ran a test to check things. (Okay... ignorate disclaimer here... any medical personnel reading this know that I'm not going to get all this technical jargon right and will not even attempt to, so forgive me on this one). The conclusion was that she needed blood. Basically, red blood cells. The red blood cells carry oxygen, which Allie needs. (Okay... I remember this from 8th grade science class). Allie stays nearly all of the time on 21% oxygen - which is room air, but she still needs to be a bit more steady in the oxygen flow department. The blood they gave her on Sunday will help that as well as help with some of the fluid in her lungs. For those of you that don't know, little Allie has a VSD - Ventricular Septal Defect. This is - in layman's terms - a hole in her heart between the two lower chambers (ventricles) of her heart. Don't panic ... many, many babies have this and in many cases the hole closes on its own. It doesn't appear to be causing Allie a lot of problems and it is too early to do anything with it anyway, but getting this blood and some medicine will help her with the fluid and her breathing. She did get the blood and she started looking better right away. You will notice she had a little IV in her left hand (yep.. right after the bruise started going away). We also had to stop her feedings for the day (she was fed through the IV - we aren't completel cruel you know) and then increase them slowly through the week. We also stopped the bottle feedings for a few days until she could catch back on.


Here is Allie on Sunday, December 16th:




More updates later... I'm still a week behind! So much happens in one week in the world of Allie Lovell, you know!

Good night for now!
Sandy

Allie Update

Hello! Welcome back to me! Nope... I didn't go anywhere, but have stayed so busy and haven't been able to update you on Little Miss Allie's NICU Adventure. She is doing fabulous, first of all. The nurses still seem to find her adorable and I do plan to bring her back to them to visit after they let her come home with us full time. She is still a bit feisty - she isn't fond of the feeding tube and occassionally yanks it right out of her (the nurses LOVE when she does this!!). The nasal canula is also a favorite thing for her to tug on, too. This causes alarms to go off, which thrills everyone, too. She is opening her eyes more - much to the pleasure of her Mommy. But, don't worry... she is still sleeping like she should and sometimes I leave her alone.

If you don't get dizzy easily, watch the following video to see her sleeping and then starting to play with the wires. I am not so good at multi-tasking with a camera and as I was trying to get the wires out of her hands, the camera moved a bit. Sorry.

Thanks for checking out her webpage! Sorry it took me so long to update you... stay tuned or come back soon for pictures with Santa Claus and Allie in real clothes! It just keeps getting better, doesn't it?

More soon.......
Sandy A/K/A Allie's Mommy

A Bottle? No Problem for Ms. WonderGirl!

Allie didn't have any problem taking her first bottle! Granted, we only gave her a small amount for her first attempt, but unlike some preemies, she didn't fight it when it was first offered, she didn't spill it all over the place... she just ate! This all happened on December 11th - I think it was a present for Tim's Birthday. Of course, by the time he got off work and came to visit her... she left him her own version of a present. He seemed happy with it and he is good at changing diapers, so go figure. A Daddy's Girl can do no wrong, right?

On December 12th - Allie was given a second try at the bottle. They only do this gradually at the beginning because learning to suck, swallow and breath all takes effort and coordination and she looses calories when she does it, so they just let her have the bottle at one meal throughout the day. Well, her second try.. she took the whole bottle! Perhaps it was because Mommy wasn't there to video tape and take pictures. She is probably already ready for me to put that camera away. Anyway, she took the whole bottle and did GREAT! And.. I'm not putting the camera away. All of you would get pretty upset, so I'm just making sure Allie gets used to performing for the camera.

Last night, I got to give her a bath, too! Her little umbilical cord has now fallen all the way off and she can have "tub" bath, but we did another sponge bath because we have to keep her temperature up. I did fairly well I must admit. Only forgetting a few things... like drying her hair before moving onto other parts of her body. But, that is why we have exceptional nurses at Shelby NICU and I was gently assisted before my precious baby got too chilled. Yep... Daddy got a picture of nurse Kristy steping in to help. She has a great way of helping the new Mommy without the new Mommy feeling too idiotic.

Baby Allie is now a whopping 3 pounds 5.1 ounces! She has gained more than a pound since she was born only a little over 3 weeks ago! She is doing great and keeping food down and staying pretty consistent. As she grows, she should grow out of the need for the room-air oxygen flow. She seems to be wanting to get rid of the feeding tube, though. I think she pulled it out on her own about 5 or 6 times over the past day or so. She likes what she likes and doesn't like what she doesn't like and isn't afraid to say so!

That's my girl!!

3 pounds and 2.8 ounces... our little girl is just gaining weight!!

Yes, Little Allie is doing great! She is still gaining weight and holding her own. We are hoping that soon we can begin to try to feed her without her tube for all her meals, but that will be a slow process and the doctors want to get her a little bigger. Basically, the more they do for her, the more she won't burn calories trying to do it on her own. The feeding tube makes mealtime easy for Allie. Soon, though, we will try to bottle feed her. The trick will be for her to learn to suck, swallow and breath all in perfect harmony. Who said being a baby was easy? We take this stuff for granted, but little preemies have to learn it all. When she does get the hang of it, she will only be able to eat a portion of her meals that way since it will take so much work, so it seems like it will be a slow process. However, she has gotten even more fiesty and seems t o like to pull that feeding tube right out of her body! So, my thought is that she might encourage the doctor's to begin to think about trying the bottle.

Allie was very alert last night - Day 21- she has her eyes open and was fussy a bit. This was unusual for her since sleeping and glancing around quietly are her favorite passtimes. Last night, she was fussy and even cried a tiny bit. I'm thinking she might be getting hungrier and perhaps we will be able to up her food a bit. They say they go through a growing spurt at 3 weeks old. Of course, she isn't on schedule with a full-term baby because she was born so early, but perhaps it is the same for 3 week old preemies.

Watch out world.. here I GROW again!

Allie is just amazing us in so many ways. She is doing wonderful and they have increased her calories to 30 calories every 3 hours. She seems to be getting the Sandy/Tim round face and filling out a bit (too bad Mommy and Daddy are still doing that, too). You already learned that Allie is a "flipper", but she also seems to be demonstrating some preliminary crawling abilities. I came in one day to find that she had scooted up toward the front of her "condo". Her head was only a few inches from the wall and normally she is right in the center. I moved her back and sure enough, she just started scooting on her arms and knees. I'll have to see if I have that on video. But, trust me... she is amazing!

I do like this video that I must post. I know... bad mommy for trying to wake a sleeping baby. She seems to be giving me all sorts of expressions that I read loud and clear as "leave me alone! I'm sleeping", but of course... I didn't. It is fun to be the Mom. :-)