What we do all day

After waking up, Ava gets her diaper changed. She poops a lot! Ava loves to be swaddled. If she goes to bed without being swaddled, she just doesn't sleep very well.

After being swaddled, it's time for a yummy bottle. Ava drinks anywhere from 4-6 ounces. After every 2 ounces she'll spit her bottle out which is how we know that she's ready for a burp.

She's exhausted after her breakfast and is ready for nap #1. She'll sleep for about 3-4 hours and we'll repeat the process all over again.What do I do after putting Ava down in her crib? I pump! It became very painful to both pump and nurse Ava after she was released from the NICU. I was producing waaaay more than she was consuming so I kept getting clogged up. After many frustrating weeks of trying to do both, I decided to stick to pumping and bottle feeding. Below you see 12 ounces of breast milk that I pumped out this morning...I'm a total overproducer!So what do we do with all of the extra milk? We freeze it. Unfortunately, we're running out of space. This is one of the bins of the freezer inside the house. It's packed.

So is the top shelf.So is the freezer in the garage!It's a good thing that we also have a chest freezer. Jason just threw away everything last night and gave it a good cleaning with bleach water. Now I have plenty of room for more frozen breast milk.

How much have we stored up so far? We have over 200 bags of frozen breast milk with approximately 6 ounces in each bag. I'm starting to feel like a cow!

So now you know how we spend our day...eating, pooping, sleeping and pumping!

Baby Girl

Here's a layout that I did yesterday at Scrap Club. I didn't want to clutter up the front with a date, but the pictures are of Ava at 5 weeks.

I'm back...sort of

I'm working on getting back to some sort of routine. During the past three weeks, I have been consumed by out of town guests, the holidays, family illnesses and a brand new baby. To say that life has been hectic would be an understatement. Today is a brand new day in a brand new year though and I'm digging myself out of the fog.

I'll be back later with family updates, but I want to leave you with a picture of the boys that was taken at school with Santa. I love this picture! After I get some more recent pictures edited (hopefully today) I'll have a much larger post with all of the Payne family happenings.

So In Love

Yes, our entire family is totally in love with baby Ava who is 2 weeks old today. Jason and I brought our sweet baby girl home on Monday and I've spent the week just taking her in. After 10 days in the NICU/NICU2/Intermediate Nursery, she has been receiving lots of hugs and kisses from all of us.

Ava is such a good baby. She rarely cries and I have to wake her up to eat. Since we brought her home, she's been sleeping in her crib. She has "awake time" about twice a day which lasts for about an hour. During this time, she's content to lounge in my arms or kick her legs while laying on a blanket. She eats every 3 hours via both bottle and breast. Because of her size, nursing is a huge chore for her. She's actually very good at nursing but gets tired easily so we follow up with a bottle of breast milk. I can't get over how easy going she is! We went to see Dr. Goza (pediatrician) on Wednesday and she had gained 4oz since coming home on Monday. We're almost back to her birth weight which is extremely impressive since she lost a total of 10oz during the first 5 days in the NICU.

I promise to post more pictures soon, but we're heading up to the hospital today to pick up my short term disability paperwork. Since we'll be right across the street from the Viking Store, we'll pop in to see how the Central Services Holiday Outing is going.

BTW - Both the birthmark on her forehead and under her nose will go away within her first year. Ayden had the exact same birthmark on his forehead!

Have a great weekend!

Feed Me!

It's been a couple of eventful days in the NICU for Ava. Yesterday I was able to hold my baby for the first time since after her delivery last Friday. It felt so good to hold her, to touch her and to kiss her as much as I wanted...well for at least 45 minutes. Ava's jaundice level increased slightly so they were trying to keep her under the Bily Light as much as possible. The doctor had also doubled the amount of breast milk they were feeding her through the line in her mouth. All great progress! Last night when Jason called to check in on her, she was still doing great.

I went in for my usual noon visit today to find the Bily Light gone. Ava's color looked great and they had been waiting for me to come in for her very first bottle. This was a huge deal! We were about to see if she could handle taking in food on her own. Because they were worried about the choking potential, Ava's nurse was going to give her the bottle. Ava looked like a little bird waiting in the nest for mom to bring back food. Her mouth was wide open...like she just new what was coming. She downed an ounce with passion, only choking a few times. Both times she gave a little cough and took care of the matter on her own. Very impressive! We got many good burps as well. After her bottle was gone, it was snuggle time. Ava immediately fell asleep in my arms, comfortable with mommy and content with a full belly. I couldn't put her down and luckily our nurse is very accommodating.

Yummy! Give me more!!

Burp, burp, burp

Hmmm....a full belly feels so good!

A good nap was definitely in order after sucking down that bottle.

See the line going into her belly button and the one going into her mouth? They both should be gone when I go visit our angle tomorrow at noon!

Shortly before leaving I found out that Ava was being moved to NICU2 at 2:30pm. Once there, I'll be able to hold her and feed her much more. But the best news of all was that if she continues to do well with her feedings, our baby girl might be home before the end of the weekend! Keep your fingers crossed!!

Ava Update

Last night before going to bed, I called the NICU to check on Ava one last time. We received a bit of good news. Her oxygen level was down to 27% from the 36% it had been during my noon visit. The doctor in the NICU yesterday told me that on average, it takes about 96 hours for a baby's oxygen level to stabilize (21% is the target). Once it's stable, the oxygen hood can be removed. Jason and I went to bed very excited about Ava's progress.

Today I walked into the NICU for my noon visit to find the oxygen hood removed from Ava's bed. I assumed it was because they were changing her diaper or drawing some blood. Imagine my excitement when today's doctor informed me that they were "experimenting". Ava's oxygen level had dropped low enough and remained stable throughout the night so they had decided to remove the hood and see how she would do without it. Without the plastic covering her, I was able to touch her. I was able to caress her cheeks and give kisses. We can't hold her yet, but after 3 days of only being able to touch her toes I was more than happy with the gift I had just been given. Then the nurse came back with a little syringe with about a tablespoon of my breast milk in it and asked if I wanted to "feed" my daughter. The syringe was inserted into the small tube going into her mouth and I simply held it up so my milk would go down through the tube. I guess it wasn't your typical feeding, but again I was excited to be part of this first feeding. They didn't stick with the normal 15 minutes of touch time today. I spent over an hour in the NICU today! With any luck, Ava will remain stable without the oxygen hood and they'll move her to the intermediate nursery tomorrow. I can't wait to hold my baby girl again!

Welcome Ava!

Things definitely did not go according to plans on Friday. We finally headed to the hospital around 11am when my contractions were still 5 minutes apart but getting more painful. Once I got changed into a gown, we found out I was only dilated 3cm. Instead of sending me home, they suggested I walk around for about an hour and they would check me again. After an hour of wandering around, I was dilated to 4cm. They decided to break my water and give my an epidural. After another hour of waiting and watching TV, we were at 7cm. Another hour went by and they put in a catheter to relieve my bladder. That was all it took...without a full bladder Ava was ready to come out. And do I mean ready! Dr. Rogers didn't even have me wait for a contraction because her head was already half out. Two pushes and there she was!

After some snuggle time with mommy and daddy, they gave her a bath and did the routine tests. Her nurse decided Ava's breathing was a little on the fast side and she seemed to have some fluid left in her lungs so she was taken to the intermediate nursery. After a couple hours of observation, Ava was moved to the NICU to take a closer look at her lungs. The end result is that her lungs are about 2-3 weeks underdeveloped. Worse case scenario is that Ava will be spending the next couple of weeks in the NICU, but she could improve even sooner. There is nothing else wrong with her health and apparently underdeveloped lungs are quite common...even in full term babies.

It's been an emotional couple of days for us and leaving the hospital today without our baby was definitely not easy. I'm pumping every 2 hours to make sure she gets plenty of milk once she's off the glucose IV. I'll be visiting her every day at noon for "touch time" and to hear the latest from the doctor. Once she's downgraded to NICU 2, we can hold her and feed her.

One thing keeping me sane is being home with the boys. Some sort of normal routine is needed so that I can keep my mind busy. I'm sure it would be easy to fall into some sort of depression, but that would be ridiculous. Ava is in excellent hands, is staying stable and will be home before we know it.

So here's what you've all been waiting for!

Ava Marie Payne

Born: 11/28/08 at 5:37pm

Weight: 5lb 11oz

Height: 19 1/2 inches