Addison Reaches Another Milestone

Well despite our dumpings of snow this weekend, we did finally manage to make it to the hospital. The snow was absolutely crazy, in fact people are still digging themselves out of their houses and driveways. Mom and dad tried to make it to London, but only made it as far as down the road out of town and turned around. This broke mom and dad's hearts, but they knew it was really safer to just stay home.

Addison herself had a good weekend and continued to do well on her feeding. She is growing before our eyes. Addison graduated to the 1KG club on Friday and received a blue ribbon on her isolet for her accomplishment. We are so proud of her she has doubled her weight and is coming in at 2 lbs 6oz or 1080 grams!!! She is now taking up to 13cc of milk every 2 hours, which is "full feeds" for her birth weight. What this simply means is that she is off all of her IV solutions and is surviving on mom's breast milk. The milk does have to be fortified with Human Milk Fortifier to up her nutrition and calories, and she still receives some vitamin solutions as well. How awesome is that!!! All going well these feeds will continue to increase in volume, depending on Addison's weight and what her little body can digest. Addison also got her last IV line or Long Line (line that travelled through arm in her vein to just above her heart) removed so she is down solely to her feeding tube, respirator, and oxygen temperature monitors. In reality at lot less lines to have to worry about when changing her, etc. She has continued to not show any signs of infection via her bloodwork or in her physical appearance, so the doctors have kept her off the antibiotics. We cross our fingers for this everyday as this is one of the biggest problems for babies in NICU. If she can stay healthy without infection she will have a greater chance to grow and grow, which in turn will help her little lungs to get better. Addison appears to be adapting well to her new ventilator, she remains on a good level of oxygen that is being supplemented by the machine and is having fewer spells while on this machine. We are impressed with what she has accomplished to date, but are aware that there is still a long road ahead for our little girl.
When mom and dad arrived on Saturday, daddy finally got his wish and got to "kangaroo" his little girl. Addison did great and snuggled herself in on daddy's chest and went fast asleep. She lasted just over 2 hours before mom and dad had to leave to make it back home before more snow arrived. Daddy was so at peace with his little one in his arms, it brought tears to mommy's eyes to see the two loves of her life together at last!!! Picture of pure happiness. Mom and dad are really enjoying this time together with Addison and are taking in all her little movements, sounds and baby smells that they could not get before on the other side of the plexiglass. It is so wonderful to see Addison's little fingers curl around daddy's chest hair, you can tell she is really trying to figure out what that stuff is. Dad was so diligent in watching Addison's oxygen and heart rate levels, he would turn the little hand held mirror around to watch her monitors.

Doctors and nursing staff walked by and laughed at him as they thought he was really being vain and checking himself out in the mirror. When he told them he was checking out her monitors they told him to stop and relax and watch his little girl. In reality mom knew he was watching Addy so closely, he is just so much bigger than little Addy that it is hard for him to see her while she lays on his chest, so the mirror gives him a better view point to see her up close. She would get a little out of sorts at times and bring her oxygen levels down and daddy would sing her the ABC's and she would come right back up to appropriate levels. He already has the magic touch and little Addy knows she has daddy wrapped around her finger.

Addison now also has her wonderful Snoedel in her isolet with her, so she can have mommy and daddy with her even when they are not there. The nurses on staff this weekend thought that this was just a wonderful invention and good aid for any baby's progress in the unit. Mom and dad love it too, thanks again Aunt Steph, Uncle Ken and Sid. We are sure that Addison will have this item with her over the years as she grows from our babe into a little lady.