Immunization Time

Wow another week has gone by, I just don't know where the time goes. I just know that this time at home with Addison is going to fly by so fast, but I can't think about that right now. This week we started off with a few visits to mom and dad's work to show Addy off, and some visits with friends at the home. Our system seems to work well and we thank everyone for respecting the fact to not come if you have had a cold or been exposed to one, and sanitizing whenever you are around Addy. We thought it would be difficult to ask everyone to wash or use hand sanitizer, but it is actually quite a natural process learned from the hospital, that it now seems second nature to us. For Valentine's Day Aunt Mo and Uncle Scott came over for dinner and we had a wonderful visit. They had lots of cuddle time with Addy and some good laughs with mom and dad. It was great to feel like our life was back to a little bit of normalcy again. Thanks guys!!! Aunt Mo tried on the Moby wrap and snuggled in close with Addy, while we taught her the "new game" of Rummoli!!! (Yes the game is new for Mo.) Addy loved it and thought it was great she could be part of the adult party.

Sunday I think that we were all a little tired, recovering from our "party night" that we just have not had in a while, and spent the day lounging around on the new couch. Addy thought that this would be a good time to explore new comfort means and found out how to put her thumb in her mouth instead of her soother. What a big girl!!!!

On Monday Addy and I ventured out for a walk in our new hip "off roading" QUINNY stroller that we picked up at Sears with all our wonderful gift certificates. Love, love, love this stroller. It was fabulous trekking through the snow, so I know it will be great for the sandy beaches and trails this summer at the cottage. We stopped at the post office and picked up wonderful surprise packages from Nan nan in Ottawa and a friend of Aunt Steph's from England!! Addy got spoiled yet again with some wonderful clothes, toys and gifts, and a funky pair of knit socks that help keep her toes toasty in this cold weather. Thanks guys so much. That night it appeared that Addison's lungs were a little out of sorts from the cold weather and she was a tad congested and hoarse. Doctors advised that Addison will have these issues with her chronic lung disease, and that she may appear a bit laboured in her breathing or affected by the extreme cold and or hot/humid weather in the summer.

Wednesday Addy and I were off to London again for another doctor's visit, this time for her immunizations. Dr. Stare was so kind and gentle with Addy and advised us that her chest x-rays from last week's chest cold scare looked really good and she was quite pleased how the lungs looked. Dr. Stare advised that Addison appeared to be doing well in her growth and development and that she was pleased with her weight gain. Dr. Stare advised that Addison still has some immature leg and arm tremors that appear to be from immature central nervous system and muscle development, but advised us to keep an eye on them for any increase or abnormalities in the tremors so we could look into them a bit deeper if necessary. Mommy had the pleasure of holding Addy down while the two immunization injections were given, one in each leg again. Addy was of course not to fond of this and let out some good cries. A good cuddle from mommy soothed her pain and we were off home to tell daddy our story of what happened at the doctor visit. Addison appeared to handle the injections well, until the following day when she developed a slight fever and her legs became swollen and red at the injection sites. It was obvious she was in a bit of pain and took some extra hours of sleep that day to try to recover.

Friday morning Addy obviously felt better, which was a shame as we were off to London again for Addison's followup eye exam for her Retinopathy at St. Joe's eye clinic. We showed up for 9:00 am and Addison was immediately administered two sets of eye drops 15 minutes apart to dilate her eyes. Eye doctor; Dr. Sharan arrived and explained the process to mommy. Dr. Sharan advised that she would administer some drops to semi-freeze Addison's nerves in her eyes for the exam and that the exam looked alot worse than it really was and that Addison was not experiencing pain. I had heard from the staff in NICU that this was not an pleasant exam, but I was not prepared for how horrible it really was. Addison literally had to be held down for the shear fact that babies can not be told to lye still and not move. As per most babies I am sure, this was the first point of malcontent for little Addy. Secondly she then had each eye pryed open by forceps under each eye lid (top and bottom) and then had her eye moved around by the doctor with a metal styllus tool. Horrible. Poor Addy cried in between sucks on her soother and was in definite need of "mommy cuddles" when the exam was finished. Thankfully Dr. Sharan advised that all was good. Addison's nerves that had been previously damaged from the mild Retinopathy had begun to grow beyond the damage and were growing in a healthy a proper direction out and around the eye. Dr. Sharan advised that Addison would not have to be seen again until the age of 1 for a followup exam!!! Great news!!

Things have been great at home and we are getting ourselves settled into a little schedule. The late night, early feeds are a little tough but we manage to make it through. The boys seem to find them tough though and are trying to catch up on some of their sleep they have lost being up with us over the last couple of weeks. I caught them spooning the other morning on their dog bed, as you can see Fergus is pleading for me not to post this pic!!!! A little payback for the bedroom fiasco.

It has been fun to be out and about with Addison, even though most of our travels have been to a doctor's office or the hospital. People are so kind and stop us often to comment on what a beautiful little girl she is. I always thought so myself, but it is so nice to hear the comments from complete strangers. I find the funniest question I am asked often is how old is she??? Funny question becomes sometimes I am completely stumped on how to answer it. Do you tell people she is 4 months and then get the remarks of "wow is she ever tiny for her age", or do you say 3 weeks and people say "wow she is so new"!!! Who knew it would be such a hard question. Often I find myself telling complete strangers Addison's story. I tell them that she was born premature, very small; but has overcome many obstacles to be here today for me to show you what a miracle life can be. I am so very proud of her and what she has gone through that I cannot help myself from telling people what a miracle she really is. So forgive me if you are out with us and the question is asked....I mean how can you not when you look at this cute little face and not be able to tell her story.

Home Life

I guess we have settled in too nicely at home and I have yet again let time slip by and neglected the blog. Sorry to our faithful followers that have been wondering how we have been making out at home.

We are settling in quite nicely and loving having our little angel home with us. She really is such a doll and I find myself often just staring at her while she sleeps. Perfect little babe. Our first week at home was wonderful. We managed to sort through all of Addison's wonderful gifts from our showers and get her room all neatly organized. Dad finished off our "new" living room area and arranged all the furniture around Addison's playyard, so we all rest comfortably in our new digs. The dogs have adjusted to their new pack member and are starting to show little signs of being the protectors whenever anyone comes over to see their little babe. It is so touching to see they are adapting well. We make sure we spend some time with them each day so they know that they are still loved and important to us too. We took advantage of some of the nice weather and even attempted our first walk with Addison and the boys. It faired well, minus a few bumps on their back legs with the stroller wheels, but it will definitely be manageable for the better weather coming in the future (cross our fingers)

I unfortunately got a horrible cold into our first week and had to drag myself away from handling Addison for a few days. This cold and flu season thing sucks. Luckily daddy stepped right in and took over primary care (minus the breast feeding) while mommy tried to hang back in the wings. Unfortunately Addison did get a touch of my cold and is really stuffy in her little nose. We actually had concerns that the cold may have got into her lungs, so we had her at the Dr.'s this week and into Children's Hospital for a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia. So far so good, we just have to keep an eye on her that it does not get any worse. This season is just so bad for little prems, as they have a hard time already with their damaged lungs, a cold can be just deadly. I am definitely feeling better these days and back to being a full time mom! People ask "Are you tired?" "Are you stressed out with her home?" and in all honesty, Greg and I are much more relaxed being home now and just being able to be with her 24/7. We are a great team and have a wonderful schedule figured out for her feeds so sleep has really not been a problem. The sad part is Dad had to return to work this week, and though we are thankful for all the time he did have off, Addison and I do miss having him around!! We are getting some great mommy and daughter time though which is so wonderful.

Addison is really doing well considering the little cold she picked up. She continues to do outstanding with her weight gain and growth and is now up to a whopping 8lbs and 10 ozs. Outstanding!! She has developped quite the double chin and little baby rolls around her wrists and ankles, soo good to see on her. We continue to struggle with Addison's feeds however and have made a few adjustments. Addison came home on mostly bottle feeds with a 3 hour feeding schedule. What we were finding is that she was having a hard time waking up for some of her feeds, especially in the first part of the day. As a result she was having a hard time concentrating on what her job was at the bottle and she was continually choking on the milk, which resuled in her stopping her breathing. Some of the times she managed to bring herself around, but more often then not we have been forced to stimulate her to get her breathing again. Very scary!!! So we have experimented a little and have moved Addison's feeds to a 4 hour schedule, which allows her a little more time to rest in between all her hard work. She has responded to this very well and wakes up almost on cue for most of her feeds on the 4 hour mark. Wonderful we thought, until she then started choking againg for different reasons and stopping her breathing yet again. At first we thought it was because of the medications we have to give Addison with her feeds, because of her reflux and the extra vitamins and iron she needs for her growth. We monitored when the chokes were happening but could not relate to the times she was taking her meds. With a closer look we no know that it appears Addison is so hungry she gulps at her bottle with such quickness and strength that she gets milk so fast she chokes herself out. She appears to be a little confused transitioning from the one suck that she uses on breast and her soother, to the different suck that she then uses on bottle. So now we have to really work with her on concentrating what she does each feed so she understands the job at hand. We have to be very diligent and watch for any cues of distress that she is having a hard time breathing or not syncing herself right with her suck, swallow, breathe movments, so we can avoid as much as possible any of the choking episodes. We are getting better at it slowly but surely, but it really is a process in its own right. We have managed to continue to work on breast feeding and she seems to be responding to this well and is moving up on her volume intake at breast. She has actually even done a few demand feeds at night, which is so wonderful for us to hear that little cry from her lungs. In the next few weeks we will be meeting with a excellent resource team from Pathways in Sarnia for Addison's feeding issues and hope that they can express some ideas that can help us overcome these little obstacles.

Last week Addison met her new pediatrician; Dr. Stare from London. She is a wonderful lady and so good with the little ones. She was very attentive to what Greg and I had to say about Addison's needs and our concerns. She actually got recommended to us through the hospital as she did a stint in the NICU unit for her residency as a doctor, so she has seen what these little ones endure. Yesterday Addison returned to St. Joseph's Hospital for her Developmental followup clinic with Physiotherapists, Donna and Jamie. These wonderful ladies assess Addison with different exercises to test her ability to track movement and sound with her eyes and ears. They do different positioning movements with Addison's arms, legs, back, hip and shoulders to ensure that her muscle growth and usage is following where a normal newborn would be at this stage of life. Addison scored very well on her report card and the ladies were pleased with her development. Addison falls around the 70th percentile of where most newborns are, which the ladies expressed is quite impressive for someone who came into the world with such obstacles. We were given some followup exercises to help improve Addison's ability to bring arms, legs and head into her midline (center of body) position, and to improve the usage of Addison's muscles in the left side of her neck and back. She really favours her right side, which we noticed from the get go so we continually try to have Addison lying down with her head facing to the the left. I feel that this may be as a result of our time in the hospital when she was continually turning her head to the right as this was the side she received her primary care from, as well as the side we would visit her from because of the positioning of the beds in the rooms. So hopefully with a little persistance on our part at working her muscles and directing her to the left side, we may help improve this for her next check up.

I am just so excited to be home with Addy and do all the things I dreamt of as a mommy. I love to get up with her and have that quiet time in the early morning or late nights, where we cuddle and just look at each other. I love how her big blue eyes stare at me so intently when I am having a mother/daughter discussion with her about my hopes and dreams for her life. I love dressing her up in her darling clothes and looking at what a perfect little baby she is. She endures my poking and proding and primping her up for opportune pics for her scrapbook portifolio. I love walking around with her cuddled in close, all snuggled up in her Moby wrap from Aunt Steph, so that I am hands free to be doing the things around the house that I have neglected for some time. Lets face it I just love being a mom period and am so thankful that I have been given this precious gift to be a mom to such a wonderful little girl. Love you Addy!!!!!!!

We're Home !!!!!!!!!!!

Well I cannot believe it, but I would like to announce that we are finally home with our little girl. What a wonderful feeling. We arrived home on Friday afternoon with Addison and have just been relishing in the fact that we have her home all weekend. She is doing wonderful and sticking to her feeding regimen and sleep. Greg and I still cannot believe that we wake up and she is sleeping right beside us in our home. Finally our family is complete.

Our little trooper pushed herself to the limits on Thursday and Friday and completed 48 hours of strictly oral feeds. She is such a star. Come the early morning hour feeds we were a little unsure as Addison was having a hard time staying awake to take in the necessary volume, but she pulled through. Thursday evening at around 10:00 pm Addison's lost her final tube; her NG feeding tube and on Friday morning at 2:00 am she completed the last feed. I think mommy and daddy were in tears. On Thursday afternoon Addison completed her car seat challenge, which involved her being seated in her car seat for 90 minutes. She was hooked up to all the monitors again and the nursing staff reviewed her heart rate and respirations as well as Addison's saturation levels. The issue is that prem babies are not used to being placed in the seated position and with Addison's reflux and damaged lungs a car seat ride is very challenging for her to keep her breathing and everything in check. Well despite a jackhammer running in the next room to her Addison did very well and completed her challenge with no issues. Mom and dad were advised that over the next little while Addison will only be able to travel distances no longer than 1 and 1/2 hours and should be removed from her car seat when not travelling as this is not good positioning for her to remain in. Soo all that being said and done we just had to receive the official word from the docs at the morning rounds and we would be out of there. We were a little nervous because of course that last day of all days, Addison started to loose weight ( the only other time she did this was when she was sick) but we were advised that is was probably because of the extra energy she exerted completing her feeds. The doctors completed their rounds and told us that we were good to go, they just had to draw up the paperwork and get everything in order. I think Greg had the car packed in 5 minutes!!!

We made our rounds around the hospital and said good bye to a wonderful medical and professional staff. It was a very emotional day for mom and dad, as we were saying goodbye to some new friends and people that had become an important part of our family over the last three months; yet we were also leaving with our daughter for home after 106 days. Our wonderful nursing team; Deb, Lisa and Kathy all made a point of coming to spend some last minute cuddle time with Addison, which meant so much to us. They are really wonderful women and miracle workers in their profession. Not only do they care for your little one as if they were their own, they counsel and guide dumbfounded and scared parents through the whole process. I cannot say enough about our team and the staff that carried us through the last three and half months!!!

So off we left with Addy in tow, with the biggest smiles possible. Mommy rode in the back with Addy and did not stop looking at her. What a beautiful little angel. Of course our nerves got the best of us and we did not get much sleep this weekend, taking turns for late night feeds and sleeping with one eye open. Addy is in a bassinet beside our bed, and for our comfort sakes will probably be for some time. She is handling all the cuddles and fawning from mom and dad well, as well as the curious sniffs from cold noses from Fergus and Tal. All in all everyone is doing well.

We still have a long road ahead of us and have to ensure that we keep Addison in check with her feeds and her development. The hospital is wonderful and has set us up with an experienced NICU pediatrician in London, and Addison will also have various appointments with physiotherapy, eye and ear doctors. The hospital has loaned us a weight scale for the next few weeks to ensure that Addison is gaining weight properly and to assist mom with the struggle to get Addison breastfeeding. All in all whatever it takes, we are just sooooo happy to have her home.

We would love to have visitors, but cannot have alot in the house because of Addison's immune system. Her prematurity makes her very susceptible to anything, and top that with her damaged lungs she still is a pretty fragile little girl. Addison has to receive a monthly immunization for RSV (Respiratory Virus) until April and for the entire winter season next year as well. For this little thing a common cold could not only force her back on oxygen, but could be deadly. We don't mean to sound harsh but we really have to have Addison's best interest at heart, so here are some guidelines that we need to follow to ensure she stays healthy. I'm posting them here, so everyone's aware and therefore you can take them into consideration first prior to a visit, as we don't want to have to turn anyone away.

Please don't...

• Presume Addison is a "normal" term baby, because although she appears to be healthy her immune system is still very fragile and will be for the first couple years.


• Visit if you or any of your family members are sick or if you've recently been around anyone ill. (within the previous two weeks)


• Touch or handle Addison without first asking and washing your hands. We have sanitizer and wash around the home in all rooms so please use it. Sanitization for germs is a key factor we learned in the hospital and has been recommended from the nursing staff to be cointinued in our home and daily life.


• Bring young children around Addison (for the winter season) as they may not understand the guidelines that need to be kept around Addison during this season.


• Smoke anywhere near Addison, as she has chronic lung disease. If you do smoke, once re-entering our house immediately wash/sanitize your hands and rinse your mouth


• Bring large groups of people into our home strictly because we have to keep her on a routine for the first few months. Addison unfortunately needs a low stimulus environment to feed so she can concentrate on breathing while trying to swallow. She has not mastered this quite yet and still manages to choke and stop breathing on us, which is scary for us to deal with let alone other people.

I know this sounds overbearing but it comes on advice received from our medical staff to set guidelines for visitation at least until cold and flu season is behind us. We thank everyone for understanding and feel free to call and we can let you know when a good time would be to stop in. Again thanks to everyone for all of your support throughout this ordeal and we will continue to keep everyone posted on Addison's progress via the blog so keep the site on your computer.