One home! One Superman to go!

Another 2 weeks and time flies. The past couple weeks have been crazy in the Richards household. Madaline is home and things are starting to get crazy!
Since the last posting we have had a lot of changes around here. After 64 days on Wednesday, November 10, 2010, we brought our wonderful baby girl home from CHOC hospital. Oh, how bittersweet it was to have her come home and leave Ethan there to continue to get better.
Speaking of my Little Superman, lets start with him this time. The past couple weeks have been an improvement for him and we couldn’t be more proud of how much strength he has. On the last posting I made, I mentioned that Ethan might be given a steroid to help him get off the ventilator. As a reminder the steroid is an anti-inflammatory medication that helps when a baby needs to move forward in getting off higher oxygen support. Since he is over 2 months old now (hard to believe), it was time to start considering these measures. There are serious side effects to doing this. However, there are side effects that are just as serious if not more if they keep him on the ventilator. Again, there is no safe or easy answer to choose from. Nonetheless, he was given the steroids and on November 8, 2010 (Brady and My 7 year anniversary), Ethan was extubated and it has been successful. In fact, he went from the CPAP machine that is gives more support in the way of extra breaths in case he doesn’t take them, to the Bubble CPAP which gives even less support and he is doing the breaths himself. It just gives Continuous Positive Air Pressure (CPAP).
Another accomplishment for Ethan is his feeds. He has been tolerating the volume of feeds as they have been increased over the past couple weeks. He is now eating 29 cc’s every 3 hours. That equals almost 1 ounce, or 8 ounces in a day. What a big boy I have. Since he has been improving so much, he has also graduated from his PICC line and it has been removed. This “Long-term IV” is no longer needed. The longer they keep it in, the more at risk he is for infection, so this is a relief as well. As of last night, he weighs 3 lbs, 10oz. While this is awesome, I want to remind everyone that he is still retaining fluids so it isn’t entirely accurate. However, he is gaining weight. Yesterday I walked in to see him for a visit and they had put a Onesie on him. Wow! This was the first time I had ever seen clothes on him. What a handsome boy.
It’s so wonderful to share this improvement with all of you. Sounds funny but it’s hard to say because I don’t want to jinx it. He is doing so well, and I don’t want this high in the roller coaster to take a turn down, so please keep up the good prayers. In return I will continue the good news. Deal? Deal!

Now onto an “at home” girl named Madaline! So far, so good. She has been home for 8 days as of today and doing well. Her mom (me), isn’t getting much sleep. But as people keep saying (and I really hate when they say this…. It’s very annoying), “Welcome to Motherhood”. Brady and I have seemed to come up with a system that, so far, has been working. I do her 9pm, 12am feeds and he gets up for her 3am feed. Then I get back up at 6am and the day begins again. It works for now, but we will see if the system needs modification once I go back to work.
Couple minor hiccups since she’s been home. She has a diaper rash that she has had since she was in the hospital that I can’t seem to shake. I have tried so many different remedies, and so far nothing has helped. She seems to have very sensitive skin (just like her heart... Hehe!) Also, she has had REALLY bad gas. Poor little girl cannot seem to get comfortable. We have tried to stretch her legs out, do tummy time on a heating pad (on the lowest setting of course), etc…I didn’t want to use Mylicon (anti gas meds), because it can cause acid reflux, but I have had no choice in the last few days. She is so restless, so hopefully she can get some relief from that. I just don’t want to use it on a long-term basis.
As far as her feeds are concerned, she has been sent home with a need for a mutli-vitamin and fortification on the milk she drinks. I have to add special formula to her milk she drinks so that it adds extra calories to her diet since she isn’t gaining as much weight as they would have like to see when she was in the hospital. I told Madaline to soak up the extra calories while she can. With that being said, she has had a little bit of a hard time eating her full feeds. She starts off really good with her sucking, then tapers off and gets tired towards the end and doesn’t finish. Not every time though. It’s getting a little better. I talked to the doctor about it and they said that as long as she is gaining weight, then there is no worry. With all the extra calories she is getting, who knows she may be my little chubby bunny in no time. As of Monday, she weighs 5 lbs, 15 oz. Not a bad accomplishment from her birth of 2lbs, 9 oz. What a proud mommy I am.
Monday was her first visit with her new pediatrician Dr. Angela Hermann in Orange. I liked her a lot and she seems to be very nice. She came recommended from the doctors and staff at CHOC, and she use to work there. Madaline will have another follow-up appointment this Monday to check her weight and the other small things we are concerned with. She will also have a follow-up eye exam next week to make sure that her eyes are developing well. Ah, the new life of doctors’ appointments and hospital visits. I wouldn’t have it any other way though.

On Saturday, November 6th, we had our shower, and boy was it fun. We were s blessed to have our very good friends and family there to support us. Thank you again to my mom and sister for there hard work. It certainly showed. We had a taco guy, margarita machine, toys on each of the tables for the babies, and a candy station to top it off. I will post some pictures onto my Facebook page for everyone to see what a wonderful party it was. We received some great gifts as well. Thank you, thank you to everyone who came and shared in the celebration with us.

Since having Madaline home, we have been blessed to have a couple people bring over some meals for us. and some yummy ones at that. Nana's chicken fried steak was wonderful and Andie's chicken tortellini soup was soooo good. It has helped us out tremendously not having to cook right now. A couple people have asked about helping out by providing some meals for us. Thank you so much. I think my sister Stephanie is going to coordinate that for us since I am still bouncing back and forth from home to the hospital so please contact her in a couple days if you are interested in helping. If you don't have her contact info, please contact me and I will give it to you.

Well, as time permits, I will update everyone again. I like to think that it will be sooner than the 2 week span I have been doing, but we'll see. Thank you everyone for continuing to check back for updates and for praying for the little ones. Your help has brought my little girl home and improvements to my little Superman. God Bless

Picture Time!!!! (My favorite part and I am sure yours as well).
This is Madaline being packed up to come home from the hospital. Yeah!

Madaline after her first bath at home. She did okay. Little cold for her liking.


Ethan off of the CPAP machine. Awesome isn't it!
Ethan on his CPAP machine. Doesn't he have the sweetest eyes ever?!