Monday, February 22, 2010

Rachel's discharge planning is in progress...

Things are still going forward for Rachel's discharge on Wednesday. Today she had her g-tube replaced to the g-button which will be much easier to use at home. Rachel also got her 6 month immunizations. Her discharge date is officially this Wednesday February 24th. That will be her home coming day unless something happens between now and then. We are so excited to have her join us for the first time at home. It will be a great reunion between her and her sister Haley. We can't wait to finally take pictures with the girls side by side.


Haley is doing well. She continues to sleep most during the day and awake most of the night. We take shifts during the night so that we both get some sleep. I try to sleep some during the day, but doesn't always work out that well with all that needs to be done around the house. Haley continues to grow like a weed weight wise but her length seems to be way off. We hope she will have a growth spurt length wise. She is quite a bit fussy when she is fed because of her reflux. She is on prevacid, but it really doesn't seem to be working very well on her. We will discuss it with Dr. Farrior on Thursday when we see him again. Haley loves to make lots of cute noises. We are blessed to have such precious little girls, and are looking forward to the many years ahead.

21 comments:

  1. Hello. I have been following your blog since the babies were born. You both amaze me with your strength and courage to go on with as much as you have been through. I have a 24 weeker who is now 10 months/7 adjusted. I decided to comment because my Violet has had horrible reflux when she was smaller and Prevacid did not help either. Her GI put her on Nexium 10 mg twice daily and that worked like a charm. We also thickened her breastmilk with Simply thick. I think the combination helped her tremendously. I sure hope Rachel's home coming is as sweet as can be. Enjoy your girls. They grow so fast. I am amazed at how well they are doing despite everything they have been through. Violet is such a strong little girl as well. Take care and God Bless you!

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  2. Your girls are beautiful! I just had a thought on the previcid.... my daughter has eally bad reflux as well.... are you using the solutabs or the compounded version. We used the compounded version for a while and it didn't help at all but the solutabs work like a charm. Previcid takes about 30 days to really start working and even though the compound 30 days the self life is only about 10 days. Just a thought from one refux mommy to another.

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  3. Congrats!! You have amazing doctors. Your story is truely amazing. I just wanted to let you know my little one had reflux and was on zantac but didnt work. then Prevacid, which worked great for awhile but they ended up switching her from Similac Sensitive to Similac Alimentum. It smells terrible but shes been great since.

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  4. Wow- that is one day away. This chapter of your NICU life is almost over. It has been a long journey for you two with good and bad experiences, expressions of positive and negative feelings/comments here, but you made it through it all. You are now able to begin a new chapter in your life, no matter what happened before or what was said before. You can now go about the wonderful experience of "parenting"- it is the best thing that will happen for you for a long time to come. Although you will have many, many sleepless nights, enjoy every moment of it, as time flies by so quickly. I hope your family is now complete and you can just enjoy,enjoy,enjoy!!!

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  5. Your girls are just beautiful. I will continue to pray that things go well for Rachel so she can join her Mommy, Daddy and sis Haley at home. How sweet will that be. :)

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  6. How exciting! Praying that all goes well and that you have such a wonderful homecoming and reunion with your beautiful girls. With love and prayers

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  7. You may want to take a look at this site http://www.refluxrebels.com/ They have done a lot of research at University of Missouri and found that most babies need much higher doses of reflux meds (PPI's) to actually work. It is headed by Dr. Phillips (phD in pharmacology) - he is the one who developed Zegerid and holds the patent on it. There is a support group http://community.babycenter.com/groups/a3937145/the_reflux_rebels_dealing_with_the_other_colic---reflux_mpsi_and_other_gi_issues? that we have found to be very helpful. It would be worth your time to at least check it, I know there are several moms/parents on their whose babies were preemies too. Then you can do your own research and decide what is best for Haley. I've always felt that the more knowledge you are armed with, the better :) Our three month old son has GERD and we have found this group to be a tremendous resource - feel free to email me if you have any questions... chucknrisa@yahoo.com. Dr. Phillips is part of the babycenter group and is great about answering any questions also. Hope this may help your little girl - both of your girls are so precious!!

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  8. I am so excited to hear about the girls reunion at home! I bet they will be so cute together. Reflux can be a real pain. My 5 month old is on Axid and it is working wonders for her. There are several different drugs out there so if Prevacid doesn't help have the Dr try a different med. I wouldn't worry about Haley being on the short end. All 3 of my kids gained gained weight for a while before they started to grow tall. My 5 month old is very chunky and very short right now but we can see that she is starting to grow a little longer. She actually is starting to finally have a neck now. :) Anyway enjoy the time with Haley. CAn't wait for Rachel's homecoming. I will keep them in my prayers that they will stay healthy. Get sleep when you can. Course after a while the body just seems to get used to not sleeping much. Now that my Daughter is sleeping more I can't seem to talk my body into sleeping more through the night! Crazyness!

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  9. What a great reunion that will be. I wonder what the girls will do when they see each other. That is so exciting!! Let's hope they are on a similar sleep schedule. Don't worry, things will settle down in a few days and you'll get in a routine. We are all praying for your family and love reading about the girls.

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  10. To help Haley with her days and nights. During the day expose her to as much natural light as you can. At night try to keep it as dark as possible and limit the amount of noise you make. Try to use touch to comfort her and not your voice.

    So excited for you all that you will finally have both of your girls at home with you.

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  11. Hey there, Amanda. Our guy had reflux too. Zantac has worked very well for us, but we also had him sleeping on an incline. 2 text books under the mattress, and... I put his boppy under the sheet for his mattress so he could really be at an incline. There is a contraption called the nap nanny that I REALLY wanted, but it is a little pricey. It mag be something to consider for Haley. I know I sure cant sleep when I have heartburn.

    Best of luck! I am looking forward to the pictures tomorrow!

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  12. Wow that is so great about Rachel and I'm happy that Haley is doing well.
    I can't wait to see pics of the girl's together :).

    Best wishes always,Lauren

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  13. soooo happy for the great news... what a blessing it will be to have the girls together.

    something i was always told that babies grow out and then they grow up... chunkier and then taller...

    Lovies,
    Erma, Midvale Utah

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  14. I'm so excited that both of your girls will soon be home with you. You are an example of strength, courage and faith to me and I am so glad that I found your blog and have been able to follow your family. My sons also had reflux and it was not fun. After trying several different medications, a friend recommended that we try Bethanacol. It was not readily available, but we did find it at the pharmacy at the local Children's Hospital. It worked wonders for both of my boys.

    I'll continue to pray for you and your beautiful girls, Jill

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  15. Congratulations! You are about to have everybody at home tomorrow. What a blessing this will be! I can't wait to see the first "family picture" at home! I'm very happy for you and for the girls. My love and prayers continue to be with you.
    Love, Claudia

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  16. I wouldn't worry about getting things done around the house, surely there's someone from church or a friend or relative who can help with that. You need to sleep when the baby sleeps, especially when you have them both home. I agree, expose her to a lot of light during the day, if it's warm enough, go outside. At night, give her little to no stimulation, deal with diaper changes and feedings with as little light as possible. She'll get it straightened out eventually. Even if she can see the light well, I'm thinking it will still impact her hormones, although I'm not an expert on that. If you don't have help, then try to get some.

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  17. How exciting! So glad you will all be together at home!

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  18. Along with the natural light during the day, trying stimulating her a lot during the day. Sing, movement,etc. Basically doing everything you can to keep her awake even if it is only for an hour

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  19. Somehow I missed this post when you put it up!! I just cruised by the site to see if there were any updates and this is a big one!! I hope that all went well with both the trip home and the visit to Dr. Farrior. I have no doubt he'll be able to take care of both girls very well. My little Hannah saw him Monday and he was wonderful and helpful as always. :) I can't tell you how wonderful it is to read about this long awaited homecoming. As a spectator, it has seemed like a long road, I can only imagine how it must feel for yall!! Enjoy (re)introducing your girls to eachother, I'm sure that will be a blast! I agree with the tips about helping Haley get her days and nights straight. My little one had the same dilemma for a while and the bright days, dark quiet nights works well. Good luck!


    Praying for you always,

    Christina McKinney

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