Whats up with the family

Its been so long since my last post I figured everyone would be waiting to hear what's been happening. Things have been moving along pretty good at my house lately. The snow melted and Eddie and Chrissy are getting around much better now. In fact, Eddie is even starting to walk and drive again. I must say, while I liked having Eddie laying on the couch all the time as my own personal bed, I am looking forward to getting rid of his knee scooter. (It scares the catnip out of me!) Eddie is going back to work in the office this next week besides his weekly physical therapy appointments.

Chrissy is back to work in her office downtown but she is able to work from the hospital from time to time too. At least that is what she says. All I know is she isn't here for me to lay on. But I do like this changing table in the nursery. Its great to sleep on.

My sister Allison is doing great. Monday the 30th she will officially be 4 weeks old but they still measure her in weeks she would be before the birth so she is just short of 32 weeks. Her last measurement she was up to 2lbs 12 oz. so thats over a pound more than when she was born. I guess the other day Eddie and Chrissy had some fun changing her on their own. Evidently when you put her legs up and take off her diaper, its a perfect storm for...how should I put this...filling her litter box over and over and over. I guess they went through 4 diapers before she was done and cleaned up. Good teaching lesson for the new parents. At least I bury mine.

She is filling out nicely

Today they took her off the continuous feeding and moved her to a feed every 3 hours. This will get her used to a feeding schedule so its another step in the right direction. Also Eddie and Chrissy were able to give her some breast milk by mouth the other day and had some pics so here they are.

I think she likes it

And here are a few pics from today when Eddie got to hold her again. She seems very aware of her surroundings and pretty comfortable out of her isolette (the incubator/crib). Or maybe she just likes Eddie without his beard.

Snow days

Eddie and Chrissy have been home with me the past 5 days. Seems like they are going a little stir crazy, especially with Allison still at the hospital and them unable to leave.

I didn't bug them too much, just a nuzzle here and there, as long as they remembered to feed me. They did dig their way out today to go to the hospital and I got some of the pics and even a video. (Which is good cause I am out of kitty litter, YUK!) Allison is up to just over 2 lbs now. Nurses all say she is doing great and she is such a little angel to take care of. Here is hoping that continues once she comes home **crosses paws**

Eddie holding Allison for the first time

She got a hat (need to find a Husky one)

Eddie's wedding ring around her arm

"Live long and prosper"

(My daughter is a Trekkie I guess)

First time binky

So Eddie and Chrissy kept watching some movie over and over on their computer tonight. Then they were talking about posting it on Facebook. I thought I would take a look and see what the fuss is all about. I guess Allison's nurse took a video of her with a binky for the first time tonight and sent it over. Not sure what the big deal is. I do that with my catnip toys all the time, but here it is anyway (its a large file so be patient...like a cat)

A lazy Sunday

I do love it when I get to lounge around the house all day. Its nice when Eddie and Chrissy take off for the day and leave me here by myself so I can sleep wherever. But I'm glad they came back tonight to get me my food.

However I was curious where they were all day (it's in my nature, I'm a cat) so I had to do some snooping. I started poking around in their bags, under the guise that I was scratching my face on them. They always fall for that one. I found some pics they took today. Looks like they were visiting Allison at the hospital again. I saw some notes that she is now up to 880 grams. That's 1 lb 14 oz for those of you who are shaky on their metric conversions. She is also up to 14 1/2 inches long...tall...not sure what it is when you are lying down all day and night.

So she grew 1 1/2 inches and added 4 oz. on top of the 3 oz. she had lost after the first couple days. She did have to go on high flow to help with breathing but nothing out of the ordinary. Just about everything else she was connected to was taken off so she is still doing really good. I swiped some pics from their camera so I could post them for you all. You wont be coming back if I keep talking about scratching posts everyday.

Got a new baby update

So things are getting a little more routine for us around here. Chrissy is back to work when she is not going to the hospital and Eddie is back to working form home. This is great because now there is someone for me to come lay on during the day...being a cat ROCKS!

Anyway, we got some new pics of Allison at the hospital. Eddie and Chrissy came home very excited the other night because Chrissy was able to hold the baby for the first time. She is off all her oxygen machines and is breathing on her own. Doctors and nurses are extremely happy with how she is doing. Take a look below...

Here is mommy holding baby for the first time...

...and a couple pics my friend Joe took

Allison Update - Day 5

This is the email I just got from Eddie and Chrissy. Sounds like things are going good which is great, cause I don't like being left alone too long. I'm a social butterfly. And while I love that their friends Dave and Cindy Perry are coming by to make sure I have food and water each day, I need someone to sit on the couch and watch t.v. so I can curl up on their chest and knead their blanket (Its's my favorite pastime).

Anyway, here is the email...

Happy Saturday Everyone...

I thought it was about time to update everyone on how Allison is coming along. We are at Day 5 now of what I have to say is the most surreal experience of my life…I cannot tell sometimes if it's reality or something I am watching on an NBC drama series. First of all, to the important matter. As of right now Allison is doing great, considering everything she has gone through and everything we have expected of her little body. She did have some weight loss, which is expected of any newborn, especially a preemie. I believe she was 750 grams at birth and dropped to 670 grams by Day 3. However we were prepared by the doctors to expect this and by today she is already back up to 760 grams. So she is filling out a bit.

Actually just about everything that has come up we have been prepared for by the doctors. I know I have mentioned this before but taking care of a 28 week preemie seems like just another day at the office for all of them even though I find it miraculous they have kept her so healthy. And I must say that it is very comforting to watch them and hear them talk about it so "matter of fact-ly".

On Day 3 they did need to take Allison off the CPAP machine which was helping to push oxygen into her lungs so she didn't have to work so hard to breathe. However she was showing signs of struggling with that a bit so they intubated her. She now has a small tube in her throat pushing oxygen directly in. That coupled with some medicine to help her lungs absorb the oxygen has really helped a lot. When we watch her sleeping now she seems a LOT more comfortable.

Something else we learned is that she is very sensitive to lots of stimulation. That includes loud noises and stroking of her skin. So when we touch her, which we can do often, its usually laying hands on her, like warm blankets. She does like this and responds positively to that. We have also made sure to stay quiet in her room so we are usually whispering or talking in very low volumes (yes Chrissy does just fine with that when its called for). Chrissy was actually discharged from the hospital on Thursday afternoon so we spent that night at home. She came back to the hospital to be with Allison Friday morning and I joined her Friday night after working form home myself.

Let me also fill you in on the room she is in as most people are very surprised by the facility. She has her own private room where one charge nurse is constantly watching her. They switch 12 hours shifts from 7am to 7pm each day and are continually monitoring her and making sure she is fed and gets her medications every hour of the day. When they go on break or lunch, someone else is watching their baby for them. Its quite the customer service. The room has the baby bed/incubator with all the medical sensors and equipment they will need for her all along one wall. On the other wall is a day bed, a reclining chair, cable tv with DVD player and private bathroom. I am telling you this because we can actually move into the room with her and stay whenever we want, day or night. I am writing this email after the first night we slept over. It's an experiment and we will see how it goes. WIth my snoring they might kick me out of the whole NICU anyway.

So that's where we are now. Everything is kind of progressing as they think it should and feel Allison is doing very good. We want to thank everyone for all their prayers and well wishes that we have received via email, Facebook, church, home, and everywhere else. It is really helping all three of us at this time. Also there has been an outpouring of people asking how they can help and if there is anything we need just to ask. It is all appreciated and once we are in a little more regular routine, we will be taking you all up on it. Considering both of our limited mobility this will probably consist of rides and possibly some prepared meals so we are not trying to cook and grocery shop so much.  :)  Thank you all again.

Love Eddie, Chrissy, and Allison

***mommy's hands cradling Allison who has her own little sleep mask  ***

More updates from Eddie and Chrissy

Here was the next email I got from them about my ...sister? I am not sure what the cat/child relationship is called in a family. Guess I will have to do some Google-ing after I post this...

We thought this would be a good time for an update as a lot has happened since the last email. So the last update was on Sunday morning Jan 1st. The plan was for me to go home the next day so I could work form home this week. However that Sunday night  and into Monday morning, Chrissy was showing signs of high blood pressure and the monitoring of Allison was showing some decreases in her heart rate from time to time. This concerned the doctors and they wanted to keep a constant watch on them both. So I contacted work to let them know I was going to take Tuesday off as well.

Well Monday, by late morning, the doctors came in and said Allison is showing signs of distress that they didn't like so they decided to deliver her then. Thats when the real whirlwind happened. They started to discuss how a c-section would be taking place and what we can expect with the delivery. As much as Chrissy and I were freaking out, the doctors and nurses were all very calm and collected like this happens everyday (which was much more reassuring than I thought it would be).  Well they got us down to the O.R. and gowned up and even managed to get me into it and sitting next to Chrissy with my knee scooter. Believe me there was not much room with all the other equipment in there. Those operating rooms are much smaller than the ones on t.v.

In any case Chrissy got some drugs to numb her while they operated but she was awake for the whole procedure and they delivered baby Allison at 3:30pm on Jan 2. She came out a nice pink color, made some noises and was moving around quite a bit. Pretty healthy considering she was only 27 weeks and 6 days along and a whopping 1lb 10oz. 

The doctors said everything went smooth. They couldn't ask for a better delivery considering the timing and so far both Allison and mom are doing very well. Chrissy will probably be discharged this Thursday but Allison will remain here until March or April. (Which will give us time to get the nursery set up and buy things like car seats and strollers)

Anyway, with everything that went on all the doctors and nurses are extremely happy with how they are both doing. With a preemie of Allison's age, they said to expect 2 steps forward and 1 step back as she progresses. That is typical and nothing to be alarmed about. I will say this, she has some long legs that she is liking to kick every so often. I will get out some more pictures as I can but here is one from my phone for now. Oh and one last thing, I think we have decided on a full name now:

Allison Victoria Lord

Family is getting bigger

I thought this is a good time to start this blog as the family is getting bigger. Eddie and Chrissy spent New Year's in the hospital because there is a new family member on the way. Eddie emailed me about what is going on so I thought I would put the emails up on my blog.

Looking forward to meeting Allison but she does NOT get to share my catnip!

oh yah...the emails he had sent me (ok so they were not just to me but I did get to see them)...

Hello all,

Happy New Year!  We wanted to send out an email to everyone for an update - we are sure to be missing emails, so please feel free to forward this on. Most if not all of you know Chrissy is pregnant, due at the end of March. Some may have heard some news recently about this and might not have had all the details so we thought this was the easiest way to fill you in.

Our doctor has been monitoring the pregnancy on a regular schedule, however they were recently worried the baby was not growing as much as she should so they wanted us to come in every 2 weeks for ultrasounds. We went in for one of these last Wednesday Dec 28th in the morning. Since I had recently had surgery on my Achilles Tendon, I am not mobile and Chrissy has been helping get me set up each day to work from home. This day she drove me to the Dr appt and I had a friend picking me up so she could go to work.

Well after the tech finished with the ultrasound the Dr came in to talk with us. She said after 2 weeks (since the last ultrasound) she wanted to see more growth than what she saw so she might want to see us every week for an ultrasound to really monitor her growth. Then the Dr got on the ultrasound herself and things took a turn for the worse. During the first set, Allison (that's our baby girl's name) was not awake and moving so what they saw was not a concern. However when the Dr was doing it, she was up and moving and the ultrasound showed decreased activity in blood and fluids from the placenta to the baby. Our Dr changed her mind on seeing us every week and wanted to admit Chrissy directly to the hospital.

This is where the whirlwind began. She said there is a possibility we would have to deliver the baby in the next 24-48 hours. We were both thinking at this point, "Chrissy is only at 27 weeks. This is not good!" They got us checked in and started some checks and treatments. First they got a heart monitor on both Chrissy and Allison. Then they got Chrissy on an IV Drip as well as a Magnesium drip. The Magnesium helped to lower Chrissy's blood pressure and has benefits for a preemie in development of certain body parts and helps decrease chances for problems at birth. They also started her on her first shot of steroids, also to help with preemie lung development in case she would be delivered earlier than full term.

With the Magnesium, they needed to monitor Chrissy hourly, so they were checking blood pressure, urine output, drawing blood every so often, etc. She was showing signs of high blood pressure (Go figure huh?) but this was all due to a diagnosed case of preclampsia. At this point they told us Chrissy would be hospitalized until the birth of the baby no matter when it happened. I called in to work and said I would not be there the next couple days, so I have through the holiday weekend to stay with her. We went through most of the day not learning much more and not really knowing what was going on or what would happen next. 

Finally toward the end of the night I was able to talk with the Dr on a phone call, because she was in surgery all day. This is what we found out. Allison is not growing because she is not getting what she needs from the placenta. They do not know if this is because of the placenta, the umbilical cord or something else. Whatever it is, this is why she was undersized this whole time. Right now she is below the 10th percentile for a 27 week gestation. The problem is, we cannot duplicate the sustenance outside the womb that she gets inside. However when she is not getting the full resources, like she is missing now, we are walking a fine line to decide if she will be better off staying in or coming out. That is why we were a bit in the dark the first day. They wanted to monitor and see how distressed she might be.

We got through the first two days with the magnesium drip and a second steroid shot, while they were monitoring Chrissy hourly (it made for a difficult night sleeping for both of us). The Dr at first thought it was possible we would have to deliver Allison within the next couple days, or the next week at best. However after the first three days of being in the hospital here at Evergreen under their care, they now believe we will be able to extend her time in the womb to 30+ weeks, maybe even full term. This is all good news.

So here is where we are now. Chrissy is checked into Evergreen Hospital for an extended stay. She is allowed to work, even encouraged to do so from the hospital bed, so that is what she will be doing. They are monitoring the pregnancy from here and things can change but the latest prognosis is we can extend this for a few more weeks, maybe more, and really reduce the risk of problems. I am staying with Chrissy here through the weekend and then will be going back home on Monday  where I am working while recuperating from my surgery. Unfortunately I have been relying on Chrissy as I am trying to get around in a knee scooter and crutches. Now I will be relying on close family and friends.

Allison has been showing her childish side by playing hide and seek with the nurses while they are trying to find her for her heart monitor but things are looking good - she is very active and has a strong heartbeat, which the Drs like to see.  Chrissy is doing fine and is being made very comfortable here at the hospital. Staff and doctors are great. I hope this fills in everyone with whats going on. We will take any prayers and well wishes you have for us. And if you wanted to come visit, please contact us first -eddieolord@gmail.com and/or chrissy@sayrelawoffices.com.  With all the tests and monitoring they are doing and Chrissy working from her hospital bed, there is limited times for people to come.

We will keep all of you updated as things progress.

Thanks again.

With love,

Eddie, Chrissy, and (coming soon) Allison