Happy Holidays!

It's been a busy and exciting few weeks since Thanksgiving. Linden seems to be growing up a bit more each day. A few weeks ago, she started to really take an interest in us. She'd always looked at us, followed our voices (especially Laine), but now she smiles and lights up when we talk to her. I thought it was fun to be with her before, but now that I can get a reaction? Awesome.

Linden is growing bigger and stronger every day. Her last weigh-in was about 2 weeks ago and she recorded 8 pounds 4 ounces. She's growing about an ounce per day, so she should be closing in on 9 pounds.

Linden waiting for Aunt Alison

Laine went back to work full time on December 18th so we have started to rely on friends and family to help with day care when we're both at work. I have time off from December 20 through January 1, so the timing works out well for Laine to start transitioning back.

Aunt Alison

Even when she is fussy Linden can really turn it on for company, which made the past few days of Christmas celebration extra fun. My sister came from San Francisco last week to meet Linden for the very first time. One benefit of Linden coming so early is that even though her Aunt Alison couldn't make it to the Midwest to visit for a couple months, when she arrived Linden was still newborn-sized. (Just the other day, Laine was telling me that a coworker was showing her photos of her newborn whose due date was around the same time as Linden's. She was over 8 pounds at birth and my first thought was, too bad she had to miss the 3-8 pound phase. That's something very few parents get to experience.)

Uncle Graeme

Linden loves her Aunt Alison. The first two days Alison was visiting, Linden just smiled at her and looked for her when she wasn't around. I just figured she was in a good mood. But the next two visits they had together, Linden acted the same way. So whether it's Alison's glasses, voice, hair or personality, Linden likes the vibes her aunt is sending. Alison won't get to see Linden in person on a regular basis, so it's neat to see them making such a connection.

Aunt Nina

Linden's Uncle Graeme and Aunt Nina helped kick off our holiday week by staying with us in Bloomington the Friday night before Christmas. Linden loves snoozing with her Uncle Graeme and acting goofy with her Aunt Nina. What a lucky little lady to have so many fun aunts and uncles.

Saturday night was Twanow family Christmas and we joined the fun via video chat. Our cousin Liz had sent us a mustache pacifier for Linden and we used that theme to add some fun. Laine found straws with mustaches on them and, during our video call, asked everyone to use them with the drink they had. We then put the pacifier in Linden's mouth so that she matched everyone in the Twanow house. You had to be there.

Linden and cousin Chapin with their 'staches.

Grandma Miller

Grandpa Miller

Though my family offered numerous times to come down to us in Bloomington for Christmas, we took the opportunity to get out of our house and try traveling with LB. We had the plan all set -- but as we expected, things don't ever go as planned when you have a new baby along for the ride. We were on schedule until I realized, about 20 miles out, that I forgot Linden's bed at home. By the time we got back, it was nearly time to feed Linden, so we did. She then spit up all over her clothes, so we had to change her, hold her, yada yada. By the time we got back on the road, Linden fell peacefully asleep and stayed that way the entire drive north.

Grandma Twanow

We spent a night in Deerfield with my sister and parents and then a night in Spring Valley with Laine's parents. It was the first two nights outside our house and Linden took them in stride. Those 6 weeks in the NICU and 6 nights in the Pediatric unit seem to have made her a willing traveler.

Grandpa Twanow

Both grandparents were thrilled to host their first granddaughter for Christmas and spoiled her just enough. There's no question that she'll look forward to returning to those homes soon.

Plenty to be thankful for

The other day, Laine asked me (very seriously) what single parents do when they need to pick something up from the store. She figured they must have to ask someone to come over to watch their child, or maybe leave the kid at home while they ran the quick errand. I suggested that they may just bring the kid to the store with them. "That's it. That's what they do," Laine said, nodding her head. That's simply not an option for us right now due to our heightened sensitivity toward germs along with the need to be near an AC outlet. This is also how I know that we're not yet living "our normal life."

Even so, we have a lot to be thankful for this year. We have a darling new daughter who brightens each day.

Thanksgiving 2013

We celebrated this Thanksgiving at home in Bloomington. Though we've lived in Bloomington for thirteen years, this was the first year we celebrated Thanksgiving day in our own home. My dad, worried he was coming down with something, wanted to avoid contact with Linden, so he chose to risk exposing his siblings at the Miller Thanksgiving in Champaign instead. Laine's parents had come to visit on Wednesday so on Thanksgiving day we had a small group -- just my mom, my Uncle "Bud" (named Van Bloom Miller) and Aunt Sherrill.

Van and Sherrill had planned to visit a few weeks ago, but a stomach bug kept them away. Thankfully, they were in perfect health on Thursday and came down to meet Linden for the first time.

Laine and I provided the location, entertainment (Linden) and a kale salad, and the others brought the rest. So, after a quick clean and tidy of the house, we were ready to host.

Linden was happy to meet everyone and enjoyed being held and tended to by our guests. We had a great meal and enjoyed catching up with Uncle Bud and Aunt Sherrill.

We knew we'd miss the Twanow gathering over the weekend but managed a video call with the family. Linden's cousins, Chapin and Gibson, were excited to meet Linden and show off their cars. Our doctors have encouraged us to keep Linden away from kids until February, which we're doing, but that call made us realize what we're missing. LB's cousins were dressed as Santa Claus and an Elf. They were so excited to talk with Linden and she was very intrigued by the voices, sounds, and faces on the screen in front of her. It was sad to not be there in person but it also made us even more excited for February to come.

"Our Normal Life"

LB even got her first mani during her stay.

When I created this blog years ago, I titled it "Our Normal Life" as a simple play on the fact that we live in Bloomington-Normal, IL. The past couple months have been anything but normal, which would typically be just fine with me, except when the topic is having children. In that case, normal is ideal.

Though it has been a bit of a roller coaster, the past two months have also been a lot of fun. After our last week-long stay in the hospital, I'm hopeful that the next couple months with Linden will be more "normal" than the last. And I feel good about that prospect because during our time in Peoria at the Children's Hospital, we were able to take a few more steps toward normal.

Grandpa Miller celebrating his b-day with his first grandchild.

Regular eye check-ups come standard with the preemie package because using oxygen early in life can lead to an increased chance of retinopathy of prematurity (rop). According to the National Eye Institute (NEI), ROP can lead to blindness in one out of 48 infants weighing less than 2.7 pounds (1,251 grams) at birth. Stevie Wonder is the most notable public figure with blindness from ROP. Linden would need eye check-ups until the blood vessels in her eyes have matured. She had one in the NICU, another out-patient in Peoria, and we anticipated having to continue check-ups in Peoria every two weeks for a few months, or until her eyes fully matured. While she was in the hospital, we were able to get another check-up and learned that her eyes are good to go! No more appointments needed until 6 months from now. One more concern crossed off our list of worries. 

Extreme close-up!

As readers of this blog already know, RSV is what we're most concerned about protecting Linden from these next few months. RSV is a common virus that's easily transferred from November through March. Linden's low birth weight qualified her for access to, and insurance coverage for, the synagis shot which helps reduce risk of contracting RSV. Every doc we've talked to has warned us that we have to be diligent about working with our insurance and medical suppliers to ensure that Linden receives these monthly shots. So, we asked about them while we were in the hospital and were able to secure her November dose before we were discharged. 

The only issue was that she seemed to have a bit of a reaction to the shot. An hour after she received it, she became very distraught and wouldn't take her bottle (the first time this has happened in her short life). We ended up staying one more night than we had planned, but that was okay by us. It meant that when we drove home on November 15, we were confident that Linden was in good health. 

LB's favorite things: Mom, bottle,
reflux-preventative incline. In that order.
That blue bag is her monitor.

In other news, Linden has continued to put on weight and is now over 7 pounds! She has officially outgrown her "preemie" clothes and is starting to work her way through all the newborn outfits. If it weren't for the smart monitor which tethers her to within 10 feet of a wall outlet at all times, Linden would most certainly pass on the streets as a typical newborn. 

We love her lots and she seems to be taking to us as well. Her favorite time to be awake is from midnight to three in the morning, so we're adjusting to that schedule as we work on adjusting her to being awake when the sun is out. But, hey, there's nothing more normal than your newborn turning you into a sleep-deprived zombie, am I right?

Back home, safe and sound

I didn't have a chance to post an update this weekend, but wanted those of you checking to know that we brought Linden back home on Friday. The caffeine is helping her have far fewer alarms. She's even gone 36 hours without any at all, which is a new personal best.

Linden had her first tour of the basement this weekend while we took shelter from the nasty storm that tore through the Midwest. Some of the areas worst hit are not far from us, but we didn't experience any damage. Linden was safe and sound in her mother's arms.

Caffeine -- the cure for...everything

An uneventful weekend was followed up by an action-packed Tuesday.

On Monday, a team of docs/residents/students rounded on Linden and set out to determine why she was having more alarms instead of less. At the time, they hadn't received any analysis from the home monitor and therefore didn't have much information to go off of, so they set about ordering up tests to begin ruling things out.

So Tuesday was busy. Linden started off with an echocardiogram (like a sonogram for her heart), which is meant to assess the structural maturity of her heart. Next up, her Aunt Jaime's favorite, the EEG (testing brain activity). This one certainly looked the most intense but, once she was set up (meaning, once she had the gauze helmet in place), it was a cake walk. 

LB, tolerating the EEG

During the EEG, the EKG tech came by to test LB's heart circuitry. She took a look to see if she could run her test while the EEG was ongoing, but there simply wasn't enough room on Linden's little body for all the requisite lead patches. That one would have to wait until the evening. 

After the EEG, Linden had some blood drawn to test for infection and check her hemoglobin. Speech therapy also came by to watch her feed. Everything looked good there. Around 6 p.m. the EKG tech returned and ran her test. I'm sure I'm forgetting a test or two but, as you can gather, it was a busy day.

While all this was going on, a neonatologist was pouring over data from Linden's monitor. Most of the alarms were minor or false. There were only a handful of legitimate apneas and bradycardias in the past week or so and the preliminary diagnosis was immature breathing pattern. As a preemie, Linden has had immature breathing patterns since the day she was born and required stimulation to resume regular breathing if she ever went irregular. Apparently, she hasn't outgrown it yet...but she will. 

What do we do to treat it in the meantime? Stimulate her with, what else? Caffeine. 

Finding time to meditate between tests

Linden, like virtually all preemies these days, was put on certain medicines as soon as she was born. And the first medicine was caffeine. That's right. First thing my daughter did in this world was ingest some caffeine. Seems fitting. If someone woke me up that early, I'd need some Mountain Dew. Stat. 

LB had been cut off from caffeine two days before she was discharged from the NICU. It takes 5-7 days for caffeine to leave the system so it makes sense, in retrospect, that she would need to be put back on caffeine for a bit longer. 

How is caffeine administered to an infant, you ask? Neat. 

The pharmacist sends over a syringe of pure caffeine that we squirt into her morning bottle. I know...you're jealous. So am I. The best part -- it totally works. Linden got a "loading dose" of caffeine yesterday afternoon and she had far fewer alarms last night and today than she'd had Monday. (A loading dose is twice the typical amount to "load" her up. Since she'd been cut off cold turkey a couple weeks ago, she needed to play catch up to get the caffeine back in her system.) I'm not sure how much longer they'll want to caffeinate her morning bottle, but it's helping now.  

A Room with a View

We've enjoyed having Linden home for the past two and a half weeks but Linden seemed to be homesick for the Children's Hospital.

She has been dealing with reflux since before she was discharged from the NICU. The NICU staff thought they had her reflux under control -- at least enough to send her home, knowing that she might require some adjustments to treatment. Reflux alone doesn't merit intensive care.

Linden's favorite position to avoid reflux after eating.

The first few days home, Linden was as happy as we've ever seen her. It made those days extra fun as she wanted nothing more than to sleep, snuggle, and eat. After a few days, she had some discomfort from the reflux but we tried something new that seemed to work for awhile.

Then, these past couple days, she started to have more alarms on her monitor. This means that her heart rate or respiratory rate was falling outside the set parameters. We took her to our pediatrician Friday evening and she spoke with one of the neonatologists at the NICU. They decided they should monitor her behavior until they could download her home monitor to see what was going on. As it turns out, monitor downloading and analysis is a M-F, 9-5 kind of job, so we drove Linden back to the Children's Hospital in Peoria to stay until Monday, maybe longer.

There's a silver lining though. Linden loves the Children's Hospital. She actually seems to like hospitals of all kinds. For example, the photo to the right was taken during a visit to her pediatrician.

So when we arrived at the Children's Hospital, Linden felt right at home. After all, she's spent 75% of her life in this hospital so her arrival was a kind of homecoming. Though she went to the pediatric floor instead of the NICU, she seemed to take comfort in the smells, lighting, hospital blankets, and noises that welcomed her when she checked in.

Like Linden, I continue to be impressed with the Children's Hospital. The NICU was impressive and I had assumed it was given special comforts as a way to take pity on the families who had an infant there. Heading to the pediatric unit, I didn't think that Linden would even have her own room. She wasn't being admitted into the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) -- just the regular pediatric unit. Turns out she does have her own room though and it's quite nice. It's a bit bigger than her NICU room and has the same couch. In addition, there's a TV with movies and internet access, a desk and, best of all, a full private bathroom. The pediatric floor is the top floor of the building and Linden's room has a huge window overlooking the helicopter pad and has a nice view of Peoria. Linden's basically staying in the penthouse suite of the Children's Hospital.

And she loves it.

Having just made the drive to Peoria to put Linden under 24 hour monitoring, here's Linden, bathed in fluorescent light, swaddled in hospital blankets, laying in a crib that's been cranked to 30 degrees (her favorite angle) and she's never looked better.

Laine and I weren't planning to spend the weekend in Peoria, but Linden couldn't be happier.

I don't know what we're going to do with this girl.

Halloween

Jelly Belly -- Cotton Candy or Bubblegum
flavor, depending on the lighting.

Roomies

Today marks the one week anniversary of Linden living with us at home. She's got a lot of stuff, is awake at odd hours of the night, eats odd food, but overall she's a great roommate. Very good cuddler.

Her homecoming came about rather quickly in the end. Just the week before, Linden had started to have some issues with reflux that were hard to resolve. They say that about 70% of preemies have reflux and that they outgrow it eventually, but it needs to be addressed so that they can continue to eat and grow comfortably.

So, in that last week, speech therapy (eating therapy is more like it at this age) joined Linden's team of neonatologists, nurses and physician assistants to see if they could figure out how to calm the reflux. I'll spare the details but tell you that, after some trial and error, the team developed a strategy that seemed to be keeping Linden's reflux under control, allowing her to eat comfortably.

Good. One more obstacle addressed. But I wasn't prepared for what came next....nothing. That was pretty much it. One day Linden wasn't able to eat from a bottle, the next day she could, and the following day they were talking about when we should pick her up and bring her home.

On Sunday, October 20 we had met with the nurse practitioner who had been in on rounds that day. We had a long talk and she said she thought that they'd figured out how to treat Linden's reflux and expected that we'd bring her home that week. She was working on Thursday and said she thought she'd see us then.

The next day, I called the NICU to get an update on Linden from her nurse (we could do this anytime, 24 hours a day). The nurse was not one we'd had before. She said that Linden was having a good day and had, once again, taken all of her bottles that day. "Yeah, you should be able to bring her home tomorrow."

She said it so flippantly that it caught me off guard. Kind of like, "yeah, we're getting the tires in today and we should have your vehicle ready for you tomorrow." After 40+ days in the NICU, this seemed quite abrupt.

We were excited of course, but I was incredulous at first. For the past couple weeks, Linden's discharge from the NICU always seemed to be 10 days away. I knew that the day would come eventually, but I had expected a countdown, not it's immediate arrival.

I was nervous too. Linden had at least one medical professional watching her every breath since the day she was born and, all of a sudden, they thought that Laine and I -- two people with zero parenting experience -- were ready to take over. I felt that there were still some issues that hadn't been addressed. Like, if she's constipated and doesn't poop for two days like she was just this past weekend. Or, what if she has issues feeding again? Then I realized, we have moved from the realm of intensive care concerns to the realm of average parent concerns. In some way, that was a relief.

Laine and I went to the NICU that day after work as usual and asked to talk with the nurse practitioner who had rounded that day. She confirmed that, as long as Linden passed the car seat test, we would be able to bring her home the next day.

Yes!
Linden's reaction to
passing the car seat test

You haven't heard of the car seat test? Oh, well let me explain. The baby is strapped into the car seat that they're expected to ride home in and they have to sit there for 90 minutes without having any issues. Linden took her test that night, around midnight. Laine and I called the NICU at 1 a.m. to see how she did. The nurse said, "She did pretty well. One small alarm but she self-corrected." I said, "An alarm doesn't sound very good. What does that get her, like, a C?" She didn't seem concerned, "More like a B" she said. Good enough to pass I guess. Way to go Linden. Likely fell asleep during her first test and still managed a B.

The doctors rounded mid-morning the next day and said, "Linden doesn't have to go home, but she can't stay here." Not really, but they did tell us that we should pick her up that afternoon.

So we did. We drove to Peoria that afternoon and that's when the excitement came. In some ways, we'd been parents to a hypothetical baby. One that lived 40 miles away and was cared for by a team of people. For as much time as we'd spent with her, we still didn't really feel like we knew her. It was exciting to know that we were about to truly welcome our daughter into our family and see what an amazing person she'd become.

The discharge process took a few hours and someone from the hospital even helped us install the base of our car seat and test it out. Then, we were ready to go. We loaded our little miss into her car seat, took a couple photos of her room, and walked out the door.

Linden didn't make a peep on the drive home, which would have probably made us more nervous if we weren't calmed by the knowledge that she had a monitor tracking her heart rate and breathing. Yes, that alarm that's the same pitch as a smoke detector was coming home with us. At least for a little while.

Linden has been home for a week now, and we've truly enjoyed every minute (expect maybe 5 or so). Laine and I are enjoying cuddling her and laughing at all of her new noises and facial expressions.

We haven't had many visitors aside from family yet, and probably won't have many for a while still. The doctors tried to calm us down by telling us that the monitor was just to keep an eye on her and that they were confident that she was on a path to becoming a normal, healthy baby. With one exception though. They cautioned us that Linden has virtually no immune system at this point.

Apparently babies begin to develop their immune system in utero starting around week 33-34. Since Linden was born at 31 weeks, she hadn't began to develop her immunity. Compounded with the fact that her prematurity weakens her overall, Linden is at a very high risk for becoming sick. The only advice we were given was to keep her away from people as much as possible.

"I worry about our little ones who are sent home during this time of year," one of the charge nurses told us the day before we brought Linden home. "Babies are already at risk during flu season and our preemies are at a much higher risk. We just hope we don't see them back here."

The second week Linden was in the NICU, one of our neonatologists was talking about how being born early would mean that she'd be more susceptible to getting sick the first few months she went home. We asked when we could send her to daycare and he thought mid-January at the earliest. If we could keep her at home through February, even better.

This particular neonatologist had an 8 month old at home who was born at 32 weeks, so he was living the future we were planning for. He and his wife have big families and kept most visitors away for a couple months. Any visitors that did come for a visit had to be over 15 and symptom-free. They were instructed to wash their hands, use hand sanitizer frequently and were asked to get their flu and whooping cough booster before visiting.

That sounded a bit over-protective to me and knew that it would seem like we were just nervous first-time parents if we required that of our friends and family. "I don't think I'm naturally that cautious" I told him. "Well, it's now your job to be" he said plainly. He then went on to explain that we are heading into RSV season. RSV is common during the winter months. Adults who have it feel like they have a common cold and would likely still go to work. Kids who have it may feel a bit worse but it can be deadly for premature babies.

So apparently there's a reason why we had to scrub our hands and arms with a brush for 2 minutes each time we entered the NICU. We don't have the scrub brushes at home, but we are buying stock in hand sanitizer. We've learned that babies have a strong sense of smell, so we hope that continuing this practice of excessive hand-sanitizing will make Linden feel more at home as she transitions to our house.

Movin' on up

The day Linden was born was also the day she moved into her first apartment. It was on the third floor of the Children's Hospital in the Balloon neighborhood of the NICU. Room 332.

Like most first apartments, it was a bit small but met her needs. The Balloon neighborhood is near the front of the NICU and is where most of the youngest preemies congregate. As with any neighborhood inhabited by youngsters, Balloon was a bit noisy. The kids were sounding off alarms and flashing their monitor lights at all hours of the night and people were always coming and going.

So, when an apartment in the Leaf neighborhood opened up, Linden jumped at the chance to move in. Sure Leaf isn't as lively and it's a bit farther from the excitement of the front desk, but she liked it for those reasons. And though she did give up a nice window, she added space and a couch for her visitors. 

But just this week, the nurses cleared her to move home with us. Though she's going to have to get used to having roommates, she still seems pretty excited. 

(The video below will give you a quick tour of Linden's room in Leaf.)

Biggest news yet!

After 44 days in the NICU, we brought Linden to her new home in Bloomington last night. She was a champ on the drive and made the first night home easy for us. She eagerly took all of her feedings and slept in between. I'll post a more detailed account of this rather quick turn of events...when I get a chance.

yes!

At home, in Linden's room

5 Pounds!

Linden had been creeping up on the five pound mark for the past week. She is weighed every other day and as of last weigh in, she was 4 lbs. 12 oz. When we came in today, we found a super-sized Linden who had put on 5 ounces in two days to grow to a whopping 5 lbs. 1 oz. That's the size of a full grown chihuahua!

It's clear where she's been putting the weight too -- in her feet. Check out those meat beanbags kicked out from under the covers. We know one thing about Linden already. She's an "untucked" gal, at least for now.

In addition to the covers, she'd also kicked off her oxygen cannula. She'd had it removed about a week ago, only to have it put back on a few days later to help as we worked on the reflux, but it's off again today. Hopefully it stays off from this point forward.

The other item that's been removed from her room is the additional monitor that they had brought in earlier in the week to record her activity. So, for a couple days, she had two sets of leads/wires connected to her -- six in total. The additional monitor was an "at home" version that could record her activity data and it's alarm was the same pitch as a fire alarm. That same super-high-pitch beep that's designed to wake you up from a dead sleep on the other side of the house. Hearing that noise in a 10x14 room was a bit startling to say the least. There are 6 other babies in the "leaf" neighborhood with Linden and I'm sure her neighbors are also glad that machine is gone.

Feeding and Growing

The "Feeding and Growing" stage is typically the last step that preemies take before being discharged from the NICU. Though Linden is struggling with her feedings this week, she's not having any trouble growing.

She is weighed every other day and has been consistently putting on weight since the day she was born. As of last weigh in, Linden is over 4 lbs 12 ounces! Seems like a near certainty that we'll be bringing home a 5 pounder.

Another constant in our stay is Linden's love of being held, especially by Laine. The first five to ten minutes after being placed in Laine's arms, Linden is typically wide awake and excited in a way that only happens on this occasion. She can tell that she's with her mom. Since mom is often talking to someone, it seems like Linden just wants to hang out with Mom and Mom's friends.

But, she's also....sooo.....sleepy. And that's just too hard to fight. After a few minutes, she settles in and falls fast asleep.

After long enough, she sometimes even falls asleep so hard that she looks like Laine or Uncle Graeme sleeping in class.

Needless to say, cuddling with Linden is Laine's favorite thing too.

Two steps forward, one step back

As we begin week 36, we continue to experience the "two steps forward, one step back" pattern of preemie life. Whenever we have two good days in a row, I find myself anticipating a tough day to follow.

When you have a tough day, you just want to curl up.

A typical "tough day" is one where the alarms are sounding off because either her oxygen saturation is too high or low, her heart rate is too high or low, etc. The alarms are set to sound at varying levels depending on her developmental ranges at that time. They don't signify an emergency, but they do suggest the need for some sort of correction.

Most often that correction is to re-position her or stimulate her. Preemies will sometimes get so comfortable that they don't breathe enough to get the oxygen they need. So, the simple solution is to rub their back or move them slightly.

The reason for the "two steps forward, one step back" seems orchestrated, in a way. If the baby is comfortable and taking steps forward, they are ready for the next challenge. The result of this challenge is often a tough next day with lots more alarms and activity. So, just when Linden has something figured out, it's time for another challenge.

I've told her it's not nice to flip off the nurses when they're
poking at her, because they mean well.

As you can tell from the last post, LB has been knocking out the challenges one after the next. She moved out of her isolette and into a crib, ditched the oxygen and started working on bottle feeding. The latest challenge she's found herself faced with is reflux. It seems that she's started to have more consistent reflux after her feedings, which leads to some spitting up and general discomfort. The general discomfort can then have a negative affect on her oxygen levels, breathing, etc.

It's tough to watch your child deal with discomfort, especially when she's so little and there seems to be nothing you can do. We are lucky to have the supervision of nurses but the piercing alarms make it hard to stay calm. But we know that she can handle anything that's thrown her way. As a gift from our friends the Brandts reminds us, "Though she be but little, she is fierce."

The nice thing about having a tough day is that you know there are a few good days coming around the corner.

1 Month Old!

Aunt Alison made Linden this sign with three 4-leaf clovers that she found while thinking of Linden.  The shoes are gifts from Grandma Twanow and Aunt Jaime.

Today, Linden is one month old and 35 weeks gestational age. Apparently that last part is something that parents of preemies continue to track. One of the neonatologists working with us has an eight-month-old who was born at 32 weeks. It's his third child and he said that he found it frustrating that his preemie was always hitting milestones later than his siblings had. But the doctor was quick to point out that you have to expect this because, until the baby hits 40 weeks, none of this really counts. In other words, if your first kid crawled at 6 months, you shouldn't expect your preemie to crawl until they're gestationally at 6 months, which for a 32-weeker would be 8 months. So, happy one month birthday to Linden. Or, happy five weeks until the start of her gestational birthday. 

Linden has hit some major milestones since my last post and she was hitting them so quickly that I couldn't even keep up. But don't worry, you won't miss anything. It's all summarized here.

On Saturday morning the isolette was gone. Linden was laying in an open air crib facing the monitor, like she was just relaxing in bed watching TV. 

On Sunday, a day for rest, Linden relaxed in her Grandma Miller's arms for the very first time. But she did put in some work in the evening when she had her first real bath. She's been sponged down a few times each week, but this was the real deal and she loved it. Looked like she was enjoying a day at the spa. 

On Monday, Laine and Linden had their first foray into breastfeeding and they both looked like they knew just what they were supposed to do. 

On Tuesday, her nasal cannula was removed, which I am sure she's happy about because she's been tugging at that thing for the last week and a half.  

On Wednesday, her feeding tube was moved from her mouth to her nose so that it goes right down her throat. Sorry if that made you gag a bit. It doesn't seem pleasant but Linden seems more comfortable and she no longer has the annoyance of a tube in her mouth when she's trying to eat or suck on her pacifier. 

I actually started to worry yesterday that we'd show up one day and they'd tell us that she was ready to go home and then she'd be waiting on us. We still have to go through a CPR course, install a car seat, have somewhere for LB to sleep when she gets home, etc. The nurse told me that it would be at least a week, maybe two or more before she's ready to come home, so we have some time. But we need to keep taking steps forward to keep up with our daughter.