Zoey @ 1 Month

Zoey @ 1 Month:

 

At one month Miss Zoey has been a sight!  She is still sleeping a lot and drinking about 2 ounces at each feeding.  This is good because my milk supply is just at 2 ounces.  Zoey spent most of her 1st month in the NICU at UT Medical Center.  Her hobbies have included sleeping, pooping, and in the last 2 weeks of her first month, eating.  My poor baby went 10 days of her newborn life not being able to eat because of a bowel disease.  I promise to post about our NICU experience soon and give you the details of this.  She got to come home on her 3 week birthday after being in the hospital 21 days.  We were so glad!   

Zoey has been able to lift her head from day 1.  In the NICU, Zoey would raise her head up in her isolette.  The nurses thought it was funny because even though she was a preemie (and the definition of preemie isn't based on a baby's weight) she was still big and she barely fit in the isolette after awhile : )  She also responded to sounds early on and would try to focus on your face, though she couldn't see up close.  I had read about that in the baby book.  She weighed 5lbs 8oz at birth dropping down to 4lbs 15oz when she had the NEC.  At her first doctor's appointment (12-23-09), Zoey weighed 7lbs.  She was 18 inches long.  She was almost a month old at that appointment.  

My baby girl spent the last couple of weeks of her first month learning to eat.  She was born during the time she would have been learning to suck, swallow, and breathe at the same time.  She had to learn to do this.  I can't count the number of times that she scared us too death in Room 1 of Dragonfly Cove by getting strangled on her milk.  Zoey started out on 1 teaspoon of milk at each feeding.  She then worked her way up to about 50mls.  This was our goal for her after the NEC.  After hitting that mark and doing well with digesting it, we were allowed to spend the night and room in at the hospital with her the day before we came home.  

Zoey had many cords and wires during this first month.  She had a PIC line as well.  It broke my heart to know that they were putting the PIC line in her but I couldn't be back there when they did.  I was told by nurses that it took 3 hours.  I think she fought them quite a bit.  It hurt me to think she was scared but I knew it was what she needed so she wouldn't have to have her IV redone again and again and risk infection.  More details about our NICU experience to come.  

So in a nutshell....... my Zoey came home and I was just thrilled to be the mother to this beautiful, little girl! 

Other things I've thought of since I posted this:  Zoey loves to make a "horsey" sound when she is stretching or going to the bathroom.  We said she sounds like my dad who sounds that way when clearing his throat or that it is from my time teaching with my dear friend Ms. Harbin who loves her horses so well!  Zoey goes to the bathroom, as in poopy diapers, after each feeding.  This is from the breast milk and is totally normal.  It has been new to me  because I never realized that breast fed babies go so much.  But everytime that she goes, I feel so blessed.  I am blessed because after the bowel disease she had in the NICU (NEC), we were told that she could have an obstruction that would require surgery just depending on how much damage the disease did.  Praise God there is none thus far!