Still riding smooth, baby!

Don't you just want to eat those tiny toes? Her big toe is smaller than a pea.

Sophie is still doing great on her CPAP. She is still having little episodes where she doesn't breathe, but they are not as scary and crazy as they were before. I got to hold her again tonight, and it still feels as amazing as the first time. She is just an amazing girl and we are so proud of how well she is doing. She is showing everyone that a strong spirit can overcome any physical difficulty. We learn so much from her everyday.



Thanks so much everybody for posting your comments. Kie, Sophie and I have been really moved and encouraged by all your positive messages and support! We will save them all and put them in Sophie's baby book so she can see how many people were interested in her story.

A ray of sunshine

Hi everyone

With some recent bad news that has knocked the wind out of my family, it turns out our Sophie sunshine is working her magic bringing light to a pretty dark place. We are so glad to have her and she is doing really really well.

In our doctor's meeting, the doc suggested that Sophie's ventilator may be causing her to stop breathing. Long story short, her little trachea is still kinda soft, so they were thinking she may be wiggling and moving the ventilator tube out of place. He suggested that they very carefully try to extubate her and see how she does with just some CPAP support (it's a tube under her nose that blows air constantly to help her breathe). She was extubated on Friday at 2pm, and has done amazing since. She has stopped having her "spells" where she doesn't breathe and needs to be assisted with the bag. She still has apneas, but they are little and she seems to be getting herself out of them. We are so incredibly proud and in awe of how much life and strength there is in this little girl. She inspires me to be strong every day.

Another bright spot is that I got to change her diaper and hold her against my skin for the first time. This is called "kangaroo care" - I literally zipped her up into the front of my hoodie against my skin and we snuggled for an hour and a half. I felt like the Sophie shaped hole that was missing from my heart had finally been filled. It was the most peaceful and satisfying time I have spent with her.

She continues to grow, and gain weight and breathe on her own. We can't ask for better. We've been told many times that having a preemie in the NICU is like being on a rollercoaster. Right now we are enjoying a smooth ride...hoping it lasts much longer.

out of the box

We finally got to hold our girl while she was being weighed last night. Our hearts just about burst when we put out our hands and cradled her. She settled right down in our hands, and looked around with those big dark eyes. She knew that she was safe being held for the first time by mommy and daddy. Kie couldn't resist giving her a kiss on the head and I was just in awe of the gigantic feeling in my heart when she was in my hands. (the nurse Dana took this pic for us...) Sophie was doing better, having less "dips" where she doesn't breathe, and less "De-sats" where her oxygen level goes down. Nurse Dana put her on her belly in her big girl bed and snuggled her in tight with a new hat and her soother. She fell asleep and slept soundly for 2 hours. She just loved it.

breathe, baby, breathe!

We spent the afternoon with Sophie, who was making her nurse (Loretta) run for her money today. She has spells where she stops breathing and her chest wall clamps down, so not even the ventilator can get air into her lungs. She did it quite a few times this morning, and Loretta let us know that she alerted the docs to this behaviour. When we spoke to one of the doctors, he let us know that Sophie didn't have an infection, and it didn't seem like she had something wrong with her brain that would cause her lungs to stop working. He put her on a medication to dry out her lungs from any residual yuck that was in there and a medication that would help her to keep her feeds down so she doesn't breathe in any spit up. We requested an appointment to meet with her doctor before the end of the week.

Other than that, she was looking great! Last night she weighed in at 700gm, which they thought was quite a big jump from her previous weight, and she was moved into a different isolette - they call it her big girl bed. (Sorry no pics --I went to take a picture today and realized I left my camera at home.) She was making the cutest faces and at the end of our visit she opened her eyes wide to look at Kie and me...they tell us that she can only see shadows but when those eyes lock with mine I can feel it. She sees us. I know it.

October 21, 2007

The doctors warned us it would be a roller coaster ride, and now I understand what they meant. Sophie is still doing OK, but she continues to need the ventilator to breathe and is having apneas (short periods where she doesn't breathe and her heart rate and oxygen level goes down). Today during our visit, the nurse suctioned her lungs and they got a lot of yuck out of there. We're hoping that once that stuff is all cleared out she will do better and can start to breathe on her own.

She is being fed mom's milk (which is the one thing I feel like I can do to help her) every 2 hours. They have her on a continuous drip of milk to her stomach through a feeding tube in her nose and she gets 2ml of milk over the course of an hour. She is tolerating her feedings so that's a good sign. She is gaining weight and now weighs 630gm. She looks really good and pink....just soooo tiny.

The nurses tell us she is really feisty. Yesterday she wiggled herself out of her diaper, and kicked it over the edge of her bedding. She wiggles a lot and opens her eyes for us when we visit. She makes us so happy, and we love her so much.

Hi Everyone!

We've been so busy in the past 17 days, travelling and sleeping and making calls to the NICU at McMaster. We want to thank ALL of you for your amazing support and interest and love for our beautiful Sophie. I'm gonna try to keep you all updated on what's happening with our girl and how we are all doing during this scary and wonderful and crazy time we are having.