More Pictures

May 2009

It's been so long since I written on here, sorry everyone! Briana has been keeping us quite busy and she's growing so fast! Briana now weighs 1o lbs 7 oz., she's a big girl now! She got the double chin and is starting to fill out quite nicely. She's still wearing newborn clothes but is starting to grow out of some of them, it actually makes me kinda sad. However, at the same time her 3 month summer clothes are so cute I'm excited to see her in them!

Briana's health is amazing. We're officially off the monitor and I can't tell you how excited Paul and I are not to have to deal with that any more. We actually took her off the monitor before we got the doctors permission but we felt that she was ready for it. Also, the machine would randomly go off during the night because of lose leads and would scare Paul and I to death, so that was another reason for us to have the monitor off of her. She hadn't had an alarm go off since the first week she came home which was another reason Paul and I felt confident with our decision. Briana is still on her meds but we're slowly reducing the caffeine. Her eyes are phenomenal, the ROP is completely gone and she only has another check up in 8 months just to monitor her progress.

As for the hole in her heart, we're not completely sure if it is closed. Briana has an appointment in July to monitor her progress for her eyes, ears, heart, and to see where she is developmentally. During that appointment they'll do another echo scan to let us know. However, Briana's pediatrician informed us that she did not hear a murmur. It's always good news to hear that but after being in the hospital and they would tell us that and later it would be discovered she still had a hole, basically we don't want to get our hopes up. She still is growing and thriving so I do not believe that if there is a hole in her heart they would operate.

Developmentally Briana is right on course with her adjusted age. She'd be about 2 months old but is holding her head up and has control 90% of the time. She's smiling, I can't tell you how much that melts my heart, and is cooing a lot. Briana is kicking a ton too and loves her baby mat, it's her favorite toy and she can spend about 30 minutes on it, it's a great place to put her if I'm needing a shower or getting dinner done! ;) Briana loves to stand, it's how we get her to stop crying, and her face is hilarious!

When we first brought Briana home she was sleeping in her car seat and continued to do so for the first 6 weeks. We've now got her sleeping in her crib and she's really gotten used to it. Briana sleeps about 5-6 hours through the night so I feel like I'm finally getting my sanity back. Paul is nice enough to take her one night on the weekend so that I can sleep in. I think it really lets Paul appreciate me taking her during the week.

I finally gave up on breast feeding as well. It was not something that I wanted to do but I really feel that since she was in the hospital for so long Briana just got used to eating out of a bottle and also her suckle was so weak. When she finally came home I would breast feed for an hour and it was so frustrating. Briana would cry and attempt to suckle and wasn't getting enough, so after the breast feeding we would give her a bottle of breast milk, then I would pump the rest out, and the cycle would start again in an hour. It was so exhausting for all of us. Paul was getting stressed because he could see both of us frustrated and he could do nothing. The comical part was when Paul was trying to give me breast feeding tips! So, now Briana is on formula and she seems to have no complaints. Even the transition from breast milk to formula was very easy, thank goodness!

In late April we started taking Briana out in the public which also was amazing. I felt like we were locked up in the house and would sometimes go stir crazy because I had been couped up for so long. Briana loves her stroller and going for walks. We had our first shopping trip together and she did wonderful. I almost purchased her a little onsie that says, "Mom and me love to shop," but I didn't think Paul would appreciate that as much as I would! Briana is also such a ham. Whenever we're out and someone will stop to look at Briana she'll give them a huge toothless grin, it's so funny to see.

Briana still looks like both Paul and I. She has her dad's eyes and forehead and everything from the nose down is me. It's amazing to see her looks develop. She's also lost most of her hair which make me sad. In fact, she has what we call it old man hair, very little hair on the top of her head but a ring of hair on the bottom and back of her head. Paul says business in the front and party in the back, poor girl!

Briana really is amazing and our little blessing. She is such a fighter, literally when it comes to bed, but I wouldn't change a thing about her.