Hospital Update- 4/4/2013

Email sent to family and friends on 4/4/2013:

Evin had a few big changes to her life in the NICU today. 

-They removed her picc line and the IV in her arm.  Now all she has on her are the leads to the monitors.  This makes Evin more comfortable and makes diaper changes and changing clothes much easier for Mommy & Daddy!

-She had her newborn hearing test and passed it without so much as waking up.  She slept soundly through the entire thing which impressed the nurse!

-She got moved into a big girl crib rather than the bed with a warmer that she was in.  She has been regulating her own temperature just fine, so she now stays in a crib. 

-They stopped giving her Methadone today, which was making her drowsy.  We are waiting for it to get out of her system to see if she is as calm as she has been the last few days.  We have been lucky without lots of crying so far, so we will see how she does without the meds!

-Feeding in the last 24 hours has been very hit or miss.  Sometimes she will do great and take the entire bottle and other times she won’t wake up at all to eat.  We have tried all sorts of things to try and wake her up, but she snoozes right through it all.  If she doesn’t finish a bottle or doesn’t wake up she gets fed through the feeding tube.  As I mentioned before, every time she eats is like running a marathon, so she has to build up endurance to be able to eat on a schedule like she should.  Mitch and I are trying not to get discouraged and to stay patient.  She looks and seems like she would be ready to go home in a few days, we just have to get the eating part down!

Mitch & Kori

The many faces of Evin.
When Evin is too sleepy to bottle feed she gets fed through her feeding tube.  This often results in hilarious faces from our funny girl!  I guess the feeling of her belly filling up without actually having to work for the food makes for some interesting faces.  Cracks us up!

A tiny smile!

I love watching Mitch love on her!

Cuddled up with GiGi.

In the arms of PawPaw

I bought the set of monthly stickers for Evin, but forgot that they came with "Just Born" and weekly stickers for the first month.  I attempted to take her 2 week picture today and this is what I got- one eye open and her mouth open.  She refused to make any other face besides this one.  I guess we will forgive her... ;)

Looking like such a big girl in her crib.

You can almost always find either Mitch or me in that chair holding her or staring into her crib.

When we got to Cook Children's we noticed that occasionally a line would appear down Evin's body and she would turn red on one half.  A nurse told us that this is called Harlequin syndrome and it is unrelated to her heart defect.  The doctor said it isn't very common, but it is nothing to worry about and that it will go away on its own.  Little Evin is certainly "special" in many ways!

My mom teaches 3rd grade and her class is constantly asking how Evin is doing.  They are so sweet and made these cards for her to bring to Evin at the hospital.  I particularly like the one of me standing with Evin.  I must need to work on standing with my legs together...