What Happened ????

This what I think she's is saying to us.....

Well, it has been over a week since her surgery and she is now looking like the little girl we last saw on the day of here surgery. The above picture was taken on Sunday, we've been bad and haven't updated the blog in the last week, amazing how time flies.

Zoë came of her breathing tube on Thursday night, she didn't like that thing she tried to take it out a couple times. her Dr.'s even said that if she took it out they wouldn't put back in, luckily they took it out for her Thursday night. After the tube came out, she was a bit wheeze because the tube irritated her throat so she got strider, basically her throat was inflamed. They put her on some breathing treatments to help her out with her oxygen level and high-flow pressure. She started out at 60 % oxygen and 4 liters per minute. Friday and Saturday were a rough few days for her but with the breathing treatments it made things easier. On Sunday, the proverbial light bulb just turned on, she was active and trying to figure out "What Happened ?"

She's started back on her feedings on Monday, after going a week with out eating. She was started on 9 cc's, she was up to 60 cc's before surgery so she was a little agitated once she realized that was all she was going to get. They have been increasing her feedings by 3 cc's or so every 3rd feeding, she is up to 24 cc's about a half an ounce. Before she struggled to take in her feedings but last night she sucked down 18 cc's in a few minutes and she was still looking for more. She has gotten wise to the "chupi" method, nothing ever comes out !!! It's pretty funny when she spits back out at you in a act of defiance which I'm certain is one of many that Daddy will have to deal with it.

On a side note: Did you know for 135$ you can get a Burberry trench coat for an infant. Damm you Kanye !!!

As of last night she was back up to her pre-surgery weight, 6 lbs 7 ozs., Nana Lola go to hold her, she answered yes even before I finished asking her if she wanted to hold her. Zoë was amused with Nana's voice and was happy to finally got to hang out with Nana D.Lo. She has had 4 good days, no major issues, her surgeons have said she is healing well and is being monitored very closely. A few nurses have already begun to toss around the H word (home). My guess it will be sooner that we think, before Memorial day is my guess-timation. Amy and I think she is on the home stretch and barring any major set backs she should be home soon. Which is cool but daddy has been loligaging, which makes him a loligager, and hasn't finished her room.

Currently, she is on 25% oxygen and 2 LPM, which is great, by the end of the week she'll be back to full feedings.

Also, with the swine flu situation PCH has changed it's visitor’s policy and put the hospital on lock-down. Starting this morning, she can have only 2 visitors in the hospital at one time, that means only 2 people can be in the hospital visiting her, everyone else has to wait outside of the hospital, even Mommy and Daddy. All visitors will be screened at the front desk for any flu symptoms and no visitors under the age of 18 years will be allowed. Hopefully this won't last very long but better safe than sorry. That's it for now, sorry for the delay in the updates, thanks to everyone for the text messages and support we definitely couldn't not have gotten this far with out your support.

By the Way, Zoë is always being watched by Sparky , Go Devils !!!!

Update on Zoë's surgery recovery

Zoë is still recovering from her surgery. The actual surgery went very well. Her surgery couldn't have gone better. We had the best case scenario in all aspects of the surgery. Everything went beautifully. Our surgeon checks up on her every day. The specialist that was here actually did other surgeries besides Zoë's and some of those kids were worse off then Zoë.

Zoë still has the breathing tube in. They are trying to wean her off of it. We hope that by tomorrow it is out. She had a lot of surgery done to her and for a long period of time for a little baby. So this is something that was expected, plus she is doing the same things she did when on the nasal prongs and CPAP. She drops her stats but then comes right back up on her own. Yesterday she needed more help to bring up her numbers, but today she is doing most of it on her own. She also gets build up from the breathing tube, so some of the drops in her stats are from this. So they suction her and she does a lot better. She looks better then she did yesterday. She is not as puffy as she was before and seems more at ease. She isn't as mad as she was yesterday. She is on pain meds as she needs them.

The surgeon is waiting for her to heal and get off the ventilator before she can begin to eat again. She did say this can take up to 5 days. Zoë is getting her nutrition by IV. We call this her gatorade and fat. Since one is white and the other looks like lemon-lime gatorade (the original one). We estimate that she can eat again on Sunday.

Once she overcomes this, we are one BIG step closer to being home. Hopefully they remove the breathing tube tomorrow and she goes back on the nasal canulas. We will keep you updated

Zoë is Recovering.....

Well Zoë is now in her room recovering from the procedure. She had both of her hyenas, I mean hernias :) taken care of as well as her other issue. She still has her breathing tube in but the nurses are waiting for her to begin t breathe more regularly before they take it out. Sh looks good, not to puffy she may be bit agitated over the next few days since she won't be getting her normal feedings. She will be drugged on pain meds which may take off a bit the hunger edge. Mommy will be spending the night again while I go home and try to clean. We are waiting on the surgeon to come a give us full briefing on the surgery. All is well, she is one big step closer to coming home........

She's now in her room....

She just came out and they rolled by her by use, we have to wait until she gets settled in, she looked good. She still had her breathing tube until she wakes up and gets her rhythm back. She was opening her eyes as she rolled by......

UPDATE

Zoë surgery went well, we are waiting for her to come. Our surgeon said she did really well and her issue has been taken care off. They expect a full recovery and normal progression once she begins to potty train. We will continue to update as we get info.....

UPDATE

UPDATE: The nurse just came out and told us that they done the major work on her and now they are fixing her hernias. She said it will be about 30 to 45 mins. She said she is doing wonderful and is handling the anesthesia just fine. I will update as soon as she is back in her room for recovery.

Zoë just headed in...

Zoë just headed in to the surgery room, she looked alert but very hungry. They stopped her feedings at 9 AM yesterday morning so she was a bit agitated, she did weigh in at 6 lbs 7 oz.. last night and she looks big ( compared to when she was born). We also got a very good surprise this morning, Zoë's nurse that she had when she was born actually got floated to the main campus and has her for her post-op recovery. This makes Mommy and Daddy feel so much better, here is to hoping she gets her favorite night nurse floated over to main later tonight.

Amy and I will be here all day today so please feel free to visit besides the food is way better here that at Good Sam.

Please stay tuned to for Updates.

Tomorrow is the big day

Tomorrow is Zoë's big day. She is having her surgery. Today we talked to the surgeon and she gave us the run down. They already started to prep her today. She got another central line put in. This will be for her IV fluids. Her feedings have stopped and wont start up again until 5 to 7 days. They will be giving her nutrients through the IV, just like when she was first born. The surgery will start around 10a. It will take about 2-3 hours.

Zoë is now 6 lbs 2 ozs. We wanted her to be over 6 lbs before the surgery, so we are very happy that she is so chunky. We have all gotten settled in with the new nurses. Everyone is really nice here. We have even seen some old friends from the McDowell campus. :)

We will keep everyone posted through the blog on what is going on. I will be spending the night with Zoë tonight so that she wont be alone before the surgery.

Thanks for everyone's prayers

Zoë is now at Thomas !!!

That's right Zoë made it over to my new home PCH Main - Thomas, it was a fun ride (see picture). We left Good Sam about 2 PM via non-emergency ambulance. Mommy got go along for the ride and recorded the whole that adventure which Daddy will edit for everyones enjoyment. The medical team that transported her was very nice and very skilled, Zoë slept during the actual ride which is cool. The whole transfer took about 45 minutes from crib to crib. We did get a private room and a big girl crib which is nice considering there are only 12 private rooms, at Good Sam there were over 100. Zoë did stress out a bit once she got here, she was just looking around trying to figure out her new environment. Today we brought her ASU gear and set up her plush animals. Currently, she is still on her nasal cannulas but her added oxygen is down to about 23%, normal room air is 21% and she has about 2 liters per minute,which is good. At one point she was at 30% at 4 liters. Her feedings are up to 57 cc about 2 ounces, she is getting better at the suck, swallow, and breath rhythm .

We are hoping to get more information about the surgery which is scheduled for Tuesday but we don't know the time yet. We've been advised that surgeries usually are scheduled early in the morning right after shift change. We will update the blog as soon as we hear anything about time and hopefully real time updates on the surgery.

I've updated the visitor procedure for PCH main if you wish to visit.

I'm going to Thomas

Today is Zoë's last day at the Good Sam Campus of PCH. We are leaving between 12:30p and 1p. We will really miss the nurses and Drs that we met here. Zoë hopes that they float them to Thomas so we can see them again. We really appreciate all their help and support. We met some really nice people. They made it really easy for us here.

We are getting one step closer to Zoë coming home. Her surgery is on Tuesday. We do not have a time yet, but will keep you posted. I will be taking Tuesday and Wednesday off to be with Zoë.

Zoë is been doing really well and is off her antibiotics. She weighed 6lbs last night. She looks like a new born. She continues to feed from a bottle for most of her feedings. Sometimes she finishes and sometimes she doesn't. They don't want to push her too much because they will be stopping her feeds for the surgery. She is up to 57ccs. (60 cc =2 ozs.) . She is becoming more interactive with us and the nurses. Zoë is a big girl now. She is at 38 weeks gestational age and 9 weeks (2 months) old.

We have to go finish packing up the rest of her room. Next time we post, we will be at Thomas PCH. See you there....

Zoë is 5 lbs. 10 oz.

That's right Zoë is well on her way to the 6 lb.. mark which I think she will hit by this weekend. She is really starting to look like a newborn, she is also starting to act like one , eat , sleep, and pooping. She has been off her C-Pap over a week, she struggled a bit for the first few days but from Weds of last week to this Saturday night she was doing well. She was a bit constipated, I believe she hadn't pooped for a couple of days we knew this because she had gained 160 and 120 grams on consecutive days . On Saturday night she tanked and had 3 bad spells (back to back to back), well it turned out she has a Bladder Infection which the Dr.'s quickly responded with ampicillin via an I.V.. It was bit unnerving to watch her go through the color spectrum reaching a nice gray -bluish color in a matter of seconds, so Amy and I were a bit worried since she is set to have here surgery on the 21st. So when we came in on Easter, we expected her to be lethargic but quite the opposite she was bit more active she took in her bottle feeding and went back to sleep like a newbie. The nurses were alternative her feedings, one through her pump and the second through her bottle feed. We were beginning to worry about her not pooping and then it happened, I caught an odor as I asked Amy if she smelled it to she said no, so I began to think maybe they left a diaper hidden somewhere, well lo and behold she dropped a massive deuce. So the nurse changed her and then she dropped another deuce, this was at her 6 p.m. feeding where she took in all her feeding by bottle. At 9 p.m. she had another surprise for us, thats when she weighed in at 5 lbs 10 oz agin she took all her feeding in which are to 48 cc and she was fidgeting for more. Today we hope they up here feeding just because she is getting bigger and looks like she wants more (she keeps trying to eat her blanket, looks pretty funny).

We are 8 days from her surgery, we are both excited as we know this is one step closer to coming home with Zoë. At the same time it is a bit unsettling knowing that the surgery is upon us and what she has to go through. Zoë is a strong little girl and I'm sure she will just fine, as for me I may need a couple of pills to get me through....

Anyway here are some recent pictures of Zoë .....

Zoë says "Hola !"

My PJ's Fit !!!!!

Here I am in my Easter dress, I was a sleep but Mommy held me up......she had to have this Easter Picture

Conversing with Zoë

I am still off CPAP

Zoë continues to do well and continues to be off the CPAP mask. She only had 3 apnea episodes today. She is also breathing more consistently, so it looks like she is resting more and not working so hard. She looks more comfortable.

She only ate from her bottle 2 times and they were both at night. Zoë finished all 42 ccs only during one of the feedings. She didn't want to eat from the bottle during the day. She is still learning to eat from the bottle, so it is easier for it to be done for her. She saved up all her energy to eat the entire bottle.

She also stayed up for 2 and a half hours after she ate the 42 ccs and was letting us know she was still hungry. So we followed her queues and she ate 2 hours later. This is when we tried the bottle the 2nd time and she ate 16 ccs. I didn't think she would do anything, since she was up for 2 hours straight. Just being up one hour tires out preemies, but she wanted to try. Once she ate, she passed out, she was so tired. Hopefully she eats from the bottle tonight. For those that are concerned, when she doesn't eat the full 42 ccs from the bottle, the rest of her food is pumped through her feeding tube. So she does not starve.

Zoë was very playful today. She just wanted us to talk to her and she smiled and laughed back at us. She had a good day today.

Pictures of me from the last two weeks

Here I am going..."oooooo", I was copying Daddy

Here is my big girl crib

Here I am in my pajamas. I was in them all night and day

Daddy is giving me a bath for the first time. Can you see me looking at him. Dont tell him I told you , but Mommy helped.

I am so tired....

Here is the first time I ate with a bottle. Mommy was there to help me try.

This is Daddy's first time feeding me with a bottle.

Here is my close up, the bottle is almost bigger then my face.

I got a picture with my first doll. Thanks Tia Ana! It looks just like me.

Here is me and Daddy. I just finished eating.

This is Daddy feeding me again.

Zoë is off her fighter pilot mask!!

Today the drs decided to longer sprint Zoë and leave her on the nasal prongs. As long as she doesn't have a lot of spells she will not have the fighter pilot mask put back on. This is very good news. Zoë seems a lot happier.
Zoë is now 7 weeks old and 36 weeks gestational age. She is now 4 lbs and 14 ozs. Daddy predicts she will hit 5 lbs tonight and over 6 lbs before her surgery. She also is up to 42 ccs in her feedings. She is also eating out of the bottle on some of her feedings. We are trying to bottle feed her each time and sometimes she wants it and others she seems to have the attitude that she wants it to be done for her. As an ode to Tillman, today she ate her full feed of 42 ccs, 2 times. And speaking of Tillman, on Thursday Daddy bought Zoë an ASU mobile to hang over her crib. It plays the ASU fight song and has 4 Sparkys that go around in a circle. Zoë loves it. She calms down whenever it is played.
Mommy also went back to work this week. We both missed each other very much during the day. We are able to see each other at night and on Wednesday experienced our first interactive conversation. Zoë was complaining and giving mommy the dirt on what was happening. Daddy is trying to convert the video to post it here. She was soo cute.

So we all three of us had an overall good week. Also we still do not know when we will be transferred to the Thomas campus, but will keep you updated. We will be taking a tour on Friday to get to know our new home.

Update.....

A real quick update a Miss Zoë, she's doing fine and is still at the Good Sam Campus. She continues to grow and has even started to like her bottle. Last night she almost took all of her 9 p.m. feeding through her bottle, she took in 36 cc and we only had to put 6 cc's in her feeding tube. She is technically a Feed & Grow baby now until her surgery in the 21st. She is still having issues with breathing which we hope it will dissipate well before her surgery. She is now up to 6 hour sprints and seems to do better with out her C-PAP mask, man she really hates that thing. Last night she weighed in at................ 4 lbs 11 oz, man she is getting chunky. She has Mommy's cheeks and second chin and I mean that with all due respect :). I am on way to the hospital but I thought and update everyone and also post a video of Zoë getting a bath, don't worry I have edited out all the showings of her "goodies".

Later I will post a video of her having a conversation conversation with Mommy.......