Almost Home

Little Olivia is no longer so little, as of last night she's up to 2700 grams or 5 lbs. 15 ozs.!!!!! She's almost to the 6 pound mark and we're finding out that all of those clothes that used to be so huge on her barely fit. The past few days we've discovered that Olivia has grown out of a few onesies, I guess that's something that was inevitable but I can remember a time when I thought that it would never happen.

Even better news...with any luck we'll be taking Olivia home next Tuesday. Of course, that could change but we're cautiously optimistic that she'll be home soon. For all of you in Houston, please drive extra safe on Tuesday and if you see a silver 4Runner going VERY VERY slow don't get mad, it might be us with our little girl! We're so excited to bring her home after 8 weeks in the hospital. We know that we'll have to take her to the hospital quite a bit for a little while, but it's better than paying rent at the place like we are now. To start, Olivia will be on oxygen and still tube feeding but we know that won't last for ever!

Mommy and daddy continue to plug through the day to day slog, so please keep sending your wishes and prayers. We can't tell you how much that has meant to us! Thank you!

OK - now for obligatory fashion show of cute little Olivia and her burgeoning wardrobe. I swear, she has more clothes than me!


Miss Olivia with Mommy in her Boppy bed!



Front view of "My Daddy Loves Me" outfit (It's true!)



Rear (end) view of "My Daddy Loves Me" outfit



Olivia's Strawberry Shortcake ouftit (Thanks Gramma)

"I'm a little lady"

Olivia had a great surprise this week, Gramma and Papa Stevens came to visit from Pennsylvania. It was the first time Olivia had met them and we were so happy to have them here to spend time with us and Olivia. Although Gramma loved holding Olivia and Papa was afraid to touch her because "she was too small", we all had a great time. Thanks for coming mom and dad!

I'll just get right to the other point on this posting, Olivia already has quite a wardrobe. Some of her favorites are her "I'm a Little Lady" onesie, her yellow onesie with yellow ruffles on the toosh, and her doggie onesie with dog feet. All of the nurses crack up at all of her clothes. In fact, she has so many outfits at the hospital that they brought us a three-drawer rubbermaid container to hold all of them (and her assorted hospital supplies.)

Here's a sampling of her favorite outfits. Of course, you've already seen her favorite outfit...her Penn State onesie!


Doggie outfit w/ Aunt Lisa!



With Gramma and Papa Stevens!



Sleeping in her Boppy bed!


Another cute one!



One of her few non-pink outfits.

It's been a while...

A lot has been going on with little Miss Olivia, so much in fact, that we've neglected our blog a little bit (sorry!) to keep up with her.

Last Wednesday, Olivia had her first surgery. The great doctors at TX Children's inserted a more permamnent feeding tube into her cute little belly. This replaced the tube that was in her nose that had been feeding her. She did a great job and showed us that she's such a little fighter. Even at 6 weeks old, she's already stronger than most of the people I know. She's such an amazing, resilient little girl.

Since her surgery, Olivia has been recovering (very well) and we've been looking forward to having her come home. Our previous doctor (they rotate monthly) had hoped we could come home this week. Unfortunately, that isn't in the cards. Our new doctor is hoping to have her home in the next few weeks. That has been extremely frustrating to us as we were looking to have her home, but we'll be patiently waiting.

So we've been at the hospital for going on 7 weeks now, and it's pretty frustrating. I'll spend the last few sentences of this post asking everyone for continued prayer for little Olivia to continue to grow, get healthy and do all the things that little babies do. A secondary prayer, much less important to us, is for our sanity through this process. Just when we think we see the light and the end of the tunnel, the tunnel gets longer! Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers, hearing from everyone helps us manage this process better!

Love - Chad

We Are...Penn State

Little Olivia and I have been learning about one of the good things in life...Penn State and Penn State Football (and the Houston Rockets.) In the picture above, I'm reading Olivia her favorite book "Hello Nittany Lion" where the Nittany Lion travels to a Penn State Football game past all the "famous" Penn State landmarks like the Nittany Lion Shrine, Old Main, the Creamery, the Nittany Lion Inn, the University Gates and OF COURSE BEAVER STADIUM where he meets Joe Pa! What great childhood reading!

Here's another picture of our sweet pea and her proud papa!



And her Rockets t-shirt with Clutch on it! You'll also notice Snuggles, Olivia's sea horse friend!

Large and In Charge - Olivia hits 5 lbs!

Good news! Tonight Olivia gained 75 grams, to get to 2275 grams or 5 pounds! While not Earth-shattering, it's another major milestone for us. She continues to grow and get healthy.

Olivia is back on her nasal cannula and off bottle feeding, it looks like she wasn't quite ready to master that task. While she has a good suck (so I'm told), she seems to be aspirating a little bit. She'll be on the cannula for the weekend and then we'll see how she does! This is not alarming to us in any way, just a little bump in the road.

On a more happy note, yesterday Olivia celebrated her 1 month birthday. Unfortunately, I had to travel to Philadelphia for work but came home with a birthday present for Olivia, a book "Commander in Leash" about President Obama's dog, Bo. My present was reading it to her, while she looked at me with her eyes, which she's opening a lot more!

Bottle Feeding, Eye Opening and Baby Massage

It's been a little while since our last post, so the guilt has finally gotten to me...hence this post.

Little Olivia is doing great, she continues to make progress in all of the areas that are "important." She now weighs 4 lbs. 13 ounces, just 3 ozs. from 5 lbs!!! She continues to learn to open her eyes, is starting to keep them open for a long while and beginning to focus on objects close enough for her to look at. We've also learned how to give baby massages, which she obviously loves. I mean, who doesn't like massages? Even the ladies at the hospital are starting make comments about how spoiled our little Olivia is becoming!

The biggest news is that we're starting to bottle feed our little girl, which is a huge step to getting her home. She started off slow 4 days ago, taking 5-8 cubic centimeters, but yesterday she took all 15 twice! When I fed her in the afternoon, she took the entire bottle then fussed at me because she couldn't get anymore! We know for sure she has her parents' appetite.

More Big Steps for Olivia!

Miss Olivia continues to make great progress every day, thanks to God and the wonderful staff at Texas Children's. Here are the latest and greatest updates and changes!

• Olivia got upgraded on Monday from the Level 3 NICU (most intensive) to Level 2! Level 2 is way more laid back, and we are so happy to have her there now--especially because the next move after Level 2 will be to bring her HOME!
  
• She now weighs in at 4 pounds 7 ounces (or 2010 grams), so she is getting closer to having gained a full pound since birth, which is exciting! And, she has surpassed the magical 2000 grams threshold at which the doctors start considering sending babies home (assuming they're ready in all other areas as well).
• Today we started reintroducing Olivia to bottle feeding, as she has been fed exclusively through a tube into her nose for the last few weeks. She didn't finish the whole bottle, but she still did great--she was very interested in her milk and made it clear that she was not happy any time we took the bottle away for even a second! (she is definitely her mommy and daddy's child when it comes to eating...)
• We've started doing more developmental activities with Olivia, like reading to her and playing musical toys for her. The first time I played her Baby Einstein classical music toy a couple days ago, she almost immediately turned toward it and started opening her eyes!

Here are a couple pictures of Olivia in her "big girl bed" (a.k.a., a regular crib), which she moved into a week ago when the doctors decided she was ready to leave her heated isolette behind:




Here are Olivia and Daddy together a couple days ago, doing our favorite activity (skin-to-skin time):


As always, we want to thank all of you for your continued interest in how Olivia's doing, and all your support, friendship and prayers--it has meant so much to us!