10 Weeks old

"Heee Heee Heee"

The famous tongue. Elise getting a bath, we put a little too much water in the tub. She wasn't as happy with the rinse tub.

Here she is styl'in in her blue outfit. I tried to give her a mo-hawk. Here's another self portrait of me with Elise today. Here she is in her new strawberry dress. These next pictures are from July 4th. Our nurse took us out of our room, and to a conferance room where we could see the fireworks at the arch. This was Elise's first trip out of her room! She was in awe of all the lights in the hall. But she fell asleep before the fireworks started.

Hey guys,

Hope everyone had a great weekend. Elise made a big step towards going home today. She is now using a regular nipple on her bottles, and has doubled her intake in just one day. They started her out on a "slow flow" nipple two weeks ago since she didn't swallow liquids well. And today when speech therpy was here, we decided to try her on a "regular flow" nipple> And she passed with flying colors! She took 73ml this am, 65 at lunch, and 60 for dinner tonight. Remember, her goal is around 120ml. So she is half way there! The doctors decided to do her heart echo yesterday, but we won't have the results until the cardiologists are able to compare yesterdays to previous ones to look for improvement since starting the Viagra. We changed her nasal cannula back to an infant size because her little nostril isn't big enough for the NG and cannula together. We had to change her NG over to the right side since her left nostril was starting to get raw from the two rubbing. So you'll notice in her pictures from now on that her NG is in the right, and the cannula is smaller. Jason is still in Michigan, and says the weather is beautiful, really likes the residency. He says the hospital is very nice, but it is really chaotic with all the students and residents running around. His last shift will be this Friday night, and then he will head to Pennsylvania to take one of his board exams. He will eventually end up back here in St. Louis on the 16th. And we can't wait to see him. I'm still working on getting some temporary work here to cushion our savings. I've been hired by a nursing agency here, but have to wait for the background check and the drug screen to come back before I can pick up any shifts. I won't work very much, and mainly at night when Elise is sleeping, so I can continue to feed her during the day. I have received several cards, and I love them all, thank you. I'll post again on Thursday. Love you all, Kristin