9 Weeks Down, 7ish More to Go!

You might noticed her "Barbie" picture is looking a little fuzzy because...

Millie got a new bed! She had to give up the Giraffe for a 25 week old baby. Millie is such a champ. Check out our You Tube channel for a video tour of this new bed. By the way, the Giraffe was MUCH nicer but we don't mind.

Picture taking is now a little more difficult for us, but she still turns out cute!


Millie in her "thoroughly modern" hat (thanks Naudia) and shoes (thanks Mom)!


Dad picked out and placed her sweet ribbon in this picture.

This is how excited she gets when you put the camera through the arm hole to get a better picture.

On that sweet note, Millie is doing great!

1. Millie still weighs 3 pounds 1 ounce
2. She is now on 22 calorie feedings (my milk with human milk fortifier). She is working her way to 24 calorie feedings.
3. After a slight fit I threw, Millie got moved to a quieter spot in the NICU. Not one of my shinning moments :)
4. We haven't had a follow up eye doctor appointment yet, so stay tuned.
5. Her oxygen flow is down to 1 liter.

We're so excited to be (hopefully) more than half way through with Millie's hospital stay!

Happy 2 Month Birthday Millie!

She loves to celebrate her birthday, clearly.

She takes after her mother. My eyes also disappear when I smile real big!

100% Girl: Happy 8 Weeks, Millie!

Millie started off her 7th week looking like this:

(The stuff on her face is to protect her skin since the elephant trunk had the potential of hurting this sweet face! It's the same stuff they use on burn victims.)

and finished it looking like this!

Would you look at that. She is off the ventilator!



She is clearly a girl, right? With 3 pink blankets (all gifts from loved ones), a pink zacky (hand thing), and a pink bow.

This week we got this new blanket as a gift from a young man doing a scout project (for the whole NICU).

Do you think they thought she was a boy?

I love the blanket, and I love her name on it. I just have to wonder...


Millie was wondering too.

These days she loves her pacifier,

and she loves her guard dog, Rufus. They even wrestle sometimes...

and then Rufus watches her sleep.

Another one of her favorite things is sneezing. To see her in action visit our You Tube channel at:

http://www.youtube.com/user/nikibagwell

Be sure and hit "see all" to watch all 18 videos.

Health Updates:

1. Millie is holding strong at 3 pounds.
2. The eye doctor stopped by for a check up last night. He has decided to come by weekly to check the progress of her retinas forming. He warned us of a few potential problems, but no problems just yet. The good news is that she can definitely see us!
3. She is breathing on a high pressure nasal cannula at 3 liters of oxygen to date. She is slowly working her way do to just needing oxygen and no pressure. Her oxygen levels continue to stay in the great range of 21-25%.
4. Because of her already low levels of oxygen, it's very possible that we will not need to take her home on oxygen! We will be happy to see her whole face without any scary machines. Although a monitor would bring some comfort...
5. Millie is up to full feeds on my non-dairy milk. We are trying to slowly build up her tolerance to a fortifier so she can gain some more weight. I am also off the non-dairy diet for now, and we will try her on regular milk once we run out of non-dairy.
6. We are still looking at bringing her home around her due date, March 17th, or later. It all depends on how soon she can take her feedings by herself. There is no weight requirement for her.

Thank you so much for following Millie's story. We are constantly impressed by how concerned everyone is for her. We love you all!

I forgot to mention...

if you can't get enough of this sweet face

then visit our YouTube channel with loads of Millie videos!

http://www.youtube.com/user/nikibagwell

7 Weeks and Growing Strong!

New toys to match our new equipment! Thanks Aunt Janet (and girls) for the darling elephant.

Folks, the CPAP is here to stay...at least until its time to go to plain old oxygen.

We're proud of Millie for not getting back on the ventilator, and can't wait for the nasal cannula. That means we'll be able to pick her up all by ourselves!

She's still trying to figure out what this trunk is all about.

Millie is now up to full feeds on formula! She is digesting everything just wonderfully, too!

I know why...clearly this formula is pink. The other one was blue. They should have just asked me weeks ago which one I thought she'd take.

Millie met her adoring Aunt Betsey...

and Uncle Geoff.

She got her first "legal" tub bath and loved it. She also got her first shampooing!

I got to dry her off and hear her cry. She isn't hooked up to ANY equipment in this picture...like a normal baby! Except with oxygen blowing on her face. Close enough.

Millie had her first eye exam. I'm sure it will be one of many if she takes after me.

We finally hung her Christmas present by her bed.

And tried some of her new clothes on her!

She is weighing in at 2 pounds 13 ounces, and growing almost every day.

Every few days they ween her off the CPAP little by little, so I suspect she will be on the nasal cannula within two weeks. Hooray!

On the home front, we are finally preparing for having a baby. We've set up her "closet" in our room. It strangely resembles a book case with a curtain rod, but she'll never know the difference. We are also getting serious about strollers, car seats, and nursery motifs.

This past weekend I had the chance to go home to South Carolina to visit my brother. He was serving a mission for our Church in Las Vegas, Nevada, so I hadn't seen him for 2 years! It was great being all together again. We also squeezed in a baby shower for me, and it was wonderful. I received lots of darling things to put in Millie's closet. Thank you everyone!

Buck and I just did the math and realized we aren't even half way through with the NICU yet. Depressing, huh? That's if we bring her home on her due date. She may have to stay longer, it just depends on how she's eating and growing. We're making ourselves right at home there, and love the staff. It would be nice to have Millie at home, all to ourselves.

Miss New Year: Happy 6 Weeks Millie!

The results are in!

Millie can't believe she won Miss New Year.

Just like when she was born, she likes to wave to her adoring fans.

Her formal outfit:

Her Talent:

I know, I know. My child is advanced. Clearly she's trying to crawl right out of that bed.

Happy 6 weeks Millie! You little chunker, you.

Health Updates:

1. Millie now weighs 2 lbs 10 ounces, and is 14 inches long.
2. She has progressed to eating half formula, half pedialite every 3 hours. Her food amount was increased, but then taken back down to the starting amount.
3. We still have no idea what is going on with her digestive situation. She has had countless tests with no results that lead us to a conclusion (or even a clue). All we know is what she doesn't have wrong with her.
4. Obviously Millie is now on a new breathing machine, Nasal CPAP. This happened yesterday about 2 PM and as of this morning she is still going strong. This is our 2nd attempt to get her on this machine. It is basically the same thing people with sleep apnea sleep with, only smaller. I call it her elephant trunk. It looks worse, but it is much better for her.
5. We were able to give her a real bath on Sunday! We technically aren't supposed to do that until she gets her PICC line out (on her head), but we had a nurse and therapist that wanted to give it a try. She LOVED it, and we did too.
   

We're so proud of our little girl. We love her and can't wait to bring her home.

5 Weeks Never Looked so Good!

Millie is over 5 weeks (and 29 weeks) old these days.

This picture doesn't really show how big she, but she has nearly doubled her birth weight. She now weighs 2 lbs 6 oz!

I fed her for the first time! That little syringe goes to her feeding tube that goes straight to her stomach. Currently she is eating pedialite (Gatoraid for babies) since we still can't figure out what is going on with her digestive situation. Hopefully we'll figure it out soon for her sake...this girl needs some calories! I wanted to feed her a cinnamon roll, but the doctors didn't agree.

We sure love holding her! We get to hold her for two hours every day.

And before we put her back to bed we get to kiss her!

I like to call this pose "splat" since she typically resembles a bug on a windshield after laying on us for an hour straight!

Here is a video of her being put back to bed. What an ordeal!

Happy New Year!

Where did you spend your last seconds of 2009?

Millie spent hers in her Daddy's arms.

Happy New Years!

Clearly she's quite the party animal.