Slideshow of Eliza Photos

I have created a little slideshow with the photos of Eliza and/or Me and/or Amanda I have put on Bradmanda.com. I hope you like it. It should update with new photos as they are added so keep checking back every so often for more!

Eliza Gets A Bath

Eliza Gets A Bath, a photo by bradleygee on Flickr.

I think this is my favorite picture of all the pictures I have taken of Eliza. It's real nice.

I am about getting around to posting more pics to my Flickr, Bradmanda.com, Facebook and right here at Stay At Home Brad so keep an eye out if you are interested.

17 Days And Growing

Dear Eliza,

Hey there my beautiful little baby! How are you? Did you know you are 17 days old today? Wow!

We saw you again out at your hospital home. We got to give you a bath today and you seemed to enjoy it quite a bit. It may have reminded you of your old home, which was inside your mom! You barely fit in the tub because you are so big, at least for a preemie (5 lbs 4 oz, almost 18".)

You are doing very well with your progression towards coming to your permanent home. Yesterday you ate/drank from a bottle 3 times. And today you seemed to be grasping the concept of breastfeeding.

Eliza, if you recall, the last 2 things you need to accomplish are to not have Bradys for 5 days and be solely bottle and/or breast fed for 2 days. You are working so hard at it, we can tell. You are gonna be home in no time!

We are really anxious to get you home. Going all the way out to Aurora to see you is really hard. We do love coming to visit and as soon as we get there we forget any sort of troubles our journey might have brought us. But we sure would like it better if the farthest we had to go to see you was across our house. I know you're trying really hard and it is just gonna be a lil while more but we want you home Eliza!

Alright then, I will be going now. I'm waiting for your mom at her work where I am picking her up and she should be out any minute now. We will see you in the morning time Eliza.

Love,

Dad

2 Week Birthday

Dear Eliza,

Happy birthday. You are two weeks old today! Not only that but you are also over 5 pounds now. You are growing so big Eliza!

Yesterday I made a video out of the daily photographs I (and your grandma) have taken. We only had 13 days worth of photos to work with so it is pretty short, but it will get bigger and better as you grow older.

We are here with you on the NICU today. You were having a little bit of a problem with your oxygen saturation levels earlier, but they turned up your airflow and that seemed to help.

We are all still really impressed with your progress. All you need to do is start nipple feeding and we're outta here. But no rush. You will start when you are ready.

Alright then Eliza, I will be going again. We just got back from having lunch with your grandma at Panda Express and need to get back in to see you. So I will type to you later! Bye!

Love,

Dad

Eliza's Daily Photo Video Number 1

Hi there, I have been diligently snapping away while Eliza is in the NICU to get her photo of the day, with a little help from Grandma C when we could not make it. Eliza is 13 days old today, tomorrow she will be 2 weeks, yay! She is doing great there, but we are really ready for her to come home. She has got a little bit to do yet before she can so we just have to wait. But anyways, here is the video of her 13 days in still picture form! It's a little bit harder with her in the NICU to get a good photo some days, they will improve when she gets home, don't worry. Ok then!

News And/Or Updates For Today

Dear Eliza,

So sorry for not writing you for several days. I'm sure you will have forgiven me by the time you are reading this.

We got some news today regarding your release from the hospital. What we found out was that you need to be free from Bradycardia for 5 days and have been fed solely from a bottle and/or nipple for 48 hours. That is all you have to do! You have already been able to maintain your temperature and are above your birth weight and still gaining! You are doing so great Eliza!

Your grandma Carol stopped by last night to are you. She is pretty excited about you too. She got to hold you for a couple hours and see your fancy clothes and blanket.
Speaking of blanket, your great grandma Ruth sent you a beautiful quilt that she made. She is probably one of the best quilters around so you are pretty lucky to get one made by her. She also wrote you a letter you can read when you get older and some preemie clothes she got from Project Hope in Columbus, Montana.

We also got our second car seat from one of mommy's work friends. Now we can have you seated safely in both of our cars. You have to ride on a car seat or booster seat till you are 15! Ha, not quite but it seems like it's quite a while. You will learn to like it though.

Well baby E, I must be going now. I will write later ok. Have a great day. Bye!

Love,

Dad

We Spent Our Weekend At The Hospital

Sorry it has been a few days since the last post. We have spent the past two nights staying in one of the rooms the NICU provides for families to sleep over. It's a pretty nice feature. So we have been hanging out cribside almost the whole time and I haven't felt compelled to post.

Anyways, Eliza is doing so great. She is out of her isolette and into an open air crib. She is slowly learning how to breastfeed. She is gaining weight and just generally doing well.

I guess she does still have some Bradycardia, which is where her heart rate drops below a certain point and then alarms go off and red lights flash and it's a little scary. This is the only problem we see. But this is apparently normal for preemies and should go away in time. The first line of treatment is caffeine, so it's not like she'll need complicated surgery or anything,  it's just frightening when it happens (especially when I am holding her.)

Ooh ooh ooh, you know what else? Eliza has her first modeling gig lined up! She is going to pose, and I am going to photograph, for an update to the physical therapy book! Cool!

Well that's all I have time for now. Amanda and I are going to get some breakfast at the cafeteria and go back up to see her before we leave for today. So I will type to you later.