4 weeks

I'm sorry everyone. I can't believe it's been 2 weeks since one of us posted something. Things have been so hectic lately that we don't seem to be able to do anything but take care of Karissa!! I guess that's the way it is when you have a baby (girl especially). LOL Anyway, please keep lifting up prayers for her. She is only gaining very small bits of weight each time we go to the Dr. It is very frustrating because she seems to be nursing well. We have another Dr's visit on Monday and it is her 1 month wellness checkup. According to our scale she has lost a half ounce since the last visit and that puts her at 5 lbs, 1 1/2 oz; still about 6 oz short of her birth weight. We, of course, are hoping our scale is wrong. Please continue to pray for her and us. Thank you in advance. Have a very merry Christmas everyone!!!

2 weeks old!

Hey everyone! Can you believe Karissa is already 2 weeks old? It is all such a blur with everything that has been going on. I figured, I finally have a few minutes so I should do a new post. Just a warning for everyone in the Sussex County area - all the bad stuff people say about Beebe Medical Center is true. I didn't think it would be that hard with a baby, but the second time we had to go in, it was a stressful mess. We were admitted on the Friday after Thanksgiving as Dave said. We got there around 11am. It was after 7pm until they had the incubator working and if it weren't for Dave checking and realizing it wasn't warm and saying something to a nurse, who knows how much longer Karissa would have been laying there cold because the thing wasn't warm. Then on Saturday, all of the sudden she had a really low temperature reading. The nurse ended up borrowing one of the new thermometers from the labor/delivery floor because it turns out, the one they were using was replaced on the LD floor because it was inaccurate! Then on Sunday a nurse took her temperature using the wrong thermometer and argued with me about it when I pointed it out, called the doctor, made a big deal about it, and made me stress out even more when it wasn't right!!!! So on Monday we thought we would get discharged because the doctor said on Sunday morning we could go home when Karissa maintains her temperature for 24 hours. Monday rolls around and all of the sudden they make a big deal about the color of her dirty diapers. We found out this weekend after feeding Karissa milk that I pumped while in the hospital, that whatever I ate that caused her diapers to be like that, was fed to me at the hospital. I'm glad they didn't keep us longer when it was something at the hospital that was causing it!!! Not to mention, everytime they weighed her they did it differently and got way different numbers so there was really no way to tell if she was gaining or losing weight. Talk about stressful! I've never been so happy to be home! Since being home, it has been a roller coaster of emotions. Thankfully we have more people than we even know praying for us and for Karissa. For the past 24 hours, she has been eating better than ever! She's on a good schedule of every 2 hours and is eating longer so I'm hopeful when we go back to the doctor that she has gained enough weight and the doctor doesn't want us to go back to the hospital. But, in the event that Karissa has lost weight and we need to go back to the hospital, we are refusing to go to Beebe! lol Anyway, sorry for all my venting. Next time I post maybe all of the weight/temperature issues will be in the past!

Update

Well, a lot has happened since Karissa was born. As I said in the last post, we were taking her to the Dr every day since coming home. Well, it all hit a peak on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving when her temperature was less than 96 rectally and her Bilirubin level was up to 20. Her Dr said she needed to go to the hospital and be put in an incubator to keep warm while she put on some weight and got her Bilirubin level down by being under a Billie light. So as much as we didn't want her back in the hospital we agreed with the Dr and took her to the hospital. We were there until this past Monday (3 long days). It did help and she was able to stay warm and start regulating her own temperature and her Bilirubin level came down. She actually lost weight while she was there but has been feeding better and has gained weight since she came home. She is definitely a trooper and fighter. We thank God for all He has done and for getting her through these tough days. Here are a few pictures of her on her first Thanksgiving and in the incubator at the hospital. Please continue to pray for her and we appreciate all your prayers already.