Aunt Alain, Uncle Jose and Aunt Maria all came to visit today. Then they took Dad out for a much needed dinner at Dave's Italian Kitchen. Mom was jealous since she was stuck with hospital food, but Dad brought her a care package later, including chocolate mousse!Aunt Alain's hand makes a great hat
Mom got to hold Baby Jo for the very first time today. Very exciting! Our next door neighbor, Karen Halfen, stopped by to visit while we were having our cuddle. She and her husband Alan work at the Hospital. Al stopped by earlier in the day too.
Two generations of Josephines
When your pacifier is too big, it's kinda hard to see.
"...that's a little better" 
A VERY happy Mom holding her little Isabeau 
...Baby's got your finger! No new Pictures today. However, there has been a set-back in Baby Jo's health. It seems that she has contracted an infection in her intestines and has been taken off of regular food for a while. This is going to delay her reaching the magical 4 pound threshhold when she can come home. This infection (called Necrotizing Enterocolitis, or simply NEC) is a common, but quite serious ailment of premature infants. Because her little belly was so swollen, she was having difficulty breathing. So, they put her on a ventilator to be on the safe side. She is also on pain medication so she can get the rest she needs. If you want to know more about NEC, this link from the University Of Wisconsin can answer some of your questions, but be forewarned that this is a clinical site and is quite blunt with it's assessments.
Necrotizing Enterocolitis
I may post some pictures later, but I thought the avid readers would like a more current health update before I can post pictures this evening. The latest baby report (2:00 pm) was quite good. She had a blood transfusion last night and her red blood cell count is up where it belongs again. She accepted the trasfusion well and is resting comfortably. Her abdomen hasn't increased in size, and that's a good thing. Her x-rays have been dropped in frequency from every 6 hours to every 12, also a good thing. She has been resting comfortably all day and things are looking good so far.
Not much exciting happening today. Baby Jo continues to improve, but not as quickly as we would like to see! Her X-Ray from this morning showed actual reduction in the swelling and no perforations in her intestines. She continues to rest, but as she starts to feel better, she is getting more "pissed-off" with everything. She really hates the ventilator because it stops her from moving her head. She is also not real pleased with the constant blood draws from her tiny little heel. I think Mom is having sympathy pains in her heel today as well. It gets harder to leave her there with each visit. The Doctors and Nurses at ISCU are wonderful and I can't think of a better place for Baby Jo right now, but it still goes against our parenting instincts. We decided that babies on ventilators don't make real photogenic subjects, so we will post more pictures when she gets off.
We have poop!
I know, it is something only a parent would be excited about, but in our case it is VERY good. Baby Jo is doing a good job of clearing the "gunk" out of her system and the inflamation is still on the downward trend. They are starting to ween her off of the ventilator and things seem to be progressing well. She has gained a bit more weight (from 853 grams birth weight, down to 734 grams, and back up to 780 grams). I will post a bit more after my evening "Baby update" at the hospital.
Evening Update: The doctors are quite pleased with Baby Jo's progress and her X-Rays have been reduced to every other day now. She also had an ultrasound of her head, and there was no sign of cerebral bleeding (another common preemie thing). The watchword of the day is "Crabby".... what the baby is going to be increasingly like each day she gets poked and prodded.
More Poop!
Today's excellent news is that Baby Jo was taken off the ventilator. She is much happier now. Mom is also much happier now. Her pediatrician said "You told us she didn't like it, so we're taking the ventilator out." We wish it was really that easy.
Baby Jo and her fan club.
Grandma misses no chance to see Baby Jo.
Our beautiful girl
Having a "Preemie" is like a roller-coaster ride, filled with many ups and downs. The last couple of days happen to be some of the flat spots. Baby Jo is still stable. Little has changed, but this is actually a good thing considering she was doing very well at her approach to "the flat spot" of her little ride. Still cranky. Still tiny.
Aunt Alain is letting the cousins visit
She has several Isabeau-sized toys to keep her company. Every time we come in to visit with her, the toys are arranged "just-so". I am quite certain that Baby Jo isn't arranging them, so the nurses must be having fun while we aren't there! Mom went in the other day and her little stuffed frog was on her butt and it would wiggle about when ever the baby would move.
"Look Mom, no tubes!"
Grandpa loves to visit as much as he can 
We say goodbye to Dr. Matthew Derrick.
A new Neonatologist comes on next week. Lots of visitors today. Grandma and Grandpa Pogue and Erynn and David Taitel. David is going to be Baby Jo's Godfather.
Grandpa gauges which sport Isabeau is going out for. 
If only we could all sleep this well. 
"...and this is my ear..." 
Dad's been getting kind of lazy with the updates, but wouldn't you rather see pictures? I have those too, but first some health updates. Isabeau has zoomed past her birth-weight of 853 grams and is now 947 grams (about 26 grams to the ounce). Her latest "gut" pictures show a normal, healthy intestinal tract and they may start her on breast milk again tomorrow or Wednesday. Okay, Okay...here are the pictures. Y'all are as impatient as Little Jo!
Dad finally gets to hold his daughter 
From JR: Today Baby Jo started tube feeding again. We're saying a little prayer that everything goes well and they don't find any lasting damage from her infection. Mom (me) got to change diapers and feed the baby. No weight today but we hope she is closing in on 1000 grams. Above that weight they will let us take her out and hold her more often. Only one picture today.
A last shot before they put her feeding tube in againFrom JR: We were just too tired to put in an update on the 17th. Apologies to our more frequent visitors. Baby Jo is still doing well. She is up to 4cc's of breastmilk every two hours and her last weight was 972 grams, or about 2lb. 2oz.. She is sleeping a lot, which is good, and so far there is no sign of damage from her infection. Baby Jo's insurance card came in the mail today. I have to get them to add middle initials, at first I was really confused. I got to hold the baby yesterday, always a treat. Today Grandma Jo, Aunt Alain, Isabeau's soon-to-be-born cousin and I went to visit. Hopefully, all the news will be about the same until she starts to bottle feed and gets ready to come home.
Baby Jo, just kicking back and catching some Z's 
Mom gets to feed her Baby 
From JR: 12:30AM update (Friday morning) - new weight is 1010 grams! By Friday evening she reached 1037 grams. See this link for Gram/Pound conversion chart: www.preemie.com/chart.html. The magic, think-about-sending-her-home number is 1814. Baby Jo even got a new, larger diaper.
The server has been down so we just loaded the 17th, 18th and 19th updates on Saturday morning. See above for earlier dates. New pictures soon, I promise.
From JR: Baby Jo's Saturday night/Sunday morning weight is 1082 grams. They weigh her every day now because she is big enough to be out of her bed more often. We can also hold her every day, and for much longer. She's up to 11 cc's of milk per feeding for anyone who is counting. Her nurses are slowly teaching us about caring for her at home. Sunday, I signed Russell and I up for the Infant CPR class and the ISCU Discharge class in August. Grandma Jo is taking Infant CPR too.
Russell is out of town this week and I'm in charge of the Website. Fair warning, I'm not as good about updates as he is. I do have new pictures .........
Baby Jo's night nurse on the weekends, Rem.
The big news today is that Baby Jo has a belly button! Her umbilical cord stump fell off today. See a picture of her cute new belly button below. Her weight from last night is 1130 grams. She's up to 13cc's of milk every 3 hours. Other than that, things are stable. She sleeps a lot and has an increasing number of "quiet alert" periods. Those are times when she is awake but not agitated or over-stimulated. Mom's good news is that she is wearing her wedding ring again. Now, on to pictures....
Baby Jo's new Belly Button.
It's good to have a friend your size.Okay, Dad's back in town! We had a bit of a network issue over the last five days, but things are back up and running.
Today was a hectic day for all. Josephine's sister, Alain, went into labor, I was returning from a business trip, and to top it all off, Jo-Beau had a bad day. She had been anemic for a while and she started to show some symtoms from that. Her physician was also concerned that she might have an infection, possibly from her long term IV line. Her belly was a little swollen, which they worry about because of the NEC she had earlier. Isabeau underwent a blood transfusion and started on more antibiotics. We were glad Nurse Becky was taking good care of her all day. Baby Jo was doing better in the evening, but we couldn't hold her yet.
The wonderful news is that our new niece arrived at 10:28pm. We wish a warm welcome to Gillian Zenaida Corpuz. Click on her picture below to see Gillian's Website!
Isabeau's Aunt Alain, Uncle Jose, and Cousin Gillian Baby Jo looks much better today and is back to being fed again. The great news is that she had her first bottle feeding today! The nurse said she just slurped it right down. She won't be feeding exclusively from bottles for a while yet, but it is great that she did so well with her first try! As of today, her weight was up to 1212 grams (roughly 2#, 11oz). This is about a 2 ounce back-slide from when she got sick, but it is still quite good. Both Mom and Dad got to hold her!
Dad practices for 2AM feedings at home.
Baby Jo is doing much better today. Her feedings are up to 25cc's every 3 hours but we won't have a new weight until late tonight. She is off the antibiotics and they may take out her IV altogether later today.
How can one suck a pacifier so hard and be fast asleep??
Baby Jo is One Month old today! If you go back to the archive and look, you will see how much she has changed.
Unfortunately, Baby Jo's weight is down to 1180 grams (2 pounds, 10 ounces). Maybe she should do like Dad does and eat just before sleeping? Seems to work for him! All of the staff at ISCU is sure that this is only a temporary set-back and both Mom and Dad are hoping that is the case. She goes to town on that pacifier with such gusto, I can't help but think she will have no problems with her bottles!
Before
Baby Jo's weight is going up again -- 1197 grams last night. They are going to dress her and wrap her up again, a good sign.
Russell's group at work had a surprise Baby Shower for him at lunch today. I got to sneak in before they started and see all the fun. Our thanks to the whole group in Chicago, Stamford and California for all the warm wishes and thoughtful gifts. Thanks also to Lea Jensen for organizing the get together here in Chicago. Pictures will be loaded soon.Russell gets a head start on playing with Baby Jo's toy
One of many cute gifts Speaking of showers -- we'd also like to thank Claudia Lannan for organizing our shower on June 22. It turned out to be just in time. Pictures from that shower will be added to the archive, but here's a sample..Awww! Russ and Jo open presents while Erynn scribes and Russell's Mom looks on
Many thanks to all of you who attended and who sent messages for Baby Jo!
Dad's smiling because he has yet to change a diaper 
I gave Baby Jo a bottle for the first time today. What fun! I also got to take her out of her bed and put her away myself, change her diaper and take her temperature. My Mom will tell you that I have always liked to do things "by my self!" ever since I could talk.
Baby Jo is continuing to get better. Her weight is up to 1230 grams, only 35 grams under her all time high so far. Grandma Jo is getting the hang of our digital camera. A few of the pictures were a little blurry but all had great composition. Samples below....
The definition of Joy 
I'm done! 
One last picture, just 'cause I thought it was cute I added some pictures and updates to the last couple of days. Take a look back when you have time.
Russell gave Baby Jo a bottle for the first time today! He also got a diaper changing and swaddling tutorial from Nurse Diane. Baby Jo gets two out of eight feedings per day from a bottle now. It takes a lot of energy for Preemies to drink from a bottle. They have to work their way up a few bottles at a time to keep from losing weight. Speaking of weight, she's up to 1250 grams.
Dad has perfected the "football" hold 
Could sombody get this sleeve, please Russell's Mom and Dad visited today.
Another day, another bottle. Baby Jo is going to a 2 tube feeding/1 bottle schedule now. She could backslide some before she's done but it's a good sign. Her weight is up to 1270 grams.
My Dad came by to help and to visit Baby Jo. He got all the great jobs like holding the bottle while I burped the baby and fetching the diaper wipes, but he didn't seem to mind. He also gets to photo credit for today.Mom smiles for Grandpa, Baby Jo just waves
Drinking a bottle was hard work 
Baby Jo's Hospital Room A quick tour of her room......
Baby Jo has acquired a lot of toys at the hospital. The puppy and frog are from Mom and Dad. Just to get the proper perspective, I should tell you that the frog is about two and a half inches long. The angel doll is from our friend Claudia, the little star and moon are from Russell's Mom and Dad, and the beanie Lamb is from a family who donates gifts to the babies in ISCU. The Owl just turned up one day. We don't know who it's from.
The small quilt is from a group that makes tiny quilts sized just for preemie's and gives them to the babies to dress up their bed's in the hospital. We even get to keep it. I overheard one of the Dad's calling it a "placemat" so that should give you an idea of the size. The balloon came from the shower at Russell's office. The blanket with "Baby Jo" on the corner came from our friends Kirsten and Peter and their son Cooper. Periwinkle Blue, my favorite. It's intended for her stroller, but for now it's the perfect size to fit on top of her crib. The pink blanket she's sleeping under is from another group who makes blankets in the right scale for preemies and gives them to the hospital.Sound asleep with her toys standing guard
Inside her crib she has pictures of Mom and Dad, a sign with her birth stats and information about her name, and her favorite "Soothie" pacifier. We call it a "Smoothie" because Russell saw one in a catalog and misread the text. The name caught on after that. She has that bulb thing that all you parents out there are so familiar with, and a blood pressure cuff the size of two postage stamps. Usually, some of her animals are in with her too.
Don't worry about what looks like spots on the back of her head. They're just smudges on the isolette.
Todays Weight: 1281 grams
Busy day today. We helped Alain and Jose with their move. Went to the Hospital very late. It's peaceful but very dark, so no pictures. Baby Jo slept on her Dad's chest for a while and then I fed her.
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This page was created by Russell Pogue.
The last update to the page was on Saturday, July 27, 2002.
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