Nice Try Mom and Dad

Well they say "The clothes make the man." So we thought we would see if the clothes make the baby too. Since Ellie has been a little sleepy during many of her feedings lately we decided to try opening her eyes via her bib. As you can see it worked spectacularly. Hmm ... maybe next time we'll just feed the bib. I should give credit where credit is due. She actually ate 65 mL at that feeding which is the most she has eaten at one feeding in several days. So maybe the wide-eyed bib did work. Or maybe mom is just getting that good at feeding her. Who knows?

Ellie in the News

Ellie made the news! Here is the proof. You can also view the video on the WIBW website. The video on the website doesn't show the anchors so the picture pauses at the beginning and the end. But at least the audio doesn't skip like it does in the video I posted. Mandy and I were very proud of our little girl. I just think it's great that they used so much footage. I was just tickled pink. (Then I guess I matched all of Ellie's pink stuff.) So here's my version: I was hanging out with my daughter ... as I do. Mandy had gone back to Ronald McDonald House for a free massage. Meanwhile the charge nurse came in and asked If it was okay for them to shoot Ellie. I tried to call Mandy but apparently she was too busy. So I signed the waiver. They came in and filmed Ellie and the room. Then they staged the scene with the doctor. Sure enough in walks this doctor that I had never seen before (in my 60+ days in the NICU). Oh, it turns out he's a big shot doctor that we would have seen if we had known Ellie was coming so early. So he introduced himself and asked me how she was doing and I told him she was starting to take her feedings well and acid reflux this and stooling that. You know ... small talk. Then the camera man got some more shots of me "being natural" with Ellie. Turns out she was asleep the whole time so I couldn't really interact with her much. (I didn't want to wake her.) Then he saw the powercat and made sure he got a close shot of it. Yep, the camera guy is a big K-State fan. In fact I heard from nurse Lisa (also a big K-State fan and met Bill Snyder) ... Lisa said that camera guy is the same one that films on court at K-State basketball games. Anyway we obviously thought it was pretty cool. Had to be the one day I wore my glasses though. Oops.

Breaking News

We found out today that the video shot by the Topeka news crew will be on tonight at 10 pm. If you can get the Topeka local news watch for the "For Your Health" segment on the Channel 13 local news. It's the CBS (WIBW) station. If you can't get the Topeka news check back here tomorrow and hopefully we'll have the video posted.

Top Ten Signs You've Been In The Hospital Too Long

10) You've got every parking spot scoped out in the parking garage. 9) Your Bonneville suddenly becomes a compact car in order to fit into the compact car parking spots. 8) You are on a first name basis with all the employees. 7) You decide to bring leftovers for lunch so you don't have to eat at the hospital cafeteria again. 6) You forget what the weather is like outside and wear flip flops in late October because you're dressed for the 75 degree hospital room. 5) People start asking you how long you've worked here. 4) You owe one of the cafeteria guys a favor. 3) Someone you saw on the first day comes back for a follow-up clinic. 2) You start finishing the nurse's sentences: "I suctioned her nose this morning ... " "Let me guess ... but you didn't really get anything?" And the number one sign that you've been in the hospital too long ... Your little girl finished all of her feedings from a bottle for over two days straight!

Almost Famous

Our little Ellie has gotten quite a lot of attention from friends and family as well as the NICU staff. Now she is getting even more attention. The news team at WIBW channel 13 (CBS) local news channel in Topeka came to the NICU today. They came because they are doing a health segment on preventing premature birth. The segment has nothing to do with Ellie but they wanted to film some premature babies. Apparently someone told them that Ellie was the cutest one here and they should come film her. Dad even got to be in some the shots. So if you get the Topeka news stations turn it to WIBW for the evening news on Thursday.

These Boots Aren't Made For Walking

Here is our little cowgirl after her 3 o'clock bottle feeding. She only took 13 mL but she was probably just tired from breastfeeding and bottle feeding and gavage feeding (nice combo package there) at noon. What a small world...the breastfeeding clinic has been a great resource for me. I hit it off really well with one of them (breastfeeding educators) who also happens to be a NICU nurse as well, Audrey. She helped me get started right away with pumping (others did too of course) and since then she's come in time after time to talk with us and to see Ellie. I don't think she ever got lucky enough to actually be Ellie's NICU nurse, but we would see her from time to time and get to chat. So today she had her "breastfeeding educator" hat on so she got to help me get ready to nurse Ellie for the first time. I started talking to her about how my dad was coming to visit today (on his way to babysit Wade's kids in Manhattan) and she asked where we were from. All this time, and we never talked about Iowa! She said she was from Clarion and then I mentioned my mom was from Belmond. Then I called my mom to see if she maybe knew Audrey, but she didn't recognize her last name. She asked if I knew her maiden name and I said I would find out. Too funny because it turns out that Audrey is actually my mom's second cousin! Grandpa Whipple...did you hear that??? Isn't is such a small world! It was so cute, Audrey about started crying and then had to go tell everyone in the unit that she was related to Ellie Jo! How neat and what a comfort to know that we have even family helping us get through our NICU stay here at Stormont-Vail!

Gold Sticker Please

Ellie did so well on her bottle feedings yesterday that she is now on ad lib feedings! She got her 9 am feeding as usual and took the whole bottle. Sometime before that feeding started (or at least before it was over) Ellen wrote the order to let her have a bottle at every feeding if she is awake and alert. We are very excited at the news ... but not as excited as we are at the other news. Mandy decided to try breastfeeding today instead of tomorrow. Ellie was awake and ready at noon even after bottle feeding 9 am so Mandy tried it then. We were making sure that we didn't have too high of hopes because we knew that a lot of babies don't do all that well on the first try. But not so little Ellie ate 22 mL! *UPDATE: They measure how much she takes from the breast by weighing her before and after she eats. In case some of you wondered how exactly that was "measured." Then she took some additional from a bottle. (She did still have a little left over given to her through her feeding tube.) We were very excited! Mandy and I have just been on cloud nine ever since. We are both thoroughly amazed by our daughter She definitely deserves a gold lettered princess sticker for that. Praise God for how well our Ellie is doing. We are both so thankful that she did so well on her first time. And the nurses and Ellen are all really impressed and very happy for us. We can't wait to try bottle feeding at 3 o'clock.

What a Doll!

We put some of Mandy's old doll clothes on Ellie today. Apparently we waited a little too long to try them on her. They look a little snug now but they would have been too big for her at some point. As you can see she still looks cute in them.

Our Little Cinderella

Well okay we couldn't find a Cinderella costume for Ellie. However, Ellie did turn into a pumpkin at midnight. (And here is the picture to prove it!)

Big Day: The Gramkow Family's New Home!

We were surprised when we heard the news from our nurse today! But we packed our stuff up and moved it on out ... to a different room in the NICU. (I had you going didn't I?) Ellie's night nurse tonight was assigned to another baby that was all the way across the unit. The other baby is much newer to the NICU so it was easier for Ellie to make the trip than her new neighbor. This will allow Ellie's nurse to remain close to both of her babies. Ellie's first room was on the front side of the unit right by the main entrance. Now she's on the back side of the unit. The new room is pretty much a mirror image of the old room ... but it looks so different. Mandy and I are still getting reoriented.

Chalk Rock

Did you ever play with chalk rock as a kid? It was great stuff. It's just a white rock that you could use as chalk to write on cement. Apparently KU fans are really into that stuff. Anyway, when we came back to the NICU from our KC trip we were greeted by a note from Ellie on her door that said ... well, I won't quote it, but it said something about how Ellie is a ... fan of the other school now and how she did miss us when we were gone ... and something about chalk rock. We also received text messages with attached pictures of Ellie. One picture contained KU gear dangerously close to our little girl. Don't worry though, the NICU here is responsible enough not to have any actual KU outfits so she wasn't wearing anything directly on her skin. In fact, she was wearing this cute red dress. Not all red and/or blue is evil. (Unlike crimson and cream which is almost always evil when combined.) Don't worry, all of the inappropriate materials were removed promptly. Apparently she had KU bedding at one point, but our faithful nurse Lisa took care of that for us. Lisa is a faithful K-State fan and said she couldn't bear to look at it all day, so she changed her bedding in the morning. In fact, Lisa is such a loyal K-State fan that when she had a bad accident a couple months ago Bill Snyder came to see her in the hospital. Yeah, that's what I thought. Unfortunately Bill has yet to show up at Ellie's door at the NICU. Bill, if you're reading this (or even if you aren't) you are welcome to stop by. We'll even make an exception on the calling ahead rule ... just stop by whenever. Seriously though, Ellie and I have been K-State fans all our lives. Well okay, I've only been a K-State fan since I was about five, but in my defense I lived in Seattle for the first four years of my life.

Everything's Up To Date In Kansas City

We went about as far as we could go ... from Ellie Jo. We had a good time in Kansas City, but it was time to come back. My interview went well. First I talked to an HR rep. She asked me ... I don't know ... if I prefer working in groups or individually, what are my strengths and weaknesses ... all that kind of stuff. She had already asked me a lot of that in the phone interview. After I talked to HR I spoke with a couple of engineering managers. They gave me a technical interview; yes there were test questions. After that I got a tour from a couple of younger engineers. They let me know right away that I could relax because they weren't interviewing me and they certainly weren't going to be making any hiring decisions. One of the engineers giving me the tour was Luke Bogner, a friend I knew from K-State and Intervarsity. It was good to see a familiar face and catch up with him. Those that know Luke may not be surprised to learn that he brought his bass guitar and an electric guitar into his office. The funny thing is I think he actually uses them for his job. (He works on an audio electronics module.) I haven't heard anything about an offer yet but I think it's still too soon. A friend that works for Garmin said he got an offer later that week, but not the same day. Hopefully I'll hear something by the end of the week, but I'll contact HR by then to at least get a time frame. Thanks for all your prayers.

Tonight on ESPN

Mom is getting ready to feed the little girl right now. And I thought it would be fun to give you the play-by-play. There's only one of me so I have to be the play-by-play announcer and the commentator, but I'll pretend I'm two different people. ;) ... okay it got a little wordy, but oh well ... She's awake and rooting. ... And they're off! Mom is putting the bottle in ... OH, and she took it right away! What's this? And she set the monitor off for just one beep. Mom is "pacing" her ... and she's back on track! Now she's getting into a groove. Mom is trying to keep her in position and the bottle at the proper angle. "Yeah, you mentioned that mom is pacing her. That means mom is tipping the bottle down so the baby can take a few breaths without getting any milk." Now the nurse is talking to mom, coaching her. Ellie is still eat--OH there's a cough. Mom's taking away the bottle and the nurse is patting her back. There's a little drop in the heart rate and some definite color change. "You know I think the nurse was coaching her earlier on that first quick brady at the start of the feeding. Sometimes these kids, they're so used to the pacifier and they get surprised by the bottle when they feel the milk coming out. So sometimes they'll startle and hold their breath for a bit." And as the girls take a burp break we'll take a break for a word from our sponsors.

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If you're just joining us Ellie has already taken 8 mL as we come off of the first burp break. "Now you see mom is having some trouble getting the nipple under Ellie's tongue. Babies this young sometimes try to suck on the nipple with their tongue on top of it and ... well, it just doesn't work." Yeah it can be pretty difficult to sneak that nipple in when Ellie's got her tongue up. And you see the nurse again coaching mom as she tries to get the nipple in. There it goes! Ellie is still wide wake and at this point -- oh and you see she's pacing herself now -- at this point you have to think she's going to put forth a good showing. "Well I have to agree with you there. And you know with these babies they'll be going along having trouble or maybe doing okay and then one day it will just click. I don't think we're at that point yet with Ellie but she's doing very well for being 35 weeks gestation and having been born at 28." You see she's still progressing at a steady rate as we near the 25 minute mark. Now you mentioned that it hasn't quite clicked for Ellie yet ... although I think it's only fair to say -- oh and there's a burp -- it's only fair to say that she is showing a lot of promise, but how to you help these babies to get to that point where it finally clicks? "Well a lot of it starts soon after they're getting milk force fed to them. Things like starting to give them a pacifier during the feedings helps them to associate sucking with that full feeling." Now the feeding will be over by the 30 minute mark so as mom takes another burp break we see that we're winding down here today. "You'll notice she has the hiccups during this burp break, which makes it hard for anyone to eat. But it's also important to consider that sucking can help get rid of those hiccups." So mom puts the bottle back in ... and she's off again! She must have reached her second wind, she's got a loud suck now. And she's pacing herself again ... milk is spilling out of her mouth a little but she's handling it well. "Now you see a couple other nurses coming in to see how she's doing. Ellie's a popular girl around here." She's still awake but she's slowing down now and mom's going to take the final burp break. The final tally is in at ... 12 mL. Good work Ellie!

Restless Heart

So Ellie's been a little restless tonight. We called the night nurse for an update a little bit ago and she said that every time she comes in Ellie is down at the bottom of the crib. She has seemed restless the last couple days. Maybe it's because she isn't stooling well. Other than that she's doing great though. She's only had one desat (self-resolved) so far tonight to go with her one desat during day shift. I hope you like the photo. I don't have the latest pics uploaded to the computer yet and I'm back at Ronnie's right now. So I thought I would upload this collage of photos I put together from Ellie's first month of life. I use it as the wallpaper on our computer. By the way: "Restless Heart" is a band that I think only Mandy and approximately two other girls in the entire world have heard of. One of those girls happens to be in Germany right now so ... I don't know what that has to do with anything.

Saturday Night Fever

(minus the fever) The Saturday Night Assessment is always action packed because we get head circumference and length measurements. Tonights numbers are looking pretty good: head circumference was 31 cm and her length was 18 inches! That's a growth of one full inch of length in the last week! Her weight was 4 lbs 13 oz (2180 g)! That's a gain of 56 grams! What a good girl! After the assessment we go to see her take a bottle for the first time! She did wonderfully: she ate 23 mL from the bottle! Mom and dad had a lot of fun watching and are very proud of how well she is doing! Wow! That was a lot of exclamation marks! After a while she started getting sleepy, but then again her dad was getting sleepy by then too. The nurse burped her every 5-10 mL. She did give us a couple burps, but she was pretty reluctant to burp. I think that we need to tell her that even princesses are allowed to burp when they're this age.

All Is Fair In Love and War

And of course when I say "Love and War" I mean "parenting". Mandy thought I was being a "blog hog" yesterday by having two pictures of Ellie and me in one day. Hey, I can't help it if I was having a good hair day. I tried to argue that it was fair because "All is fair in ..." well, it didn't work. So here's a cute picture of the most wonderful two girls around.

Content Warning

So apparently someone on Facebook reported this blog as containing "abusive" content. But just looking at that smiling face who can find any hint of such things. I'm thinking someone may have accidentally reported it as offensive. But I emailed Facebook about it and I think the matter will be cleared up shortly. In any case you have obviously not been prevented from viewing the blog, which is good. But in this age of frivolous lawsuits I thought it might be fun ... er necessary to provide a proper content warning to the readers of this blog. So here goes. Warning: This website may contain images of children under the age of 2 months (34 weeks gestational age). Some images may contain misplaced EKG leads (aka wardrobe malfunctions). This website may also contain mention of a certain method used to obtain food for infants. Since this is a natural process it is easy to see why some would find it offensive. Readers should also be aware that the materials shown in the pictures may not be organic and may have been processed on equipment that processes peanuts. The content of this blog does not include a warranty of any kind and may cause loss of sleep, laughter and/or crying.

Hanging Out at Ellie's New Crib

Mandy held Ellie at her 5 pm feeding. Then instead of returning her to her isolette we returned her to her crib. Now Ellie is chillin' in her new crib! The crib is pretty cute so we had to get some pictures. Don't worry, we got the powercat transferred over. Although it only has so many unstick/restick cycles left in its valiant lifetime. Needless to say Ellie is getting cuter and cuter and her transition to the crib was no exception. Now that she is in a crib it is amazing how much more we can here her. Every noise is both cute and distracting. Mandy and I agree that this seems more normal. Although neither one of us probably has a good idea what normal is anymore. We have also noticed that she is more susceptible to the noises in the room. We are doing our best to keep even quieter than when she was in her isolette. We're using indoor voices that would make even Marian the Librarian smile. But our main concern now that she's in a crib is her increased exposure. Since she is exposed completely to the open air she is more at risk for the passing of germs from parents and visitors. As a measure of caution we are asking that we have no visitors this week. (I know...this is really hard for us, trust me!) We think that this will be best for Ellie as she transitions from isolette to crib. Please pray that she will remain healthy during this time. Also please pray that we will be able to spend some time doing homework and find some time to take a trip to Manhattan before she starts bottle feeding. Ben and Mandy

In and Out

Her feedings are going well, today they are at 38 mL and have been lowered to 24 calories per ounce. This is part of a transition back to 22 calories per ounce by the time we take her home. She's had great weight gain since they moved her to the 26 calorie per ounce food that she's been on the past week. She gained 30 grams yesterday, 50 g the day before and 50 g the day before that. That's 5 ounces in three days! The dietician said her average over the last week was 37 grams per day. They're shooting for 20 - 30 grams per day. That's part of the reason they're taking the calories down, to slow down the weight gain a bit.

So obviously she's been gaining weight very well lately. But today she might have a bit of a challenge tipping the scales because she lost quite a bit of weight at her last diaper change. We were changing her diaper before her bath. Oh, by the way ... we gave her another bath today! Well the nurse was kind enough to help me change her and as she was wiping, Ellie let out a big stool. This time it was more like ... nevermind. Suffice it to say that she had already filled up the inside of her diaper and she decided to fill up the outside as well.

Whose Dress?

My parents came to visit today. Like the wonderful grandparents they are, they came bearing gifts. All of the gifts they brought today had a family significance. One blanket was my baby blanket when I was a young lad. Don't worry, it's yellow. It's one of the first things she has that's gender neutral. They brought an afghan I used as a child and an afghan that Grandma Gramkow crocheted just for Ellie. They brought a couple blankets that Anna used as a baby. One of them was made by my great aunt Pennette shortly after World War II. Materials were a little scarce back then, but there was plenty of leftover parachute nylon. So the blanket is made of nylon stuffed with cotton and hand painted with oil paints. I don't think they sell those at Wal Mart. They brought another gift that Wal Mart doesn't sell.It is a baby dress about 6 months size. It was lying on top of the blankets so I picked it up first and mom said they brought my dress. "You mean Ellie's dress." I corrected her. "No" she told me, "before you were born there was a lady at my baby shower that was so convinced you would be a girl that she made you a dress." Too funny, I never knew I had a dress! Mom assured me that no one has ever worn it. Not me and not even Anna's dolls.