The Sattler Scoop: Bliss

Want to know what bliss is? Having three, yes THREE, whole days in a week without any strangers coming into your house! Now let me start by saying it isn't that I don't appreciate all of the advice and helpful tips these visitors provide, it's just that, well...I love my PJs, and when strangers come over I can't stay in said PJs all day. There, I said it! If you drop by my house unannounced expect to find me in my PJs (you have been warned, so you cannot judge). After spending 130 straight days at the hospital (not in my PJs, unless you count those few nights spent tossing and turning on the not so comfy couch in Special Care), I feel I can justify some quality PJ time (and since it is my maternity leave, I will wear what I want to). In all seriousness, we had a calm and pretty quiet week this week. Casey has been feeling much better and she has been fever free most of the week! Now that she is over her bug, she has been back to her old happy self and we have loved watching her give us a whole lot more social smiles. At our weekly weigh-in, Casey's weight was 9 pounds, 7.5 ounces, which means we are quickly having to retire most of her newborn clothes (meaning you can look forward to The Doodle debuting her new 3 month wardrobe on the blog!). At almost an ounce a day, the nutritionist was very happy with her weight gain. We are pretty ecstatic too, because it means we won't need to add back in her 3 am feed (and after a week without it, I am feeling much more human. A human who is not in a constant state of needing of a nap!) Next on the agenda will be eliminating the midnight feed, but I won't get too greedy yet! Our Speech Therapist was also very happy with her progress, and we are having to use less and less "tricks" to try to get her to eat (i.e. chin and cheek support, twisting her bottle, cold stimulation on her lips, and my personal favorite, tapping out a rhythm on the bottle). The most exciting news is that she has even started finishing some feeds in under her 30 minute time limit!

With all this "free time" (yeah right!) on my hands this week, I spent many of my spare minutes dealing with the nightmare that is scheduling Synagis shots. Casey will get five of these shots throughout RSV season, and at around $2,000 a pop (not our cost thankfully), there are lots of hoops to jump through as far as finding a pulminologist, getting approval from the insurance company, and finding a pharmacy that both the doctor's office and the insurance company will play nice with. After about 1,328,547 calls to all of these places, and my daily calls to the loony toon receptionist at the pulminologist's office whose favorite phrase is "Can you hold please?", I have no doubt that I am now "That Mom" their whole office is taking about. I am okay with this though if making a nuisance out of myself prevents a trip back to the hospital with a life threatening RSV diagnosis. Our quiet week was nice while it lasted, but this week it comes to an end with at least one appointment or visitor scheduled almost every day. One of these appointments is for her last evaluation with ECI, this time to see if she qualifies for motor development services. Prayers that this evaluation will go well and for her continued progress with feeding are much appreciated.

Here are the pictures from the past week: