6 months old, 3 months corrected age

Hailey and Ginger Hailey and Kyrie at Graduation Hailey Representing CU


Hailey and mommy making Mahi Tacos and Hailey on tummy time

As of Hailey's 6 month check up on May 24th she weighs 11lbs. 13oz. and she is 20 3/4 in long. According to the chart she is in the 35% for weight and 5% for height. We are waiting for her height to catch up but with babies it can happen over night. Hailey has been hitting all the 3 month milestones so we are so excited.
Holding her head up - mastered
Following objects or people- mastered
Responding to voices- mastered
Reaching for and grabbing for objects- in progress
Head control- mastered
Reacting to her name- mastered
Rolling over - in progress
Scooting- mastered
We have been really busy in the Brand house.
Hailey has been working and playing hard. Mommy has going back to school full time. Daddy is working hard at work and getting extra hours.

Home Life

Hailey has been home for 2 weeks now. We have been spending a lot of time cuddling catching up on time lost. In the last two days Hailey has been scooting herself around the couch so we can't leave her unattended. The dogs and Hailey are getting acquainted. Jack-jack gets a little upset if we let her cry a little to long for his liking so he will bark at us to inform us we need to attend to her. Kaia on the other hand spends a lot of time in the bedroom sleeping on our bed. I'm sure she will warm up to Hailey soon she is having problems with sharing Daddy. We absolutely love life with Hailey home. It has been crazy so I apologize that we haven't posted lately but I hope once I have a routine down I can post more frequently.

4 months 3 weeks

PRAISE THE LORD OUR BABY GIRL IS HOME!!!!! Little miss Hailey was released from the hospital this evening we are settling in for our first night at home with her. As I type she is sleeping in her swing but its getting close to feeding time. She weighs 9lbs. 3 oz. now and we have a big day tomorrow we are meeting with our pediatrician. So I should get her fed and get both of us in bed. Sleep when she Sleeps right!

4 1/2 months old

Hailey has been through a rough week. She has been very sick. They found out she had pneumonia, and that her heart was working to hard so they gave her a medication to open the blood vessels in her lungs so the blood could pump through her lungs easier. The urine culture came back negative this morning so she does not have a bladder infection. We are hoping that the meds start helping her and that she will be home before May.

4 months 1 week old or 5 weeks Corrected age

The last two weeks have been really hectic and stressful around here. On March 17th Hailey had surgery. She had a G tube put in and a nissen done. A nissen is where they take a flap of muscle off of her spleen and wrap it around the esophagus so she wont have stomach acid or food come up and fill into her lungs. They had to put the g tube in because she can no longer burp or throw up so we feed and burp her through the g tube. After the surgery things took a turn for the worse she didn't handle it very well. She had to be on a ventilator for a few days after the surgery she has been having withdrawls from the pain medication which has been very scary to watch. As she grows the nissen will loosen so she will be able to throw up someday. In order for her to get the g tube out she will have to take all feedings by mouth and be able burp on her own. They will take it out when we haven't used it for 3 months. On Monday we got to start feeding her through the g tube it is pretty easy and once the warm milk goes into her belly she gets a smile on her face. The doctors are going to give her an eco to make sure her heart is doing well. Also they will do an eeg to measure her brain waves to make sure she is detoxing from the pain meds and not having seizures. We might have a neurological consult if the eeg comes back irregular.
Besides dealing with the drama from her surgery she is doing fine. She is getting so big she weighs 8 lbs. 2oz. and she is now on low flow oxygen at 150ml. We hope that the doctors will be telling us soon that we are going to begin the discharge process.
The discarge process consists of 2 stay over nights in a private room so we can get use to the equipment we will have at home with the assistance of the nurses if we have problems or questions other wise we will be on our own. She also has to do a car seat trial to make sure she won't need more oxygen while she is in her car seat. The hospital needs to contact and oxygen, feeding pump and medical supplies companies so we will have everything set up for her when she gets home. The doctors will also schedule our appointments for her first month home. After we have all these things completed we will know her discharge date.

16 weeks Corrected 2 weeks old

Sorry for the update being late I've been working on a project for school. Well we are still waiting for the surgeons to schedule her surgery. We are getting a little frustrated and so are the doctors. We hope that we get word soon and that she will be home around Easter. Hailey is 7lbs 7oz and growing, she is so strong. She loves to listen to classical music and rock in the rocking chair. She is starting to get bored so I took her some toys today hopefully they will work for her.

15 weeks Corrected age 1 week old

Hailey is our little trooper on Friday the doctors decided to give low flow oxygen a try. So far she is doing well we just hope she doesn't get tired and need the high flow back. Hailey is 18 1/2 inches long and 6lbs 5 oz. We are beginning to feed her with a bottle but we are far away from her taking every single feeding from the bottle. In order for her to come home she need to eat 2 oz. every 3 hours for 3 straight days for them to even think of letting her come home.

14 weeks old - Corrected age 0

Above are pictures of Hailey in her bouncer seat, he foot size as of Valentines Day, her crib in her room and her bassinet in our room.

Hailey is progressing maybe not at fast as we like but she is coming along. The doctors have lowered her oxygen she is now on 2 liters and 35%. They also have raised the amount of fluid for her feedings she eats 1.5 oz every 3 hours. She is still struggling with bottle feeding so we will see how she does though out the next couple weeks. We still don't have an estimation date for her homecoming but Anthony and I are hoping she will come home around St. Patty's Day. She is defiantly growing Hailey is 5lbs 8oz.

13 weeks

Well on with the same old same old. Hailey is still on high flow O2, but she is on about 35% which is good. They are still trying to get her to bottle feed. She wants to sometimes and other times wants nothing to do with it. We are wanting her to come home more and more everyday, but we both want her to be healthy. She weighs 4 lbs and 15oz.

12 weeks old

Sorry everyone for the late post. I was working on a paper for my Security and loss prevention management class.

Hailey is now 12 weeks old or 38 weeks gestation corrected age. She has finished her round of steroids so we are waiting to see what the results will be. Hailey weighs 4lbs 10 oz. she has maintained her weight through this weekend. She did loose a bit of water weight after the round of steroids which is good because she was very swollen. Currently she is on 48% oxygen at 3.5 liters. She is beginning to get her days and nights in check she is definitely more awake through out the day. Anthony and I have been very happy because we like to interact with her and look into her beautiful eyes. We still don't have a homecoming date but it has been giving us a chance to get her room finished and organized which I am pretty much done. Anthony and I just have one more trip to Lowes hopefully for new child safe blinds and wooden letters for her name. Anthony and I will be sitting down with the doctor later this week to discuss the next moves to get Hailey's lungs well enough to come home.

11 weeks old

The last few days have been a waiting game. Last Wednesday the doctors decided to go ahead with a 10 day steroid treatment. By Friday her oxygen requirement was low enough for her to come off CPAP and go onto high flow. As they have been tapering off the steroids her oxygen requirement has been creeping back up which is not a good sign. She is still growing like a champ her current weight is 4 lbs. 6 oz. Hailey is starting to smile and cry, she doesn't cry very often but when she does its a quiet cry were hoping it stays that way. Hailey recognizes our voices when we walk into her room and she will follow us as we move around her. She is still currently on a feeding tube hopefully with her being on high flow we will be able to start giving her a bottle. We are praying for her lungs to improve enough for her to come home.

10 weeks

Well Hailey is still on cpap. Her lung disease is still hanging around and not really getting any better. They are thinking about giving her another round of steroids to help her lungs, but they want to try some other things before they go that route. At this point they are saying that she will not be coming home at her due date. But hopefully she proves us all wrong and dramatically improves and comes home. Her feedings continue to increase though which is good because she is getting lots of nutrients to help her body and to grow. She is up to 3 lbs 14oz.

9 weeks old

Hailey is currently 3 lbs. 3oz. She will be on cpap until this weekend and then they will put her back on high flow to see how she does. She is maintaining her own temp. and once she is off cpap she will graduate to a crib. Mommy and Daddy have been busy this last weekend putting her crib, rocking chair, and bassinet together. We are anticipating her homecoming and know it will be here soon.

8 weeks old

Well this week has been a roller coaster. Hailey's weight has been fluctuating all week she is currently 2lbs. 12oz. The doctors put her back onto CPAP today. She has been experiencing pulmonary hypertension due to the high oxygen requirement that she needed on high flow. The CPAP has helped her improve since they started her on the machine this morning. Although her oxygen requirement has dropped she is not a happy camper, she has been fussy all day and she has not been able to sleep. I hope that her night primary nurse Laura helps her relax so she can get some rest. It has been very hard to just try to calm her down knowing the fact you can't help or change the situation. We just keep telling our selves that this is suppose to help her lungs and it won't be for long. After a few days of her being on CPAP the doctors will address their next move.

7 weeks old

Oh my goodness we have a chunky monkey on our hands Hailey has grown an astonishing amount. In one week Hailey has gone from 1 lb. 15 oz. to 2 lbs. 7 oz. She is starting to wear her little preemie outfits as you can see in the pictures above. Her oxygen dependency is slowly dissipating and her lungs are slowly improving. They have been slowly increasing her food intake as of today she is getting 1 tsp. of bene-protein every 12 hours, 1 ml. of triglycerides (not sure how often), 28 calories added to her food every feeding of 12.5 ml of breast milk every 2 hours. We have 7 weeks left until her original due date she is going to be home before we know it. We are praying for the continuance of improvement in her lung function and weight gain.