Angel Kisses

The marks above Avery's eyes and nose are called angel kisses. She has marks on the back of her neck called stork bites. The mark below her left eye is from her razor blades also know as fingernails. I love that the marks on her face are called angel kisses because we all know the exact angel they're from. Her sister Adison had to give her kisses before she went to heaven. It gives me so much joy to picture Adison kissing Avery :)

Our Princess

I can't believe how big our precious Princess is getting. I love watching her grow, and I love being a Mommy to this baby girl more than anything in the world. She is so amazing and there is never a dual moment with this kid around :)


I know this is a crappy pic on the photographers end but I had to show her sweet smile :)

Yes I'm wearing Christmas PJ pants... don't judge me they're comfy!

Dr Says...

Avery's rectum is the tightest she's ever seen in her 20+ years of practice! She tried to stick her pinky tip inside her to check her and could barely get it in. She said that's why she's having problems pooping. She "stretched" it and said the next few times she poops it could be bloody but not to worry. She said if she continues to have problems pooping them I could use a nose sucker outer (my word not hers lol) with warm water and baby soap and flush her out. Also I was worried about giving her so many suppositories but she said it's just fine and even some term babies have to have them often.
She doesn't think she's lactose intolerant and neither do I. I gave her an entire bottle of breast milk just to see what she would do before going to the Dr. and she didn't have any problems with it. She's not spitting up or having diarrhea and she said that's usually the first sign of lactose intolerance.
As for the formula she said it's up to me and what I'm comfortable in doing. She said Avery's not truly constipated because when she was checking her the poo that came out was runny not hard. She just has such a tight rectum that it's hard for her to push it out. With time and with Avery moving around more and more that will help. Until then it's fine to do whatever I have to, to get her to poop.
I explained how sometimes she'll just scream and then go right back to sleep. She gave her a prescription for some drops ( I don't remember the name). She said she's having spasms and that's common and that the drops should take care of it.
I think I'm going to continue with the alimentum and breast milk. Start the drops and see how this goes. If she starts to drastically improve I'll start mixing it with Neosure. Then if that goes well I'll switch her to Neosure because I feel like that's really what she needs.
She weighs 8# 7oz. She's gaining like crazy so that makes me more comfortable with keeping her on the alimentum for now.
Avery is really going to appreciate me sharing all her issues when she gets older!

What to Do?

Well the last 24 hours have been heartbreaking for Avery, her Daddy and I :( She has been so so gassy. She is usually a gassy girl but never to this extent. She was so bad last night she held her breath several times. That terrified me. Josh and I cried right along with her. I just tried to comfort her the best I could. We did bicycle legs, warm bath, gas drops, tummy rubs, but NOTHING helped :(
I think it's mostly from her formula? She had been getting breast milk six of her 8 feeds before she left the NICU. The other 2 were Neosure formula to help her gain more weight and grow in length. It's a preemie formula and it has more calories, fat, vitamins, and minerals than other formula. Now however she's getting more formula than breast milk :(
I don't trust my freezer full of breast milk because every other bag I thaw is ruined! I don't know why or what happened but it smells awful and I even tasted it and it tastes like bad milk. Not that I know what good breast milk tastes like but what I tasted was no doubt bad. I'm wondering if maybe the power went out at some point and it thawed a little then refroze? I don't have a clue that's just a guess.
Anyway, so the frozen milk is not trustworthy and everyday my supply is less and less. I don't pump enough to feed her even half her feeds a day so she has to have formula as bad as I hate it.
Her Dr's at Centennial say she needs Neosure until she's 9 months old but I called her Pediatrician at home at 11:00 because I thought it was the formula upsetting her and I wanted to know if we could switch. I couldn't bring myself to feed it to her the rest of the night. She said to switch to Similac Alimentum or Enfamil (didn't specify which one). Josh went to walmart last night before Avery's next bottle and got Alimentum so I could give that to her instead of Neosure. I gave that to her and she did great. I can tell she's a little better and she can actually rest now. It says it could take 4 days to see maximum results but she's only had it 5 times thus far and I can tell a difference. The downside is it costs $26/can. I'll gladly pay it thought if that's what will help.
I'm concerned about it a little because her Centennial Dr.'s stressed to me she needs to be on Neosure until she's 9 months but my goodness she was miserable. Oh and since she's been home mostly on Neosure she's been constipated. She hasn't pooped on her own, I've given her a liquid suppository every other day.
Neosure is a 22 calorie formula and Alimentum is a 20 calorie, I can mix the Alimentum to be 22 calories but it's not just the calories it's all the other good stuff in Neosure that she needs also. I mean I guess if she can't tolerate it then she just can't tolerate it, and we'll have to do what's best for her. She has to eat, sleep and poop. If what she eats is messing with one or more of those then it's time to do something different. Right?
We're taking her to the Dr. tomorrow to discuss all this but I just needed to release my stress I guess! lol Other than this mess she's doing really great.