4/1/2011 115 Days Old

On the 115th day in the life of the most beautiful girl in the history of the world the morning began peacefully. As I was getting ready for work Maya began to crank it up a bit. She was crying and irritable when we had to leave her in the care of Grandma Patti. Shortly after we left Maya got calmed down. Grandma took good care of her until I got home from work at about lunch time. We spent some quality time on the couch looking out the window at the beautiful sunshine.

This evening Maya may have set a record for number of visitors. Morgan and Olivia came by to see Maya. Lori, Tristen, and Hunter came by as well. And to finish off the night Grandpa Bob and Grandma Chris came by as well. It was a good evening. Tristen got to hold Maya for a while. We made delicious fish tacos. Hunter watched go diego go, and did an awesome shake your booty dance. It was a full house but it was fun.

Now only Grandma and Grandpa remain. Our eventful evening has come to a relaxed and quiet end. Maya had a good day today. She had been awake and happy for quite a while She has only been cranky for short times and they have been just regular baby crankies. She is looking really good. We have a weekend to spend with her, and we plan on making it a great weekend.

4/3/2011 117 Days Old

On the 117th day in the life of the most beautiful girl in the history of the world the morning began peacefully. We all slept in this morning. We didn’t get out of bed until noon. We had a low key day today. Our only visitor was Grandma Kathy. She came by to see Maya this afternoon. It was a bit hot in the house today and after attempting to keep Maya cool for several hours we finally bit the bullet and turned on the AC. Since the temp in the house descended from 80 degrees Maya has been asleep. She did wake up enough during her bath to let us know in no uncertain terms that she was not happy.

An added plus of the warm weather has beeen that Maya has been in a dress all day. She is cute in any outfit but in a dress she is just over the top.

Yesterday Krissie and Travis came by. They are always here on saturdays, and I think they are  in their absence from mayawinnifred.com. David is also here about every saturday. While we were all here we fired up the grilled, cooked some burgers and dogs, and played a game. Earlier in the day Susan, and Marci came by to see Maya. Susan brought us some gyoza which is a new favorite of ours.

It had been a good weekend. Maya had a little trouble this morning, but for most of the weekend she was a happy baby.

3/4/2011 118 Days Old

On the 118th day in the life of the most beautiful girl in the history of the world the morning began peacefully. Erin had to work today and I had the day off. Erin woke me up to say goodbye and let me know that Maya was doing well. Right as Erin was leaving Maya woke up. Erin had put her down in her bobby on the bed with me so that I would wake up to any noise that she made. I was able to keep my eyelids pried open for a little while, but eventually I drifted back to sleep. Maya must not have wanted me to sleep because every time I closed my eyes she would let out a squak lifting my eyelids up again. As long as my eyes were open she would not make a sound. When they would close again another squak would wake me up. We went on like that until just before her 8:30 feeding.

Grandma Patti came by to watch Maya today. Maya had kept me awake since 7:00 so when grandma got here I went back to sleep. Apparently so did Maya. I guess it’s OK to sleep for grandma just not dad. She stayed mostly asleep until 2:00, and she has been up since. Her eyes stay wide open for longer now. She likes to find things with her hands. She has gotten very good at grabbing her cannula and tugging on it. I think that she thinks it is a game called watch my parents get bug eyed.  When she is not grabbing her cannula she likes to find her mouth. She doesn’t like to suck on it, she just likes to feel her lips. Every once in a while she forgets that she doesn’t like the taste of her hand and she will stick her tongue out and her hand in far enough to lick it. Afterwards she makes a sour face, and turns her head from side to side. When she does this it is always with her left hand. We are pretty sure she is left handed just like her mother.

In the afternoon Krissie came by to take over for grandma and watch Maya for a while as I cleaned the house. Maya was wide awake at this time. I wont go in to too many details, but Maya played a great trick on Krissie during a diaper change. I will say that our couch now has a nice wet spot where we lay Maya to change her diaper.

This evening grandma Kathy came by to eat dinner with us and see Maya for a bit. Maya had a good day today. She got a little gaggy after a couple of her feedings, but we patted her on the back until her throat was clear and she is doing fine. Right now she is rocking in her chair with Erin. It is time to go to bed now. I gotta go hug my girls and get some sleep. Goodnight.

4/5/2011 119 Days Old

On the 119th day in the life of the most beautiful girl in the history of the world the morning began peacefully. Today is my birthday. Ever since Maya was born I never allowed my self to dream that she would still be with us on my birthday. I am so fortunate to get to spend to day with my wonderful daughter. I don’t think blogging is a good use of my time tonight. Tonight is a special day for me to spend with my family.

4/6/2011 120 Days Old

On the 120th day in the life of the most beautiful girl in the history of the world the morning began peacefully. Maya woke up about 3:00 this morning. She kept Erin up for about an hour before Erin was able to get her back to sleep. When I woke up it was a full bed. Maya was asleep in her boppy next to Erin. They stayed that way for most of the time that I was getting ready for work. Right before I left Maya woke up and started to crank it up a bit. It is always hard to leave her i the morning, but it is a lot harder when she is cranky. I was able to leave though.

When I got home Maya and grandma Patti were sitting on the couch. Maya had a busy day. She had a visit from her occupational therapist, and her nutritionist. We got some more excersizes to do with Maya. She also got weighed today. She is 9 pounds 5 ounces, and 21 inches long, or tall. I guess it is inches long since she doesn’t stand on her own, but I think tall sounds better. she is getting really big.  She also had a visit from Rachel, James, and kids. Maya did not cooperate with their visit. She cried the whole time.  Rachel was able to calm her down just before they had to leave.

Tonight Grandma Kathy, KC, and Esther came by to spend some time with Maya. Maya has had an up and down day. She stayed asleep for much of the day, but was also a bit cranky. She has turned into quite the mommas girl. Several times today she cried until Erin came to the rescue. Sometimes she just wants her mom.

4/7/2011 4 Month Birthday

On the 121st day in the life of the most beautiful girl in the history of the world the morning began peacefully. Maya stayed asleep as I got ready for work. She did not however have a very good night. She was up until about 12:00, and again from 3:00 – 4:00. She was upset over something and we could not seem to comfort her. Her oxygen level was very low for most of that time. Eventually she got back to sleep.

Today Grandpa Bob came over to watch Maya so that Erin could work. They were both sitting on the couch when I got home. Maya was asleep, and she stayed that way for some time. She gets cranky when we wake her up, so we just let her sleep tonight. It is her 4 month birthday, but the picture of her in her birthday onesie will have to wait until tomorrow. She is just too cranky tonight to try and change her clothes.

This evening we decided that we would celebrate Maya’s birthday just the three of us. I went out and picked up some thai food, and we just hung out and relaxed. We are all three very tired tonight. We are going to try to get to bed early tonight. We will have to see if that is ok with Maya.

4/8/2011 122 Days Old

On the 122nd day in the life of the most beautiful girl in the history of the world the morning began peacefully. Both of Maya’s parents had to go to work today. Grandma Kathy came by bright and early to take care of Maya. Maya had a rough night last night. She had a hard time keeping her oxygen level up. We were able to get some sleep, but we are still far short of the suggested 8 hours. Sometimes we manage to get 8 hours in two days, but never in one night. Grandma did a good job of taking care of Maya today. She got her to fall asleep on her shoulder for several hours throughout the day. It was good that Maya got some rest after her tough night.

This afternoon Maya had a visit from her nurse. She had to get her 4 month shots today. We decided to spread the 4 vaccines out over the next week so that it might be a little easier on her. She got the first two vaccines today, and will get two more next week. During the nurse visit we also discovered that Maya has broken blood capilaries all over her right arm. I can’t remember the name for the symptom but they are a result of her rough night. They show up as little dark red specs, almost like little tiny freckles. She only has them on her right arm. Her lungs sounded the same as they did on tuesday. Her right lobe is still showing signs of struggle.

Tonight has been a better night for Maya than the last few. She has been happy or asleep for most of the evening. Grandma Chris and Grandpa Bob brought us some sushi tonight. They are now catching up on some Maya time. Maya has been comfy in grandma’s lap for some time now. She just got done making some nice sucking sounds. She clicks her tongue back and forth making an adorable sound. Grandma was quite amused. We are hoping that Maya will have as good of an overnight as she has an evening.

We were able to take her 4 month picture yesterday after I posted the blog. Here is my girl on her 4 month birthday.

4/9/2011 123 Days Old

On the 123nd day in the life of the most beautiful girl in the history of the world we did something special.  Maya had her first pictures since the hospital without her feeding tube and oxygen.  We had to replace her feeding tube and we thought we would take advantage of the opportunity to snap a few pictures of her beautiful face free of tubes.  Kind of an emotional moment for us…

4/10/2011 124 Days Old

On the 124th day in the life of the most beautiful girl in the history of the world the morning began peacefully. Maya had a difficult weekend, but this morning she was asleep and happy. She has been struggling more than usual this weekend. She is having a very difficult time keeping her oxygen up even when she is asleep. On friday night at about 1:00 she had worked herself up and seemed to be hurting. Her oxygen was extremely low, and we were out of things to try. We had to give her morphine for the first time. It was another scary moment in a long line of scary moments that we have had with Maya. After a few tears we were able to get are nerve up enough to give her the medicine. She reacted well and calmed down after about 15 minutes. Her oxygen came up shortly after. That night she did not recover fully. She could barely get her saturation above 80%.

Since Friday night we have had to give her morphine 4 more times. She reacts well to it. It calms her down and raises her saturation number. We were worried that on morphine Maya would just go to sleep, and not be able to interact with us, but that is not the case. She often is wide awake and happy. She interacts in the same ways that she always does.

Early this morning we had to give her morphine two different times. Since then she has been doing really well. We have had a lot of visitors. Grandma Kathy stopped by in the early afternoon as did Krissie and Travis. They wanted to show up on a sunday so that they would make the blog. Holly, Jay and Jadin came by to see Maya as well as Grandma Chris.

We are having a mellow evening. Erin is returning to work tomorrow, and we both need to catch up on some sleep. We are hoping for a peaceful night for Maya and for us.

4/11/2011 125 Days Old

On the 125th day in the life of the most beautiful girl in the history of the world the morning did not begin peacefully.  After getting to sleep around midnight Maya woke us up at 2:00. She was hurting and crying and nothing that we did seemed to help her feel better. The numbers on her sat monitor were the scariest yet. Later in the day we would find out that our monitor has been giving us false readings, but we did not know that at the time. We had to give her morphine again. This time it helped, but Maya was still not happy. Eventual at about 5:00 Maya was calmed down enough for us to feel like we could go to sleep. I was able to go back to sleep, and Erin stayed up to give Maya her 5:30 feeding. Afterward Erin attempted to go to work, but returned home quickly.

At 11:30 Maya had a visit from her nurse, our social worker, and our chaplain. This is when we finally found out that Maya’s monitor lead was not fitting correctly on her foot anymore. We had been seeing numbers on her monitor that had us believing that she was barely hanging on, and could not even when resting get her oxygen level up . When our nurse discovered the problem she moved Maya’s lead from her foot to her hand. Shortly after we saw her first good oxygen reading in some time. We are hoping that when we put her back on to her monitor tonight we can get an accurate reading of how she is doing, and we can ease our minds a bit. It has been a long weekend, and all three of us are in need of some rest.

Tomorrow we will be taking Maya to see a Dr. for the first time since she was 2 weeks old. She has developed some congestion in her lungs, and in her throat. We are hoping that our Dr. can do something to help Maya. We have not had much luck with Dr.s. There is a chance that Maya can get a nebulizer treatment that may help her breathe easier. We will have to see. We don’t want to get Maya out of the house only to be disappointed at the Dr.s office, but we have to try.