Hope's New Glasses

TA - DA!!!!!

Hope has her new glasses! We were supposed to pick them up last Friday but Hope hasn't felt well for the past several days. She has been cutting 5 or 6 teeth all at the same time and she was pretty miserable with it. So on Monday Hope, Mommy and Grandpa Holtz went and picked up Hope's glasses. Grandpa Holtz bought Hope some bling (a pink boa and a sparkly bracelet) to go with her new specs :)

Hope doesn't seem to mind her new glasses at all. It's hard to tell how well they are helping her but she definitely seems to be looking around more and trying to "look" at things. She doesn't try to pull them off like she does her cochlear implant - she must know how sophisticated she looks :)

Grandpa Holtz had to fly back home to North Carolina today and Hope misses him a lot but is really excited that both Grandpa and Grandma Holtz are coming to visit her next week.

Post Surgery Update

Hope made it very successfully through her cochlear implant surgery. She arrived at U of M and check in around 12:30pm on Thursday. After getting all checked out (blood pressure, temperature, weight etc) we found out that they had not reserved a bed (room) for her following the surgery. There was a scramble to find a bed and when we came close to not being able to find one for her we almost had to pack up and come home. That would not have made anyone very happy! Eventually though (about 2 hours later) they had a bed for her and Hope was wheeled off for surgery.

The surgery began with a test that involved putting needles in her ear and electrically stimulating her auditory nerve. They began with the right ear and found no response. Then they tested the left ear. They had to use more "power" than usual but were able to get a good clear response on the left side. However, they found that as they repeated the stimulation the response diminished. This is called "Adaptation". Unfortunately there isn't a lot of research or knowledge available on this condition. The surgeon felt that it was still worth proceeding and that Hope would still be able to gain access to sound by having the implant done.

Hope's mom, dad, Grandma Holtz, Grandpa Holtz, Grandma Robinson and Grandpa Robinson all waited patently in waiting area for the next 5 hours while the surgery was performed. Everyone was very eager to see her after the surgery and she looked great! She was a bit groggy but seemed to be feeling well. Hope had to stay one night in the hospital but was released the next morning. Although she has been a little more sleepy than usual, she is feeling well and is mostly back to her normal self. There is just a small incision behind her left ear. She will go back to see the surgeon again in two weeks and the big day of activation is August 17th!

March 26, 2010

Hope with Grandma & Grandpa Holtz

Grandpa and Hope showing off her new outfit



Out for a walk


My new pink hat (Thank you Jackie!)

More cuddling with Grandpa & Grandma


It has been quite a month for Hope. Hope spent last week cuddling, playing and visitng with her Grandpa and Grandma Holtz who came to visit from North Carolina. They spent lots of time catching up and Hope was so very happy to see them again.

We were all enjoying the beautiful weather last week and Hope didn't want to miss out so we all ventured out for a walk one day. She wasn't too thrilled about having to wear a hat and bundle up but once she got her pretty new pink hat she didn't mind wearing a hat so much. We are all looking forward to the warmer weather so we can take more walks!

We have made a few more trips to Ann Arbor in preparation for the cochlear implants. Hope, Daddy & Mommy met with the surgeon on their last visit. So far there doesn't appear to be anything that would stand in the way of Hope receiving the implant. We are now just waiting for the final insurance approvals. Once we have those, we will have a couple more final appointments (to pick out the actual implant device and to have a final pre-op meeting with the surgeon) and then the surgery should be scheduled within a month after that.

Hope has several appointments this week. The big one is with the pulmonologist. After Hope's last appointment with the pulmonologist they said that if she was doing as well at this appointment as she was at the last, then they would consider lowering Hope's ventilator settings. This is a HUGE step forward; it will be the first time Hope's ventilator settings will have been lowered since she left the hospital. Pray that eveything goes well.

The other big news that Hope has is......HER FIRST TOOTH has popped through! Actually the second tooth popped through just this morning! She is on her way to a mouth full of pearly whites :)

Daily Dose: Friday, July 24

Hope & Aunt Kim

Hope with Great-Grandpa Holtz

Four Generations!!!

Hope had a better day today. Less episodes. She also had a busy day that included: snuggling with Grandma & Grandpa Holtz, snuggling with Aunt Kim, taking a bath in the bathtub, and feeding from a bottle. Quite a busy day yet she STILL managed to find time to sleep through much of the excitement!

Daily Dose: Wednesday, April 8

Hope had an AMAZING day today!!! She has been officially weaned off the vapotherm, so she is now on just 1 liter of flow on the nasal cannula. She is doing GREAT with it!! Her feedings were also increased today from 18mls every 3 hours to 25mls every 3 hours. And she is tolerating that well so far!! Since Hope is on the nasal cannula, they decided to let her try the "non-nutritive" feedings again, but... since the doctors think Hope was a little overzealous and was being more successful than was expected, they allowed them to be "semi-nutritive".

Hope has a lot going on in her crib today. We have a new ensemble for the Hope Collection. Hope is modeling an outfit given to her by Grandma & Grandpa H, it is very comfy and cute. Hope also has some things to look at in her crib. First, she has a string over her crib where we can hang toys for her to play with. You can't see the string but you can see the tip of a ring of keys hanging there. Next, Hope has some beautiful black and white (and red and blue) pictures in her bed that her friends Pat & John Durham gave to her. Hope LOVES looking at the pretty pictures. She looks forward to using the pretty crib bumper that came with the photos but apparently there are some NICU rules preventing the bumper from being in her crib.

Hope is VERY thankful for all these gifts, especially since yesterday was her 4 month birthday!!!!

Daily Dose, Friday March 20

The big day has been scheduled! Hope is having surgery on Monday around 10 am. It should take about 3 hours to complete. The surgeons feel confident that the surgery will go well, but Hope wants everyone to pray for a good outcome.

Hope continued to gain weight today with a weight of 2040 grams - 1 gram shy of 4lbs 8 ounces. She is doing very well with her non-nutritive breastfeeding too. In fact when her nurse checked to see if she had anything in her tummy on Thursday evening she was pleasantly surprised to find 6 mls of breastmilk! Looks like the non-nutritive feedings are more nutritive than expected. This is an amazing milestone for Hope, because it means she has figured out the suck-swallow-breathe combination which is a huge step in her development. Mommy and Daddy (and everyone else too) are SO pround of her!

Hope finally got to cuddle with Grandpa and Grandma Holtz today. All three have been anxiously awaiting this day and the time flew by too quickly for everyone. Since Grandma and Grandpa will be visiting for another couple of days Hope is looking forward to getting some more cuddle time with them very soon.

Daily Dose, Thursday March 19

Hope had a very good day today. She didn't have any major respiratory or heart rate drops today.

As for her weight....*drumroll please*...... 2020 grams!! She has reached her minimum weight goal for her surgery!! At 4lbs 7oz Hope is now big enough for the surgeons to be comfortable doing her surgery. They stopped by to see Hope today and think they will do the surgery either next Monday or next Friday (they say it's going to be a busy week for them and they'll have to see when it will best fit in).

Hope was excited to see Grandma Holtz today (Grandma Holtz was pretty excited to see Hope today too). Grandpa Holtz will be coming to visit first thing in the morning and Hope is resting up tonight for a big day of cuddling tomorrow!