2lbs 14.5oz! She grew 70g in one day yesterday!!! (that’s almost 3oz)

Hey everybody! It’s been an exciting couple days! From her birthday until last night at 10PM Jade had only had ONE Brady and no Apneas! This is compared to the 5 or 6 a day that she would have before!

It’s nice to see her doing so well. We’re guessing it has a lot to do with the 2nd blood transfusion that they gave her on Thursday. But she’s breathing really well too… so all in all things are pretty good.

The Ladies (that’d be Jade and Grandma Jensen) are doing some amazing work in Jades bedroom. I’ve taken pictures and I’ll get them online asap.

So at this rate, Jade is going to hit the magic 2000g mark pretty fast. The only other factors that will keep her in the hospital will be her body temperature, whethere she has any Apneas or Bradys (she can’t ahve any at all)… and of course any other medical things that the doctors might find.

We’re still thinking end of July… but who knows… might be earlier!

Oh ya.. and you might have noticed the changes on the left hand side. I’ve seperated out the pictures and movies and I’ve made all my movies much more accessible. They should be much easier to watch now, and alot faster. Just click on the little dropdown menu and select the movie you want and a window should pop up with the movie inside.

If you want to see another movie, make sure you CLOSE the Movie window… then select another movie.

Enjoy!

Chris

Jade is One Month old today!

Hooray for little Jade!

I’m sure if she could speak she’d thank you all and then rattle off some hilarious one-liner (cuz she’s got a great sense of humour ya know )… but she can’t quite speak yet. So I’ll just say thanks for her!

Happy Birthday to Jade
Happy Birthday to Jade
Happy Birthday Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday to Jade!!

She’s doing pretty well lately. The doctors had to give her another blood transfusion though because she hasn’t been producing enough hemoglobin (the stuff that lets your blood carry oxygen) to keep the doctors happy. She’s 1210g.. that’s just under 2lbs 11oz.

She’s filling out more and more… don’t worry, I’ll have more pictures from tonight. We bought her a little bear to sit in her incubator (along with the other nice little things she got from relatives!).

She’s getting a new TUQUE that fits her… we’ve had a few attempts but so far all of the touques have been two sizes too big (or too small)! That’s ok though cuz we’ll get to use them as she grows!

ANyway, I have to go get ready to go see my little Jade!

I’ll talk to you soon….

Chris

2lbs 8oz

It’s incredible how fast Jade is growing.. you can really see it now. Her head is bigger, her diaper almost fits, she has calf muscles, she has baby fat around her upper arms, she looks more and more like.. a baby!

That said, I still look over at the baby beside Jade and can’t believe he’s only 6lbs. He looks like a MONSTER compared to my little jewel.

She’s eating 15ml of milk every 2 hours now. Theresas’ able to keep up, we finally have enough milk in storage to put some in the freezer! Hooray. Not a whole mot more to say reallly. No News is good news right??

I’ll be back tomorrow. Have a great night!

Chris

The past few days have seen many commerations taking place in Europe. Rome was liberated on June 4, 1944 and, of course, on June 6, D-Day, the Allies invaded Normandy and started the liberation of western Europe.

It’s hard to understand what those soldiers were fighting for 60 years ago. If you look at it historically and politically, if they had failed on D-Day, the Russian/Soviet Army could very well have gotten to Berlin way before the Allies… with the possible result of communist rule spreading through most, if not all, of Europe.

The soldiers then could not have predicted that outcome though..

Every Canadian soldier who participated in WWII did so as a volunteer. They were not forced to join the fight, they simply did because they believed they were protecting their way of life and their families and were willing to give their life for that.

That is why I try to remember them. They showed a measure of bravery that I can only write about.

I had the priviledge of visiting Dieppe, Vimy Ridge, and a village on Juno Beach (Courseilles-Sur-Mer) last summer at this time.

It is hard to describe the feeling you get when visiting these places. The serenity and beauty of the cemetaries takes your breath away. The majesty of
the Canadian monument at Vimy Ridge gives you goosebumps. The gratitude of the residents of these small French villages makes your heart burst with pride and humility. It is quite overwhelming.

If you ever have the opportunity to visit France, I urge you to see one of these places. They are easy to get to by train and you will never forget them. I took a ferry from the UK to Dieppe. And took a train from there to Arras and Normandy.

Feel free to look at my pictures from last year. They are linked on the left side of this page…
“Dieppe”, “Arras” (Vimy Ridge), and “Courseilles sur Mer”.

Dieppe:

Normandy:

Juno Beach:

Hi everyone.

It’s been an interesting few days. Jade has had what seems to us as lots of Apneas and Bradys, which is nerve racking. But the nurses assure us she’s ok. On the other end… she’s gaining weight like crazy! It seems that as soon as she hit 1000g she passed a sort of threshold.

She’s grown over 40g two of the past three days. Last night she was 1105g, she’s approaching that 2000g mark pretty quickly!

The nurses think the reason why she was having so many Bradys and Apneas was because of “washback” when they feed her. Her stomach doesn’t close off from her throat completely yet, so the milk can sometimes wash back into her throat. This burns her throat a little and probably scares her, so she holds her breath.. her heartrate goes down.. and she scares her parents!

They took another X-Ray of her lungs and head and didn’t find anything to worry about, in fact, they said her lungs had improved so this is why they think her apneas were due more to factors other than her lungs.

We’re very lucky to have the nurses there to tell us what’s going on. They know exactly what they’re doing and keep us informed.

But.. that’s about it. I’ll have more photos for you this evening. I’m also reworking the movies so that they are easier and faster to download.

Stay tuned!

Chris