Quinn

Our little Quinn Ainsley...born at just 3 lbs 8 oz and 16 inches.

While she came out screaming and had APGARS of 9 and 9, Quinn was sent to the NICU since she was too small to keep up her temperature on her own.

Fresh from the OR and being checked into the NICU

At 3 and a half pounds, she was the size of an average 31 or so week preemie.  Its really hard to picture how SMALL a baby of that size is until you see them next to a 7 or 10 pounder in the next isolette. (Those kids who stopped by could have eaten her, I swear).

Quinn is the reason the babies were delivered early at 35 weeks.
At their growth scan that week, Aver measured over 5 lbs and Quinn under 4....She'd dropped off her growth curve & was suddenly a very different size from her sister, so our MFM strongly recommended delivery. Chris had steroid shots on Tuesday and Wednesday and we arrived promptly at 5 am for the delivery on Friday.   While she was very calm, I was a little freaked out :) But all went very smoothly - the doctor even remarked while sewing her up how smoothly it had gone!

As an IUGR baby, Quinn was cognitively 35 weeks (late term preemie) but her organs were immature, hence the NICU stay. After a day, she was upgraded to the intermediate nursery (NICU I) and started feeding.  While she never had a feeding tube, she started out on a TPN (total parental nutrition) IV.  About 36 hours after she was born, she had her first bottle of colostrum - 3 mls! That's barely a drop in the tip of the nipple. Over the next 4 days, she was slowly raised up to 35 mls and taken off the IV. Apparently not having a feeding tube at all PLUS going to full feeds and no IV in under a week is pretty awesome for a 1500ish gram baby.  There was a lot of concern about her tummy handling the food well, hence the slow ramp up, but she did great.

WHERE is the rest of my food!?

Quinn was in the NICU for 17 days total. She spent a few of them under the billi lights - the cut off for jaundice is pretty low when you're half the size of a normal newborn!

suntanning.

On her two week birthday, Quinn hit 1800 grams (4 lbs) and was upgraded to an open crib. She came home three days later after passing her sleep study for apena and reflux, at a whopping 4 lbs 4 oz!