Ruby is officially 4 pounds today plus an ounce. She is still on her nasal cannula, no CPAP mask for a couple days now. She got a new kind of bed last night. This is the transition bed from isolet to crib. On this bed, they can gradually adjust the temperature and when they get it down to room air temp and they know she'll tolerate it, she gets a crib! The fact that I just put an exclamation point at the end of that sentence gives me an excellent segue. Our milestones are not major the way they were when Ruby was sicker. Before she was even a week old, Ruby had an intestinal perforation and a surgeon repaired it by giving her an ostomy. Before we can go home, we want to put Ruby's guts back together but before we can do that, Ruby needs to weigh 3 kilograms or about 6.5 pounds. This is my explanation for the focus on weight gain. Since the progress could be a little slow (who are we kidding, it's painstakingly slow), we are going to celebrate every seemingly insignificant change. Every. Change. My apologies in advance.

Ruby didn't keep up her 4 pounds, the little bum. She seems like she's over her traumatic immunizations and she's back on her cannula.

Her docs aren't really satisfied with her growth over the last week. It's adequate but not excellent so we are trying to figure out the best way to give her all the calories she needs to grow.

Ruby gets weighed at the same time every night and we've been creeping up on the 4 pound mark for a while now. We thought we'd hit it two days ago and when we got the update email this morning - 3 pounds 15.1 ounces we couldn't believe it. Russell called her a stinker.

Dad managed to bribe our nurse this afternoon and guess what.

4 pounds 1 ounce

Ruby weighed 3 lbs 15 ounces this morning. She stayed on her nasal cannula all night last night and all day during the day today. She had to have her immunizations tonight. The nurse gave the shot and she started to get all red-faced and mad and then she gave her a drop of sucrose and she completely forgot about the shot. She pretty much gave her candy & she was happy. Sounds like my baby.

And another thing. Mom held her today, whispered sweet nothings in her ear and she loved it.

Today she is 3 lbs 12 ounces. She went up to 15 mls of breastmilk every 3 hours. She wears her CPAP mask for 6 hours and then she gets to take it off for 3. We held her all afternoon and it was the best thing.

She is 12 weeks old today.

Real quick, just to make the Lunns laugh: our RTs keep saying she just has the cutest round head - sometimes these babies, their heads get this weird potato shape because of the CPAP mask - not Miss Ruby (they like to call her Miss Ruby).

Another thing, look at her patchy old man hair. Long in some spots, bald in others. I'm afraid a combover may be in our future.

Today was a busy day. Ruby got moved over, away from the door and close to a window. There is a program called NIDCAP where a nurse observes the baby and pays attention to the way they respond to all sorts of stimuli. Babies born as early as Ruby have brains that are not ready to process so much outside information and it can really stress them out. They have a more obvious and immediate physiological response than we do and stress can have a big impact on the most basic body functions. Right now our focus is on breathing and growing and stress from over stimulation makes these normally automatic things harder for Ruby to do. Anyway, we moved today. Away from the door and the sink and all the extra noise. I'm hoping that this will help Ruby grow faster and breathe more easily.

Today they weaned her off her BiPAP and she just has CPAP now. It's a small difference - BiPAP gives her positive pressure and a back up rate and can deliver breaths if she stops breathing for too long. CPAP just gives some positive pressure to help keep her lungs inflated. AND she gets 10 mls of breast milk every 3 hours. She was up to 15 mls before surgery. We had been advancing those really slowly and we were a little afraid that we were going to be starting from scratch. It took us 2 weeks to get up to 15! (P.S. in case you are wondering, 15 mls is half an ounce) Needless to say, we were practically doing a dance when our NP came in and said go up to 10. Wait, practically or literally - you'll never know.

Overall, Dr. O'Riordan said he is happy with Ruby's progress post-op. We love him because when he's excited, he's really obvious about it and he was excited today. This picture is an old one but that is him in the background. We were changing her bed and it was the first time we got to pick her up. Our NP, Cheri, called him and said hurry and come to Ruby's room and see how good she's doing with her Mom & Dad. And he was right there.

The tube is out and we restarted feedings this afternoon. She was curled up on her stomach and our RT made fun of the fat roll on the back of her neck. We all laughed. I love her fat neck roll.

Surgery went well. Ruby is back in her room. We will know in a couple weeks how successful it was. She did look a little sad. Her eyes are really swollen and she is intubated again. It's weird to see her this size with the ET tube. She was only extubated two weeks ago but with the tube and neobar (the sticker/tube holder) as perspective, she seems so big. Two weeks ago she was 2 pounds 9 ounces and today she is exactly a pound heavier.

She is breathing over the ventilator like a good girl. They are going to give her some pain meds and make sure that they don't knock her out too much before they take out the tube.

This wasn't that major of a deal. What I mean is, this wasn't one of the things keeping us in the hospital. But it feels really good to get out of the way, to cross off the list, to put behind us. Every day a little bit closer to home, right?

Ruby had an eye exam last night and she's going for surgery this afternoon. I have a sneaky suspicion that she just didn't want to be outdone by her cousin Carson. It should be a pretty fast procedure but she will have to be re-intubated which I'm feeling pretty bummed about. At least she won't have to have eye exams twice a week - they are really so mean.

We made some good progress today. We get 3 hours off the CPAP mask and 6 hours on. Ruby did have a bit of a try without the CPAP already and she wasn't quite ready to do it all on her own at that point.

We really love it when she has the mask off and we can see all of her chubby face. Before I would have said it is crazy to describe a 3 and a half pound baby as fat but look at those cheeks.

I never thought that I could love Russell any more than I already loved him.

Today is our 6th anniversary. I can't believe it's been that long.

I've restarted this post at least a half a dozen times. I scrap it every time. I'm not going to start from the beginning - I'm just going to start from today. It's more interesting this way anyway, right? Like a puzzle - you have to put the pieces together. Here she is: Ruby Duke.

Russell stayed at the hospital with her all day today. She had an eye exam and he held her before and after. She looks pretty cozy right about now.

The excuse for the trip is an IKEA rocker but really I just felt like hanging out.

Yup, there's a baby in there

and it's a girl

Summer vacation? Check.

We all had fun.

I have some really good memories of baking with my Mom. There were a few jobs that I was always "in charge" of. Number one - whipping the cream. Now that I think about it, I laugh. Why the heck were we always whipping cream? I think there were church functions involved but I'm not entirely sure. Anyway, today I baked and I reminisced about one of my all time favorite jobs - matching the whoopie pie halves. I loved finding the halves that were most similar in size and shape and then filling them. And then finding, when I got to the end, that there were an odd number of halves and I got to eat the odd number with the filling and no topper. Heaven.

I love those memories. Thanks for giving me jobs, Mom.

Something very bad happened yesterday.

I blew up the projector. A can of spray air was involved. There was fire. Why don't I tell you the whole story?

So, it's been starting to get pretty warm around here and the basement is always cool. Cold, in fact. I like to gather up all the laundry, maybe a little project and turn on a movie. Well, the projector had been acting up recently, flashing red and green and black and white, making the movie watching experience generally less awesome. I gave it a little google search and someone suggested that it might be dusty inside, making the fan less effective in keeping everything cool. Well, I already turned the projector on before I remembered the suggestion to dust and I went for it. And then there was fire.

I have been known to be called heartless but let me tell you, I cried. That is not a lie.

I'm pretty sure that it's thanks to my quick thinking (after my no thinking) that the projector has been salvaged. I put out the fire, unplugged as fast as I could and let it cool down. I replaced the bulb (then dusted) and it works. And no blinking.

How clean do I need to keep my porch? I mean, I want to eat out there so I should probably do something but come on, it's outside. Help me out here. What exactly is the expectation?

Have you guys met Aireal? I don't talk about her enough. Aireal and I worked together at Nurse Apprentices (Nurse Accomplices, as Bride would say), we graduated together and we got jobs as brand new nurses on the same floor. Our job is so stressful! Have I told you guys this? Having someone to vent to who really can relate, someone to bounce problems off of, it makes all the difference in the world. Have I said I don't know what I would do without her? I seriously do not know.
We made scrub tops last week. And it was pretty much torturous. I don't have a pattern, just a scrub top that I ripped the seams out of and I couldn't remember what to do first or what to attach where or anything. The whole time I just kept saying I was freestylin' (watch at 2:40. yeah, pretty much just like that). All I can say is a scrub top is very forgiving because they are totally still wearable!

The thumbs down is for how long these took us to finish (I'll never tell). And for how much junk food I ate while we were in the process. Thanks for suffering through to the end, Aireal. And for everything else, too.

This poster made Russell and I wish we were headed to Cm's this summer...

Poster found here.

Bride and Phil came to Boise! There was no snow and there were no cars sliding off of highways and it was delightful! It did rain one day though.

It didn't seem like they were here long enough. We had a picnic at Sandy Point Beach and we made pizza and s'mores in the backyard fire pit. We went to the movies and we watched movies, well, mostly fell asleep to movies.

When Bride and I were little, we had a Barbie RV and we made this plan (have I told you about this before?) that we would get married and have kids and we would live in RVs so that we could be next door neighbors forever. Jobs? Who needs 'em? Is there a reason we couldn't be neighbors in regular houses? Don't know. All I know is that we would be neighbors and it would be awesome. I hope someday we really will be neighbors because this weekend didn't last long enough.

Russell's birthday was this week and we finally managed to get out camping. We tried a couple weeks ago but it's been cold and rainy so late this year. A few weeks ago we were sure there would still be snow in the mountains. Actually, Russell admitted (after we were practically there) that he wasn't entirely sure we wouldn't be camping in snow this week.

This spring we bought real packs for hiking. Like, legit, hardcore, real hiker packs. We'll see how much use we get out of them. I'm not so sure. This was the first trial run and I packed that thing pretty heavy - I even had a couple books (P.S. hikers don't pack books)- and it didn't feel too bad at all. I've said it before but really, all I have to be able to do is keep up with Otis and lets just say he isn't winning any races. Better yet, endurance is not his strong suit.

Okay, best thing about camping: s'mores with a Reeses peanut butter cup instead of Hersheys chocolate.

Worst thing about camping: unpacking when you get home (I still haven't done it).

I watched Downton Abbey this week. ALL of it. What can I say? I got sucked in. Real quick: when we first moved to Boise, Russell and I used to watch Masterpiece Theater every Sunday night. I especially loved Masterpiece Mystery! Oh, Miss Marple - crazy old lady! Now, we both work Sunday nights and so the tradition has fallen by the wayside. Sad.

Anyway, back to Downton Abbey. It makes me wonder if I was born at the wrong time. Why don't we write letters on fancy thick paper anymore? Because we send a dumb email instead. If there were any possible way, I would abandon email and send letters exclusively. All kinds - not just thank you notes and birthday cards. I've been thinking about this and I've assembled a list. Perfectly awesome reasons to send a note:

new job

expecting a baby

the electricity went out

the season changed

the dog celebrated his birthday

you got a new electronic device

you re-arranged the furniture and it's awesome

Really? You can write a note for no reason at all, can't you? Now if I could just get my hands on some of that really thick paper...

I've never loved getting up early but alas I am a shift worker and I am relegated to nights. Let me be clear - I am NOT complaining. I work 3 days a week and I realize that this affords for what feels like (after both working and going to school full time for forever) a very leisurely lifestyle. If you've never worked nights, you might not know that it messes with your sleepy-time schedule a little bit. I work 3 12-hour shifts in a row and when I get home after that last day, I want to go right to bed but guess what, it's 8 in the morning. I've tried going to bed fully intending to get up mid-afternoon or so. Never happens. Impossible I say. So usually, I sleep too late and then I'm up all night long and let me have you guess what again, I don't live in "open 24 hours" Vegas anymore. So, I try to get straight the next day and then what happens is I'm really sleepy at about 9 at night but I don't think I can sleep through the night if I go to bed that early, so I stay up. 1 am rolls around and I'm wide awake. Make sense? Not even a little. I know, I know, I'm taking a long time to get to the point here. I recently adopted a new way to handle all of this. When I'm tired, I'm going to go to sleep. Who cares what time it is?! Just lying there in bed, staring at the ceiling (or worse, the clock), can't fall asleep? Forget it! I'm getting up. Took a "nap" yesterday from 11-6. Got in bed at 1:30 last night, wide awake at 5 am. SO, I got up. In the morning. Early in the morning. I did chores. And I'm sitting here and my house is clean, and the laundry is going and I feel like nothing "to do" is hanging over my head and it feels so good. Maybe getting up early really isn't that bad after all. Really though, early, late - those words are pretty much meaningless to me at this point.

My best impression of Tom Haverford. (Russell says I'm not even close)

Russell is cramming in a little last minute homework and all I was doing was sitting there and he said I was distracting him. He waited until the last minute and now he's freaking out a little and I'm so jerky that I just can't stop laughing about it. Anyway, here's some random stuff:

- I've never taken pictures in one of those photo booth thingys in the mall. Sad, huh? Will someone please do that with me?

- My last post? In retrospect I should have probably told you that it was a handwritten note and that woman couldn't have hurt anyone if she tried. Sorry about that.

- I had a patient who had a tattoo of a man's name on the inside of her thigh. She was 76 years old. Gross.

- It made it to 66˚ yesterday and I sat outside in the sun. No lie, I was tempted to put on my bathing suit.

- In a matter of hours I'll be in Vegas with ALL of my brothers and sisters. I wonder what the temperature is there...

From a patient:

Nurse, give me the key. No matter what Larry says. I will hurt you bad. Feel lucky try me. I'm not crazy yet. Thank you.

This is real life.

Every time I go to the movies I can't help but wonder: what if the person that sat in this chair before me had lice? And then I get itchy.

I have been dealing with some pretty intense pressure to blog. I won't make any promises but maybe I'll try to do this a little bit more. One condition - let's pretend like it's not still winter. That winter header picture is just depressing...

I took a little road trip last week and visited Bride in Salt Lake. It was kind of last minute and it felt so spontaneous and fun. The word of the trip? Leisurely. Well, after the speeding ticket it was leisurely. I think we stayed up until 3 every night and we slept in embarrassingly late. We shopped the entire time. I couldn't stop saying it, "look how leisurely our lives are." It was awesome.

If you know Bride at all, you know how she's a quoter. Name that movie? She's the master. The master. You may not know, however, that she also has a habit of quoting real life. Watch it when you're around her - you never know if she could be quoting you later. In fact, she even provided me a "quote of the trip" - well, we couldn't actually settle on one so I'll give you a couple:

"I love that song about the guy who accidentally shoots someone." - Bride

"Oh, yeah. It's like a craft store. I hate this place." - Phil

"Believe in yourselves!" - a random student in Bride's class at BYU, less motivational, more like she was yelling at everyone

"I wanna drug test that girl." - me, about another student in Bride's class (at BYU), likely on crack

I'm not sure how accurate a representation of this trip these quotes are but trust me when I said we had fun. Sisters are the best thing. I didn't even take one picture. I'll work on that...

P.S. The first one to guess the song Bride was talking about wins

Nothing is new here.

It's too cold to do anything except go to work.

I hate it.

Call me a whiner.

I won't even care.

I've been petitioning for a new washer & dryer for a while. Sometimes, I would have to spin a load 3 times before I threw it in the dryer. While I was at work last night Russell texted me a picture of these and said, "it's a Christmas miracle!"
Russell may or may not have also purchased a new television. Why does re-arranging the furniture so the chair is in the middle of the living room (and squarely in front of the tv) mean Christmas to me?
And Otis says Merry Christmas.

Christmas picture this year? Could have been worse.

Top contenders:

Yay, Thanksgiving!!