(by Jonathan from
http://jonathan-chu.blogspot.com)
The
days of the crazy bells, monitors and sounds are slowly crawling to an
end. The unnerving feeling of a situation waiting around a corner still
sits with me and I have to shake that feeling off because the truth of
the matter is that these girls are growing and going in the right
direction. They are finally losing pieces of equipment bit by bit,
mainly Penelope. One thing gets shut off or taken away bit by bit.
It's been another quiet day here in the NICU and we can't be more
grateful. So quiet that when Bethany went out for a baby shower today, I
went home and pressed out on a run, albiet a
painful-getting re initiated kind of run, but nonetheless refreshing to
work off some of the late night eating that we have been doing.
Update:
Penelope 1190g 2lbs 10oz
The
girl's finally playing by the books. As far as medicines go, she's
down to just her vancomycin (antibiotics) and ursodial (bili medicine).
When the last dose of vanc is given Sun. night, she'll be getting rid
of that IV which hopefully she'll take to it like she did the removal of
the PICC line and grow even stronger. The PICC really was causing more
harm than good in this situation because since it's removal, she's
continued her journey upwards. It's hard for the body, especially such a
tiny one, to have a foreign object like that inside of you for so long,
as beneficial as it is. It's the main line that continued to give her
nutrients when she was on the ever so slightest of feeds. Her goal now
is to grow and get big which won't be hard at the rate she's being given
her food! She's up to bolus 20cc's of feed over two hours with one
hour break, every three hours and that's momma's milk with 25calories in
fortifiers! It's truthfully close to eating a burger, fries and shake
every 3 hours - a lot of calories! The rate at which they grow here is
astounding! She's also stooling well with "man poop" diapers with the
color finally changing from a darkish yellow to the more brighter yellow
that is normal. She's also been given the opportunity to have a bottle
every shift with 5cc's of milk. Bethany gave her the first one, two
days ago and I got to give her one last night and tonight. It's so
fulfilling as a parent to feed your child, especially after not having
that opportunity since their birth. While Bethany was holding her last
night, she was rooting around (sticking her tongue out and mouthing
around for food) trying to find more food than what she had been given,
so Bethany decides that she'll give her a taste of the real deal. The
girl latched on without any help almost immediately! Such a smart
girl!!! The only thing holding her back is her mouth size is too small
so Bethany's waiting for the lactation specialist to help her out.
She's moving on up!! Dr. Krishnan believes that she could be homeward
bound within a month! Woot! Which is about right, with the plan to go
home as close to the original completed gestational date as possible
(March 15th). Currently the concerns left on the table are A'sB's
(which will be an issue for a number of months even while they're at
home), her bili number, her inguinal hernia, the dimpling on her back,
and continued digestion health and development. The hernia and dimpling
are things they plan on doing the closer she gets to leaving with the
thoughts that these things aren't going to get worse over the next
month. There's even talk about moving her back to The Pavilion if
there's nothing left but feed and grow. This would be a huge help
because...
Lydia 1kg 910g (they gotta be twins) 4lbs 3oz
might
be coming home in as little time as ten days! *shock* yes, it's true
that this might be happening very soon and oh man, are we freaked out!
Lydia has been a champ, taking 31cc's of milk with fortifier within her
15 min. time frame the last two feeds. I fed her tonight and she
gobbled it up quick! She was so mad before I gave it to her, yelling
and crying louder than we've ever heard her cry. She's on an order
right now of every other feed still to have either mom or bottle which
is tiring her out a bit more but she's getting more and more used to
eating by real PO rather than by NG. I'll have to admit, it's been a
lot of fun having her in this stage where we can dress her up, put fun
sheets in her bed and have her out of the giraffe bed more. The nurses
say as soon as she can hold her temp properly, she'll be moving to a
radiant warmer bed which is an open top bed. We'll have even more
access to her, without the concerns of keeping the humidity inside the
bed. Medicine wise, she's off her caffeine dosage for over a day now,
she's on a single 24 hour dose of Previcid for her refluxing - which has
helped a TON! and of course getting her polyvisol (multivitamin) by NG.
She's getting so big, in the preemie sense! It's quite hard to
imagine that people don't go home with four pound babies but rather 6-10
pound babies!
And so brings us to the conclusion of
today! What a blessing today has been, being filled with joy with these
two lives that God has chosen to bestow upon us. What a learning
process we are continuing to go through.
Specific Prayer Requests
- Penelope to continue tolerating feeds, having poopy diapers.
- Penelope to develop the proper suck, swallow, breath technique.
- Penelope to not have any more infections.
- Penelope to be done with IV's (blood transfusions, medicines).
- Penelope to not have any issues with her hernia and the dimpling on her back.
- Lydia and Penny to continue getting bigger and stronger
- Lydia to keep up with her feeds and SSB technique
- Lydia to get out of her incubator and in to an open air bed.
- For us to be mentally prepared for Lydia to come home as well as getting our house prepared for her arrival!
