getting moved

Just got a call, they are moving her to the other hospital.  I guess that means she still has several more days, :-(  but at least she will be a lot closer.  It is a much smaller unit too, only 8 beds so basically the size of one bay at the other hospital, where there were 6 bays.  They are a level 2 nursery, not a NICU, so they don't care for the really sick babies or babies on ventilators etc.  They do care for babies like Meghan, or ones that need nasal cannulas or feeding tubes, but nothing major.  I guess this is a good thing, it means she's graduating, but instead of graduating home she has to go to another nursery.  One more step.

Their hours are pretty much the same, closed from 6-8 am and pm and from 2:30-3:30 pm, sometimes from 10-11 at night too.  Visitor rules are the same, and they still do scrub in and everything.  The parking is free, and it is only 15-20 minutes from our house.  Its a good thing. 

good news either way

Today while I was visiting Meghan, a nurse came over to talk to the mom next to me about moving her baby to the other branch, which is about halfway between my house and the hospital.  She said it's NICU is great for babies who are close to going home but are still small or needing help learning to eat etc.  She explained that they move the babies when the NICU she is in now is getting full, which it is at the moment.  They move them in a specially equiped ambulance, with the NICU nurses.  When she was done, I said to her "if you're looking for babies to move, feel free to move mine.  It's a LOT closer to my house."  so she said "Thanks!  I'll talk to her doctor."  I spoke with him before I left and he said that he would look over her chart.  If it looks like she only has a few more days he said it wouldn't be worth moving her, but if it looked like it was going to be close to a week or so, he sait it might work better to move her.  So, either way it's good news.  If he says no, then that means she will be home soon.  If he says yes, at least she will be a lot closer plus they have free parking so I won't have to pay every time I visit her.  Maybe their hours will be better too and I'll be able to spend more time with her.

She only took about half her feeding for me at noon, but the one at 9 am she apparently sucked the whole thing down in 10 minutes, so it all just depends on her.  She got a couple big mouthfulls while I was feeding her and choked on it a bit, which made her sats drop.  I think that wore her out and that's why she didn't take more.  The first 15 cc's she gulped down pretty quickly, she was hungry. 

She's smiling a lot more, I don't know if it is still involentary or not.  Brendan smiled for real the first time at 5 weeks.  She's 5.5 weeks old now, and I know preemies are slow at developmental steps but I don't know if they are always slow on everything or not.  For now I'm going to pretend that she was smiling at her momma.  :-)

no feeding tube, but still waiting

She had a great nurse today.  Debbie Rae, a woman as southern as her name.  She said "I took that tube out, she's doin' too well on her feeds to need that thang.  I don't know why they put it back in anyhow, the protocol says not to unless they're losin' weight which she ain't doin'.  We're supposed ta just undress em or whatever we need to do to keep 'em awake to eat.  So I'm just gonna make sure she stays awake ta eat today."  Great nurse :-)  She did great on her feedings today too.  I went up at noon and met with a lactation consultant to discuss how to move her from bottle to breast. She said to nurse her first, and then if she still acts hungry to give her a bottle, and to feed her as often as she wants.  If she wants to eat every hour or two, let her.  And just make sure she's having plenty of wet and dirty diapers, that is a good indicator of if she's getting enough milk.  So I nursed her at noon, she latched great one one side but not on the other, then she was acting hungry still so i gave her a bottle and she took 20 cc's. 

I was really geeked, and thought she was coming home maybe in a couple days.  Well, I called tonight to check on her and asked the nurse when she thought meghan would be coming home and she said that meghan had a heartrate drop on the3rd, so it will be at least 7 days after that.  My heart sunk.  I didn't know that she had one then.  the nurse had mentioned it but said that since it was right after a feed she didn't think it would count against her (drops during feeds don't count against them) but apparently it did.  I am so bummed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I'm trying not to be imptient, and my little brother even said "it's better for her to be in the hospital now, you wouldn't want to bring her home and have her get sick, would you?" but I'm still really upset.  This has been the longest 5 1/2 weeks of my life. 

small disapointment

Yesterday I took my mom out for her very belated Mother's Day afternoon.  Meghan's Godmother, Debra, joined us and the 3 of us got pedicures, visited meghan and went to see a chick flick.   When we visited Meghan I got a pleasant surprise, they had removed her feeding tube!  The nurse said she had been taking all of her feedings over hte last day and a half except one, so they removed it.  this was at 3:30.  However, she said she had a little trouble with her noon feeding but not her 3 pm feeding so they were going to keep an eye on her.

Then last night I called and she said that they had put her tube back in for her 6 pm feeding b/c she only bottle fed half of it, and then of course Meghan pulled it out again.  the nurse said she was going to keep it out and see if she could bottle feed the rest of the feedings.  well, we got there today and the tube was back in.  I'm really disapointed, I was really hoping that she could bottle feed the rest of them.  The nurse today said that usually when the baby feeds for 24 hours they take the tube out, then after another 24 horus if everything else is good they send them home.  She also said that they won't give us much notice, just lilke a day or two.  So, we have her carseat, which we are bringing up to the hospital tomorrow for her carseat study (they make sure that she doesn't have any apnea or heartrate drops in her carseat, basically they sit her in it for an hour with her monitors on), I have an appointment with a lactation consultant to discuss the best way to move her from mainly bottle feeding to mainly breastfeeding on tuesday, and we have a note on her chart to talk to the doc and set up an appointment for rooming in.  We are ready.  We want her home.  One more step and she will be ready.  All she needs to do is eat all her feedings from a bottle.  Come on Meghan, you can do it!!!!!

post partum depression, meghan update

I just called her nurse, so I have an up to the minute report.  She's doing great, taking more and more feedings.  She took her 9 am, noon (I gave it to her) and 3 pm bottles, I'm assuming the whole thing b/c the nurse didn't mention how many cc's, and then she rested for her 6 pm and took her 9 pm in a bottle.  She's 4 lbs 11.9 oz as of last night, up to 46 cc's each feeding and doing great.  She's on day 5 of no heartrate drops, and has to go 7 days efore being allowed home.  Also has to take her bottles for 48 hours straight, no gavage feeding. 

they moved her to the "big kid's bay" as I like to call it, she's in the bay with all the babies that are ready to go home.  Not sure if I like that or not, because as I was there today 3 babies went home, one was going home this afternoon, and one was told she could take her baby home tuesday.  I WANT TO TAKE MY BABY HOME!  LOL.  I was very jealous, but I know it will happen soon.  My patience is wearing thin though.  I am encouraged by how many bottles she's taking though, she's improving constantly!

she also got a shot while I was there, her last iron shot.  the nurse asked me if I wanted to leave, but I said it was OK, I can handle it.  I wanted to be there to comfort her afterward, but she didn't need comforting.  She only cried for like 15 seconds.  By the time the nurse had disposed of the syringe and put a bandaid on her, she was fine!  even the nurse asked her "Is that all??"  LOL.  She's a very easy baby!  After that I got to feed her and hold her for quite a while, more quality time with her than I've been able to get in a while.  I think I held her for almost 2 hours today, it was so nice.  then I got to spend some quality time with Brendan this afternoon, he has a new game where he comes up to me and says "HI!" and I say HI back, and he cracks up and does it again.  LOL.  no idea why he thinks it is funny, but that's OK.

I went to my doc today to talk about postpartum depression before I visited Meghan.  He and I talked a lot about my symptoms, a lot of crying jags and mood swings and anger etc, and he asked if the stress in my life was causing it or if it the reactions were excessive compared to the stress.  I told him that I'm sure the stress is a factor, but that I normally am better than this at handling stress, and since I had a touchof ppd  with my son my doc put me on prozac.  He said there is some research that some antidepressants can have a negative effect on neurological development in nursing babies, causing them to be slightly developmentally delayed, but that prozac seems to have one of the least effects of the different antidepressants used.  he also said that most pediatricians agree that of 3 options, a medicated mom nursing, a medicated mom not nursing, and a non medicated mom nursing, that they prefer a medicated mom nursing.  he said the benefits of nursing outweigh the risks with this med, and that having me medicated and feeling better is better for her.  he said "If momma ain't happy, no one's happy!"  LOL.  I like my doc, he's very down to earth.  He wants me to come back in 3 weeks, and Meghan should be home by then, God willing, so I'll get to show her off.  :-)

 

photo and update

Here's a photo of when our Priest came to visit on Memorial day.  Isn't she getting big??  She gained again last night, but not as much as the night before, which is fine b/c the night before she gained like 3 oz LOL.  She also took her whole midnight feeding from a bottle, but then hasn't bottle fed since.  I'm going in for her noon feeding so maybe she will then. 

I have a doc apt just before I go to see her, I'm going to talk to my doc about postpartum depression.  I had a mild case of it with Brendan and I'm showing signs of it again, so I'm trying to be on top of things and get it taken care of quickly.

close to coming home!

According to both her doc and her nurse, Meghan is very close to coming home if she can just get the hang of eating.  the doc said "maybe another week or two, but I doubt it will be that long."  She has to go 7 days without any heartrate drops and she is already on day 4.  She also has to eat every feeding from  a bottle and continue to gain weight while doing so.  the weight thing shouldn't be an issue, little miss piggy gained 3 oz last night to bring her up to 4 lbs, 10.6 oz.  She's getting chunky!!  Its so cute, she is a little chubby baby now with rolls on her legs and a double chin and little jowls.  Over the last couple days she has taken 3 or 4 full bottles and several half bottles.  Today at noon we fed her a little over half of one, so she is getting there hopefully.  they said if she gets the hang of it in the next few days, she could come home early next week!  She has to nipple every feeding for 48 hours. 

:::::::::::::::fingers crossed::::::::::::::::::::  I liked her nurse today, she's interested in getting Meghan to eat, rather than just saying "oh, she's asleep, we'll just gavage feed her", and she showed us ways to wake her up to eat and to keep her awake, which will help when we come home too.  I hope she has this nurse again.