Tuesday update

OK, lets see, what's new?  She's still at 50-55 cc's, although today she's been real sleepy and hasn't been taking it all, one feeding she only did 40.  They still did not put the tube back in though, they decided to wait and see how she does overnight.  I'm praying they don't have to put that nasty tube back in.  She had that heartrate drop on the 8th or 9th, and she had one on the 10th during a feeding which they normally don't count but I guess they had to stimulate her a little so they may or may not count it.  So, if she doesn't have any more she may be coming home end of this week, beginning of the next.  If she does have another drop, they will probably do a test on her where they place a tube down into her chest thru her nose for 24 hours and it records all kinds of different things to determine what is causing the drops, most likely it is just immaturity but they want to make sure it isn't reflux or something else.  So right now it is a waiting game.  She's still gaining, a little under an ounce last night and she hasn't been weighed tonight yet.  Her nurse today, Ed, said "by the way your daughter has a very special talent." and I thought for a moment and said "she's stinky?" and he laughed so hard and said "YES!!!  That child can curl your nose hairs!!"  LOL.  She is a gassy baby.  Makes her 15 year old uncle proud.  :-D  It doesn't bother her at all, she just grunts and lets it go.  Stinks up her whole corner of the unit though!

update and photos

OK, daily update time.  She's up to 55 cc's, only 5 cc's less than 2 oz, at feeding time.  She's been taking all her bottles, has had the feeding tube out for 24 hours (she pulled it out herself last night and they left it out b/c she had been taking all her feedings) and is up to 5 lbs 6.9 oz.  She only gained like a quarter of an ounce yesterday, but the day before she gained 2.5 oz and today she gained over an ounce so they're still happy.  We vistited her this afternoon and she slept the whole time (we weren't there during a feeding) but she was so sweet.  Some of these photos are from that, I'll explain the photos in a minute.  She also only has little dips during feeding and they are getting better.  She hasn't been having heartrate drops during feeding, only saturation drops and they are getting much better, she's only having one or maybe 2 during feedings and they only usually go to the low 80's and come right back up quickly on her own.  When I feed her I watch her face instead of the monitor (since the monitors aren't coming home) and can tell by the color in her face when she's dropping a bit, I take the bottle out of her mouth and sit her up a little more and she pulls right out of it.  She just forgets to breathe a little sometimes, or she will suck too hard and get too much milk.  All in all she's doing great though!

OK, photos.  #1. I'm feeding her, #2. that's me, I look terrible so don't pay attention to me, just look at the cute baby LOL.  #3.  I have proof she is smiling #4. holding daddy's hand.

She's 6 weeks old today.  I wish I could say the time has flown by, but it hasn't.  It will when she's home.

forgot to mention

Meghan actually outgrew something already!  She has a tiny pink sleeper that was the only thing that actually fit her, (thanks again, Tara!!!) and I went to put it on her last night and it was too tight!!  She did get to wear it several times, and I'm going to do some sort of shadow box with it to show just how small she was.  She's getting so big!

Fri night/ Sat morning

Last night I went up for her 9 pm feeding with my parents.  She took the whole thing for me, then proceeded to fill her drawers.  STINKY baby!  LOL.  They also weighed her, she gained over 2 oz and was now 5 lbs 5.2 oz, which is great since the couple days before she hadn't gained very much.  This morning I went up for her noon feeding and she took it all again for me.  The nurse (a Chinese lady who I like a lot, I hope she gets her as a nurse often.  She's had her 2 times so far) said that she had to tube feed 15 cc's from the 9 am feeding b/c Meghan wasn't cooperating, but that all the feedings between last night and then she took the whole things.  So, she's doing good.  :-)  Oh, she didn't have any real big desaturations for me, just minor ones, and no heartrate drops while eating. 

big bummer

I went up today and got to talk to the nurse practitioner.  I asked her if what the doc said was true, if Meghan would be coming home tomorrow, and she was like "Oh, sometimes the doc gets overexcited."  She said that first of all, the tube was still in so that's a definate no, plus Meghan had a heartrate drop apparently on like the 7th or 8th (she said yesterday,w hich was the 8th, but she said it was the 7th so I'm not sure which day).  So, Meghan has another week from then.  Damn it.  She has one like every 6 days, and they start the count over. 

The NP said she would also be moving from fortified breastmilk (they put powdered formula in it) to 6 feedings per day of breastmilk and 2 per day of formula before she comes home, and that we will be continuing that when she comes home for a little while.  She is still gaining weight, but she's slowing down and is only gaining about half an ounce a day, she's up to 5 lbs 2.8 oz as of last night.  She's taking most of her feedings, sometimes they have to put the last 10 cc's in the feeding tube but most of the time she takes the whole thing.

::::::::::::::sigh::::::::::::  it has been 41 very very very long days.

nurses

Spoke to the nurse tonight to see how she was doing and she said "welllllll, she's doing OK.  She's had a few sat drops and heartrate dips. . . " [all of this said as if Meghan was doing not so great, had me worried] then she went on to say "but they've all been during feeding times."  DUH.  The doctor said that's totally normal and not a big deal, that she sometimes sucks too hard on the bottle or gets too much in her mouth and forgets to breathe, and it is easy to tell if that is happening even without looking at the monitors.  It is so normal that they don't even count those against her, and if that is the only time she does it then they will still send her home.  Then she said she had to gave feed the last 10 cc's (out of 50) b/c Meghan had a couple of those episodes.  That's another difference from hospital vs. home, when she is home we can let her rest and try the rest of the food in an hour.

The nurses sometimes bug me.  Her nurse during the day today was great.  She encouraged us to keep trying with her feeding at noon even though she had an "episode" and she ended up taking the rest of the bottle.  However, she gets a lot of nurses who can't get past her age and just assume she's too little and don't hardly try.  That bugs me.  Luckily it is the doc who makes the decision to send her home, not the nurses.  What they don't seem to get is that she is on her own schedule, not the "normal for her gestational age" schedule.  She's been ahead of everything so far.  Even feeding, she's doing much better than most babies her age.  The little boy next to us was born 2 days before her, also at 29 weeks, and he only takes about half his feedings, still has to gavage quite a bit.  She takes pretty much all her feedings, especially when she has a nurse who is willing to try harder.  Once she comes home, we can let her rest in between, but they have her on this strict 3 hour schedule.  Maybe what the doc said today will happen, maybe she will come home this weekend, and we can feed her according to her needs and her schedule. 

move went well, feeding tube back

Her move went great, the only time she fussed was when she got there b/c she was hungry (her feeding time was while they were moving her, so they had to postpone it 45 min.).  I like the new place, it's much smaller although a bit cramped, but it is sooooo much closer.  we timed it last night, it takes about 15 minutes to get home from there.  There's only 6 babies there, so she gets lots of attention.  :-) 

Only one unpleasant surprise, her feeding tube was back in last night.  She only took half her noon feeding and I guess did the same thing at the next one so they had to reinsert it.  Unlike at home, they have her on a 3 hour schedule so if she doesn't finish they can't exactly just re-try in an hour.  However, now that the tube is back in she's taking her feedings well again.  @@.  Brat.  LOL.  We fed her the 9 pm feeding last night and her noon feeding today and she took both full ones.  I may go back up for her 9 pm I don't know.  We'll see how things go tonight.  I do like having her so close though!

Apparent;y the pedi mentioned to the nurse today that she may go home on the 10th.  I don't know how that's possible since she still has the tube in and that's only 2 days away, but we'll see!