December 26, 2008: Mark and Kristin went up to see Sophia this morning. The nurse took off her oxymeter (measures the oxygen that is getting all the way out to Sophia's feet). Today I started trying to breastfeed. Sophia didn't really get what was going on and decided that it was a nice place to take a nap. When she's getting a bottle, she's getting 39cc of milk now. She weighs almost 6 lbs 6oz! She's starting to really pork up. 
December 27, 2008: Breastfeeding went much more smoothly today. The nurse expected her to be off the TPN and intralipids tonight, but she wasn't. She weighs 6 lbs 7oz (2920 grams). When we were giving the bath, Sophia was kicking around and jerked on her PICC line a little bit. Blood got into it and the nurse had to flush it. Her umbilical cord scab fell off today!
December 28, 2008: We came in this morning and Christy said that some blood had gotten onto Sophia's blankets from her PICC line. She didn't really ever explain how it got on there though. Christy wants me to come in all day tomorrow and breastfeed so that we can see how Sophia does. That's going to be a LONG day of sitting at the hospital, but I'll do whatever it takes. It'll be good practice for both Sophia and me. At her 8 pm feed, Sophia threw up a ton. She kept wanting to eat after she threw up, but then she'd just throw up more. I'm a little nervous about trying to breastfeed her all day tomorrow after that episode. Tonight she weighed 2900 - down 20 grams from yesterday.
December 29, 2008: Today I went to the hospital for 9 hours straight. I nursed for 3 feedings in a row. Sophia did alright - still throwing up though and it's hard to tell if she's getting enough food. I talked to our nurse, April, about the blood on the blankets and she said that Christy (another one of our primaries) told her all about it. Basically something wasn't screwed on tight for her PICC line and so air was getting inside and creating a back flow of blood...and it just leaked out all over. Right away I knew who was responsible for this. Two nights ago our nurse Antoinette had to unscrew something to flush the PICC line...she must not have gotten it screwed back in tightly. I was sooooo mad. Sophia lost quite a bit of blood and we're lucky she didn't need to have a blood transfusion or anything like that.
Sam and I went back up to the hospital at night and Sophia did much better for her 8:00 feeding. However, she was fussy tonight and her weight was down to 2810 grams. That's not good. That makes me really worried. I'm worried that they'll tell me to stop breastfeeding so that they can monitor exactly how much food she's getting. I'm also stressed because I don't know why she's throwing up or what to do about it. What happens if she's throwing up like this after we get her home? Sophia has been started on multivitamins with iron. It smells horrible and I'm sure it tastes even worse. She seems to be throwing up after she gets them.
December 30, 2008: Sophia is up to 53cc now. I came in and breastfed for the 11:00 and 2:00 feeds, then went home at about 4:00. She didn't seem to throw up quite as much as she had been. She is now on Simethicone (gas medicine). Perhaps this will help her be a little less fussy as she eats. Since she's been losing weight, they also decided to put HMF in her milk when she gets a bottle. HMF is human milk fortifier and it's just a powder they put in. It adds 24 calories per ounce of milk that she gets. Her clear fluids are down to a rate of 1.2 mL/hour. She may get her PICC out tomorrow and maybe will get some meds for reflux. Her weight tonight was 2800...another loss of 10 grams.
December 31, 2008: Exciting news today! Sophia's PICC line came out. Hooray! She no longer is receiving anything except oral meds. She also is on ad-lib feeds. That means every three hours she can eat as much as she wants - up to 65cc. Sophia did well with her feeds today and her weight went back up another 10 grams. At least we're moving in the right direction again! We brought her car seat in tonight. Sophia has to sit in her car seat for twice as long as it takes us to drive her home from the hospital. They do this to ensure that her airway can stay open that long while she sits in the car seat.
January 1, 2009: Happy New Year! Sophia passed the car seat test. Sophia now has a prescription for Protonix - a reflux medicine. Hopefully this will help her keep her food down and start packing her weight back on. Tomorrow night Sam and I will be "rooming in." We get to stay in a small room in the NICU and take care of Sophia from 8pm to 8am. We do all the feeds, give all the medicine, and the nurses only come in if her alarms go off or if we page them for help. This will be our first real trial at taking care of her! :) We're starting to really get excited that we could be bringing her home this weekend - but I'm not going to hold my breath. I don't want to be disappointed.
December 27, 2008: Breastfeeding went much more smoothly today. The nurse expected her to be off the TPN and intralipids tonight, but she wasn't. She weighs 6 lbs 7oz (2920 grams). When we were giving the bath, Sophia was kicking around and jerked on her PICC line a little bit. Blood got into it and the nurse had to flush it. Her umbilical cord scab fell off today!
December 28, 2008: We came in this morning and Christy said that some blood had gotten onto Sophia's blankets from her PICC line. She didn't really ever explain how it got on there though. Christy wants me to come in all day tomorrow and breastfeed so that we can see how Sophia does. That's going to be a LONG day of sitting at the hospital, but I'll do whatever it takes. It'll be good practice for both Sophia and me. At her 8 pm feed, Sophia threw up a ton. She kept wanting to eat after she threw up, but then she'd just throw up more. I'm a little nervous about trying to breastfeed her all day tomorrow after that episode. Tonight she weighed 2900 - down 20 grams from yesterday.
December 29, 2008: Today I went to the hospital for 9 hours straight. I nursed for 3 feedings in a row. Sophia did alright - still throwing up though and it's hard to tell if she's getting enough food. I talked to our nurse, April, about the blood on the blankets and she said that Christy (another one of our primaries) told her all about it. Basically something wasn't screwed on tight for her PICC line and so air was getting inside and creating a back flow of blood...and it just leaked out all over. Right away I knew who was responsible for this. Two nights ago our nurse Antoinette had to unscrew something to flush the PICC line...she must not have gotten it screwed back in tightly. I was sooooo mad. Sophia lost quite a bit of blood and we're lucky she didn't need to have a blood transfusion or anything like that.
Sam and I went back up to the hospital at night and Sophia did much better for her 8:00 feeding. However, she was fussy tonight and her weight was down to 2810 grams. That's not good. That makes me really worried. I'm worried that they'll tell me to stop breastfeeding so that they can monitor exactly how much food she's getting. I'm also stressed because I don't know why she's throwing up or what to do about it. What happens if she's throwing up like this after we get her home? Sophia has been started on multivitamins with iron. It smells horrible and I'm sure it tastes even worse. She seems to be throwing up after she gets them.
December 30, 2008: Sophia is up to 53cc now. I came in and breastfed for the 11:00 and 2:00 feeds, then went home at about 4:00. She didn't seem to throw up quite as much as she had been. She is now on Simethicone (gas medicine). Perhaps this will help her be a little less fussy as she eats. Since she's been losing weight, they also decided to put HMF in her milk when she gets a bottle. HMF is human milk fortifier and it's just a powder they put in. It adds 24 calories per ounce of milk that she gets. Her clear fluids are down to a rate of 1.2 mL/hour. She may get her PICC out tomorrow and maybe will get some meds for reflux. Her weight tonight was 2800...another loss of 10 grams.
December 31, 2008: Exciting news today! Sophia's PICC line came out. Hooray! She no longer is receiving anything except oral meds. She also is on ad-lib feeds. That means every three hours she can eat as much as she wants - up to 65cc. Sophia did well with her feeds today and her weight went back up another 10 grams. At least we're moving in the right direction again! We brought her car seat in tonight. Sophia has to sit in her car seat for twice as long as it takes us to drive her home from the hospital. They do this to ensure that her airway can stay open that long while she sits in the car seat.
January 1, 2009: Happy New Year! Sophia passed the car seat test. Sophia now has a prescription for Protonix - a reflux medicine. Hopefully this will help her keep her food down and start packing her weight back on. Tomorrow night Sam and I will be "rooming in." We get to stay in a small room in the NICU and take care of Sophia from 8pm to 8am. We do all the feeds, give all the medicine, and the nurses only come in if her alarms go off or if we page them for help. This will be our first real trial at taking care of her! :) We're starting to really get excited that we could be bringing her home this weekend - but I'm not going to hold my breath. I don't want to be disappointed.
1 comment:
Wowsers!!! Lots and lots of improvement..that's what we like to see! Glad she's not throwing up as much anymore--I know you were getting stressed about that. Hopefully things will go so smooth today/tonight while you're "rooming in" that you can take her home with you sometime this weekend. That would be simply fantastical! Best of luck...and i'm sure i'll get a text letting me know updates. love you!
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