Monday, October 6, 2014

NICU Day 15

Baby Girl did get a blood transfusion today.  While she was getting that, her feeds went down to 2ml every 3 hours.  They went back up this evening and are at 15 ml fortified to 24 cal.  I got to hold her for about an hour tonight.  Her O2 needs went way down early on, but then, right before we put her back she had a desat spell which required stim to get her to come back out.  She did it again right before I left.  I just got off the phone with Jena and she's been having a good night since that time.  The spells are very scary.

Rachel, Baby Girl's day nurse was very helpful in giving me perspective on the germs. I found her perspective very helpful, though I am still wearing a mask.  I didn't use quite as much hand sanitizer as I had on previous visits, or at least, I angsted about it less while I did use hand sanitizer.

For those with very dry hands, I'm finding that using stretch mark cream with coconut oil and putting my hands in cotton gloves after each of my night pumps has helped my dry skin significantly.

Baby Girl is using more oxygen than she did the first week and a half or so.  Generally she seems to be between 25% and 35% when I call.  They told us this was a probability.  Generally after the first few days to a week, these babies get a bit more tired and need a bit more support.

Our family had a bit of a sad note this morning.  My dog, Darby, crossed the rainbow bridge this morning after 16 years on this planet.  Our vet said "This is the oldest cushingoid dog I've every seen."  We'd worked very hard to provide her the best quality of life we could for as long as we could.  We'll miss her, but she was very ready to go.

Dr. Caldwell called with our update at around 8:30 this morning:

  • Baby Girl's blood levels are low enough that she'll need a transfusion.  They will be decreasing her feed quantity while they give her the transfusion.  Then they'll ramp back up once she is done with that.  The transfusion should help weight gain as it will provide more red blood cells to oxygenate her system
  • Baby Girl had 2 Brady alarms in the last 24 hours, both of them required stim to recover.  We'd like to see her need for stimulation to come out of her  Brady incidents to go away.
  • Baby Girl stayed about the same on the NIPPV.  Her blood gasses looked good
800 grams (up 20 g) - 1 lb 12 oz
Milk: 810 ml (27 oz)
Day Nurse: Rachel - A different Rachel than the other two Rachels
Night Nurse: Jena 

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