NICU Day 31

30 days has September, Baby Girl is one month old today.  I miss her so much!  I'm committed to doing my absolute best to keep her healthy.  I currently plan to see her on Friday, however, a couple of coworkers are sick and I spent 4 hours yesterday and today in close proximity to each of them.  I didn't realize they were sick until I had already been around them for a while.  Unfortunately, I realized one of them was sick after they coughed on me and my drink :(  I worry about the incubation period of viruses and how the heck I'm going to make it through an entire winter at this rate.

My plan is to pump fresh milk for Baby Girl on Friday and then, as long as I am still not sick on Saturday, which would be 3 days after my last confirmed exposure (as of today) I will hold her.  This protects her in two ways.  First, if I am sick, by having her receive fresh breast milk for a full day before I hold her, I'm giving her every antibody I'm currently producing, which makes her safer.  Second, the common cold incubates between 12 and 72 hours, which means I'll have exceeded the incubation period and should experience symptoms by Saturday.

Also, I might wear a mask :P

Dr. Murthy called with our update late this afternoon.

• Baby Girl is back to full feeds after yesterday's blood transfusion.  She continues to tolerate her feeds plus protein, human milk fortifier, Tri-Vi-Sol, and iron supplement.
• Baby Girl's hematocrit is back up to 40% instead of the 30% it was yesterday thanks to the blood transfusion.  
• Baby Girl's blood gas wasn't what we'd like to see.  Because her CO2 was up to 60%, they went back up on the NIPPV rate at 20 instead of 15.
• Baby Girl continues to have A's and B's.  They continue to mostly self resolve.

Weight: 1140 grams (up 10 grams) - 2 lb 8oz

Milk: 1055 (35.16 oz)

Feeds: 20 ml pushed over 30 min, Iron supplement and 1ml Tri-Vi-Sol, .4 ml protein x 8/day (every feeding) - Iron, Protein and Caffeine doses were adjusted for weight today.

NIPPV Remains at 20, 23%-36% oxygen.

A ton of labs in the morning

Day Nurse: Mary

Night Nurse: Kate and Ally