NICU Day 75

Baby Girl had an eye exam this morning so I made sure to get to the hospital early.  I had forgotten they do rounds in the morning so I'm going to try and get there by 9 every day.  The eye exam was as traumatizing as usual.  If you are curious, look up ROP eye exam pictures, but it is horrible looking, so don't look if you are easily horrified.  I choose not to watch the exam, because I have trouble looking at someone else's baby going through it, I can't imagine seeing my own.  I rescue her away from them as soon as I can after the procedure is finished.  Results were stage 0 (awesome) and she doesn't have to have another exam for 2 weeks.  She was so stiff when I first held her, she just couldn't bring herself to relax.  It took a good 5 minutes before she relaxed her hands and body and cuddled back into me.  Once she was calm and relaxed again, I changed her diaper and took her temp.  Baby Girl started cueing.  Cueing is when the baby indicates that he or she wants to eat by sucking on their hands, licking their lips, rooting and crying with hunger.  The stronger the cues, the more likely you are going to be allowed to breastfeed.  Baby Girl did actually breastfeed and did very well, which is not expected after the trauma and exhaustion of eye exam day.  All in all, it was a great session.

I had my nurse call lactation to discuss my concerns with feeding.  I found it very upsetting that we were expending so much effort on bottles when breastfeeding hasn't been fully established.  No one understood why the orders were written to require bottle feeding for the fortified feeds since we weren't ready to go home yet.  Lactation talked with the physicians who were assigned to Baby Girl for the day and they said they thought we were further along and agreed to back down on the bottle feeding to conserve energy for nursing.  Once Baby Girl can nurse three times consecutively without having to be supplemented by NG tube, we'll talk about adding things back in (and I might even get a room).

As I pulled up to the hospital I got a text from one of my coworkers indicating they had been laid off.  As I headed into the hospital, I started getting updates, some of which indicated to me that the only reason I wouldn't have known about this ahead of time would be because I was to be included in the layoffs.  I called HR and confirmed I did indeed need to come in to gather paperwork and my personal belongings out of my office.  I worked hard to ensure the layoff was as painless as possible for our HR director, who I greatly respect.  One of my coworkers helped us get everything out to the car and loaded my heavy stuff for me.  It was all very low key and mellow.  I'm looking over the paperwork they gave me and I need to get it back to them sometime just before my next birthday.  All in all, not an unpleasant layoff. I tried to say hi to our new CEO, but he ducked his head and wouldn't look at me or acknowledge me, that part was a little strange.

This week has been a bit of a roller coaster, but all we can do is keep riding, so Weeeeee!

Dark and quiet, eyes are dilated, so no light today.

Weight: 2445 grams 30 grams (5 lbs  6oz)
Milk: 1010 (33.66 oz)
Feeds: 61 ml 5 unfortified, 3 fortified to 24 calories pushed over 30 min
2 fortifications with Enfamil human milk fortifier, 1 with Neosure
Nursed: 2.5 nursing session out of 3 total attempts
Tri-Vi-Sol .5 ml
Day Nurse: Carrie
Night Nurse: Melissa