12.22.2010

A NICU Mommy

That's me! My life is DIFFERENT that I ever thought it'd be. Louisville played in the Beef O Brady's bowl game last night; never in my life have I really even missed watching a game. There I was in a lactation room in the NICU trying to catch the score on my phone =) We did hear the last 15 seconds on the way home on ESPN radio, and when I woke up randomly at 3 AM, the game was replaying on TV. Thanks, Coach Strong, for turning around the attitude of the program! That's where it starts, and it feels good again.

Lucy's ultrasounds both came back 'normal'. Her bowels are still good, and her brain shows no bleeding. They will do a 2nd check of the brain before she goes home. I've done good about not looking things up, and reading about what could be, or her higher chances of different disabilities. My child was automatically put on Disability insurance or social security or medicare or whatever it is because of her weight at birth, so I know they are much higher just from that. But it feels nice to know that so far she is still healthy! Her eye does have a little infection in it, but what baby doesn't have that annoying tear duct junk. GROSS. They started her with a little antibiotic in it today. She has also moved up to 19 cc's per feeding today(I think that is close to 5 ounces of milk a day) , and they are adding 4 extra calories into her milk at each feeding.She is also on a multivitamin and caffeine. The caffeine is to help with apnea. She doesn't have many spells, and her machine has never beeped when we are there, but it is supposed to help stimulate their body so they don't have as many. She is still on 3 liters of room air ( whatever that means)  in her nasal tube. I believe she started on 7 liters when she was born. She has also been off of the lights since about Sunday. Since they took her bellybutton IV thing out--they used it for nutrients and also as a way to draw blood-- they haven't pricked her heal to test her blood again yet. As long as she looks good, they will try to do that as little as possible. The less blood they take, the less chance of having to have transfusions. We saw 2 of her Dr's today, and they said her color still looks great! They have also started freezing my milk because we are so far ahead. I enjoy knowing I can provide this for her at least at this time when we can't do much. Pumping all the time is nowhere near as stressful as I thought it would be. Luke has been really helpful with it too. He's ready to slap on the labels, rinse the parts, or pack up the containers and ice packs before we head up to the hospital. I'm getting into a great routine so when Landon gets back here, I'll be ready to go!

I also had a Dr appointment today to re-check my blood pressure. It is MUCH lower than when I left the hospital, but I still don't think it's awesome. So, I'm staying on my medicine 3 times a day for now. I'll go back next week to have the nurse check it, but I'll only take it 2 times the day before, and just once the morning I go. Hopefully it will still be ok, and show I can wean off of it.

I think these are all the updates right now. We might head back up later tonight for a little bit. We brought some blankets home today to wash, and have a few new ones to take back up. We had to buy something 'Christmasy' for Friday &  Saturday. =) She'll have cute,comfy Christmas decorated blankets, and I'm hoping to make her a TINY TINY crocheted hat with a bow on it for her to wear. Hopefully we can get ONE family picture in when we go visit. We're hoping her big brother can meet her Christmas morning! ! ! We also had 2 presents today in her room.2 Former patient's parents left a present for each baby in the NICU. One present was a pack of receiving blankets, they are very girly cute ones! The other present was a Max Lucado Book Just in Case You Ever Wonder, from the great-grandmother of a little girl who was born last year 13 weeks early. So sweet!

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