During our first 24 hours, Tavish and I were wired up to a lot of high tech machines. But even though we were connected to these machines with lots of tubes and tape, we were still pretty cute.
Drag and drop the pictures below, to view larger scale.
This morning, Chenoa was able to cuddle Erwin for 1 1/2 hours. Although Erwin is breathing on her own, she still needs a steady flow of air to keep the alveoli in her lungs open and ready to receive the oxygen she breathes. Occasionally, depending upon Erwin's blood oxygen level, the nurses add a bit of oxygen to the mix. Overall, Erwin has been doing well.
Erwin heartens us with her determination to thrive. Today she exceeds all expectations, filling Chenoa and Sylvain with hope and joy. She is receiving her mother's milk—a bit more every day—and is doing most of her breathing on her own. Her grandparents are impressed.
Erwin no longer has anything poking into her belly-button, so she can lie on her little tummy. She absolutely loves it! She didn't digest everything when they started feeding her 4cc's, so they reduced it to 3 cc's and and increased the frequency to every 3 hours on the following day. They x-rayed her abdomen, and aside from a little bit of gassiness, she is perfectly fine. She finally pooped!. We talked to her about it before we left to go home on the 20th, and she got the job done over the night.
The neonatologist says that she is pleased with Erwin's progress. The neonatal team met and has decided to do nothing about her heart murmer (PDA) for the time being. They are hoping it will go away on its own. Over all, the news is positive, and we have had as series of wonderful visits.
When Erwin is on her tummy, she likes to scoot her knees up toward her tummy so that her little bum sticks up in the air. She seems mch more contented when she is on her tummy than she did when she was always on her back. Click here to see a short movie.
Between visits and expressing milk. We occasionally find time to visit with friends—or just relax!
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08/21/08 |
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08/22/08
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When we got to the NICU today, Erwin was on her tummy and had succeeded in tucking her knees completely underneath herself for the first time. She looked so snuggled up and peaceful. The nurse taking care of Erwin told us that they change the incubator for all the babies once every week, and Sunday was the day for Erwin. She asked me if I would like to hold her while they did it. I quickly put a clean smock on with the opening at the front so that she could lie skin to skin and sat down in the rocking chair. It is always a bit of work to get Erwin out of her hot little home, but the nurses are good at it and in a few minutes, her teeny body was against mine. I could feel her chest rise and fall with each breath and she contentedly wiggle her feet every few minutes. Sylvain got to hold her milk while gravity pulled it down the tube into her tummy, and as her stomach was filling, she sucked at the side of my breast, which probably smelled milky and sweet to her. That was one of the happiest moments of my life.
We got to snuggle as a family for 40 minutes before she Erwin settled into her new, clean incubator. Dad and Mom also got to do her care twice, including her mouth care, diaper changing, feeding, etc. She also had her blood pressure taken, her heart and lungs were listened to, and the nurse sucked out all the extra saliva in her mouth, just like at the dentist. She doesn't like all of it, and lets us know by trying to cry. She is tolerating all the handling a lot better now than before, and she responds to Mom and Dad's voices, opening up her eyes and looking in our direction. I don't know how much she can see yet, but she will definitely know our shapes soon enough. We all had a very good day today and Mom and Dad came home feeling peaceful and rested after watching Erwin fall asleep for her late afternoon nap.
This is the first day I got to hold Erwin against my chest. As small as she is, she is very vigourous and she tickled me with her hands and feet while waiting for her food. While she got her food she made wonderful suckling sounds. The good news of the day is that they are increasing the amount of mother's milk she is getting to 9cc. Tomorrow she should be getting enough that the intravenous feed will not be needed anymore. She does not like to be stimulated very much, but when she is being held skin to skin, she is at her most peaceful and I could spend hours with her in my arms. I feel like I am the luckiest dad and happiest dad when she is close to me.
