Saturday, March 14, 2009

Updates

Kit was in class today for his MBA program so he arranged to have some gals from church come over to be with me for the day. It was nice to see some friends I haven't seen in a while. Thanks, ladies!

Last night I was able to do kangaroo care for the first time. It was an amazing experience. As a reminder, kangaroo care is where they place the baby in only a diaper on your bare chest. Here's a good article (click here) from March of Dimes on the subject. Kit took pictures, which I will post later. Her respiratory rate went way down while I was holding her, and she kept her oxygen levels at room air. I ended up falling asleep right along with her and treasured every moment. When they took her off, she cried immediately and my heart ached.

Last night the nurse mentioned that she does have the heart murmur so I asked the doctor about it today. The condition is called Patent Ductus Arteriosus (PDA). He confirmed what we had been told before she developed it, which is that they will monitor her closely for symptoms that it is bothering her. If she does become symptomatic or if the ductus doesn't close on it's own in a "few" weeks, they will give her the medication that helps close it. If that doesn't work, she would need to have surgery to close it. Please pray that (a) she won't become symptomatic of a problem and (b) her ductus will close on its own.

When I went to visit her this afternoon, I noticed she didn't have the tape around her nose that she normally has to help keep the CPAP oxygen from escaping out of her nostrils. That's because they were having a hard time keeping the tubes her nose last night due to the stretching of her nostrils. Apparently it's common for the nostrils of babies who have been on CPAP to stretch out. When this happens, they put in bigger tubes. So today Ellie had her new bigger tubes. She'll need tape again soon, but her adorable (albeit stretched) nose was there for the viewing today. And for anyone who is concerned, her nostrils will go back to normal after they remove the CPAP.

Well, it's time to get ready for our evening visit. But before I go, we do have one more prayer request. As I believe I've mentioned on the blog, we are trying to sell our house. This morning we had our first showing (praise the Lord!), and while we could have millions of showings before ever having an offer, it was encouraging to us both to finally have at least one couple (or individual) come see the house. Please pray that our house will sell in the Lord's timing and that He'll grant us understanding as we trust and wait upon Him.

4 comments:

Kendra said...

Still praying!!!! My niece (born at 26 weeks) had the exact same PDA issue, and it resolved on it's own. She also had a grade 4 brain hemorage, and is doing AMAZING today (18 months old). TO GOD BE THE GLORY!!!!

Amanda said...

You have so much on your plate right now. Selling a house is stressful enough, but to just become new parents and of a NICU baby too, wow. You are all in my prayers.

Roo'ing is great! Good for the mommy and good for the baby! I used to keep a button down shirt in my daughters isolette drawer so that I could easily change in the pumping room or restroom. That way I didn't have to remember to wear a button down shirt everyday it was my turn to 'Roo (my husband and I alternated days) and I didn't have to bother the nurses for a gown. Plus the shirt had my scent on it as opposed to the smell of a hospital gown. Hope you can kanagroo often until you can hold her in a more traditional way. :) Every now and then I still get the urge to strip my daughter down to diaper only and cuddle with her chest to chest. I don't think she'd hold still long enough though- lol!

melissa said...

Hi!
I found your blog on Kelly's Korner (Praying for Harper). My daughter was born Dec 24 and spent 2 weeks in the NICU. I was looking at your NICU pictures thinking, "that is so familiar," figuring it was just familiar because it was a NICU. Then I saw your pictures of a very familiar mountain...so yeah, we live in Portland and were at St. V's also! Small world. I didn't recognize any of your nurses, though. We still go to St. V's every Friday for appointments for Daphne, so those trips over the bridge are as familiar as ever. =)

I would love to do something to help you out...For us since we basically got up, went to the hospital, came home, went to bed, it was nice to have easy-to-grab food on hand. Please let me know if there is a time I can drop off some groceries like lunch meat, fruit, veggies, gallons of ice cream...whatever you need. So many people have helped us during this time; I want to be able to pay it forward.

Praying for you as you travel this journey,
~melissa

Melissa Nickerson said...

So glad you got to cuddle with Ellie! So special!!