Lilypie Premature Baby tickers


"Sometimes," said Pooh, "the smallest things take up the most room in your heart."

Friday, October 15, 2010

An unexpected surprise and a very good day!! ,


13 days old/days in the NICU
Weight: 3 lbs 6 oz (still retaining a lot of water)

Oh yes. That is EXACTLY what you think it is. A picture of me. And Ella. Together. HAPPY DANCE! Last night, Ella did SO well! She only destated (btw, that is pronounced de-stat-ed, not de-state-d if anyone cares) a few times and usually there was a reason (she was moving around a lot etc). She didn't have any manic reactions to the steroids (WHOO!) and just sailed through the night. They lowered her ventilator so that now she is receiving 50 breaths per minute instead of 60. What that means is that she is doing some breathing on her own! They've also been slowly weaning her O2 all day (very little bits at a time) and she's down to 30%. We (you, me, everyone) breathes 21% so we're getting closer to being off the vent! They left her feedings as they were because of all the other changes but it sounds like tomorrow they'll probably be increasing her feedings a little. 

After I had breakfast in the cafeteria this morning, I came back up to Ella's room and her nurse came to me and told me that her and Ella's doctor thought today would be a good day to hold her. OMG I about FAINTED!!! I hadn't even CONSIDERED that I would be able to hold her! I called Shane and luckily they hadn't left yet so I told him to take his time and now show up until 11 that morning (they want you to do K-care for an hour at a time). Then starts the prep. Doing K-Care with a baby like Ella is not as simple as taking her out of the incubator and handing her to me. It takes two nurses to prepare her cords etc and get her out of the incubator. I needed to change into the hospital robe and wash up. We got blankets and a pillow for my lap. 15 minutes later........
High on the oxytocin rush going through  my body!!!!!!

















Today was also neat because my grandma Carol got to meet Ella for the first time. My mom brought her over to my place and I brought her to the hospital. It was a special moment, seeing my grandma meet Ella for the first time! :) Especially since my grandma was also born extremely prematurely, just 79 years ago!!!
Great Grandma Carol and Ella (she got better pictures then I did!)

3 comments:

  1. Awesome and amazing news. I am so happy! :) I am doing a happy dance for ya!!! :) Congrats on holding her, her doing awesome and your grandma holding her :) Such GREAT news! YAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!!! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Grandma didn't get to hold her, just see her :) It'll be a looonggg time before others can hold her.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am so pleased to see this. I haven't been able to follow your blog since I couldn't see it with Explorer. I downloaded Firefox today just so I could see how Ella is doing.
    She look so cozy all cuddled up with you.

    ReplyDelete