33 days

33 days old/days in NICU

Weight: 3 lbs 8 oz ( +1 oz)

Last night I roomed in with Ella. We had a really good nursing session at 7:15 and she nursed on both sides (she didn't empty them of course) and let out a burp that one may not expect from a 3 pound baby! ha ha The next three nursing sessions after that though, she didn't nurse at all. The nurses and LC told me this is SUPER common with babies around this gestational age and it's actually really amazing that she's even nursing at all. It's still hard though when she sleeps instead of nurses or when she just lays there and plays with the nipple (thus causing a let down..GAH!) but doesn't nurse. I just have to keep reminding myself that she's only 34 weeks (today!) gestation and that most babies wouldn't even be latching on much less nursing at 33 weeks (which is when she started). 

Since Ella came over to the ICC, her O2 needs have increased from the 30% range to the 40-50% or sometimes a bit higher. Last night they did a chest X-ray and the doctor said she has some haziness in her lungs. Of course, this completely freaked me out because it made me relive the whole pneumonia experience again. I asked him if it could be that again and he said no, it looked like it was just some fluid and they would give her a few days of diuretics which should help. I was so relieved it didn't appear to be an actual illness that I totally forgot to ask what could be causing the fluid, so I'll have to try and remember tonight to ask the nurse when I get there. I would assume it's from laying flat all the time and not moving around but that's not based on anything other then what appears to make sense in my own head...which, of course, may not be the case at all!! 

I was thinking the other day about all of the things I don't want to forget about Ella and I thought how neat it would be to start a Memory Box for her (and one for Olivia too, even if it is a bit late in the game). I'm no good with the baby books (although I did make a scrapbook for Olivia's first year) so this would be our thing for them, especially as they got older. Then I thought it would be REALLY neat to have other people contribute to it as well! What I'm thinking is I'll get a pretty box from Michaels or something and have index cards that people can write memories on. It doesn't even have to be something major, just whatever they want to remember or they want Ella (and Olivia, for her box) to know about as they grow up.