We've had a couple of great days. I apologize for not updating or posting pictures.
Olivia is adjusting well in her new enviornment. It is much more quiet here then in the DUKE ICN. Monitors are not alarming all of the time, not much foot traffic, only a few other babies making noise... it's a whole new atmosphere.
The school of thought and approach to things is different as well. We are very much seeing a "feed and grow" approach. All of the nurses are trained on a level III care, and they have had to run a few familiar tests (x-ray and blood tests like hematocrit, electrolytes, etc.)... but it is not as intense.
Her hematocrit is 26 again. They don't want to transfuse her so what they are going to try is.... giving her iron supplements in conjunction with a series of injections of Epigen (?). The thought behind this is that it will help tell her bone marrow to produce more of her own red blood cells. Tonight will be her first dose of iron (put in the milk). They only introduce or change one thing at a time to make sure she can tolerate. The first change was to reduce her feeds from 3 hours on 1 hour off to 1.5 on 1.5 off. The goal is to get her to a bolus (gravity) feed all at once every 3 hours. She tolerated that first step so the next step was to add some protein powder to the milk. She has been tolerating that so now they are adding small doses of iron. Ultimately they have to add some multi-vitamins as well. One of the blood tests showed that she was not getting enough of certain things for her bones to be strong. It is all in steps. One at a time.
The two biggests bits of news that I want to share are....
As of tonight Olivia weighs 1334 grams. That is equivelant to 2lbs 15oz! Big stuff.
The other exciting news is that we were finally able to breastfeed! We got a round of applause from another mom in the nursery that heard me cheerfully exclaiming "she's doing it she's doing it she's really really doing it!!!" It was a very short time because it is a lot of work for her to be out of the bed, keeping warm, being handled, etc.... (burning calories) but I'm just so glad even for the few minutes we got to spend.
Olivia and I spoke today about the company that is coming this weekend and we are both very excited about it. We hope everyone has a safe trip and we look forward to seeing you!
We've had a couple of great days. I apologize for not updating or posting pictures.
Olivia is adjusting well in her new enviornment. It is much more quiet here then in the DUKE ICN. Monitors are not alarming all of the time, not much foot traffic, only a few other babies making noise... it's a whole new atmosphere.
The school of thought and approach to things is different as well. We are very much seeing a "feed and grow" approach. All of the nurses are trained on a level III care, and they have had to run a few familiar tests (x-ray and blood tests like hematocrit, electrolytes, etc.)... but it is not as intense.
Her hematocrit is 26 again. They don't want to transfuse her so what they are going to try is.... giving her iron supplements in conjunction with a series of injections of Epigen (?). The thought behind this is that it will help tell her bone marrow to produce more of her own red blood cells. Tonight will be her first dose of iron (put in the milk). They only introduce or change one thing at a time to make sure she can tolerate. The first change was to reduce her feeds from 3 hours on 1 hour off to 1.5 on 1.5 off. The goal is to get her to a bolus (gravity) feed all at once every 3 hours. She tolerated that first step so the next step was to add some protein powder to the milk. She has been tolerating that so now they are adding small doses of iron. Ultimately they have to add some multi-vitamins as well. One of the blood tests showed that she was not getting enough of certain things for her bones to be strong. It is all in steps. One at a time.
The two biggests bits of news that I want to share are....
As of tonight Olivia weighs 1334 grams. That is equivelant to 2lbs 15oz! Big stuff.
The other exciting news is that we were finally able to breastfeed! We got a round of applause from another mom in the nursery that heard me cheerfully exclaiming "she's doing it she's doing it she's really really doing it!!!" It was a very short time because it is a lot of work for her to be out of the bed, keeping warm, being handled, etc.... (burning calories) but I'm just so glad even for the few minutes we got to spend.
Olivia and I spoke today about the company that is coming this weekend and we are both very excited about it. We hope everyone has a safe trip and we look forward to seeing you!
