Thursday, March 31, 2016

NICU update #1


Here I am, sitting in the nicu. It's day 18. 23 days since my water broke. Helen has a rocking recliner in her room next to her bed which is surprisingly comfortable despite being theeeeeee most unattractive piece of furniture you ever did see. Tan and gold print on a slightly lighter shade of beige background. I feel like someone has used a 70s filter on my entire eyeball region when I look at it. 

For anyone who follows along on Instagram or the blog fb page (using the horrible blogger app on my phone, so hyper linking those no es posible) this part might be old news but I gotta put it here, you know? Gotta have it all in one place-ish.

Basically the story so far is this: incredibly healthy and robust preemie girl sails through her nicu time, putting a smile on everyone's face and generally making the world a better place just by being.

But underneath all that, the nitty gritty is that it is still really, really hard. Leaving your baby and driving home for the evening is hard.  Leaving your house and allowing your selfless, competent friends to manage the day to day everything while you're gone is hard. Not seeing your other kids during their best hours of the day is hard. Not knowing how each day is going to go, not knowing when it will be over, not knowing which nurse you'll have when you walk in for the day, not knowing if suddenly after all this progress she will have some huge set-back....all of it is really hard. 

But overall, in light of everything that has happened and everything that could happen, things are going beautifully.  She has gone from being in an isolette with a bili blanket and a full iv with constant monitoring of vital signs to being in an open air crib with no bili treatments, no IV fluids, no medications, no labs, and only three tiny leads on her torso connected to a small memory monitor which I can turn off and unhook whenever I want.

Not too shabby for nicu-land, y'all. Not too shabby.  Oh! And her weight! Born at 3lbs 13oz, she is now up to 4lbs 12oz- almost a full pound! That is a lot, especially considering the percentage of her size that has increased in less than three weeks, even after the initial normal newborn weight loss. 

So the way our nicu decides someone is ready to be discharged is that they have to meet 3 basic milestones- managing their oxygen levels and heart rate, regulating their body temp, and eating without getting too tired to gain weight.  So far we are two out of three on those. Woo hoo!  All we have to do is increase her eating stamina and we are outta here. 

So if you would like something specific to pray for, there it is. She's got the mechanics down great. Suck/swallow/breathe: check! It's just she's so small and young that the energy it requires to nourish herself is greater than what she has available. I mean she would still be getting 100% of her calories from my placenta if she were on the inside, so it makes sense that this is kinda hard for her. So let's pray that she gets stronger and it gets easier and the we can go hoooooome!

Thank you for all your prayers and support.  Now please enjoy another unformatted cell phone pics because: blogger app=terrible. Muwah! (That's a kissing sound)


20 comments :

  1. You don't know me from a bar of soap but I'm honored to be able to pray for you and Helen. I've been very inspired by your story. May God bless you and give you peace and strength.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This brings back memories of my NICU baby 2.5 years ago. After having easily nursed five babies before my NICU baby was a challenge. I pray nursing work out, but if it doesn't I pray you have the ability to grieve it peacefully and move on to enjoying that baby with a bottle. It hurts the pride but when my son was fine but my heart was still breaking daily over failed nursing I had to ditch my plan and try to embrace the happiness of a healthy, bottle-fed son. But still! I pray nursing works out. God's will be done and so glad she safe and healthy.

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a sweetheart! I'm so glad that she's doing well. I will be praying that little Helen gets to go home with you soon!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I can't believe she's up a whole pound already! Incredible! I'm so glad you're able to disconnect those monitors and hold her wire-free; what a joy that must be! I am praying for your Momma's heart, as you take each step in this marathon. One day, you'll round a bend, and the finish line will be right in front of you. I am praying that day is soon!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Little Helen is sooo beautiful! Praying for her & you!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm glad baby Helen is doing so well! And, agreed, the blogger app is horrible.

    ReplyDelete
  7. She's just perfectly adorable in this pic, so no filter needed. Ernest prayers being offered.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I'm not much of a commenter, but I've been a pretty steady lurker and a faithful pray-er!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oh, I wish I could go sit with her in the evenings for you... although that's actually selfish because I just want to snuggle that sweet baby. Praying that she keeps growing and rocking that NICU so she can go home and you can have all your kiddos together!

    ReplyDelete
  10. She is just beautiful! Praying for your whole family! Thanks for sharing this journey. -Amy Z

    ReplyDelete
  11. so preeeeeety. I can smell that newborn head from here. Praying you are all home together soon.

    ReplyDelete
  12. She is so gorgeous. I am so happy for all 9 of you!! xoxooxoxo

    ReplyDelete
  13. I've been thinking of you! (I'm not on Instagram and didn't know you where on FB). My word! She is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!! I cannot imagine how hard it is to leave her and leave the family each day. Only through the grace of God it's all coming together via those amazing friends. God bless you on this journey. Prayers continued!

    ReplyDelete
  14. I'm so happy for you all that she is home! What a wonderful day! I follow you on IG but I can't comment as I don't have an account. I've been reliving the memories of the day I rolled out of the hospital with a pair of twins whose gestational age was 35 wks 5 days and who weighed 5,2 and 4,10. Scary, scary, scary and wonderful too. They didn't need any nursery stays and we went home right away, but those itty bitty, weak babies can be an intimidating challenge. Which both of you are clearly totally up for. She's beautiful and strong. Best wishes and prayers, Emily.

    ReplyDelete
  15. She is beautiful! With all the love and prayers all around you, I'd say she'll be going home soon! But hugs to you for the difficult time. Hang in there, momma!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Update us on how the wee Miss is doing!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Please update us when you have time!!

    ReplyDelete
  18. I wish I had come across this when I was sitting in the NICU with my son this past spring. You wrote this the day he was born actually at 34 and 2 and we spent a long 6 weeks on the unit. After about 3 weeks he was a good breather and could regulate his temperature at about 4 weeks but it took 6 to get him to eat 80% of his meals without loosing stamina and another 2 to actually nurse. Thank you for sharing, we NICU moms have got to stick together.

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...