Sadie graduated to two out of three feedings now! She needs to prove she can do this and she'll graduate to bottlefeeding at every feeding. Then, once she can drink her whole bottle every feeding, she will be able to come home (as long as nothing else comes up).
She's had her third dose of Epogen today. They will measure her hematocrit level again on Friday. Hopefully the number will have gone up showing the Epogen is working.
Sadie is still gaining weight - she's at 6 pounds, 13 ounces as of last night.
Nanny (Jen's mom) got the visit Sadie for her birthday on Tuesday. Tonight, my parents will get to visit Sadie for a while.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Sunday, February 10, 2008
The Long Awaited Update
Sorry for the lack of updates for the past few days. The blog was forced to the back burner for awhile as I adjusted to being back to work. It was e-rate Form 471 filing season so it was a bit hectic and I actually had to take work home. I wouldn't give the responsibility to do e-rate filing to my worst enemy. Way to much paperwork - much worse than filing taxes. I'm thankful that's all done now and things are back to "normal".
Sadie had a good stretch of eating her whole 56mL bottle for about a day and a half. She has since become more and more tired and therefore not waking up to eat. She's now only drinking a full bottle every once in a while. Her average is between 30-45mL. She is up to 58mL every feeding and is still on the every other bottle/gavage schedule.
They have been measuring her hematocrit levels for the past couple weeks. It's been getting lower every time and this could be the cause of her sleepiness. On Saturday, they measured it again and it was down to 30. Because of this, they started her on a drug called Epogen. This will help her body produce more red blood cells. Sadie will have an injection every other day for two weeks. Once her red blood cell count is normal, Sadie should be more alert and less sleepy. This should help her stay awake to finish her whole bottle.
How long is she going to be in the hospital? Well, we really don't know - it's up to her. The Epogen needs to start working and then Sadie should start progressing on her feedings again. Once Sadie shows the nurses/doctors that she can eat her whole bottle every other feeding, they will increase the bottles to two out of three feedings. Once she shows she had handle that, they will bottle feed her every time. Once she does that for a while, we get to take her home, provided that nothing else comes up. We are hoping that all will happen in two to three weeks, but we really don't know. It could be less or it could be more.
Oh, and she's 6 pounds, 9 ounces as of last night.
Sadie had a good stretch of eating her whole 56mL bottle for about a day and a half. She has since become more and more tired and therefore not waking up to eat. She's now only drinking a full bottle every once in a while. Her average is between 30-45mL. She is up to 58mL every feeding and is still on the every other bottle/gavage schedule.
They have been measuring her hematocrit levels for the past couple weeks. It's been getting lower every time and this could be the cause of her sleepiness. On Saturday, they measured it again and it was down to 30. Because of this, they started her on a drug called Epogen. This will help her body produce more red blood cells. Sadie will have an injection every other day for two weeks. Once her red blood cell count is normal, Sadie should be more alert and less sleepy. This should help her stay awake to finish her whole bottle.
How long is she going to be in the hospital? Well, we really don't know - it's up to her. The Epogen needs to start working and then Sadie should start progressing on her feedings again. Once Sadie shows the nurses/doctors that she can eat her whole bottle every other feeding, they will increase the bottles to two out of three feedings. Once she shows she had handle that, they will bottle feed her every time. Once she does that for a while, we get to take her home, provided that nothing else comes up. We are hoping that all will happen in two to three weeks, but we really don't know. It could be less or it could be more.
Oh, and she's 6 pounds, 9 ounces as of last night.
Will update soon...
If my evening goes as planned, I'll be posting a pretty long update tonight... There are new pictures and videos to tide you over until then.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Six Pounds!
Sadie is six pounds, one ounce today! She's doing really well in the "gaining weight" department. She still needs to work on feeding but she's progressing quite well. She's being bottlefed pretty much every other feeding now. The problem with the "stuff" in her nose is probably reflux. Holding Sadie upright during and after feeding her has drastically reduced her number of desats. She's been off the low flow nasal cannula since early yesterday.
There are new pictures and videos from the past few days, uploaded for your viewing pleasure.
There are new pictures and videos from the past few days, uploaded for your viewing pleasure.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Almost Six Pounds
When Sadie was weighed last night she was 5 pounds, 15 ounces. I have no doubt she'll be six pounds sometime today. The physicians orders yesterday permitted Sadie to be bottle or breastfed every other feeding as tolerated. This means that it's the nurses decision to bottle or gavage her based on how she's doing. That's great, but still needs to learn how to eat her whole bottle. The last couple times she's gotten tired and quit at a little more than half her bottle. She'll need to drink every bottle, every feeding before she'll be able to come home.
The only other problem with Sadie is that she's producing a lot of "stuff" in her nose. She's been desatting a lot lately (the percent of oxygen in her blood is going below 88%). She'll sound congested and the nurse will suction out A LOT of stuff from her nose. After that, her oxygen saturation levels are good. It may be reflux or it may be a dry nose from having the CPAP and nasal cannula. We'll be talking to the nurse/doctor about this.
I updated the pictures so there are some new ones available.
The only other problem with Sadie is that she's producing a lot of "stuff" in her nose. She's been desatting a lot lately (the percent of oxygen in her blood is going below 88%). She'll sound congested and the nurse will suction out A LOT of stuff from her nose. After that, her oxygen saturation levels are good. It may be reflux or it may be a dry nose from having the CPAP and nasal cannula. We'll be talking to the nurse/doctor about this.
I updated the pictures so there are some new ones available.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Moving Rooms
There has been a lot of room moving the past two days. One good move and one bad. I'll start with the bad first...
After we visited Sadie yesterday, I turned my cell phone back on and it said that I had a message. It was Bev (Jen's mom) and she said that she was driving Mike (Jen's dad) to the ER. Mike was burned pretty bad when he was working on his car. He was trying to fix a coolant leak when a hose came off and sprayed him with hot coolant. After his pain was stablized, he was admitted (hense moving from his bedroom to a hospital room). We visited him today before we visited Sadie and he seemed to be in pretty good spirits considering the situation. He has first and second degree burns on his abdomen, neck, lower face, arms, and hands. The doctor said that he's in the hospital until Saturday or Sunday mainly for pain management. He has some medication that he's applying to the burn sites. I don't think they are too worried about scarring.
The other move was a good one. At 3pm today, Sadie was moved from Room 1 to Room 4 in the NICU. Although there aren't technically rooms where healthier babies are taken care of, the room Sadie is in has one nurse for three babies opposed to Room 1 where the ratio is usually 1:2. She ate okay today at her 2:30 feeding. She drank half of her 40 something mL bottle and the remainder was gavaged. When I called tonight to check on her, she weighed 5 pounds 11.5 ounses. The 2 ounses more than yesterday and 5.8 ounses more than when she was born.
I finally got the photos up to date and added one more video, so you have more to look at now.
I'm exhausted. It was a busy day with work, dropping Aedan off at Madai's, going to the hospital to see Mike and Sadie, and keeping the home fire burning. Jen's already sleeping and I'm about to join her in her slumber...
After we visited Sadie yesterday, I turned my cell phone back on and it said that I had a message. It was Bev (Jen's mom) and she said that she was driving Mike (Jen's dad) to the ER. Mike was burned pretty bad when he was working on his car. He was trying to fix a coolant leak when a hose came off and sprayed him with hot coolant. After his pain was stablized, he was admitted (hense moving from his bedroom to a hospital room). We visited him today before we visited Sadie and he seemed to be in pretty good spirits considering the situation. He has first and second degree burns on his abdomen, neck, lower face, arms, and hands. The doctor said that he's in the hospital until Saturday or Sunday mainly for pain management. He has some medication that he's applying to the burn sites. I don't think they are too worried about scarring.
The other move was a good one. At 3pm today, Sadie was moved from Room 1 to Room 4 in the NICU. Although there aren't technically rooms where healthier babies are taken care of, the room Sadie is in has one nurse for three babies opposed to Room 1 where the ratio is usually 1:2. She ate okay today at her 2:30 feeding. She drank half of her 40 something mL bottle and the remainder was gavaged. When I called tonight to check on her, she weighed 5 pounds 11.5 ounses. The 2 ounses more than yesterday and 5.8 ounses more than when she was born.
I finally got the photos up to date and added one more video, so you have more to look at now.
I'm exhausted. It was a busy day with work, dropping Aedan off at Madai's, going to the hospital to see Mike and Sadie, and keeping the home fire burning. Jen's already sleeping and I'm about to join her in her slumber...
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Three meals a day
Just a quick update from live inside the NICU...
She's doing well. They've increased the times she can bottle or breastfeed to three times every 24 hours. That's great news as she is continuing to progress. At her 2:30 feeding she was able to breastfeed for 10 minutes and then she drank all of her 21ml bottle in 4 minutes for a new speed record.
She's doing well. They've increased the times she can bottle or breastfeed to three times every 24 hours. That's great news as she is continuing to progress. At her 2:30 feeding she was able to breastfeed for 10 minutes and then she drank all of her 21ml bottle in 4 minutes for a new speed record.
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