July 11th, 2007

Happy 1 week birthday Megan!!

I made my morning call to my little girl. They said that she had a good night and rested well. She did lose a little weight today which is actually good. That just verifies that she didn't have any fluid retention from her big weight gain yesterday. Most of that 100 grams from yesterday was from her blood transfusion.

She is still eating all of the breast milk which is a wonderful sign. Although, she has a lot to go before she even dents our supply of breast milk. We now have over 40 bottles in the freezer and I have only been home pumping since Sunday! Bob and I may have to buy a new freezer just to store all the breast milk.

Right before I called, the nurse changed her poopy diaper :) Her blood gas test was good, so they expect to decrease her ventilator again today. The nurse also said that she has been very active this morning. She opened her eyes almost everytime the nurse went over and looked right at her.

Today I am going to Babies R Us to get Megan a present for her 1st week birthday. I plan to buy her a little something every week. On the 10th week, I will buy the outfit that she will come home in :)

We got to see our little peanut in the afternoon. The nurse did let us know that she had a bradycardia or an episode of a low heartbeat this morning. However, she was able to recover on her own. The nurse explained that they are very common and we should expect her to have a few more over the next couple weeks. I read that we will become very familiar with the A's and B's which are apneas and bradycardias. An apnea is a pause in breathing and a bradycardia is a period of a slow heartbeat. It is very common because of her immature breathing system.

Her breast milk intake was increased again to 7cc every 3 hours. On the last feeding, she did have 2cc residual that she didn't eat, so the nurse just gave it back to her and gave her 5cc. She said that it wasn't something to be concerned about, she just may not have been ready for more food yet. When I called back later in the evening, she only had 1cc residual and the nurse was able to give her the full 7cc. She said that if she is able to tolerate the next two feedings, she will be upped to 8cc every 3 hours.

The nurse did tell us that Megan was the best behaved baby in the NICU today. :) She said that she just left Megan alone most of the day so she could rest and build her strength. I asked how long she would be on the ventilator. She said that it really depends on the baby. A 25 weeker, like Megan, could be on for 2-4 weeks. I am so anxious for her to be off the ventilator!

Luckily, Megan doesn't have any big tests coming up like head sonograms, so she should be able to get her rest and concentrate on getting stronger.

Other little things were that her blood sugar levels are good and her color was great!

I did buy her 1 week birthday present. It was an adorable preemie outfit from Babies R Us. It's yellow and says "D is for Duckie". :) I think she'll like it!

Well, that's about it for today.