Day of Life: 28 Despite my pink eye, I got permission from both Kyle and Tera's nurses to come to the hospital under a strict "Look but Don't Touch" policy. The nurse has already told me that she will scrub down the counters after I leave. At least I am here with Tera and can see her as much I want. It will be a couple of days before I can get my hands back on her, but looking at her will suffice for now. Maybe I'll even turn out to be as vain as the doctors and nurses who are so concerned with her looks!
Does this look comfortable to you? 
She is doing so much better today. In the two and a half hours that I have been here so far, she has de-satted only a few times and rarely below 70% saturation. She's also been bringing her saturation back up with no help from the blow-by during most of the de-sats. She's had no apnea spells this morning. Last night was much the same, except for about an hour's time when she was de-satting more often than usual. Otherwise, the night was good. She has gained more weight. She weighs 1285 grams, which is 2 pounds 13.3 ounces. We're so close to that 3 pound mark. I can't wait! She has also shrunk from 16 inches to 15 3/4 inches. Actually, there is no shrinking. It's just difficult to get an accurate measurement from such a squirmy baby. This morning, our nurse got her first round of results from yesterday's testing. Her urine culture came back positive which can mean one of two things. Either she has some kind of infection in her kidneys (probably a UTI) or the urine was contaminated during the process of collecting it. They will know more tomorrow after the bacteria has been allowed to grow a little more. All of her other bodily fluids (blood and spinal samples) are cleared for now, but it will take a full 48 hours before they can say that with a lot of confidence. She is still on her antibiotics today. If nothing is growing by tomorrow around lunch (and if the urine culture shows no real infection) then they'll probably discontinue the antibiotics. The risk of her getting the meds and not needing them is greater than the risks that will come from her not getting them for the next couple of days should the cultures begin to show bacterial growth then. If that happens, I'm guessing they'll just restart her meds. Otherwise, Tera is doing great. She has been moving around so much this morning, even squirming around until she gets into the most perfectly comfortable spot she can find. My Godmother, Jean, came to visit earlier, and she marveled at how active Tera is. Here are a few pics from the morning. I remembered to use my Retro Camera a couple of times. 
I learned some things earlier in the week about what our next milestones will be. Once she is 32-34 weeks gestation, she will develop the suck-swallow-breathe sequence which will allow her to start drinking from a bottle. She must also weigh about 1400 grams (a little over 3 pounds) for this to occur. She'll still have her feeding tube, but they will move it from her mouth to her nose so that it does not get in the way of her bottle feeds. Once she weighs about 1600 grams (3 pounds 8 ounces) and is able to drink half of her feeds through a bottle, they will move her to a crib. I originally thought this would happen sooner, but it looks like the crib will come only a couple of weeks before we come home. We're still not sure exactly when that will be. I've heard from different nurses that sometimes the doctors will discharge at 35 or 36 weeks gestation if everything is fine with the baby. Others have said that, if all she has to do is gain weight, then they could possibly send her back to Flowers in Dothan for the last little bit of her nursery stay. At this point, I don't think I'm ready to even ask the doctors for their predictions. She's still got some humps to cross before we're simply in the Growing Phase, and I know that any prediction made at this point will probably end up being disappointing for me in the long run. So for now, I'm using May 29 (her due date) as our goal for bringing her home, while still secretly hoping that my Rock Star baby will not need to go the full 40 weeks. I will also take this time, since nothing seems to really be going on with either Tera or myself, to update everyone on what's happening with me. I'm realizing that I never mentioned where I've been staying. My sister-in-law, Lydia, has graciously offered me one of the two spare bedrooms in her condo. She lives with a college friend who has recently taken a job as a traveling nurse. Her roommate, Emily, actually owns the three-bedroom condo and, while she has been away, Lydia has been living by herself. It has turned out to be a perfect situation, for me especially. Once Canon comes to live with us he'll even have a room to himself. Lydia had knee surgery yesterday and will be slightly out of commission for a few days due to the enormous amount of pain and the high dosage of pain medication she will be taking, and she won't go back to work for at least six weeks. Nonna will be staying with us at the house off and on to take care of her. Lydia and I just started putting all of our dates together last week, and we realized that Canon would be coming to live with us just one week after her surgery. The plan is still the same, but we're anticipating that it could be cut short if things get too hectic. As usual, we're taking things one day at a time to see how it will all go. Also, I am recovering from my surgery well, I think, considering I've never had surgery and don't really know what to expect. I'll be coming back to Dothan next week for my check-up, so I'll know more then. You'll be happy to know that I really have been taking it easy for the most part. I haven't even exercised or anything! Probably the worst I've done is carry a heavier-than-I-should bag every morning to keep me busy while at the hospital. Otherwise, I'm a pretty good patient. Check back later tonight for any additional updates to our day. I know lots of people were concerned with yesterday's events, so I wanted to go ahead and let everyone know what was happening today.
She is doing so much better today. In the two and a half hours that I have been here so far, she has de-satted only a few times and rarely below 70% saturation. She's also been bringing her saturation back up with no help from the blow-by during most of the de-sats. She's had no apnea spells this morning. Last night was much the same, except for about an hour's time when she was de-satting more often than usual. Otherwise, the night was good. She has gained more weight. She weighs 1285 grams, which is 2 pounds 13.3 ounces. We're so close to that 3 pound mark. I can't wait! She has also shrunk from 16 inches to 15 3/4 inches. Actually, there is no shrinking. It's just difficult to get an accurate measurement from such a squirmy baby. This morning, our nurse got her first round of results from yesterday's testing. Her urine culture came back positive which can mean one of two things. Either she has some kind of infection in her kidneys (probably a UTI) or the urine was contaminated during the process of collecting it. They will know more tomorrow after the bacteria has been allowed to grow a little more. All of her other bodily fluids (blood and spinal samples) are cleared for now, but it will take a full 48 hours before they can say that with a lot of confidence. She is still on her antibiotics today. If nothing is growing by tomorrow around lunch (and if the urine culture shows no real infection) then they'll probably discontinue the antibiotics. The risk of her getting the meds and not needing them is greater than the risks that will come from her not getting them for the next couple of days should the cultures begin to show bacterial growth then. If that happens, I'm guessing they'll just restart her meds. Otherwise, Tera is doing great. She has been moving around so much this morning, even squirming around until she gets into the most perfectly comfortable spot she can find. My Godmother, Jean, came to visit earlier, and she marveled at how active Tera is. Here are a few pics from the morning. I remembered to use my Retro Camera a couple of times. 
I learned some things earlier in the week about what our next milestones will be. Once she is 32-34 weeks gestation, she will develop the suck-swallow-breathe sequence which will allow her to start drinking from a bottle. She must also weigh about 1400 grams (a little over 3 pounds) for this to occur. She'll still have her feeding tube, but they will move it from her mouth to her nose so that it does not get in the way of her bottle feeds. Once she weighs about 1600 grams (3 pounds 8 ounces) and is able to drink half of her feeds through a bottle, they will move her to a crib. I originally thought this would happen sooner, but it looks like the crib will come only a couple of weeks before we come home. We're still not sure exactly when that will be. I've heard from different nurses that sometimes the doctors will discharge at 35 or 36 weeks gestation if everything is fine with the baby. Others have said that, if all she has to do is gain weight, then they could possibly send her back to Flowers in Dothan for the last little bit of her nursery stay. At this point, I don't think I'm ready to even ask the doctors for their predictions. She's still got some humps to cross before we're simply in the Growing Phase, and I know that any prediction made at this point will probably end up being disappointing for me in the long run. So for now, I'm using May 29 (her due date) as our goal for bringing her home, while still secretly hoping that my Rock Star baby will not need to go the full 40 weeks. I will also take this time, since nothing seems to really be going on with either Tera or myself, to update everyone on what's happening with me. I'm realizing that I never mentioned where I've been staying. My sister-in-law, Lydia, has graciously offered me one of the two spare bedrooms in her condo. She lives with a college friend who has recently taken a job as a traveling nurse. Her roommate, Emily, actually owns the three-bedroom condo and, while she has been away, Lydia has been living by herself. It has turned out to be a perfect situation, for me especially. Once Canon comes to live with us he'll even have a room to himself. Lydia had knee surgery yesterday and will be slightly out of commission for a few days due to the enormous amount of pain and the high dosage of pain medication she will be taking, and she won't go back to work for at least six weeks. Nonna will be staying with us at the house off and on to take care of her. Lydia and I just started putting all of our dates together last week, and we realized that Canon would be coming to live with us just one week after her surgery. The plan is still the same, but we're anticipating that it could be cut short if things get too hectic. As usual, we're taking things one day at a time to see how it will all go. Also, I am recovering from my surgery well, I think, considering I've never had surgery and don't really know what to expect. I'll be coming back to Dothan next week for my check-up, so I'll know more then. You'll be happy to know that I really have been taking it easy for the most part. I haven't even exercised or anything! Probably the worst I've done is carry a heavier-than-I-should bag every morning to keep me busy while at the hospital. Otherwise, I'm a pretty good patient. Check back later tonight for any additional updates to our day. I know lots of people were concerned with yesterday's events, so I wanted to go ahead and let everyone know what was happening today.The Rest of the Day
Things remained quiet the rest of the day. My dear friend, Ashley, came to visit us and joined me for a late lunch. Ashley is one of those friends that just gets me, and I get her. We can go months without talking then pick right back up like we talked ten minutes ago. That's just how today was. Ashley visited a couple of weeks ago, but today was the first time we've really gotten to talk and hang out in awhile. And talk we did! I imagine that one day when our children are grown and gone and we've outlived our husbands, Ashley and I will buy neighboring condos at the beach and spend our days talking non-stop.
Our chapter today (and don't worry Kyle and Barry, I left the door on Tera's bed closed while I read) was "Praying for Spiritual Protection." I've got to be honest and say that this has been my least favorite chapter so far. The content was good, but I just didn't like how it was written. I've never been really comfortable with the whole "Satan and his evil demons are always out to get you" terminology. It's not that I don't think there are things out there that make it harder for us to stay focused on God or that I think people who are comfortable with this philosophy are wrong. It's just that I didn't grow up talking about Satan and his place in every part of our existence. I think I still have (and sometimes prefer to have) the childhood understanding of Satan: as long as you believe, have faith, pray, etc., then Satan is somewhere off in the distance, and you don't really have to worry about him too much. I'm sure many of you reading this have immediately begun praying for me over this, and please do. I'm having a difficult time explaining what I mean, so I'll just leave it as is for now.
Anyway, today's chapter talked A LOT about Satan and his evil demons trying to get our children. While it was difficult, I was able to get past all of the Satan talk, and what I took from the chapter is that we should pray for God's presence in our children's lives always, especially when we can't be there to help them along the way. If we pray that God is with them always, then we can have comfort when they are away from us. I think this, too, can help us have more trust in them. I'm especially thinking of when our children are teenagers and beginning to make more decisions on their own. This, by the way, is the phase of parenting that I am least looking forward to. Oh, if Tera could stay just as tiny as she is now. (Ok, maybe a little bit bigger). And if Canon could always be so effected when his Daddy gets mad at him. Then my hair will continue to stay a natural shade of sandy blonde, and Barry's hair . . . well, he lost that battle a long time ago.
Our prayer tonight: "Keep Canon and Tera from all harm. Watch over their lives; watch over their coming and going, both now and forevermore." Psalm 121:7-8
I left Tera about 3:00 to go back to Lydia's and take a much needed nap. When I left, she had scooted herself down so that her rear end was draped over what is supposed to be a bumper in her bed.
It's always a good sign when she moves around a lot. Yesterday, she was much more lathargic, but today she got her fight back.
After my nap, I went to dinner with Sam, Alicia, and Matt. Is anybody jealous of my current lifestyle yet?! After dinner, I just had to go back and see Tera one last time. Nonna had been sitting with her for a couple of hours when I got there. We only stayed for a little bit longer, but I could have stared at her all night long.
What About Barry and Canon
Barry has been working double-time trying to make up for the time he will be away tomorrow, Thursday and Friday, not to mention all of the Fridays he's been leaving early to come visit us girls. Sharon picked Canon up today and brought him back to our house. I don't think I've mentioned this yet, but Josh and Mary (and their almost-two-year-old son Colt) recently moved not only into our neighborhood but into a house about a stone's throw from our front door. I could literally stand at my door and say fairly loudly, "Hey, Josh and Mary" and they could respond! I think Canon got some good Colt time today when Sharon brought him home. And later tonight, I got some good FaceTime with him. While I won't see Canon tomorrow when Barry comes up - Barry is dropping him off with MyGoo in Montgomery - I am excited about a mid-week visit. Pray for safe travel.
So glad things are going better today and glad that the pink eye didn't stop you from being able to see Tera. Praying for you all and thanks for sharing with us each day. I've learned a lot both spiritually and medically.
ReplyDeleteI have three nephews, all of which were born premature. Your notes and pictures hit home. I'm praying for Tera, you and your family.
ReplyDelete