And Ten Days Later . . . A Mother Has Her Firsts

Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Matthew 6:33

This verse is from a devotional of Lydia's called "Come Away, My Beloved." Nonna read it last night and thought it really applied to us right now. I agree.

Day of Life: 10

What Happened Last Night
My 3:00 a.m. call made me a little uneasy. When Tera arrived at UAB, they inserted two lines into her belly button, a UAC and a UVC. The UAC allows them to draw blood for labs, and the UVC allows them to give her meds. The PICC Line was put in two days ago so that these lines could be pulled. There is a high risk of infection if these stay in too long. I thought that the UVC had been pulled the previous night, and they had made plans to pull the UAC last night. When I called Beaonica at 3:00 to check in, she said that the UAC had been pulled but the UVC was still there. I hung up feeling very uneasy, so I called right back and asked to speak to a doctor. They were on another floor admitting a new patient so they would get back in touch later. I won't be going back to sleep anytime soon!

While I was getting ready for the day, I got a text from Kristen, one of my dear "teacher friends." Two of my students were helping her in her room before the other students arrived. I called immediately and got to talk to them. This week, the whole world is celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday, and our school is having a parade this afternoon. All of the students who dress up like a book character get to participate in the parade. Kristen explained that one of the kids was in full cowboy attire! Can't wait to see those pictures.

When we arrived at the hospital, we found Tera relaxed as usual. Some dear friends of mine who had a very similar experience about a year ago emailed to tell me to take a picture of Tera everyday so that I could record the memories of her being so tiny. I like to take that picture as soon as I get there. It gives me a hint of the night she had and the day ahead.

I think we're in for a good day.

While we waited on the docs to make their rounds, the Respiratory Therapist took the frequency of her CPAP from 10 to 0. This means, that though there is oxygen blowing in through her nose, she is taking all of the breaths by herself with no assistance from the CPAP. The little humps along the top show the breaths she is taking. If the machine were breathing for her, there would be taller green humps where the machine did the work.

The bottom screen shows her Oxygen percentages, pressures, frequencies, and a lot of other numbers that I don't understand. The blank spot in the top left part is usually where the frequency is listed. It's blank!

When the docs came around, they were very impressed with how well she was breathing so we'll continue with these settings. She has only desatuarated (desatted) twice in the last 24 hours, which is a good sign for her apnea. She is on constant medication to prevent that, and it is obviously working. They also addressed the UVC line, which will come out today after their rounds are through. She has one more dose of Ibuprofen tonight to help close up that PDA. The nurse heard the regular murmur during her exam this morning, which tells us it is still there. Dr. Toms says that even if this round of Ibuprofen does not close it completely, he will not do another round of Ibuprofen because everything else is going so well. The PDA is obviously not causing any problems with her other functions, so he thinks that waiting to let it close (if that's what it comes to) will be ok. She will also start her feeds again today at 11:00, 2cc. Her labs showed that everything is working well with her kidneys and digestion, so Dr. Toms feels good about feeding her again. They will stop fluids for about an hour while they give her the Ibuprofen tonight. They'll also do a bili check this morning to see if she needs to go back under the lights. If the color of her skin is any indication, I think we're good there, too. I hate those lights. They make her look blue!

I realized today that I have not been writing about her weight changes. When Tera was born she weighed 1070 grams. Apparently when you weigh this little, you get put on the metric system. Since that time, her weight has dropped as low as 920 grams (about 2 pounds even). That was three days ago. Since then, it has either gone up or remained steady. She is currently weighing in at 970 grams, up 10 grams from yesterday. My dear friend, Neha, sent me this amazing Early Arrival Journal for me to keep up with all of the many details of this experience. It has a conversion chart for me to convert grams to pounds and ounces. So today, at 970 grams, Tera weighs about 2 pounds 2 ounces. They told us that she could lose as much as 30% of her body weight, which by my calculations would put her down to about 750 grams, only 1 pound 10 ounces. I'm really hoping the Rock Star can stay chubby.

Barry and Canon are coming today!!

What Actually Happened Today

Because the UAC was pulled last night, the nurses now have to prick her heel everytime they need to draw blood. I hate the thought of this, but Tera does not seem to mind. This is her getting her foot heated before the prick.

A doctor returned almost immediately to remove the UVC from her belly button. This was the first procedure that I half-way watched. They take a needle and pull something away from the line, then just pull it out.

Very unexpectedly, the nurse asked me after the procedure if I wanted to take Tera's temperature and change her diaper. It hasn't seemed strange that I haven't done these things before now, but she is ten days old. Maybe I should be doing these things.

MyGoo and Nonna tried really hard not to show off any unnecessary parts. We don't want her hating us in 16 years when she brings her first boyfriend home, and we pull these memories out!

Don't I look like a nurse in this picture?

And when it was all over, she back to sleep. The pig nose looks a little better now.

The rest of the afternoon was mostly rest and relaxation for Tera. Bob stopped by to check on us. I talked to him about the fact that she seemed to be acting so much like a regular baby. She responds to light, sound, touch, and sudden movements. She opens her eyes occasionally, likes to snuggle, and cries when she's uncomfortable. I know we can sit and analyze all the potential long-term developmental effects of her prematurity, but all signs point to normal baby. Though Bob said we will not be sure for quite a few weeks, he agreed that her chances for a complete recovery looked really good right now. He is always so encouraging, but I know that he would tell me the truth if something was wrong.

About 3:30, Tera's labs showed that her bili numbers were back up from 4.2 to 9. She had to go back under the lights.

She continued to breathe on her own with the CPAP only providing a minimal amount of oxygen. We had to leave at 4:00 to meet Barry as he came into town, but I found out during a call to Beaonica that the doctors took her off the CPAP completely during rounds. She is now in what is called OE, or Oxygenated Environment. She is completely breathing on her own, but the air in her isolette is oxygenated. At the time of the call, she was only receiving 29% oxygen. Room air is 21% oxygen, so hopefully she's not too far from breathing just like we do. There's always the chance that she could go back on the CPAP, but everything looks good now.