Day of Life: 52
I was wide awake in the wee hours of this morning, so I allowed myself some extra sleep again today. Canon apparently needed it to. He didn't make a sound until I finally went into his room at 9:45. We got ready faster than usual and left for OLS. I have a really bad habit of never watching the news, so I was surprised when the Director of OLS began preparing me for the bad weather that was to come later in the day. They were not planning on closing the school (they actually have a storm room built into their building which makes the daycare safer than most people's houses), but I did anticipate an early pick-up this afternoon. I made it to my parking lot at the hospital just in time for the rain.
At the hospital, I found Tera resting peacefully.
The nurse had saved her morning bottle for me to give at 11:30. I fed her alone for the first ten minutes or so, and the Speech Therapists came in then to see how we were doing. One thing we noticed that Tera is doing increasingly more is straining while she eats. I did not know this before, but apparently the act of sucking sets into motion a wave of internal stimulation that eventually ends in a dirty diaper. In other words, as Tera empties a bottle, she fills up a diaper. For babies with a mature suck-swallow-breathing pattern, the distraction of pooping does not interfere with their ability to continue eating. For Tera, every minor disruption is a major setback for meal time. She'll eventually get to the point where she can do both, but for now, we just have to keep practicing.
I mentioned yesterday that she is officially off of her Aminophylin. I asked the nurse how she was responding to it and was told that it would actually be about three days before we would know how it is effecting her. So far, though, her apnea- and bradie-free streak is still going strong.
Tera gained another ounce last night, now up to 4 pounds 7 ounces (1922 grams). Until sometime this morning, her milk still contained the double fortifier that was helping her to gain weight. If she continues to gain weight over the next two or three days, we'll know that she is responding to the single fortifier (which the doctors ordered yesterday) just as well. The doctors increased her feeds today to 35cc, so that should also help her continue to gain weight.
At her 2:30 meal, Tera had 3cc of residual (the undigested milk in her stomach). That was left from the 11:30 bottle that I gave her. She usually has no residual, so we tossed around a couple of ideas of why she may have had it this time. First, her 11:30 feed was the first time she got 35cc, so it's possible she's just not quite ready to digest so much. A second theory has to do with the length of time it took for her 11:30 feed to go in. She had taken 16cc through the bottle in 30 minutes, and the other half had gone in through her feeding tube over a 20-minute period. My point in reporting this is to say that her feed, which normally takes 30 minutes to go in, actually took almost an hour. It's possible that when her residuals were checked at 2:30, she just had not had adequate time to digest it all. Either way, no one is too worried about it. If she continues to have residuals, the doctors will decide what to do about it then.
After I gave her the bottle, a long-time friend of my parents stopped by to see Tera. My parents have a group of church friends all over the Southeast that they lovingly refer to as the Prayer Warriors. The group regularly emails to share information and make prayer requests. You can imagine that news of Tera has been circulating throughout the group for seven weeks and two days now. Keith is one of the Prayer Warriors, and as he was passing through Birmingham on his way home today, he pulled in to say hello. He joined the masses of "Wow's" when he saw her, reiterating that pictures just don't do this child justice. Even her chubbier ones like the one above. She just looks so much better than a picture can portray. After a beautiful prayer for our family, Keith headed south again.
Lydia came by sometime later and spent the rest of the afternoon with us. We left around 3:00. The weather was not looking pretty, and I still needed to pick up Canon from OLS. We had actually made plans to run a quick errand before going back to the house, but when the rain picked up and the sirens went off, Lydia and I decided to go straight home. We spent the rest of the afternoon eating A LOT of junk food (including, but not limited to Chick-fil-A, Krispy Kreme donuts, M&Ms, popcorn, and baked brie) and watching cartoon movies with Canon.
The storm was hitting my family from all directions - Barry's parents in Winfield, my dad and my sister's family in Greenville, and (soon to come) my mom in North Carolina. My brother-in-law took these pictures from his front porch in Greenville.
Scary and beautiful all at once!Barry arrived about 5:30. He had driven through some pretty terrible weather to get here, so we were extremely happy to see him walk through the door. We all went to dinner after that (do we ever eat at the house?), then it was bedtime for the Can Man.
While writing this I called in to check on Tera, so I'll go ahead and give part of tomorrow's updates. She continues to gain weight, now at 4 and a half pounds! She hasn't had any residuals since the ones I mentioned earlier today. The nurse had not given her another bottle yet because she still just seemed exhausted. I think this is going to be her next big feat - having the energy to drink all of her meals on her own. I didn't mention this before, but I asked the nurse today if the fact that Tera wasn't taking many bottles would effect how quickly she got into a crib. The nurse said that it's really up to her doctors. Some like for babies to take at least half of their feeds via bottle before getting into a crib, while others don't worry that much about it. The nurse commented that Tera's weight and temperature are so good that, once she is able to get off this last little bit of oxygen, she may not have to stay in the isolette based solely on her feeding tube. Of course, nothing comes wrapped as a commitment, so we'll just see what the doctors order when the time comes.
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