October 7, 2009

The term of the day is: Projectile Poop.

Charlotte hadn't stooled in about 40 hours, so it was time to help her along. After some unsuccessful "rectal stimulation" (of which she was not a fan) she received a little shot of glycerin up her rectum. Shortly thereafter, the sounds of expulsion were heard throughout the hospital (ok, an exaggeration but the following is not). Once it was clear she'd filled her diaper I opened it to change her. That's when she really let loose and shot her poop beyond her bed. The nurse measured her poop splatter at a distance of 22 inches. Impressive, but there's more. After cleaning her up I discovered poop on the wall...6 feet from her bottom. Now, that's built up pressure. Today, for a brief moment, I was actually relieved to be wearing gloves and a gown over my clothes.

Otherwise, no big changes today. She took 10 mls by bottle at 6 p.m., had a "whale of a good time" in her whale-shaped bath tub, and maintained her temperature quite well.

October 6, 2009

Charlotte had a pretty normal day. She was transitioned from the high-flow nasal cannula at 2 liters to the regular nasal cannula at 2 liters. The only difference between the two is that the high-flow air is heated and the regular can be weaned to lower liter flows.

No way of knowing whether or not this is related to the loss of heated air, but she got pretty cold today - 36 degrees Celcius. After wrapping her in heated blankets she stayed warm for the rest of the day, but she was very sleepy. She took one bottle this morning (14 mls) before I got to the hospital and then she slept all day.

In response to the inquiries about Charlotte's hair color - it might be a little red. Her hair is darker than it turned out in yesterday's picture; we used to think she and I had the same hair color. We'll see as it gets longer and thicker!

October 5, 2009

Our 8 week old has been opening her eyes a lot wider lately and checking out her surroundings. I hope she doesn't like them and wants to go home, like I do!

She's gained even more weight and is now 3lbs 15 oz. Perhaps tomorrow will take us out of the 3 lb range. The doctors are pleased with her weight gain and have increased her feeds to 34 mls every three hours to keep up with her. She took all her feeds by tube today, but we'll keep trying oral feeds tomorrow.

No changes to her respiratory support.

She's maintaining her temperature very well and the isolette was removed from her room yesterday. Now she has what seems like a huge room for her little self.

Now that it's October, she's been sporting her festive Halloween hat:

October 4, 2009

Another week comes to a close.

Today we gave Charlotte a bath in the new tub we bought at Babies R Us. Up until today we had been washing her in a small little bin which, while completely adequate size-wise, made it difficult to hold her upright and wash her at the same time. Now her tub has a little seat so its easier to maneuver.

Her feeds are up to a full ounce (30 mls) every three hours (eight times per day). The doctors are looking for her to gain 10-30 grams (28 grams per ounce) per day so she has some work in front of her. She continues to work on feeding by bottle and nursing, but she is still primarily getting her milk through the feeding tube.

We're still waiting to see some improvement in her breathing. She hasn't shown much improvement, but we're hoping with the added weight she'll gain enough strength to start leveling out. It wold be great to see that supplemental O2 drop soon.

You may notice to the right of the blog are some new elements to our blog. We learned about the Lilypie tickers from Willow Jenson's blog (also linked to the right) and thought they would be fun visuals.

October 3, 2009

Fresh air!

After a brief return to the isolette last night, Charlotte was back out in the open by the time we returned to the room this morning.

Overnight she was transitioned back to the high-flow cannula, but the nurses have worked on weening the oxygen throughout the day.

Two days ago she took 2mls by bottle. Yesterday, 13mls. Today she bumped it up to 16mls. Slowly but surely she is get a hang of it.

She is also inching her way towards 4 lbs. Today she weighed in at 3lbs 12oz. According to the growth charts she is in the 3rd percentile, but her growth is following the curve as it should.

Yesterday she had her second eye exam and she showed some retinopathy, but it only appears to be the early stages. For now she'll just be monitored more frequently.

Last night we had dinner with the Vendlinskis and their 15 month old twins who have also been through the Marquette and Milwaukee NICUs. Its a good reminder that, yes, Charlotte will come home at some point and will be doing everything a full-term baby would do.

October 2, 2009

Charlotte has a new bed again! Her weekend nurse, Becky, thinks she's ready for an open air bed so that's what she has. We love being able to pick her up without pulling cords through the isolette and then squeezing her out through the side. Hopefully she can maintain her body heat and continue to gain weight, so she can stay in an open bed.

She's also back on the regular cannula at 1.5 liters. We're a little nervous about two big changes in one day and hope we're not putting too many demands on her at once.

October 1, 2009

Patrick returned to Milwaukee this evening and thinks Charlotte's head looks much bigger, a good sign.

We didn't try any bottles today, but the lactation nurse helped me try nursing twice. I wouldn't say we were overwhelmingly successful, but it went ok. All will come in time.

Charlotte did get a different bed. She's now residing in the pictured isolette. They reserve this isolette for babies who still need some heat control but who are more stable and can move in and out as it does not have the fancy raisable roof with radiating heat.