Quick update

Lauren seemed to look a little better today than she did yesterday. She is still on the ventilator but seemed more comfortable. I was also able to hold Lauren for a few hours today too! I wasn't sure if I would be able to hold her because of being on the ventilator, but her nurse and respiratory therapist she had don't mind kangaroo care even when a baby is on a ventilator. They said there is some staff that will not do it, but they said "Lauren will let us know if she can't handle it." The good news is...SHE DID GREAT! She snoozed the whole time and I even dozed off for a little bit. She hasn't been having too many spontaneous breaths since being on the vent, but when I held her she was occasionally breathing on her own. She also got a little too toasty while I was holding her. She looked like a little lobster when she went back into the warmer. :) She cooled off nicely though. Once again, I LOVED our time cuddling.

The blood culture still is reading negative which is great. They did restart her milk feeds this afternoon at 2mls per hour and so far so good. Hopefully, while she is on the vent she will tolerate her feedings and they will be able to increase them to get some more weight on her. She is doing well on the vent...occasionally her oxygen level decreases due to secretions, but once she is suctioned they come right back up. Today the doctor said maybe another 24-48 hours on the ventilator and then CPAP again. We know how quickly things change, so we will just wait and see.

Back On the Ventilator

Lauren had to go back on the ventilator again early this morning because she was having a more episodes of apnea and oxygen desats for the last day or so. The doctor ordered a blood gas and blood culture to make sure he wasn't missing anything. Her carbon dioxide level was elevated with the first blood gas, so they increased her CPAP to help her out a bit. They also took an x-ray and it showed that her lungs were not expanding as much as they would like. They let her go a while on the increased CPAP and took another blood gas to see if it was helping and her carbon dioxide was even more elevated so it was decided she needed to be intubated again even though she was looking okay. Hopefully this will be a short period on the ventilator and she will be back on CPAP again. The doctor doesn't really have an answer as to why her level of carbon dioxide was going up, other than the prematurity and that the part of the brain that controls breathing isn't fully developed yet. He said that usually happens around 34-36 weeks gestation. Lauren's gestation would now be 31 weeks. Having to go back on the ventilator is something that the NICU staff is used to and they aren't shocked by any means. It's hard to keep that in mind, but if Lauren needs a break in order to grow stronger than we will deal with it. It is just very hard for me to try and stay composed when I see her on the ventilator...I just wish I could take her place and she could be better. Today was not such a good day for her feedings either. She was having large amounts of milk left in her stomach, so they have stopped the milk and she went back on the IV nutrition. Her blood sugar shot up in the high 300's again because of the IV, so she is back on Insulin. They will try and start her feedings again soon and increase them very slowly. When we first got there today Lauren was still pretty sleepy so we were able to just watch her rest for a while. She ended up waking up and opening her eyes and looking around for about 20-30 minutes. It was so nice to see her wake up a bit while we were there. She is such a little miracle!
The picture I posted is of Lauren's new isolette. It has a lid that goes up and down and it keeps her nice and warm. It is also nice because it is quiet in there for her. She's been in it for a week, but I kept forgetting to post the picture.

Eyes are open!

I was finally able to get a picture of Lauren with both eyes open! Every time I tried she would have one or both of them closed before I got the picture because of the delay on the camera. She was wide awake today before they handed her to me to hold so I was really hoping I could catch a picture with her eyes open. We cuddled for a bit over 3 hours today and she did pretty well. Her oxygen levels still decrease but she is getting better at bringing them back up with less help from the nurses or me. She is still having issues with her milk feedings refluxing, but for all things considered, is doing fairly well. Still no infections which we are very thankful for. She did get some more red blood cells yesterday because her lab work showed that her levels were low. Preemies don't make as many red blood cells because of immaturity and their red blood cells don't last as long as ours do either. Some great news is that her weight is up to 2lbs 2oz! The NICU made a card with her foot prints that says she is now 2lbs and to "watch me grow." It was very cute and of course I teared up when I saw it. Such a sappy mommy! Lauren is no longer on the IV nutrional fluids, she just has a solution going very slowly to keep her PICC line open. The PICC line may be able to come out in the next few days. They want to make sure that she won't need anymore IV nutrition as long as she does well with the milk feedings. The doctors are trying to get Lauren stable enough to be able to be transported to the Salem Hospital NICU which would be so great. It would be so nice to be able to visit her multiple times per day and only drive 10 minutes vs 1 hour and 10 minutes. Yesterday, the doctor said possibly 2 or 4 more weeks before she could be transferred.

Adam Holding Lauren!

Yesterday was Adam's first Father's Day and he got the best gift ever. He finally got to hold his daughter! It was so sweet to watch and of course I cried when they put her on his chest. I couldn't stop smiling either. It was so wonderful to finally be able to watch him hold her. Lauren was very content during their 3 1/2 hour cuddle time. Adam fell asleep during part of the time and I loved watching them sleep. Adam loved his time with her and I can't wait to see it again. The NICU staff also made a card from Lauren to Adam with a picture of her with her eyes open and CPAP off her face. It was so sweet and yes I cried at that too. :) Lauren is still on CPAP and holding steady. She has been needing some extra oxygen every once and a while, so they have to play around with the settings to find her sweet spot for the day. She also weighs 2lbs now! They are adding more calories to her milk feedings with some human milk fortifier...mainly just extra vitamins and minerals. Her incision from the surgery is healing well. Still no Insulin and they are slowly turning down her IV fluids. Father's Day was so special for Adam and we had a great day visiting with our daughter.

Strong on CPAP

Lauren is still on CPAP! The doctors continue to be pleased with Lauren's progress. She is still on oxygen at room air and they are trying to very slowly ween her off CPAP and see how she does. She will probably be on it for another 3-6 weeks, but that's just a guess and it could be shorter or longer. She is still gaining weight and is 1lb 15oz. Instead of looking so much at daily weights, the doctors look at weekly trends to make sure she is gaining. Lauren has an oral gastric (OG) tube that goes in her mouth and to her stomach in order to be fed milk. The milk hasn't been digesting as fast as they would like, so they advanced the tube slightly so it goes through the end of the stomach and into the first part of the small intestine. This will help her to digest the milk and not have as much reflux of the milk either. They hope to increase the amount of milk she is getting in order to get her off the IV fluids. We hope that Lauren keeps staying strong and manages to stay infection free. We are still very happy with all of the doctors and nurses at St. Vincent's. We are so grateful for the wonderful care they are providing Lauren...and us.

This picture is from today when they were changing her CPAP prongs and nasal shield. The white mustache looking thing has velcro on it that attaches to the prongs to keep them in place.

A Visit From Papa

Lauren had another good day today! She was pretty awake for my visit today and good thing because her Papa (my dad) was with me. I think he really enjoyed being able to see her and he really liked when she would open her eyes. I think she is starting to respond more to my voice lately too. When I first went up to her, she was resting with her eyes closed and when I said "Hi Lauren" to her she opened her eyes to look at me. I held her for about 3 and 1/2 hours today and she did great. Her alarms didn't go off once! I am so proud of her. She is such a strong little girl. She is also on room air (21%) on her CPAP. She had been on anywhere from 24%-30% yesterday, so a good improvement. She is still gaining weight and is at 1lb 13oz. The nurse also said that the doctor had commented that she looked very good and that "she just looks like a new baby." We really hope that she keeps doing well and growing strong. I think having the PDA fixed really helped Lauren to get strong. It was hard to know exactly how much the PDA was affecting her and we are very glad that it's fixed. We are so lucky to have such a fiesty little girl on our hands.

Recovering

Lauren had a few pretty rough days after surgery. We had been told to expect it, but it was still hard to handle. She stayed on the ventilator for 4 days and just went back to CPAP yesterday (Tuesday.) She took a while to start breathing on her own over the ventilator. She was having very high blood sugar readings, retaining a lot of fluid and started having some blood in her stools on Sunday. The doctor immediately ordered an abdominal x-ray, antibiotics, another blood culture and held the milk feedings to give her bowels a rest. The blood in the stool can be an indication of something called Necrotizing Enterocolitis. It is an infection/inflammation of the small & large intestine that preemies are especially susceptible to. Luckily, the x-ray came back normal and the blood culture was negative. She started to perk back up Monday night and the antibiotics were discontinued Tuesday. Her blood sugars are better and she is off Insulin again. Her milk feedings were re-started and she has been doing well since.
Today was probably Lauren's best day since surgery. She's doing well on CPAP and occasionally had her oxygen saturation drop slightly, but was able to bring it back up pretty quickly without any extra oxygen being given to her. I got to hold Lauren for 4 wonderful hours today! The nurse asked if I wanted to hold her and I said yes of course, but I was a little scared because I didn't want to tempt fate because she had been doing well. They didn't even turn up her oxygen when they handed her to me today and she did great! I was so impressed! We were both were so content during our time together and I hope she got some much needed rest. When our time was up, they put her back to bed and suctioned her nose and changed some of the parts to the CPAP machine. It was just about shift change, so I had to leave. Today was such a better day for Lauren. We really needed this. We know that she will still have many ups & downs, but we are on cloud 9 from today.