Thankful

Friday, February 26, 2010 8:45 AM, MST

The past few days here in the Nicu have been fairly smooth and dare I say, routine? She got a clear x-ray of her GI track the day before yesterday, so we've been two days free from more x-rays! That clear x-ray officially began the countdown to the reintroduct

ion of food! Dr. H said we may even be able to start again in 5 days. So we are looking at making it through the weekend and possibly starting feeds Monday, but not later than Wednesday, which is my birthday! So that will be wonderful! We are so anxious to get her growing, and of course we don't want to compromise her recovery by pushing her too quickly.

I am reminded daily by living in the place, just how much worse it could be. I am suddenly thankful that it was just NEC, and just open heart surgery in the future. Isn't that crazy? But there is a little guy next to us on ECMO, where a hundred machines (and literally two full iv towers of meds) are keeping his body alive and doing the function of all his vital organs. It is truly a miracle of modern medicine. There are just so very many tiny, sick babies in this unit. And I feel blessed to have a baby that I can hold whenever I please, bathe, snuggle, kiss, and even dress in a little hospital t-shirt. She just doesn't look sick, and even though I watch her numbers obsessively, she continues on fairly even keel and easy going for someone who is basically starving hungry all the time. I am also so very thankful for the TPN which provides her with lots of nutrition, protein, lipids, electrolytes, etc. I know that even though she doesn't get to eat, her body is getting the nutrients it needs to thrive and even grow a little.

I spoke with her cardiologists yesterday, who seemed pleased with her progress. Drs M and S were encouraged to see her gain on the TPN and would love to see her thrive and go home to continue growing for the next 10 weeks or so.

She also got the last iv out of her head the night before last and all the tape off yesterday morning. Her nurse Diana and I gave her a bath, scrubbed her head, and gave her a clean dressing on her PICC line. So Cassidy looks all fresh and clean, with only a little adhesive left in her hair! :)

She is sucking her pacifier like crazy.I am really hoping that will make it easier for us to transistion back to nursing when we introduce food again! I am still trying to singlehandedly fill up the milk bank here, and so far am making a valiant effort if I do say so myself!

The last two days have been a bit easier emotionally, probably because she is doing so well, and everything sounds so good at home. Today the whole family is coming up to visit me! And I have had that to look forward to as well :)

Liberty and Melody have been on nebulizer treatments for their coughs and that seems to be improving. I am hoping they will be healthy enough to visit with Cassidy soon. I think I've mentioned that I could kiss the inventors of Skype for making it possible for us to stay connected, and giving the girls the opportunity to feel as if they are interacting with their baby sister.

Well, I will probably have plenty more to post about later today, it seems we can't go more than a couple of days without additional curve balls being thrown our way.