New Digs 1/21/13
Melissa
Hattie had a good night with only two desats! One was during her feeding and the other was during her hands on time. It makes us a bit anxious when Hattie desats but we're confident the doctors would tell us if we needed to be concerned. I was so pleased when I called this morning to hear our favorite nurse's voice. On Friday I had requested April to be Hattie's primary nurse. Being Hattie's "primary" means every time April works she is scheduled to care for Hattie. I thought since we moved pods we would no longer be able to have April as our nurse, but April is able to travel to pod 3 with Hattie!
Hattie's incubator was replaced overnight. Her new incubator is much smaller and doesn't provide humidity support. It still regulates her body temperature since she's too small to do that on her own. She will live in her incubator for at least another month. Chris calls her incubator her box or her sneeze guard, I call it her bed, and the nurses call it her Isolette or condo—take your pick!
Hattie is now on full feeds and got her PICC line out! The PICC line removal is a sterile procedure done in her bed by a specialist and is not as invasive as inserting the PICC. Hattie is eating 17 cc of milk every three hours. They are adding human milk fortifiers to my milk to increase her calorie intake. The fortifiers bring her feeds up from 20 calories to 24 calories each. She is also receiving caffeine once per day with her morning feeding.
Hattie's belly button fell off today. (Am I supposed to keep it?) She had a sponge bath in her bed tonight. Hattie now weighs 997 grams, or 2 pounds, 3 ounces! Her night nurse also changed her from the Z-Flo memory foam mattress to a snuggli. The snuggli acts like a swaddling blanket and keeps Hattie snug as a bug. She also has a "froggie" bean bag that fits around her head to keep it positioned properly. Hattie thinks she is bigger than she is and moves her head on her own from side to side.
Hattie's nasal cannula was removed tonight because it was rubbing her little septum raw. She is doing well without the extra push of room air. If Hattie does need some assistance the doctor ordered a "blow by" which is a tiny mask that fits over her nose and blows air at her to stimulate her breathing. They anticipate she may need it while she's eating. Please continue to pray Hattie is able to maintain her oxygen saturation without any assistance.
Hattie had more visitors today. We had a great dinner and wonderful conversation with our sweet friends the Hennessys!
Chris and Hattie kangarooed for hours tonight; he said it was their best kangaroo time yet! Chris played her music and sang to her. I was overjoyed hearing my sweet husband talk to our daughter. Chris told Hattie about all of the people who love her. He told her how much Jesus loves her and how He knows every hair on her head and brought her into this world at the perfect time, not a moment too soon. Chris told her all of the things they're going to do together; almost every day he tells her he's going to take her on ice cream dates, how they won't tell mommy and it'll be their little secret!
Hattie also got the hiccups during kangaroo time: Don't you just love her little squeaks?!
