I was feeling quite a bit better this evening so Scott and I were able to visit Elizabeth Katherine in NICU. I am glad we did. Elizabeth has made excellent progress and the nurses were able to make important changes that reflect how well she is growing.
Elizabeth Katherine is now able to regulate her own body temperature. This is a big hurdle and is one of the requirements prior to going home. She has been moved from an incubator to an open ‘crib’ (it looks like a tote, actually). This also means she is no longer wearing the aggravating temp monitor. The sticker that held the temp monitor to her chest was really sticky and hurt like the dickens to peel off for replacement. The temp monitors cable was significantly shorter than the other cables on her little body and frequently pulled free under tension.
When we arrived tonight Elizabeth Katherine was clothed and swaddled in the open crib. Yeah baby girl!
A video of Elizabeth Katherine and her papa (about 6 MB).
Her nurse would like to try nutritive (as opposed to non-nutritive) breast feeding with her tomorrow. The last few visits she’s latched on immediately – as well as any lamb or foal or piglet – with no help from me. Nursing apparently is hard work for preemies, so we’ll start with the breast, weigh her before and after to determine how many grams of milk she took, then when she tires finish her meal via tube feeding with however many grams she didn’t take from breast. It will take time for her to develop the endurance to obtain all of her calories via suckling. We’ll do a combo of breast and bottle with the feeding tube, as she’ll be on bottle at least part of the time when she gets home.
Her weight is up to 4 lbs 7 oz and she was wearing clothes (a monkey suit) when we arrived. That was new, too.
Kangaroo Care was especially sweet tonight. We arrived late after she’d been fed. Elizabeth Katherine was sleepy and soft and quiet. I settled into the recliner and Scott handed her down to me. Settled in with a snoozy baby, my beloved at my side, and soft contented noises around us. Peaceful and joyful and good. When it was time to go Scott and I worked together to redress Elizabeth Katherine while she was still on my chest, gently rolling her side to side as we guided her arms back into her sleeper and snapped her tiny legs back into the outfit. Then Scott lifted her from my arms (abdominals are too weak to stand with her in my arms) and placed her back in her crib. I showed Scott how to do a square swaddle. Her eyes opened at that point and she gazed around.
Her hands had escaped the confines of the swaddle before we even left. She appears to be whale-eyeing over the heart rate monitor cable.