(Come on, we are most certainly NOT talking about me and pregnancy. Seriously people. That's a good one. The word "overdue" and "me" will never be in the same sentence. EVER.)
I haven't really shared much about her progress on here and I feel horrible about that. I really need to be better about updates. Already, poor second, well third, child syndrome is in full effect.
Thankfully, there are a lot of good things to say and share. Having an almost 31 weeker with steroids given 12 days earlier is such a different ride than 27 week twins with steriods given nearly 3 weeks prior.
Shortly after her birth, they put her on the ventilator for a few hours to give her a dose of surfactant to help her lungs inflate properly. She then went to CPAP for a few hours...and then nasal cannula for a few hours. By the end of her first day of life, she was breathing room air with no assistance of any kind. Alle's respiratory rate was quite high however, which was probable cause for putting her back on the nasal cannula, but because her oxygen saturation rates were in the high 90s, they felt it really wasn't going to do anything to help. In fact, it might have caused some tummy issues by introducing air into her belly. So basically she was breathing pretty fast for her first week of life...but that has since improved dramatically.
Which is pretty typical of most things in preemie land...time typically takes care of most things.
Alle started feeding via gavage on day 2...just 3cc of breastmilk and once it was clear that she was tolerating it just fine, they advanced her feeds to be increased by 1 1/2cc every other feed. Before we knew it, she had reached the maximum for her weight with little to no residuals after each feed. Once she achieved that, a high calorie formula was added to the breastmilk so her feeds were in the ratio of 3 parts breastmilk to 1 part formula. Clearly it's helping her put on the weight! She is gaining 30-60 grams each day which is about 1-2 ounces a day.
On Thursday night, she reached the magic 1800 grams (about 4 pounds) when babies can typically begin to regulate their own body temperature. Before this, the isolette had been kept at a balmy 99 degrees so little one didn't have to burn calories just to stay warm. Now the top has been raised and she is in an open isolette, swaddled, and staying nice and toasty all on her own.
Probably her biggest issue to date has been some random episodes of bradycardia without apnea. Trust me, she has her share of typical preemie spells of apnea and bradycardia, but she also has some where her heartrate dramatically drops for a short period, while her respiratory rate and oxygen saturation remained unchanged. The intial thought was that it was a heart issue...an electrical/pump issue. An EKG was done and her heartrate patterns were recorded and saved each day for a while. Thankfuly the pediatric cardiologist didn't see anything abnormal in her EKG and believes that the issue is most likely related to reflux which might be causing a vagal response or hiccup in the heartrate. So while it's still not something we can for sure discount, we are praying that it's simply something she will outgrow. Since the EKG that was done about 2 weeks ago, we've already seen a big decrease in the amount of episodes she is having...again, time takes care of most things.
The final hurdle for our little Alle will be learning to feed via bottle and/or breast. The doctor ordered that she give it a go this past week, at just 33 weeks, 1 day. Typically, nippling isn't started until 34 weeks, but some babies are able to do it a little earlier than others. Well, as I expected, she had a really difficult time with it. Learning to coordinate sucking, swallowing, and breathing...is hard work. She's just not quite ready for it, but hopefully in a week's time she will be ready. They will start slow and advance more feeds to bottle/breast as she "gets it." Once she is taking all 8 feeds via bottle and/or breast, well, basically...she will be ready to go home!
Please pray that our sweet girl does well with nippling next week...that a week's time makes all the difference in the world for her. While her first attempt was pretty cute and the nurse, OT, and myself had a good laugh, deep down it breaks my heart to see just how HARD it really was for her. She was completely confused, overwhelmed, and exhausted...and I hate that. Had I been able to give her another month or more inside, it probably wouldn't even be an issue. [Enter preemie mommy guilt here].
Sigh.
All in all, she is doing fabulous. She needs only to feed and grow. I am sure she will be home in a month or so...which means we better get crackin' on getting this house baby ready.
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