Look Mom, No Tubes!

Usually I'll leave the pictures for the bottom but with the exciting news, I'm leading off with one today. As you can see, as of 9 pm on Friday night, Madeline was removed from all of her breathing assistance and no longer has those tubes. The only remaining one is for her feeding which will stay for a while longer but nonetheless, awesome news! We were so excited to see her without all of the stuff on her face we ended going to the hospital twice yesterday. 

Her first 24 hours off the assistance have gone well and we think today will be very telling as to whether she can handle this new change. In previous changes like being removed from the cannula, her second day was the toughest but she's our little fighter and I'm hoping she continues to be so strong. 

Even more of a surprise for us (we knew the ventilator was probably coming out on Friday), her weight had another huge jump up to 1540 g or 3 lbs, 4 oz in American. I was looking through old posts and she's gained over 200 g in a week which just blows my mind. The doctors had told us in passing that she was going to hit a growth spurt and shoot up fast but I never really believed it. So much for that!

In all of our time with her yesterday, I noticed that all of the additional weight is making her much easier to handle and she definitely doesn't seem as fragile. She's also an extremely active baby. We haven't seen it yet because we're always holding her if we are there but the nurses have had to build little barriers in her condo because she keeps moving herself to either end. I'm interpreting this as she wanted to build her first fort and just needed a helping hand from the nurses. She was wide awake during our second visit and very curious about everything that was going on in the room. We got some really fun pictures and so enjoy!

You can't see me!

Mastering the stink eye already.

You don't want to make me angry.

Winding down....

And snoozin'

Maddy Teaches Dad a Lesson

So Madeline was having a quiet Friday resting with Grandma yesterday and then I had to come in and let the chaos commence. About thirty minutes into my time holding her whatever calming influence I had on Thursday magically disappeared. She fussed, squirmed, rolled, cried, desaturated her oxygen, increased her heart rate, pretty much every card in her deck telling me how irritated she was. Both the nurse and I watched for a solid 20 minutes as she had what seemed like the premee equivalent of a hissy fit until she finally calmed down and went to sleep in her condo. Most likely is that she was very uncomfortably trying to relieve herself but it's never as much fun seeing her so irritated. I was laughing with Kristen that it served me right for teasing her that I had the magic touch with our daughter. Maddy showed me, that's for sure!

Aside from her "outburst", she's still on track for removal of her tubes on Monday and her feedings were increased again to 30 mLs. She also had her big weight gain for the week going up to 1495 g which is only 110 g from the magic number that gets her out of the condo. Grow grow grow little one!

Big Weekend Ahead

Madeline had another good day with her ventilator settings still scheduled to go down again today and her feedings maintaining their current level. It got lost in the shuffle of doctor's visitations but Madeline had her latest eye exam and they sure make her cranky. They did find mild retinopathy (ROP) but we've been assured by our doctor that it's really nothing to worry about and as always, we trust his judgement. It's one of those things that sounds worse than it is and while it definitely raises my blood pressure a scosh, it's common and a regular complication of having her born so early.

Still, I can tell she's not a fan of the exam (and who can blame her!) as she is definitely less of her normal calm self. I was really happy that I was able to calm her down after a little bit of holding her and she went back to snoozing. It definitely served as a nice reminder that we do in fact make a difference coming everyday and both of us giving our best TLC to her. She has a big weekend ahead and we're hoping it goes well as the reward is no tubes and no more heel sticks (to draw blood)! We'll be praying for her to stay strong and keep those little lungs of hers working at peak efficiency.

Whoa Crazy Crazy

Just when we think our lives are getting into some semblance of a routine, we get some news that changes everything. I'm very happy to report that if Madeline continues to do well particularly with her feedings, the doctors told us that she could be coming home in 2-3 weeks. There are some major milestones left in regards to weight, being off of oxygen support, and most importantly, feeding but the light at the end of the tunnel may just be in sight.

Obviously, she was doing very well again yesterday and she did move out of the isolation room but no window just yet (has to do with space and nurse staffing, not her health). She was semi-awake for me and we're still working on getting her practice with the pacifier which is fun.

New room and the light was on so it was picture time again. Here's yesterday's shots:

Super Tuesday

Feeling much better, I was able to get back to the hospital yesterday and I'm happy to say Madeline is continuing to do great. I was able to meet with one of her doctors during his rounds and she has a huge new goal in sight, no breathing support! The plan, always subject to lots of change, is, beginning yesterday, to aggressively wean her off the oxygen. She was reduced from 2.5 Ls of oxygen to 2 L and assuming no complications, she'll go to 1.5 today, then 1 L on Friday, and then none on Monday. This is really great news and hopefully, she'll take to this course of treatment like she has everything else. She's also going to have her feedings slowly increased by 2 mLs every few days. She's up to 28 from 26 mLs as of yesterday. All the math aside, the bottom line is she's doing really really well and the doctor was very happy with her progress.

As I was holding her yesterday, she snoozed through most of my visit and curled up in my arms sleeping on her hands which was awesome. I'm looking forward to spending some more time with her today and hopefully she'll be moving to a new room where there's a window!

Madeline Great, Dad Meh

Madeline had another quiet day yesterday but Dad did not. I was feeling under the weather so in the interest of Madeline (and all of the other babies in the NICU), I had to stay home. She’s continuing to grow and is over 1400 g now. Kristen and Grandma Arch got to spend a bunch of time with her yesterday and have assured me that she’s doing great.

I'm feeling better today so I'm going straight over as soon as I'm out of work.

More Pacifier Time

Madeline had another quiet day yesterday with everything staying status quo. We're so very thankful that her stay so far has been relatively uneventful, it's a true blessing. She continues to grow as she weighs 1370 g and looks bigger to us everyday.

She was a snoozer yesterday but we did give her some extra practice time with the pacifier. Both Kristen and I think she looks like Maggie from the Simpsons when she finds her rhythm. It bobs in and out and she needs our help to keep it in there but she's definitely a fan (and it gives us something more active to do, BONUS). Grandma Arch is coming today so she'll have a new visitor and here's hoping for another quiet week!