Joining the Kilo Club!

Anna has finally joined the Kilo Club! Although she's been hovering around that weight the last 2-3 days, the one nurse made her a Kilo Club Certificate to mark the occasion!

She is about 1003 grams still so no change there. They will try to c-papp her either tomorrow or Monday. So nothing has changed which is a good thing. She just needs some time to grow now.

Grandma and auntie were there today and although the visit was uneventful because Anna was sleeping, I'm sure she could feel how much she is missed and loved. We all can't wait until she's a little bit closer to home so everyone can visit more often!

I met a really nice lady at the hospital today who is from Peterborough. She had a son at 24 weeks from placental abruption as well and her little man is now in the Level II unit since he was 31 weeks old. So it gives me some more renewed hope that Anna will be just fine. It's amazing what they can do with today's technology. A few years ago the survival rate for a 24 week gestation baby was not very high and today I think it's something like 70%.

Anyways it's hard just playing the "waiting game" but we're really lucky that she doesn't have any major issues at the moment and that all we really have to do is wait for her to grow.

She is starting to plump out a bit and is already starting to look like a healthy newborn!

Marta & Arthur

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Our Little Ice Cream Cone

Okay so, today I had some one-on-one for the first time with skin contact. The Kangaroo Care I was talking about before. Unfortunately, she had a leak in her air tube and had quite a few spells while I was holding her so we had to put her back. She likes to pull her tube out, apparently she figured out that if she pushes her head backwards then the tube comes out. So it has to be re-taped tonight.

She has gained 3 grams so she's up to 1003g but I guess it's not fast enough. So they're double fortifying her milk so she gains a bit quicker. I think she just has high metabolism ;)

We got a cute little hat for her to wear so she doesn't get too cold, she looked like a little ice cream cone, it was adorable.

So other than that, not much is new, they're probably going to try her on c-papp next week but they're not rushing it. She has already been intubated 4 times so they want to be sure that she can make it without the breathing tube on her own because it's quite harsh on their little tracheas to be intubated over and over again.


Here's a short video of her resting after her Kangaroo care (love the hat!!) -



Marta & Arthur

She's on a (fat) roll!

Another milestone for today - she's up to 1000 grams (which is about 2 pounds 3 ounces)! She's doing really well and the nurse even noted that it looks like she's not riding the ventilator as much. Which gave her the impression that her lungs are getting stronger.

We hope she's able to go back to c-papp soon, it was like music hearing her little voice during the diaper changes. :)

So nothing else is new, she's doing well and progressively getting chubbier :)

Marta & Arthur

3 Weeks

It's hard to believe it's already been 3 weeks since Anna was born. I can't believe she will be a month old in just one more week. They warned us in the NICU that the time will just fly by and before we know it she will be transferred out. We can't wait to have her home with us!

Our little one is doing really well, nothing to report (which is good thing!). She is up to 984 grams which is a huge jump in one day so she will probably lose some weight tomorrow. She is also up to 13ml feeds every 2 hours so we hope that she will start gaining some consistent weight soon so she can get nice and chubby.

Daddy got some one-on-one Kangaroo time with baby this afternoon (finally!). For those who are not familiar (as we weren't either just a few weeks ago), Kangaroo care is when you hold a baby skin to skin on your chest so that they can hear your heartbeat and feel the rhythm of your breath. It helps preemies regulate their breathing, maintain their temperature and have a strong heart rate. It has been proven with studies to help premature babies develop faster and healthier. Not to mention helps with the bonding process so she can recognize through smell who her parents are.

Now that she is getting a bit older it's getting more important for us to go see her more often and to hold her more often because she will start to recognize who we are. She still can't see much more than light and dark shapes but apparently their sense of smell and hearing at this age are very strong. So we hope to get some more Kangaroo time in very soon!

Here's a little clip of Daddy and Anna bonding:




Marta & Arthur

Diapey Change

Well...I think we have a live one on our hands here. Not sure how this will go along once she's home but you can pretty much tell she hates diapers already. I have a feeling she's going to be one of those babies who run around naked all the time. A "free spirit" if you will.

I attached a video where she's literally pushing me off of her once I start putting on her clean diaper. She had no problems letting me take the dirty one off though. :)




She is still doing well, they tried her on c-papp again yesterday because her tubes weren't staying in right but she wasn't handling it well so they re-intubated her. I was a little off on her weight, she is 930 grams. She isn't gaining as much as they'd like so I think they're supplementing her with more calories. I offered to eat more fatty foods but I don't think that'll do the trick...oh well I tried. She is up to her full feeds at the moment, 12 ml every 2 hours so that's good and I think she's tolerating it well based on her earlier woo.

She also had a red eye today that wasn't there yesterday. The nurse said sometimes they see this, it could be from irritation so she'll keep a close watch on it. It's weird, she kind of looks like a mini Rocky right now. Maybe she had a fight with one of the nurses. :)

All in all a good day, I can't wait until she's a month old. She would be 30 weeks gestation and that's a big hurdle. I just really wish she would get the breathing worked out.

Here's our little pumpkin-butt sleeping...

Who's feet are those??

Daddy's shape and mommy's dexterity :)

Marta & Arthur

A little bit of heaven...

So a big day for Anna. We had some one-on-one time and Grandpa was there to see the whole show. I was able to hold her for a full 45 minutes!! I have to admit, I'm guilty of not asking many questions about her weight, breathing etc. as I got to hold her pretty much immediately after arriving. I was too engulfed to think of anything else, but I am pretty sure Arthur mentioned that she had gained a few grams, I think she is up to something like 927 grams. They upped her sodium levels also as they were a bit low but that is nothing too concerning.

As for the rest, she is doing really well. We are lucky that it hasn't been too much of a roller coaster ride at this point, she is just slowly growing with not too many obstacles to overcome. So we can focus on her just growing and getting nice and healthy so she can be eventually transferred to a Level II hospital closer to home.

I had a really nice time holding her, it's almost like everything around me disappears when she's in my arms. I forget that we're surrounded by nurses, incubators and constant alarm beeps and for a few minutes it's just her and I. :) Hopefully Daddy will be able to hold her next time he's in...unfortunately he won't be able to visit her as often as we hoped since he had to go back to work and is really busy. But we'll try to work some sort of a schedule out so he can visit and get some very important and much needed bonding time in with her.

Here's a short video from today of the little munchkin napping with me:




Marta & Arthur

Mommy Time

Hi,

When we walked into the NICU today we noticed a few new things. First, Anna is now "IV-free"!! They removed the pick line out of her arm and the only line that goes in to her right now is the milk-line in her stomach. So no more Minerals, vitamins, fat etc. She is all topped up and good to go on just milk. She is up to 10 ML/CC of milk and might go to 12 ML/CC every 2 hours by the end of this weekend which is the full feed for her age and weight.


As mentioned before she likes the soother and I have attached a short video. But the big news is that baby and mom got some bonding time today while the nurse changed the bedding in the incubator. (Picture attached) You can clearly see how little she is still, but I can tell that she has grown in the past 2 weeks. She has her eyes open more often and she waives her arms and legs in the air when it's time for the diaper change.

So with no medication, no IV, almost full feeds, the thing that really needs to improve now is the breathing. Right now she is taking advantage of the ventilator doing all the work for her, but at some point she will have to do it by her self again and build up that lung strength.

So today was a good day and the girls got some quality time together :)

~ Side Note ~

How cute is this?? You can tell already that she's going to be a daddy's girl :)

She's come a long way...

While sitting incubator-side tonight we were marveling at our little girl and how far she's come in the last two weeks. Although still fragile, it's unbelievable how much girth and strength these little ones have.

Tonight, we watched in astonishment as the nurse gave her a pacifier and she suckled it for a few hours. It was incredible, she looked like a full term baby, it was SO hard not to whisk her out of her incubator and just bring her home. Of course, mommy and daddy clearly had 'baby brain' today as we forgot the camera at home. Anyways, it's a really great step for her because most babies have trouble with their sucking reflex, especially this early on. She is clearly a pro at this already! :) She is also back to exactly her birth weight of 913 grams and is up to 9ml of milk every 2 hours. I think the nurse mentioned that a full feed is 12 ml (or cc's as they say).

The small things that most people take for granted with their newborns, we cherish and view as an enormous step in her coming home one day. I remember waking up after my surgery and just crying uncontrollably. The nurses couldn't understand why. But in my mind, I just couldn't fathom how they could save a baby that was only 26 weeks gestation. In my mind, we had lost her already. So for me, it has been an incredible journey to see her grow each day, since I didn't think she would make it past the first day. I am now finally beginning to think...no, beginning to KNOW that we WILL bring her home one day...it's only a matter of time.

Anna's First Picture (July 7th at Lakeridge Oshawa)

Marta and Arthur

2 Weeks

Hi,

Anna is 2 weeks old today and I guess the doctors were right; time does go by fairly fast. After 2 full diapers of pee she went down to 908 grams, but as they increase her milk to 8 cc and 9 cc tomorrow, we are sure that she will gain more and more weight.

The nurses have been really good and friendly so far, but tonight we got a bit of a shock looking at the way this particular nurse "man-handled" Anna. There was nothing gentle about it, in fact, she can easily be labeled as rough when she changed the diaper, took the temperature etc. It is very frustrating not to have any control over her right now.

Other than this there is no news to report, which is a good thing. We have attached a picture to compare Anna's fingers with her moms.


Marta & Arthur

Pick Line

Hi,

So on Sunday evening Anna had her wires removed from her belly button. To replace these they implemented a "pick line" through her wrist. Unfortunately by Monday morning she had gotten so tired that she had trouble breathing on her own and the doctors decided to re-intubate her. She has been stable since then. You can see the main lines going into her nose (intubation) and the line going into her wrist. The wrist line or "pick line" travels in her arm up to her shoulder and into her chest area and provides her with minerals, vitamins and fat.

On a good note, Anna gained a whole 58 grams yesterday and she is now heavier than at birth. (913 grams or 2 lbs at birth and 920 grams or 2.02 lbs now)

We will update later if there is any news.

Marta & Arthur

No more umbelitis

Hi all,

Today they removed the lines from Anna'sbelly button. These lines were put in the day after she arrived at the NICU and were only good for 10 to 14 days. The purpose of these lines is to be able to take blood easily and to provide her with all the vitamins, fats and minerals that she requires. The new line is an IV type that enters her wrist and travels upward to the shoulder area. It was a bit of a procedure, but Anna with a bit of sugar in her mouth passed right out and didn't notice a thing. She is still doing great on the SiPAP and everything else was normal today. Her weight was 858 grams (1lb 14oz). She has a new neighbor residing across from her who was also born at 26 weeks.

Tomorrow she has a blood/electrolytes test scheduled but other than that nothing major.

Marta & Arthur

Sunday update

Hi all,

A short update from this morning. Nothing major other than a couple of instances last night where Anna's heart rate and blood pressure went below the comfort level. The night nurse explained that it is mainly because of the prongs of her SiPAP. Turns out the SiPAP doesn't fit her little nose very well and the prongs keep ending up loose. CPAP is Continuous Positive Air Pressure which has a single rate of oxygen % that it provides and SiPAP is a more advanced ventilator that provides bi-nasal CPAP with a high sensitivity so that the nurse can increase or decrease the level of oxygen as the saturation of the oxygen goes up or down.

Either way Anna is holding up pretty good. I will try to update again tonight after our visit.

Marta & Arthur

Cry

Hi all,

As promised: a video of her cry. The quality is not that great but you can hear her cry a bit. Even though she is crying it is comforting to hear because it means that she is strong enough to let everybody know that she doesn't like being changed.





Marta & Arthur

Thank you

Hi all,

We wanted to thank everybody for everything that you have done for us. From visits to food, flowers and cards, it is very much appreciated! Now that we decided to start this blog to keep you all updated, I will post a few pictures taken during the past week at the NICU.

This is the latest picture of Anna, taken today. Don't be fooled, they put her mask for the CPAP (or now SiPAP) back on a minute after I took this shot. As mentioned in my emails, the only time that Anna still has some "spells" is when she is being handled. When left alone, she is doing great. They have upped her milk feeding to 4 CC's every 2 hours now and increase that by 1 CC every 24 hours.

For those of you who have not been to the hospital to visit, the incubator is in 1 of 2 room with, in total, 38 incubators. The nurses and doctors, who are there 27/7, are extremely accommodating and encourage us to visit and call at any time of the day/night. There is no doubt in our minds that Anna is in the best hands.

We will try to update and post pictures and videos as much as we can.


Marta & Arthur

Anna's evening change

Hi all,

A quick update. Anna is 10 days old and weighs 856 grams (1lb 14 oz) and measures around 34 cm. Today we were present when the evening nurse changed Anna's diaper and checked all her vitals. For the first time we were able to shoot a video with all her tubes, wires and mask removed. As usual, she did not seem happy being touched and turned.






Marta & Arthur