She's Here!!!!

Anna is finally one step closer to home! What a way to ring in her 2 month birthday! Her new temporary isolette resides in the Lakeridge Health Oshawa Level II NICU. Exactly where she was on the day she was born. Tonight has been quite long, so I'll try to keep this entry short since it's almost 4am now.

We got to Women's College around 9pm and did some Kangaroo care with her from 10pm until it was time to prep her for the big move. The Ambutrans people didn't arrive until 12:30am so they set everything up and took her on her way. She did really well during the ride and slept the entire time. Once she arrived at Oshawa around 1:30am, she woke up since they skipped her last feed in case the ride would upset her tummy. So it was really nice to see her alert and waving around again (even though it was only because she was hungry).

The nurse at Oshawa was pretty nice, she took us through the way things work there and I'll be honest, it's all a little bit overwhelming, but so was the Level III at first and we somehow adjusted eventually. Anna is currently in isolation for the next 2-4 days until her cultures come back. This is normal protocol to screen every new patient like this because every hospital carries its own germs. So it's just a safety thing. But this means that when we visit her we will have to wear gowns and gloves (and possibly face masks depending on the nurse??) until her results come back negative. After that, we can possibly get into a nice routine with her again.

So level II seems nice, apparently it's quite the busy place during the day and things are the same with visitors, only 2 people at a time and one must be a parent of the baby. Unfortunately, we are not allowed to have cameras there since they don't want anyone recording sensitive conversations. So from here on for the next few weeks we will have to use the still camera (which also takes videos but without sound). I will try to sneak in our regular camcorder here and there when it's not busy though. I would hate to miss out videotaping her development to keep for the rest of our lives because of some silly rule.

But Level II is a good place for her and she is definitely ready for it. Here is where she will start to bottle feed, she will have her first bath once she regulates her body temperature and we can have longer cuddles with her once she is more stable during her feeds. So it should be nice and certainly great preparation for life at home!

Anyhow, she is doing well, she has gained more weight and is now 1953 grams which is 4lbs 4oz. They said at Women's that usually once babies hit the 2kg mark they qualify to be transferred into a crib (so long as they can maintain their temperature) which Anna still can't fully do. But she will soon meet the first requirement, within the next day or so in any case! :)

Here are some pictures of her journey to Oshawa:

Here are some videos; the first one is of Anna having some Kangaroo cuddles before we left Women's College, the second is of the nurses at Women's College getting Anna into her travel incubator and the third one is of Anna settled in at Oshawa in her new incubator. She was so hungry at this point :)







Today was really tough and we are nervous to say the least with the new surroundings, new nurses, new routines but we look forward to her journey here at the Oshawa Level II NICU and hope that it's a short one at that! It feels really great to have her so close to home!!

Marta & Arthur