Thursday, December 3, 2009

NICU Day #8

Bella's respiratory rate is still considered too high to attempt bottle feeding.  Until then we're just waiting for her to learn to breathe at a slower pace.  She's no longer on room air, as she only lasted 7 minutes before her blood oxygen levels dropped too low.  We're fine with her being on oxygen... or, as fine as you can be with anyone being on oxygen.  Both Miles and I are impatiently waiting to bring home our little girl.

We've set up to do her first bath tomorrow night :)  It won't be her first, but with us it will be.  We also had quite the little adventure this evening at our last visit.

After we waited for her to finish "eating" (via syringe dripping by gravity), we figured the faces she made had to do with her pooping.  Before we held her, we decided we should check her diaper to change her since she's developed a slight diaper rash.

Just as Miles wiped her all off, I turned my head away for a moment and heard him exclaim, "Oh jeez."  When I turned back to look at Bella, she was peeing!  This made me squeal, laugh and wonder... I didn't know little girls did that too.  She'd managed to get her onesie, her new diaper and her blanket covered enough for new items... so as the nurse fetched a new onesie and blanket, Miles cleaned her up (again) and lo' and behold she began to poo!  This just was the icing on the cake for me and I couldn't stop laughing.  Miles cleans her up (again) and runs to the sink to wash his hands.  While I stood by to finish up the changing of (the 3rd) diaper... she started to poo again.  By this time, I looked at Nurse Jonie and said, "Should I just wait?!  This is the third time and third diaper!"  She never gave me a definitive answer, so I decided to wait. 

Even after about 3 minutes, when I wiped her up again she decided she had a little more peeing to do.  Jonie told us it wasn't a big deal and we could leave that diaper on her since it was really just a very little amount. 

This whole fiasco, I swear, took about 10 minutes.  It continued to be a topic for laughter later on.

I held her until it was time to go.  Despite getting there at 9:30, I didn't realize it was 11:15 already when we put her down in her crib.  When we got back into the car, I felt so bad that I didn't leave at 11:00 when the nurse's receive their reports.  (We're not supposed to visit the babies during the private nurse reportings that occur form 7-8 AM, 3-4 PM, 7-8 PM and 11-Midnight). 

Now we're home.  And slightly wide awake.  Miles and I took a much needed 4 hour nap today after our initial visit.  Mama cooked us some lasagne and we all ate together after they came back from their evening visit with Bella.

Tomorrow we hope to see the doctor and ask him a few questions...

Precious God, I miss my baby.  It's getting harder and harder to leave her every day in the hospital.  Thank You for providing her with such good medical care until we can have her safe at home.  We pray in earnest that You will heal her and teach her how to breathe.  Help Bella learn to live in this world, and learn to eat as she needs to.  Let her know, please God, that her parents love her dearly and we can't wait for her to come home.  Thank You for her, God.

2 comments:

Lady Bee said...

ROFL@the diaper.

Anonymous said...

I agree, too funny about the diapers...I remember Violet pulling similar stunts when she was a newbie. We even had one incident where she started peeing and poor sleep-deprived Jerry tried to catch it in his hand. I can't wait until you guys get to bring her home!