Today is one whole week since my little sweetheart made her debut. All in all things have gone very well. Tessa and I spent the day with her and she decided that it was her birthday and she’s Brady if she wanted to! So she gave Tessa a good scare with a few back to back heart rate drops. We had a lot more A’s & B’s than we would like to see and they have been increasing the last few daysHer PICC line went in last night and although the procedure went well she seemed a little stressed today. After running her labs it came back that her white blood cell counts are elevated. They did a work up for cultures to see if there is an infection and if so, did it originate from her PICC line or her old line her belly button or just a general infection. Results will be back within 24-48 hours. In the meantime she was placed on antibiotic to avoid allowing the infection to continue. We got another great, messy, diaper today which is exciting because it means we are one step closer to her digesting milk and getting off the IV.
I came back from the NICU late this afternoon with every intention of heading back after the 6:30-8pm shift change. I laid down for a nap and didn’t wake up for a few hours and feeling a little like I have a sore throat. Getting sick right now would be devastating so, I’m hoping it’s just allergies rearing their ugly head. Seems like the week finally caught up with me. Being a NICU Mommy, I am subsequently an exclusive pumping Mama too. This means pump every 2 hours during the day and 3 at night trying to up my production.
For anyone who may have thought that having a baby in the NICU means you have less responsibility than a Mommy who has baby at home…this is SO not the case. I change diapers, take temps, pump, drive back and forth, watch her monitor for a heart rate drop so I can rub her back to snap her out of it and worry every minute that I’m away from her. I’m so glad we have one week under our belts because I know that we are one week closer to having her with me for naps, getting to kiss her little cheeks which I haven’t had the opportunity to do with all the CPAP equipment on her. I can’t wait to hear her cry next to me. We warned today that most babies that have a great first week have a difficult second week because of set backs. It makes me feel like I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop but I’m trying to stay positive, live only in the moment we have right now and leave the worrying for when there is a reason.
Love,
Mommy
