A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Banter Hall hisgal2 update...

good news jen!!!

Today is the first day that we didn't go to the hospital. It sure has been rough! I'm not sure how often I'll be doing that! Anyways, I had Stephen call to check on how Maddie is doing and we've got some new stuff going on. They are trying her without the CPAP again, so maybe this time she'll be ready to breath without it. They also have upped her feedings again to 1 cc every 3 hours. I was really surprised to hear that since they usually wait 2-3 days between trying something new with the feedings. She was only on the every 4 hours for 1 day! They also have requested a script for Kangaroo Care. I'm hoping everything goes OK for that and they let us do that in the next couple of days! Kangaroo Care is where we make sure we wear button down tops and then they take her out of the incubator and put her directly on our chest and then we button the top up over her. It's been found that this helps the babies get better faster because they can smell their parents and feel their warmth and hear their heartbeats. Maddie's bili-ruben is going up again, so she might end up under the lights again tomorrow.

Tomorrow we are going to visit Maddie for a while and then go to an auction. I'm not sure if we are interested in the house that is going for auction tomorrow, but we're looking at it anyways. the house that I really like is being auctioned off next week. That's all for now. We are busy working on Maddie's website. :)

Thanks for the update Jenn! Some very good news!

Jen
So glad to see little Maddie is doing well, when the twins were tiny the kids did the Kangaroo care with them too- they loved it and it does help- touching is so important... it helps the bonding and all...
Thanks for updating us so often ... you are all in my prayers!
Nana

Yes, the doctor makes the decision. The nurses that are with Maddie pretty much look at the notes that he and the residents make when they do the rounds and if she is doing well enough, then they request what is next. I think it has to do with hospital protocol and such. The doctor is very nice and has been there for a long time. The only thing that the incubator does is to keep Maddie warm since she can't regulate her body temperature. the incubator is really neat....they have a probe on maddie that reads her skin temperature and the incubator adjusts its temperature depending on her skin temperature. So, if her skin is a little too warm, the incubator cools down a bit and if Maddie's skin is a little lower in temperature, then the incubator heats up. It has a screen that you can watch the machine's trend for the previous 2 hours. Anyways, because Maddie is right up against our skin with our top and a small blanket she isn't in any danger of losing too much heat. I found a really great site that had info about Kangaroo Care and had the benefits of it.....I'll try to find it in a little bit. ...back to working on the website...

Thanks for the update, has she been keeping her weight on? Our niece was born at 1 pound 14 ounces and dropped to 1 pound 6 ounces, they did kangaroo with her also. I think it's great for bonding as well as warmth.

She did lose some weight. They measure her in grams because the changes in her weight are soo small (they do that with all preemies). She was 1205 when she was born and went down to 1170. Yesterday she was back up to 1200 and I don't know what she weighed yesterday. Most babies...even full term ones...loose some weight. Maddie could have lost 10% of her weight before they were concerned about it. I asked the doctor if she would follow the same milestones as she would have if she were still in the womb (as far as weight and development). He said usually preemies stall out for the first week or so (stay the same) and then they pick right up where they stopped....so Maddie should be about a week behind (gestational age, speaking here) for development and weight.

that is great jenn, and from what i know and have read, she is right on track as are your care team. you will LOVE doing the kangaroo care.

Jenn: all of your news sounds great.

I had never heard of Kangaroo care before, but it sounds like an excellent idea for both you, Stephan and little Madeline. You will be in my prayers that things continue on as well as they have been for you all.
Can't wait for the web site---

Junie, the preemie mortality rate in Bogata, Columbia was 70% until they started doing Kangaroo Care (KC). Now the rate has gone down to 30% for babies born 10 weeks early! They even send the kids home after 2-3 days in the hospital and the babies do KC with a parent 24 hours a day!

Ok, here is what we have for Maddie's site so far...
Maddie's Site

That is just 1 page of our entire site....there will be other stuff like our blog and puppy and cat pictures and stuff on there eventually.

Oh, tears here also. I can't get over how healthy she looks, niece was so sickly looking when she was born. Maddie looks just like a tiny full term baby. Continued prayers and thoughts for your family every day Jenn

Thanks for keeping us updated and sharing all those pictures Jenn! Continued thoughts and prayers!

Thanks so much for the information, Jenn. Wonderful pictures by the way---You & your husband are so blessed. Continued best wishes & prayers always.

awwwwwwwwwwww love the pics
yep she looks like mommy got your nose jen

Update for today:
The CPAP was taken off of her yesterday (can't remember if i posted that before). She was working a little too hard without any help, so they gave her little nose prongs with just a tiny bit of oxygen going through them. Its just enough to keep her oxygen saturation up where it needs to be. So, that is really good. She had alot of "episodes" today...which basically means that she forgot to breath and then her heart rate went down, but that is completely normal for preemies and most of the time, when the alarms went off, Maddie fixed her problem on her own.

We did the Kangaroo Care (KC) today and that was GREAT. She settled right in on Stephen's chest first and did some really good sleeping. For the most part her heart rate was steady....her breathing was a little eratic, but it was in normal ranges. Then after a while, we transferred her to my chest. Her heart rate was completely steady and her breathing was a perfect 65-75 breaths per minute the entire 30 minutes I held her. She didn't have a single "episode" the entire time. Stephen said that she definitely knew who had her when she was laying on my chest. We have picture....and they'll get posted sometime soon.

I should have gotten a picture of Stephen holding her when Maddie was first taken out of the incubator and the nurse was trying to untangle the wires to her leads. She is only as big as both of his hands. Today she weighed ALMOST 2lbs. 11ozs....so she has almost gained half an ounce...which is a tiny amount, but its soo good to hear! I wonder what she'll weigh tomorrow!

that is so awesome jenn... brings tears to my eyes, i'm so glad for you!

Ok....couldn't resist...here's 2 pictures from today's visit. Heehee!

Thanks for the lovely update, Jenn!

That photo of her sucking her thumb is AWESOME!

I hope you are resting whenever you can.

Merme

good news jen! love the pics

Love the pictures Jen... so good to see she is gaining .. every little bit counts... and of course she knows when Mom has her- she has been listening to your breathing pattern and heartbeat all this time... very calming for her...
She does look like Mom ...
Nana

Today's update:
Her bili-rubin was high again, so she is back under the lights. She'll probably be under them for a couple of days. The doctors saw that it was getting high, but were hoping that since she was feeding more, that she would be able to take care of the levels herself, but this morning they saw that the level had jumped too high. So, until those levels go down and she doesn't need the lights, we can't hold her. I was a little bummed out about that when we got there today.

On a better note...they upped her feedings to 3cc every 3 hours. She got a feeding while we were there and she seemed to do well with it. We are going to call to check up on her tonight before we go to bed. Also, she has gained weight again! She is now over 2lbs. 11oz! Just a little more and we have a 3 pounder! We are going to have a mini celebration when we get there. :)

i second that that triss!

oh my Jenn & Stephen,she is just precious!Continually praying she is gaining weight & get the biliruben levels down!

Ok, I missed yesterday's update, so I'll update for yesterday and today...

Yesterday, Maddie was still under the lights, but the doctors were confident that her bilirubin levels would be down far enough today to take her off of them. they were right. Because she is eating more, the levels go down alot faster now. So, this morning, the level was right at 4 which is fine.

Yesterday they upped her feedings again from 3cc every 3 hours to 6cc every 3 hours. She tolerated those feeds and by this morning there was no "residual"...which is a fancy term for "there's nothing in her tummy when we check it after 3 hours". So, this afternoon they upped her feedings again to 9cc every 3 hours.

Yesterday she was up to 1260 grams....which is 2lbs. 12 3/4 ozs. Today she is at 1280 grams which is just over 2lbs. 13ozs. We think that she will hit 3 lbs on Tuesday and we're gonna have a party then! :)

Since she is done with the bili lights, we could get her out of her "box"...which is what we call her incubator. I did KC with her for most of the time...about an hour and 15 minutes and then Stephen just held her for a half hour while I went away for a bit. The nurse's main concern while we have her out of the box and doing KC is her body temperature. It was perfect when we took her out of her box and it was actually a little higher when we put her back into the box! So she is doing great in that department.

Do you remember when I told you all about how the incubator works? ...how it adjusts it's temperature based on what Maddie's skin temperature is? Well, we've noticed the last couple of days that the box's temperature has gone down a couple degrees. It used to be at a constant 36 celsius and lately it has been at 32....so she is starting to regulate her own temperature some what.

So, that is all the news I have for ya. Not sure if I'll get time to post tomorrow. We are going down to visit Maddie and my parents are coming up to see her and then I have bingo in the evening.

Here's a pic from today for ya...

I was having copy and paste issues

Awwww, she's SO tiny!

She is SOsweet!! I hope there is a post about a party on tuesday!

she is so precious thank you for sharing her with us and keeping us updated and of course, continued prayers

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See "Madeline's Updates" to continue this thread. :)