NICU - Day 20

Date: December 12th
Gestational Date: 31 weeks!

20 days old and already not listening to Mommy. 

Last night I slept at the Ronald McDonald House for the first night since last Thursday. It was nice to get a little sleep without incessant beeping but hard to wake up and find myself not next to Madelyn. Mom picked me up and we headed up to visit Madelyn. Her surgery to close her up was supposed to be today but due to a full surgery schedule (and it not being emergent), they delayed it until tomorrow (Friday).

The top of Maddie's right lung had looked a little deflated yesterday but looked a lot better this morning on her x-ray according to the nurse. At about 10:30 am, they got back her newest labs and they showed that her CO2 levels were elevated by a lot. They called for a chest x-ray and it showed that her left lung had collapsed. This put us in a bit of a frenzy. They upped her ventilator settings and tried to suction out the possible goop clogging the entrance to her lung. Her numbers began improving and they were able to lower her down to 21% oxygen (equal to room air). They also began giving her caffeine again due to her having a couple of spells this morning before we got to the hospital. They repeated her x-ray at 8 pm and there was not a lot of change. HOWEVER, the nurse did say that sometimes it takes a little while after the numbers start improving before the x-ray will show it. They will be doing follow-up x-rays and labs and will call us if things get worse overnight. Maddie did get the iv in her right hand removed today, but it will likely be back tomorrow just in case they need it for her surgery (sound like someone else that had an iv in each arm for a few weeks?).

Lauren, one of our favorite NICU nurses, who helped Maddie
through her surgery and recovery last weekend.

On the bright side, Maddie was super awake today due to her return to caffeine. She had several funny moments. For example, she pulled out her plug earlier today and was attempting to put her thumb in her mouth and I told her that she shouldn't suck her thumb. She then stuck a finger from her other hand in her ear (see first picture in this blog entry). She later did this again when Renae was talking to her. It was really funny. 

Sorry Aunt Renae, I don't think this will fit before Christmas.

We also got to spend quality time with Sarah today, who was working to finish her second quilt. She has made much progress since our admission to Mother/Baby several weeks ago. When I first met her, she was just cutting the squares and now two are completed! I am constantly impressed by her and will really, really miss her when she is able to leave (likely a week from tomorrow). Who will I cause trouble with then? 

I also spent much of my day taking pictures of Maddie. Almost 60 actually. I will not share all of them on here as many of them are extremely similar (and I'm sure you all have better things to do than look at that many pictures of Maddie). PLEASE see the photos on yesterday's blog that I posted tonight. I ended up borrowing a cord from Mom to get my camera hooked up to my computer. 

Resting and spending quality time with my "plug"
(while looking extremely adorable).