NICU - Day 37

Date: December 29th
Gestational Age: 33 weeks 3 days
Weight: 1645 grams

Even though her belly looks big here, it is just
because she was puffing out her tummy and chest at
regular intervals while I was shooting her daily photo.
It immediately deflated when I stopped taking pictures.

Madelyn had visitors again today! Grandma Ann came down this morning to visit and Aunt Renae this afternoon.

Maddie also learned a new trick. If she arches her back and wiggles about, she can move her entire body down to the bottom of her bed and stick her feet over the blanket "donut" that holds her in the center of her isolette. When she does this, it messes with the machines ability to monitor her as well, setting off alarms and causing her nurse to come and visit. This is her new way of seeking attention I think. She did it a couple of times this afternoon when I was spending time with Kate.

Maddie also winked at me. I know you're going to think that sounds crazy, but she moves one cheek up and closes that eye and then immediately relaxes it again, opening her eye. If that's not a wink, I don't know what is. She was also smiling at that time, so it made the experience that much funnier. Also, she did this twice while Dan was looking something up on the iPad, so I don't even have anyone to back up the experience.

Maddie got a new sweater and hat with a "M" on it, but I failed to get a picture of it before Dan took it out to the car. She got this from our cousin Kristin and it is absolutely adorable. I can't wait until she is big enough to wear it.

Today we learned about the process of choosing a primary nursing team. Apparently, they encourage families that will be in the NICU long-term and have serious conditions to choose nurses that they would prefer to be on their case. This helps the families feel comfortable with the nurses caring for their child and decreases the amount of times I have to tell them about her case from what I understand. We chose a few nurses from Bay 2/3 that we have really liked and it turned out that two of the nurses had already chosen to be primaries for Maddie! That was a nice feeling to find out that they like Maddie just as much as we like them. A nurse that Maddie had several days when she was in Bay 3 way back in the beginning stopped by to say hi. It is nice seeing familiar faces that we worked with so long ago (if you can consider a month ago a long time ago).

This evening, Maddie and I did kangaroo care. We had only done it once before (the day before her NEC diagnosis), so it made me a little nervous, especially with all the work she's had done on her belly. It went very well and we both fell asleep. That was until Maddie put her chin to her chest and set off the oxygen saturation alarm. She was fine however. Just needed some extra attention. Madelyn was super awake today and did a better job than normal with following us with her eyes. She is still struggling with residual, but the doctors are not concerned about that.