Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Grammy's Baby Girl

Mom came to visit today, and was there while Andrea was having physical therapy. Part of PT is holding Andrea in different positions to let her stretch and exercise her muscles. Much to our surprise, the therapist asked Mom if she wanted to hold Andrea. As you can see, Mom didn't need much convincing. PT is good for Andrea - the therapist works on range of motion and helps reshape her head from the CPAP. Andrea can already turn her head from one side to the other when in the crib, so hopefully she won't wind up with a flat head on one side. The therapist shows us how to reposition Andrea and help her get stronger.

Things are pretty much the same in Andrea's world. She has been moved out of the corner "room" she occupied since birth, and is now located in the center "pod" of the NICU. I know it's irrational, but I hate any changes in Andrea's world. I'm superstitious. I want to leave her in one place and let her grow! The good news is that Andrea doesn't seem to care that she's been moved, and she's still doing fine in her new crib. It's way easier to change her and pick her up from the crib than it was in the isolette. The doctors are continuing to monitor her breathing, and have tried to decrease the oxygen flow today from 3 liters to 2.5 liters per minute. She's getting about 28% support.

Eating is not Andrea's problem, but it looks like gluttony might be. We have discovered that she'll eat whatever she's offered, even if it's more than she's supposed to have. She drank almost 40 ml of milk at lunch today (instead of the 30 she should have had) and started to desat. (Low oxygen saturation in her blood). She was able to come back on her own, without more oxygen, but it's still scary when that happens. You'd think she'd stop eating when she's full... but so far we haven't seen that!

I forgot to ask about her weight today, but she looks good and seems to be recovering from her weekend ordeal in her own time. We have to be patient, and try not to worry. It's just all too draining.

Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.

Benjamin Franklin

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