Wow! What a crazy day!
I was there early for her morning feeding. It went about the same as the noon time feedings - she was groggy and pushed me away alot. But, we tried and then I gave her the bottle. She almost finished the whole thing. The nurse, OT, and the doctor all said that she is doing so well. They said once she gets her blood transfusion, her energy will boost tremendously and she will probably go home a few days after that. Um, what?
The doctor said he will call the blood bank to see if Len's blood is ready and perhaps we will have it by tomorrow. He said as soon as he gets it, he will do the transfusion right away. He increased her bottle feedings to every other feeding. And again, he said that she will be ready to go home very soon because all she needs to do is bottle feed for every feeding in a 24 hour period - and that should happen very quickly after the transfusion. Um, ok...
So, I left the hospital and called Len and told him, "Get ready! She's coming home! Maybe Monday or Tuesday!"
Then, and I know this sounds crazy, I went to the car wash. For those of you who know my crazy thought before - you shouldn't be surprised by this. Before I had her, I said, "I can't have this baby yet - We don't even have crib sheets!" Well, today, I thought, "She can't come home yet, my car is dirty!" See, we scrub up every time we go into the NICU - such a clean environment, and I couldn't imagine taking her from that environment into my filthy car - so I had it shampooed. Oye, what a new mom will do - I am sure she is going to work very hard at making my car very messy very soon.
Then we went to our nephew's first birthday. Happy Birthday, Jonah! What a milestone - but he wasn't so intersted in making a mess of the cake.. oh well!
Next - the hospital - for her nightly breastfeeding. We got there and low and behold, she was getting her blood transfusion!!! Yup! Len's blood came today - it was a perfect match, and they had started it at 6:00pm. Wow! So, we figured she would getting her feeding by tube - but the nurse said, "No, you can breast feed her." um.... ok... so, I did. I ignored the IV in her hand that had Len's blood going into it and put her to my breast. After some complaining, she took right to it and latched on for ten minutes! That was double her longest time from before the whole hemoglobin drop. She got worn our though, so we gave her the bottle. She took half, so we gave her the rest through her tube. Great job, Scarlet!!!
So, they are preparing us for her coming home. The biggest then they are telling us is her susceptibility of getting sick. Most babies get sick, but because she is a preemie, her getting sick means going back to the hospital. So.....
We can't go anywhere with her for 6 weeks.
We can't go into any crowded areas with her for 6 months to a year.
And we have to keep her away from other kids for 6 months to a year.
Oye!
I know it may sound extreme - and it does to us too - but we keep hearing about preemies who end up back in the hospital because they got sick from being around too many people. So, we have to be extra careful.
But we are very very very excited about bringing her home - probably as soon as Monday or Tuesday!
1 comment:
I had to laugh out loud when I read about you going to get your car washed, because I did the same thing! When I received the call to come get Seth, I was shopping at Target and I yelled into the phone "are you serious!" and began jumping up & down and then told everyone I was going to get my baby. I am sure the other shoppers thought I was a nut, but after having my baby in NICU for so long I didn't care what others thought, as I was estatic to be bring my baby home. I went home and picked up my husband and then told him that we HAD to go the car wash first, because there was no way I was putting him in a dirty car after him being in such a sterile environment for so long. Now of course, at 2 years old, he loves to just get dirty.
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