7/22/13 – Waiting to Exhale

I mentioned last week that Livvy has a new “neighbor,” I saw the parents the night she was born but did not speak to them because I wanted to give them space that night.  I finally was able to see the mom again and I spoke to her and shared our story in hopes that it could help her.  Her baby is even smaller than Livvy was and she is scared; understandably.  I encouraged her to go to support group tomorrow and she said she will.  Her only issue is she is unable to drive yet so she is dependent on others which is why she missed last week.  I told her she could ask me any question if she had any. 

After talking to her I began the hands on with Nurse S.  As I was cleaning Olivia’s mouth I wasn’t really paying attention to the tubing, I was just trying to get all of her crust out.  When I went to wash my hands after changing her diaper I noticed a newer smaller machine next to her bed.  I asked Nurse L what happened to the ventilator and what this machine was for.  She said “Oh, she’s on the cpap now! She’s breathing on her own, this is just giving her small poof’s of air.”  How fantastic is that?  I had called earlier in the day so she thought I was aware, then she wondered how I missed that big machine missing lol.  I was so excited to hear the news, I could not stop smiling.  One thing I did notice when I first saw Olivia was that she looked bigger to me, both in weight and in length.  When we weighed her she went up to 2.11 lbs and is now 15 inches long!  She was also very much awake during hands on, it was nice to see her beautiful eyes wide open.  During kangaroo time she was very relaxed at first and I prayed over her and her eyes, talked to her and even sang to her.  Poor thing, having to hear me sing lol at least she was able to hear people with great voices while she was in my belly.  I also read her a new book I received from a friend from my pregnancy group on fb; it’s called “If you give a mouse a cookie.”  It was actually quite funny; I enjoyed it and think she did as well.  After about 50 minutes of kangaroo time she began fussing and lifting her head trying to find out what is going on around her.  We put her back to bed after an hour, I wished her good night and we closed her back up.  Her next big milestone will be bolos feed; which means she will be fed every 3 hours, it will still be by the feeding tube.  I have a feeling that will be soon.  Hopefully they remember to call us when they do this because it changes her touch times.