Happy 1 Week Birthday to Natalie Rose!
I cannot believe it has been a week already. This time last week, I was praying to make it through the first 24 hours and somehow 7 days went by.
If you read yesterday, you heard about some of the heart rate trouble Natalie has been having. They explained it to us that when a baby is that young, her brain is not developed enough to keep all her systems working at once. So basically, she was just getting overloaded. They think part of it was the stress from all the tests they had to run (which so far have all come out good). They gave her an extra dose of caffeine, but she still struggled through last night, so this morning they put her on a different CPAP machine that helped her out more than she was getting. Her CPAP is now hooked up with what they call NIV NAVA.
NIV NAVA - Neurally Adjusted Ventilatory Assist is a mode of mechanical ventilation. NAVA delivers assistance in proportion to and in synchrony with the patient's respiratory efforts, as reflected by an electrical signal. This signal represents the electrical activity of the diaphragm, the body's principal breathing muscle.
So basically it monitors her diaphragm and if hers doesn't contract in a 3 second period of time, the machine gives her a nudge. So she is still breathing on her own, but with a little help so she doesn't tire out so easily.
Jimmy was very stressed out by this development, thinking we were taking a step back. But after talking to the nurse, they told us this is completely normal and the fact she has not had to go on a breathing tube is a huge success. The desaturation that she has been experiencing (and still does while on NAVA) is completely normal and will continue to happen until close to 34 weeks gestation. So basically we just have to get use to this because we have another 9 weeks of it being considered "normal". I feel better that she has the extra assistance because it is so heartbreaking to sit and watch her little body struggle.
On the extremely positive side, Natalie has been accepting milk in her stomach since they started feeding her. Technically her stomach was not prepared for it, so they introduced it very slowly. They started out just giving her 2 mls through a feeding tube. For scale, there are 5 mls in a teaspoon, so it is a tiny amount. Over the past few days, they upped it to 4 mls and then yesterday to 6 mls every 3 hours. Her stomach has been accepting it, with very little coming back. This is very good news and in the past couple of days her weight has returned to the 1 lb 14 ozs she was at birth.
Yesterday, with everything going on, we did not get to hold her, but today we got some good cuddle time while they were doing their weekly clean of her isolette. They always worry about the mother holding the baby, but I made sure Jimmy went first and got some good time in. The breathing problems have really stressed him out and I thought holding her would make him feel better, and I was right. The nurse seemed impressed that I was letting him go first and giving him the majority of the time, but I think sometimes people discount how much the father is going through as well. I could tell his time with her really helped and he left feeling a lot more confident about the situation.
She loves sitting with us and whenever we talk while we are holding her you see her eyes moving around behind her closed lids. When I did hold her, she held onto my finger the entire time. There was actually pressure from her squeezing it and they had to unwrap her hand from it before they put her back in her bed. I cannot begin to explain how amazing it is to feel her using her strength to hold onto me.
Here are some pictures from today:
Natalie and her Daddy having some quality time:
Jimmy changing his first diaper for Natalie:
So basically it monitors her diaphragm and if hers doesn't contract in a 3 second period of time, the machine gives her a nudge. So she is still breathing on her own, but with a little help so she doesn't tire out so easily.
Jimmy was very stressed out by this development, thinking we were taking a step back. But after talking to the nurse, they told us this is completely normal and the fact she has not had to go on a breathing tube is a huge success. The desaturation that she has been experiencing (and still does while on NAVA) is completely normal and will continue to happen until close to 34 weeks gestation. So basically we just have to get use to this because we have another 9 weeks of it being considered "normal". I feel better that she has the extra assistance because it is so heartbreaking to sit and watch her little body struggle.
On the extremely positive side, Natalie has been accepting milk in her stomach since they started feeding her. Technically her stomach was not prepared for it, so they introduced it very slowly. They started out just giving her 2 mls through a feeding tube. For scale, there are 5 mls in a teaspoon, so it is a tiny amount. Over the past few days, they upped it to 4 mls and then yesterday to 6 mls every 3 hours. Her stomach has been accepting it, with very little coming back. This is very good news and in the past couple of days her weight has returned to the 1 lb 14 ozs she was at birth.
Yesterday, with everything going on, we did not get to hold her, but today we got some good cuddle time while they were doing their weekly clean of her isolette. They always worry about the mother holding the baby, but I made sure Jimmy went first and got some good time in. The breathing problems have really stressed him out and I thought holding her would make him feel better, and I was right. The nurse seemed impressed that I was letting him go first and giving him the majority of the time, but I think sometimes people discount how much the father is going through as well. I could tell his time with her really helped and he left feeling a lot more confident about the situation.
She loves sitting with us and whenever we talk while we are holding her you see her eyes moving around behind her closed lids. When I did hold her, she held onto my finger the entire time. There was actually pressure from her squeezing it and they had to unwrap her hand from it before they put her back in her bed. I cannot begin to explain how amazing it is to feel her using her strength to hold onto me.
Here are some pictures from today:
Natalie and her Daddy having some quality time:
Jimmy changing his first diaper for Natalie:
Natty Bear holding on tight to my finger and not wanting to let go:
she loves you so much! me too
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear she is doing well. The blog is great! Sending love from all the Bassetts in Massachusetts!
ReplyDeleteSo precious. I love the photos and the way Natalie is holding on so tight to mommy ❤️
ReplyDelete