7 Weeks

We should be about halfway through Natalie's stay in the NICU this week, but with her complications of the past few weeks, our timeline has changed. To be honest, I do not care if she is in there for a year, if it means she comes home with us one day. They are not giving exact dates, but we know she will be in there past her May 8th due date.

She has been doing very well the past couple of days. She is getting output into her bag and they were able to take out her Anderson tube yesterday. Tonight they started reintroducing food very slowly. She is getting 1 ml every 3 hours, not continuously like they did last time, but all at once. If she does not throw any of it up my tomorrow morning then they will try some more.

She is weighing in at 3 lb 10 oz, but she is a bit puffy and they think some of that is retaining water so she might get a diuretic sometime this week. Either way, she looks bigger every day. Today I noticed how old her cry sounded, she sounds more like a newborn and less like a baby goat.

Every week has a different doctor who works the floor. There are 10 doctors and we have worked with most of them. They have all been great, but it is getting a little hard to readjust every Monday when the philosophy changes. They do not make large decisions differently from one another, but the day to day little things change. I did not really mind before Natalie got sick because I did not deal with them as much or see their influence as strongly. Last week my nurse told me I should think about requesting a primary doctor so we are always talking to one person and the NICU team will consult with that one doctor when needed. I think this is a great idea, but we have no idea who to pick! We have really liked all the doctors, they have all been phenomenal, but we just want to streamline the information. So we will probably making that decision soon. Our nurse made a good point that since they all are fantastic doctors, just to pick who we felt communicated/explained things the best to us. So, we'll see.

The doctor on call this week has been around for a long time and is semi-retired. Unlike the past couple of doctors, her main focus is the PDA in Natalie's heart. Don't get me wrong, the other doctors did not ignore it, but they did not want to entertain the idea of the ligation surgery for awhile to let her recover. After last weeks partial blockage, I was wondering if they would bring up the PDA again because it has been explained to me that it can cause all kinds of problems. I heard nothing last week, but this week it seems like we are closer to moving forward with it. As much as it is another surgery, it may go a long way to help her get healthier and stay healthy enough for her last NEC surgery. It sounds like we are waiting to see what her surgeon and cardiologist thinks in the next few days. It is a much smaller procedure than her first surgery, so at this point, I am anxious for it to be just taken cared of and one less stress on her.

That's about it for now. I hope you all have been enjoying the balmy 45 degree weather up here. I have noticed everyone just seems happier ever since that snow began to melt!

Here is your daily dose of Natalie Rose:

Getting all cleaned up

Passed out on Mommy

Giving her nurse the stink eye