Emilia was born on May 31, 2011, at 25 weeks and 5 days in gestational age. She came home on October 21, 2011 after spending 143 days in the hospital. Today she's a thriving, happy baby who continues to amaze us every single day. This blog records the journey of our miracle baby.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Emilia is IV-free
Emilia got her PICC line removed from her right arm because she's not on any medication and she does not need TPN at this moment. She had to be transported to SickKids again. Though the procedure was only 10 minutes, it took over 2 hours to go and come back. Her incubator is clutter free and her arm is IV free, so we are happy. I hope she does not need too many IVs down the road.
30 weeks gestation
Today Emilia is 30 weeks today in gestational age (and I would have been 7 months pregnant if I were still pregnant).
Surely there have been a lot of developmental changes since she was first born. She uses her fingers a lot and she gazes at things. She makes a lot of licking and chewing movements. And, yeah, she fights off nurses' hands when they touch her. She surprisingly tolerates blood tests really well. She now weighs 1180g (2.6 lb). Certainly I would not have witnessed these changes if she were still inside me. It is amazing to see how a fetus-looking little baby gradually changes to look like and behave like one of us.
Also Emilia is one month old today. Now that she's a month old, the dietician said her milk (my breast milk) should be fortified and thus have higher calories. Last trimester is when babies start putting on fat. Right now Emilia does not have much fat. She has a lot of creases & skin folds especially around her bum and shoulders. I hope she will soon have a round plump bum like term babies. Right now it's bony, wrinkly and small.
Surely there have been a lot of developmental changes since she was first born. She uses her fingers a lot and she gazes at things. She makes a lot of licking and chewing movements. And, yeah, she fights off nurses' hands when they touch her. She surprisingly tolerates blood tests really well. She now weighs 1180g (2.6 lb). Certainly I would not have witnessed these changes if she were still inside me. It is amazing to see how a fetus-looking little baby gradually changes to look like and behave like one of us.
Also Emilia is one month old today. Now that she's a month old, the dietician said her milk (my breast milk) should be fortified and thus have higher calories. Last trimester is when babies start putting on fat. Right now Emilia does not have much fat. She has a lot of creases & skin folds especially around her bum and shoulders. I hope she will soon have a round plump bum like term babies. Right now it's bony, wrinkly and small.
Eventful night for Emilia
This morning when I arrived at her bedside, the first thing I noticed was that her breathing machine had changed. I lifted up the incubator cover and found her with a CPAP mask/prongs instead of the ventilator tube in her nose. First I was so excited that she was off the ventilator but, two seconds later I asked myself "why is she off the ventilator??". I had left the hospital around 10:30pm the night before and she couldn't have miraculously grown out of the ventilator overnight. Definitely something "bad" must have happened to make the respiratory therapists perform emergency extuabation. So, the nurse reported to me that Emilia apparently "self-extubated".
I don't know what she was doing exactly but somehow the tube accidentally came out (I know from my observation that the tape was quite loose all day long and she kept pulling that tube out too). According to the report written by the night nurse, Emilia extubated herself, her O2 was desaturated to the level of 29, Nurse called for help, RT had to use a puffer to manually breathe her, and her heart rate dropped to 59 bpm or something as low as that. Yes, it is quite upsetting and unsettling. Accidental extubation is one thing but I don't know how long she was "off" the vent and how long she was desatted. Was her brain or other major organ deprived of oxygen during this accident? Was the nurse not nearby to help her when she was obviously desatting below 60? Or did this happen in a matter of seconds? Or did Emilia desat to 29 all the while the nurse was trying to help? .....Could she have died???
Any how, by accident, Emilia is back on the Biphasic mode again. Last time she was on Bipahsic, they had to put her back on the ventilator only after 2 days. I hope this time she does not get tired too soon. I want her to prove to everyone that she can do better now. During the morning medical round, the doctor said we have been everywhere with Emilia in terms of respiratory support and she does not see any benefit of going back to the ventilator. She wants to "steer clear of intubating her again". I really appreciate her direction, as the other doctor (who is not on duty this week) kept saying she was not in a hurry to wean her from the ventilator.
All I can hope right now is Emilia keeps pushing and breathing. I know it is very difficult for a tiny baby to breathe like us grown-ups, but I want her to do well and surprise everyone. I know... my expectation is too high and unrealistic. Right now the only medical complication she has is her respiratory system and I feel that is the only reason she is in Level III NICU.
I don't know what she was doing exactly but somehow the tube accidentally came out (I know from my observation that the tape was quite loose all day long and she kept pulling that tube out too). According to the report written by the night nurse, Emilia extubated herself, her O2 was desaturated to the level of 29, Nurse called for help, RT had to use a puffer to manually breathe her, and her heart rate dropped to 59 bpm or something as low as that. Yes, it is quite upsetting and unsettling. Accidental extubation is one thing but I don't know how long she was "off" the vent and how long she was desatted. Was her brain or other major organ deprived of oxygen during this accident? Was the nurse not nearby to help her when she was obviously desatting below 60? Or did this happen in a matter of seconds? Or did Emilia desat to 29 all the while the nurse was trying to help? .....Could she have died???
Any how, by accident, Emilia is back on the Biphasic mode again. Last time she was on Bipahsic, they had to put her back on the ventilator only after 2 days. I hope this time she does not get tired too soon. I want her to prove to everyone that she can do better now. During the morning medical round, the doctor said we have been everywhere with Emilia in terms of respiratory support and she does not see any benefit of going back to the ventilator. She wants to "steer clear of intubating her again". I really appreciate her direction, as the other doctor (who is not on duty this week) kept saying she was not in a hurry to wean her from the ventilator.
All I can hope right now is Emilia keeps pushing and breathing. I know it is very difficult for a tiny baby to breathe like us grown-ups, but I want her to do well and surprise everyone. I know... my expectation is too high and unrealistic. Right now the only medical complication she has is her respiratory system and I feel that is the only reason she is in Level III NICU.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Emilia is 4 weeks old
Emilia is 28 days (4 weeks) old today. In gestational age, she is 29 weeks and 5 days.
Yes, she has grown, in weight and length both. She weighs 1150g today and I think she is almost 35cm in length. She was born 870g, so little by little, she's growing.
An average fetal weight for 29 weeks gestation is 1379g, 10th percentile is 1145g and 90th percentile is 1613g. Anything between the 10th percentile and 90th percentile is considered "normal", so I would say Emilia's growth not too far behind. Her growth is actually remarkable given that she is not in the womb any more and she lives in a stressful environment.
She is fed my milk again, now at 14 ml every 2 hours. She will reach 15 ml tomorrow, which is considered her "full feeds".
Yesterday she had massive massive poop in her diaper. I had never ever seen anything like that. It was sticky, yellow colour, seedy poop. Piles and pile of it in the diaper. The dirty diaper weighed 40g (In NICU they weigh every wet/dirty diaper to measure how much babies pee/poop). As soon as I put a new diaper under her bum and wiped, she pushed out some more yellow stuff. On the new diaper and the wipe.
So I took it out and put another new diaper and AGAIN!! she pushed out some more. The nurse said it could be because I was stimulating too much when I was wiping her bum. I almost thought she was doing it intentionally because I was the one changing the diaper.
I have resumed the Kangaroo Care. I am holding her 1-1.5 hours each day, singing and talking to her while she's sleeping on my chest. What a great feeling it is. Also, she breathes more rhythmically and regularly when I hold her. 1.5 hours is very short when we are together. I just sing the same songs in an infite loop and scramble all the lyrics too but she doesn't seem to mind at all. The terrible part of this is Emilia cries when we put her back in the incubator. Today, when we put her back, she had a tantrum - she was crying for a long time (though we can't hear because she has ventilator tube in her airway) and didn't settle. The nurse tried changing her position in an attempt to make her feel more comfortable but Emilia was resisting it and stiffened her neck and head to not move the way the nurse wanted. All this time, she was crying and I had to somehow console her. I cupped my hand over her head and let her grip on my finger. We stayed that way for a while and finally she calmed down and opened her eyes looking at me. I wonder if she was able to make out my face.
Emilia is more interested in sucking on a soother nowadays. Even without a pacifier, she chews and makes sucking movements, which is a good developmental sign. She will soon have to learn that she needs to suck in order to get milk in her mouth and tummy, as she is currently fed passively and does not associate sucking with becoming full in her stomach.
She is really cute, especially when she opens her eyes. Right now, I would say she looks like Daddy (and his dad). I was hoping that she would take after me.
We still haven't registered her birth. I meant to do this 3 weeks ago...but somehow I keep forgetting to do it when I come home from the hospital. Also we still haven't got a middle name for her to put on her birth certificate. We want her to be Emilia something something Lee, not just Emilia Lee.
Yes, she has grown, in weight and length both. She weighs 1150g today and I think she is almost 35cm in length. She was born 870g, so little by little, she's growing.
An average fetal weight for 29 weeks gestation is 1379g, 10th percentile is 1145g and 90th percentile is 1613g. Anything between the 10th percentile and 90th percentile is considered "normal", so I would say Emilia's growth not too far behind. Her growth is actually remarkable given that she is not in the womb any more and she lives in a stressful environment.
She is fed my milk again, now at 14 ml every 2 hours. She will reach 15 ml tomorrow, which is considered her "full feeds".
Yesterday she had massive massive poop in her diaper. I had never ever seen anything like that. It was sticky, yellow colour, seedy poop. Piles and pile of it in the diaper. The dirty diaper weighed 40g (In NICU they weigh every wet/dirty diaper to measure how much babies pee/poop). As soon as I put a new diaper under her bum and wiped, she pushed out some more yellow stuff. On the new diaper and the wipe.
So I took it out and put another new diaper and AGAIN!! she pushed out some more. The nurse said it could be because I was stimulating too much when I was wiping her bum. I almost thought she was doing it intentionally because I was the one changing the diaper.
I have resumed the Kangaroo Care. I am holding her 1-1.5 hours each day, singing and talking to her while she's sleeping on my chest. What a great feeling it is. Also, she breathes more rhythmically and regularly when I hold her. 1.5 hours is very short when we are together. I just sing the same songs in an infite loop and scramble all the lyrics too but she doesn't seem to mind at all. The terrible part of this is Emilia cries when we put her back in the incubator. Today, when we put her back, she had a tantrum - she was crying for a long time (though we can't hear because she has ventilator tube in her airway) and didn't settle. The nurse tried changing her position in an attempt to make her feel more comfortable but Emilia was resisting it and stiffened her neck and head to not move the way the nurse wanted. All this time, she was crying and I had to somehow console her. I cupped my hand over her head and let her grip on my finger. We stayed that way for a while and finally she calmed down and opened her eyes looking at me. I wonder if she was able to make out my face.
Emilia is more interested in sucking on a soother nowadays. Even without a pacifier, she chews and makes sucking movements, which is a good developmental sign. She will soon have to learn that she needs to suck in order to get milk in her mouth and tummy, as she is currently fed passively and does not associate sucking with becoming full in her stomach.
She is really cute, especially when she opens her eyes. Right now, I would say she looks like Daddy (and his dad). I was hoping that she would take after me.
We still haven't registered her birth. I meant to do this 3 weeks ago...but somehow I keep forgetting to do it when I come home from the hospital. Also we still haven't got a middle name for her to put on her birth certificate. We want her to be Emilia something something Lee, not just Emilia Lee.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Emilia sees the world
Emilia was born at a gestational age when most babies start to open their eyes (in the womb). Earlier than that, babies' eyes are fused shut. Emilia's eyes were not fused when she was born. At first, she occasionally opened one of her eyes (left one). For some reason, she didn't really open the other eye until a week after she was born.
Recently, in the past week, she opens her eyes more often and is more alert. She curiously looks around and blinks. She can't really turn her head around and see yet. She just rolls her eyes to check her surroundings and sometimes fixes her eyes on one object, usually the breathing tube that goes into her nose. I wonder if she can really see anything yet. Supposedly she can't but the way she checks the surrounding, I feel like she is able to see something. Yesterday when I was holding her on my chest, the nurse told me that she was looking up and staring at me. When I am with Emilia, I am really curious what she's thinking, what she's dreaming about, and what she's looking.
Recently, in the past week, she opens her eyes more often and is more alert. She curiously looks around and blinks. She can't really turn her head around and see yet. She just rolls her eyes to check her surroundings and sometimes fixes her eyes on one object, usually the breathing tube that goes into her nose. I wonder if she can really see anything yet. Supposedly she can't but the way she checks the surrounding, I feel like she is able to see something. Yesterday when I was holding her on my chest, the nurse told me that she was looking up and staring at me. When I am with Emilia, I am really curious what she's thinking, what she's dreaming about, and what she's looking.
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