Our little Danielle is one month old today. I feel like we keep saying this, but time really has just flown by. Danielle is a little bigger and is more mature that is for sure. Just her movements, her awake time, her reactions and a few other things we observe we can tell how much more mature she is.
She has had a good week. Her infection numbers are back within the normal range. A urine culture they took on Sunday showed today a slight urinary tract infection. So the 2 broad spectrum antibiotics she was on, one of them does not treat the strain of the UTI she has. So they stopped that certain antibiotic and added another one. The reason is because the 2 medications together kill the bacteria better than just the one. So it is a good thing that the medications were started on Monday, and it offers an explanation as to why her infection number climbed up higher before it went down. The other infection from the IV site they do weekly cultures until it shows to be completely gone, her culture from Tuesday showed still positive.
She is still on a CPAP of 5, the reason being is because with an infection they do not want to make too many changes at 1 time. She is now able to be between 24-36% oxygen. So when this 3 day course of antibiotics are gone they would like to take the CPAP down to 4 next week or possibly put her just right onto nasal canula oxygen. It will really depend on how the weekend goes and the doctor making the decision. But she is doing great on CPAP. Her poor little nose is so ouchy though, unfortunately the more they suction it out the more ouchy it gets, but if she is d-sating and not coming back up as she usually does that is what they need to do. They are putting bactraban in her nose to help with bacteria, and they are using saline drops also. We still use saline drops on Dylan 2 times every day to help with germs and moisture, it has really helped him out so much so it can only be helping her also.
Danielle is so close to full feeds and we are so happy. This is really great progress. Full feeds meaning that she is getting the maximum amount of breast milk in a 24 hour period that she can get for her gestation and weight. This means they do not need to supplement with any additional IV's thru her PICC line or a PIV. But they need to keep the PICC line in until her antibiotics are gone and they have to keep something running thru the PICC to keep it open. So she is getting such a small amt of NVN nutrition to keep it open which is why she is not up to full feeds today. But when the medication is gone on Monday they can take out the PICC line and she will just be getting mommy's milk every day all day and nothing else, no other fluid thru IV's or anything!!!
The biggest news of today is that daddy was able to Kangaroo his little girl for the very first time!!!! This was such a wonderful and emotional experience. We decided at the last minute to take Dylan up to meet his little sister for this first time experience also. Even though Danielle is still in contact isolation we got permission to bring him up to see her and watch Daddy hold the baby. It was a precious experience, Dylan was such a good little boy. He quietly looked at her and mostly was not interested until daddy was holding her, then 1 time he tried to touch her and I quickly pulled him away. But he laid on the bench and played with his toys quietly. Neither of us could believe it. It is like he knew to be quiet and entertain himself. It was amazing and it was nice to have our whole family together for the very first time!!! The nurses who had Dylan when he was there saw him and were amazed. The nurse who transferred him to the University was there and it was emotional for her to see him now, she was very happy to see him looking so great!
So tonight was a great night and Danielle is doing good. She is being such a fighter and a sweet little girl. We pray for more moments like this in the future, our family together as 1 and everyone happy and healthy.~
No comments:
Post a Comment