1 week old!

Miss Ruth is now 1 week old!  She is our miracle baby, doing so great.


Since her last update:

She is no longer on an IV.  It came out, docs said don't bother putting it back in.  So she is now fully relying on milk for her feeds, she breastfeeds then gets the remainder of her milk via her ng tube.  Babies typically "figure out" how to breast/bottle feed after 33 weeks, so we are hoping to ditch the ng tube sometime next week!

We are still cathing her, she seems to be able to void in her diaper fine, but we are unsure if she is fully emptying her bladder.  We will continue to cath until her urodynamics study, which will be shortly after she is discharged, but before we go back home.

She is still in the incubator to help her regulate her tempature, but they are slowly lowering the temp, and hopefully should be moved to a regular bed soon.

She passed her hearing test.

She has good strength and movement in her legs.  She is definitely not paralyzed.  A physical therapist came by and showed me how to work her feet.  I have been doing those with her twice a day when I go in for her feedings.  Her feet have great flexibility and can be moved back into neutral position, which is wonderful!  They will not start splinting or casting while she is here, if she needs it, we will do that care once we get home.  They will also do a hip ultrasound to make sure she has no issues there, but are waiting until she is out of the incubator since she will have to take a trip to another floor to receive it.

So far her head circumference has remained the same.  They did another head ultrasound on her today but I didn't get the results.  I will find those out tomorrow, hopefully still stable!

Her back still looks good, her scar has healed well.  It looks like it has a red patch around it, kinda like a birth mark.  She doesn't need any special care for it, although we still keep her off her back when sleeping (she sleeps on her tummy most of the time).

She has continued to gain weight, and is almost back to her birth weight.

She gets to wear cute preemie outfits now.  Some friends we have made at the family house gave me a cute outfit as a baby gift.   Another friend we made at the family house has their son in the nicu right next to Ruth!   She was nice enough to take me to Target one afternoon to get some tiny onesies for her to wear.  I didn't know preemie clothes were so hard to find!  We have met some awesome people here, and hope to stay in touch with them.  Everyone is looking to go home in August too, most of them have been here much longer than us.

Ruth has an impressive view from the window next to her bed.  That is when you can see it (it's foggy here most of the time).  We had a clear day yesterday, so I took advantage and snapped a couple photos:


I have had a good recovery from the c-section.  The family house is about a mile from the hospital so I have been doing a fair share of walking.  Honestly the biggest thing that hurts from that is my feet!  Ha!  Although I am still take the pain medications pretty regularly, I may be singing a different tune when they run out.  Ruth has feedings every 3 hours, and the nurses let me take over her care when I am there.  I try to make as many as I can, usually the 8AM to 8PM feedings.  It is hard to be at the hospital all day with no place to really rest, but time passes pretty quickly when I am caring for her.  I am grateful I get to do that, makes me feel useful :-)

Thank you everyone for your continued prayers, they are definitely working for our little miracle baby!  We hope to bring her home to meet everyone soon!

Love,

Sara