Thursday, August 5, 2010

2 weeks old!

Ruth is doing well, continuing to grow and mature. 2 weeks since her birth today, she is currently 33 weeks 4 days, in gestational age.


Since her last update:

She is continuing to receive the majority of her feeds through her ng tube. She is getting a lot better at breastfeeding, and hope to see big improvements next week as she passes the 34 week mark.

We are still cathing her, although the volume has decreased so we are not sure if she still needs it. They will do a urodynamics study the day she is discharged (she has to go across the street for it so they will not do it now), that should tell us more what she needs.

She was moved out of the incubator today because she has been maintaining her temperature well. She is on a 24 hour trial to see how she handles it. If she keeps warm, and does not burn too many calories keeping warm, she will stay out.

She has good strength and movement in her legs, and even seems to push against us when we change her diaper, or during her physical therapy. We are not sure how much she feels in her legs or bottom, but she does seem to react when we mess with her or change her diaper. She has not had her hip ultrasound yet, they were waiting until she was out of the incubator since she has to travel to a different floor. I imagine that will happen sometime in the next week.

So far her head circumference has remained the same. They did another head ultrasound on her today, and it also showed continued stability with no other issues (i.e. preemie issues). I met the neurosurgery team today, and she was cleared to have tub baths since her scar has healed so well.

She has continued to gain weight, and is currently at 4 lb 3.5 oz. She was up to 4 lb 5.5 oz at one point, but dropped back down a little.

I get a lot of questions about when she will be discharged. Right now, she needs to accomplish two more things. First being, no more apnea. She occasionally forgets to breathe for about 20 seconds, dropping her heart rate. She comes out of these on her own with no major intervention. She will grow out of these as her nervous system matures, and will need to be clear of these for 5 days before discharge. Second, she needs to be able to take her full feeds from breast or bottle. I have given "permission" to give her a bottle when I am not at the hospital, and I believe they will start trying that once a night soon. From what they tell me, around the 34 week mark is when they really get it. So hopefully we will see big improvements in the next week.

I have had a good recovery from the c-section. I am barely taking any pain medicine at all anymore, and I feel all the walking has been good exercise. After being in a wheelchair for 2 months, the walking is nice. Although I could do without the weather here. It is way too cold, something is just wrong with 50 degree weather in August!

For those of you that want more real time Ruth updates, I created a twitter account just for that purpose. You can read the updates on the side bar of the blog (under "Twitter Updates"), or by going to the twitter website: http://twitter.com/ruthsstory

Thank you everyone for your continued prayers.
Love,

Sara

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