Well I'm pleased to say that DP and DS are all better, DP is down at the hossy tonight seeing Heidi for the first time in about a week. Beema - apparently they're infectious for 3-5 days or until the blisters heal up. Its been really tearing him up not being able to see her but he was so paranoid about going in sick. I *thought* I was coming down with something too but appear to have fought it off with a bit more rest. Marcellus, you're spot on, I am exhausted but I'm too scared to stop right now in case I don't get going again LOL! This week is going to be tough as DP is back at work 4 full days so it will be a juggling act with DS and I just have to accept I can't be at the hospital quite as much each day. Very hard. Thankfully DS has been his cheery happy self this last week after getting over teeth, constipation and HF&M. He also started walking during the week so do you think he's proud of himself much! Its so much easier for me emotionally now that he's back to his resilient self.
Beema the hossy supply us with little Medela containers that are compatible with their pumps as well as mine at home. So its really easy. I just take the milk in each day and pop it into their fridges and the milk room nurses take care of freezing and storing it and preparing the feeds for all the bubs each day. I'm really impressed with their set up, it would be so much more stressful if I was having to manage all that myself here at home. One less thing to worry about. And I'm also really happy that they're so supportive of the importance of breast milk and breast feeding, as they should be of course.
DD continues to do well, she's been shifted into a new cot, still enclosed in heat but a little step forward. I got there a few days ago after they'd changed her over and had to take 5 minutes to adjust - you get so used to their set-up and something changes and it messes with you a bit! More impressive weight gains too - they weigh every 48 hours - so 2 days ago she went from 830gms to 815gms but she was weighed on different scales so a bit hard to know if it was a true loss. Then last night she went from 815gms to 905gms! A huge 80g gain which is amazing. I think we'll have a party when she hits the 1kg mark LOL! She is tolerating a tiny bit more milk now and her poos have changed so we think her gut might be responding a bit better.
Every day is full of new information and challenges. Today she had her heart ECG done again. The docs and nurses keep thinking they can hear a little heart murmur, but it appears one day and then it will be gone the next. So they repeated the ECG and confirmed that her heart is fine. They're concerned that the little ducts in her heart haven't closed over (which they normally do at birth when a baby takes its first breath). Often in premmies that same process doesn't occur. So far so good with that. At 6 weeks she'll have an eye exam to see if her eyes are developing normally - sometimes if the little vessels around the eye start to deviate as they grow they need some laser surgery but its highly unlikely that will be the case. There is truly so much along the way we'll learn that we never even would have considered before.
The poor little chicken still has one little eye that the bruising hasn't resolved. She was so swollen and bruised at birth, but almost all of that has resolved apart from her left eye. She looks like she's been in a fight! Hopefully another week or so and that will be gone. Its kind of like her birth battle wounds in a way! We have also brought some visitors in during the week to meet her. My sister came through one night and then Heidi got to meet both her nanna's last night. We weren't ready for visitors early on, even family, and they've been very understanding about that. But boy were they chuffed to see her. She's got so many people that love her and are cheering her on, its really heartening for us.
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