So we begin our NICU journey....

[Little Chicken]

Earlier in the week I was ready to throw all the monitors out the window - everything goes beep A LOT

I know exactly what you mean. I used to work in a NICU and yes they do get to you after a while, but believe it or not, you will be able to zone them out after a while.

[Rosebud]

It was wonderful to hear about your family photos, would have been one of those very special moments.

Yay to Heidi on the continual weight gain. Hun, it is a tough journey and yes you do feel as if you are going nuts but try and be gentle on yourself. I found having a NICU buddy helped a lot, sometimes family & friends just didn't understand.

Certain events often resulted in oxygen increase with DS. Things such as increased feeds, eye tests, additional blood tests and immunisation which they do at actual age and not corrected. Fluid retention also plays a big part in it too. Sometime it was also a flag for a well needed blood transfusion. Has Heidi also been spending time in air?

In a few weeks you will become oblivious to those horrid beeping monitors....Oh how your updates are bringing back so many memories.......

Thank you for sharing your birth story with us xx

[*Infinity*]

Certain events often resulted in oxygen increase with DS. Things such as increased feeds, eye tests, additional blood tests and immunisation which they do at actual age and not corrected. Fluid retention also plays a big part in it too. Sometime it was also a flag for a well needed blood transfusion. Has Heidi also been spending time in air?

Thanks for your support Rosebud. Heidi was in air for the majority of her first 2-3 weeks which was amazing. Its only been this last week that they've seen her oxygen needs increase, and I do sincerely hope its just due to transient things like increasing her feeds etc. She also wiggles a lot so sometimes her de-saturation is simply due to a bad trace on the oximeter. She is always pink and lively though and they encourage us to look at her, not the monitors. Hard to do when they beep so much.

She stacked on 55 grams over the last 48 hours which is great - she is now 980g in total, so almost pushing the big 1kg milestone! I think I'll throw a party when she hits that one. She is taking 6mls of EBM each hour, still being perfused slowly which she is tolerating a lot better and she is pooing like a trooper now which is a good sign that her gut it kicking in.

I'm tired, got a million things to try and keep on top of, but I'm doing my best to get the important things done and just forget about the rest.

[Amity]

Awww Heidi is doing SO well! Stacking on the weight!

It's such a hard journey, but so very much worth it in the end.

Thinking of you

[tk1999]

My first night in the SCN I thought I would be hearing beeps and blips and buzzs from then until the 10th of never... I can't remember when I stopped hearing them but I remember thinking it was awful quiet in the SCN and the family member I had with me said "how can you say it is quite with all that beeping from the machines"

So many memories flooding back for me. I think of you and Heidi often

[*Beema*]

980 grams WOAH!!!!!!

WTG Heidi!!! It seems that she had just all of a sudden stacked on the weight, just amazing and I am glad that the adjustments to the feeds is really helping

Great post Rosebud, some great information in there

It is hard to forget the machines that constantly beep, freaked me out when N's started going off the first few times, but you do get used to them, but there is still that fear when they do. And the memories flood back every time DD goes back in, and she is generally hooked up to Oximetry most of the time and that goes off a lot....

Take care and sending you strength xxoo

[Little Chicken]

Heidi sounds like she is doing everything that a baby of her gestation should be doing, which is great! It is unfortunate but normal that she may require oxygen around this time, and that her saturations might start swinging as well. The nursing staff should be only noting the true ones and not all of them as, like you say, some of them will be just purely the monitor not picking up properly. Be assured she will grow out them as well as that oxygen need. Is she still on CPAP or is she breathing completely unassisted now? We used to jokingly tell parents that when they reached a kilo we required a kilo cake. Put yourself and your family first, everything else can wait. Good luck with everything.