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Such fantastic news your little girl is going great guns. Farting is a great indicator or how strong and determined she is!
I hope the line stays for as long as needed too. It's heartbreaking seeing them put in.
She is doing so well. You must be a very proud mummy.
beautiful news that she powered through the op! :dance:
i hope you both get in some good rest for this final leg of the journey...you guys have come so so far, it's amazing xx
Hope the weekend has gone well and you've been able to use more of that precious EBM now. :crossfingers: Is Heidi out of NICU this week, or will she stay in for a little while?
:hug: to you, this has been a long, long road and you must be exhausted.
Thanks Jen, DD is still in NICU at the moment but won't be long and she'll be back out to SCN. Today they took her off monitoring and her feeds have increased to 45 mls every four hours or a bit in between if she's really agitated. They're still taking it nice & slow for her. Once she's established back on full feeds she'll head back to the nursery. And she's off her surgical cot and back into the normal plastic bassinet thingys. So it won't be long. She is still sooooo hungry though. She was very vocal about it last night. Poor little mite. I'd be angry too. Lots of lovely smelly poos too which is gold.
The problems with IV access still continue. Her central lines and peripheral IVs are lasting 24 hours max if we're lucky - her veins keep tissuing which is acutely painful for her and just means they need to find more veins to re-insert. IV access is still critical for her at this point in time until she's back to full feeds. She has been notoriously hard to maintain IV access with since she was born. They find some babies react particularly badly to the foreign body in their veins and also the concentration of the IV nutrition & other drugs is quite high which irritates the veins. But we should only need them for 3 or 4 more days.
I dropped my bundle big time yesterday. DD was crying in pain because the drip in her foot had tissued. She was starving on top of that and just crying the house down. I was doing everything I could to comfort her and doctors and nurses were everywhere. And I just sat down with her in my arms and just cried. Its so hard when there is nothing you can do and even a cuddle won't work. And I am endlessly frustrated that they have to keep stabbing her to get more veins. So I just had to let it out. They were all wonderful, lots of staff just hugging us reminding me that it will all be over soon. That we're close to the finish line now and that letting it all out just means we're starting to get close to the end. We've formed such a bond with the wonderful team there, particularly in NICU. They have been angels.
Its my birthday this weekend and I was hoping that DD would be off monitors and in a mobile bassinet - we'll take some morning tea and have our own little celebration together at the duck pond at the hospital. I'll keep you all posted about how she goes in the next few days.
BTW - she's 4 months old today. 4 months. How unbelievable is that.
She's doing a marvellous job Infinity, dealing with more than most people could ever imagine
:hug: enjoy your birthday this weekend with a cuddle and hopefully a breastfeed xx
Miss H never ceases to amaze me - she is truly precious!
I hope she is up for the duck pond visit, that sounds perfect!!!
I can't believe she is 4 mths already - OMG. What a trooper :). Happy 4 mths Miss H!
xoxoxo
She's doing a marvellous job Infinity, dealing with more than most people could ever imagine
:hug: enjoy your birthday this weekend with a cuddle and hopefully a breastfeed xx
FOUR MONTHS!!!! no way!!!!!!!!!! Has it really been that long? Well it's only Monday, so I reckon she has a fighting chance of being off the monitors by the weekend :hug:
:hug: It sounded like you were close to 'letting it all out' in your previous post. It sounds like you finally feel free to consider your own feelings and you have had so much to deal with in the last four months.
Poor Heidi, so hungry and no Mummy's milk to fix it. :( I hope that things are improved with the extra feeds, but how good is it that she was being so demanding so quickly?! She's certainly letting everyone know what she wants. ;)
I was in tears reading your update :crying: for so many reasons - because she's amazing first of all and is doing so well. But also for you having to watch her go through the pain of having IVs inserted and reinserted, of her crying with hunger in your arms and nothing you could do but hold her. Because of the toll this has taken on you. Because her homecoming is so close and still seems so far. Because she is four months old (wow) and yet not home with you all. It has been an unbelievable and harrowing journey for you all and I don't know how you have been so strong. I guess we can see where Heidi gets her fighting spirit. So much love to you all as you get her closer to home. Thinking of you for your birthday too and hoping you get to have a special day out with her :hug:
Wow 4 months already. You have been a super duper mummy through all of this. Hopefully you will have her in her mobile cot real soon and she will be rid of the IV. Hope you get to have your special day with her by the duck pond. Will be thinking of you and your family.
DD is completely free of monitors and IVs now! YAY for not being hooked up. FREEDOM. I think she knows too because the last 24 hours she's been so settled. And we are exclusively suck feeding now....nasogastric tube got pulled this morning and she is on demand feeds with a 4 hourly limit. And she can have as much milk as she wants. At her feed this morning she took about 80mls quite easily. Still drinking the elemental formula but the surgeon only wants her on that for a few more days then we can start re-introducing EBM and breastfeeds. She will move out to SCN whenever they need the bed space in NICU so I'm expecting either this afternoon or maybe tomorrow. She's got all her pretty clothes to wear again now and just looks beautiful with NOTHING AT ALL stuck to her face, arms, legs, body. Its the first time really we've had her this way.
And once she gets to SCN its going to be all about establishing breastfeeds again - once they're confident that its all going well and she starts to re-gain weight, I dare say we'll be out the door. So maybe 2-3 weeks I think. But I don't want to get too far ahead of myself. She's already dropped over 100grams after surgery so she really needs to get back on top of things and consistently keep gaining.
Thanks all xo
That is AWESOME news! I bet there were loads of pictures taken to mark the occasion too :hug: I think it might be time for you to start getting ready for her to come home, because if she keeps going as well as this she will be home before you know it!
woo hoo - yay for no tubes at all :dance:
I'm so glad she can wear all the pretty clothes you have for her.
What absolutely fabulous news!!!
That's absolutely fabulous news!
Fantastic news! What a clever poppet she is :). I think the staff are right, you only drop your bundle when you know the end is near........your crying brought me to tears, but it was probably really good for you to let it out.
Thinking of you lots :hug:
She never ceases to amaze me.... :leap: It must be so good to be able to see her beautiful little face without tubes and pick her up without wires and monitors.
I'm sure she will go from strength to strength and be home with you very soon!