Our biggest news for the day is that we finally got to hold our Lucy! It was a crazy day, and she had been manhandled all day long, so we weren’t expecting to get to hold her, but then the nurse asked if we wanted to. Are you kidding? We’ve only been waiting 5 weeks. So I got to very carefully hold my girl for 10 minutes, then David got his turn, and she handled it all pretty well. So maybe we’ll get to hold her once in awhile now, although it will depend on which nurse she has. We still won’t be able to hold her regularly until she’s off the ventilator, but it’s definitely a start, and it was very exciting. When her nurse put her on my chest, she opened her eyes and looked up at me, and of course I immediately started crying (David had to wipe my nose for me, haha). It was a wonderful experience. Less momentous, but still fun for me, was that I got to change her diaper for the first time. And it was a poopy diaper to boot! I’m sure the excitement about poop will fade eventually.
Lucy had a big day for other reasons, too. I talked to the neonatologist this morning and found out more about Lucy’s yeast infection, which seems like it may potentially be a bigger problem than I thought. The doctor said it’s hard to get all of the yeast, and it’s most likely in either her ET (breathing) tube or her PICC line. The best treatment would be to remove them, but she’s kind of using them to live right now, so that’s not really an option. If they can determine that one of them is contaminated, they will try to replace it, but that’s not a sure way to get rid of the yeast. And I dread them having to change her ET tube or start a new PICC line. She’s already going to have a scar from this PICC line. Of course, the alternatives are worse. Apparently the yeast can kind of take up residence in various organs and cause various kinds of problems: meningitis and encephalitis if it’s in her brain, heart and kidney problems if it gets in either of those, ROP (retinopathy of prematurity – blindness) if it’s in her eyes. Obviously not good. Fortunately he doesn’t really think any of those are very likely, but he’s checking just to be sure. So today Lucy had an ultrasound of her brain, kidneys, and bladder, and an echocardiogram of her heart. We won’t hear the results of the ultrasounds until tomorrow, but we were there when the cardiologist did the echo, and he said her heart was looking good, so that’s a relief at least.
Lucy was a trooper through all these tests. She didn’t desaturate too much, and when she did, she didn’t need too much extra oxygen. She seemed to actually like the head ultrasound, but not the kidneys and bladder. The tech had to undo her diaper to look at her bladder, and she took that as her cue to start flailing around like crazy. I was holding an arm and a leg, the nurse was holding the other leg, and the tech was holding her other arm, and he still needed to stop and wait for her to chill a couple of times. Also, she’d just peed, so not only was it wet down there, but he couldn’t see her empty bladder very clearly. I was glad I could be there to soothe her and help her hold her pacifier in. The echo went better – she didn’t seem to mind that one too much.
Lucy’s feedings are going well, although he’s not increasing them right now in case the yeast causes digestive problems. Since her last increase, though, she’s done well and is not getting as much residual milk in her belly as she was at first.
Now pictures! And a video!
Mommy holding Lucy for the first time:
Daddy holding Lucy:
Close up:
But she’s still trying to hang on to that tube!
Oh my goodness, I’m soooo excited for you guys!! My eyes are welled with happy tears for you. I know you have waited so long for this.
I find it sort of interesting that on National Prayer Day, one of your little prayers becomes reality. I know that God hears all prayers. Thank you God for today’s little baby step! ((hugs))
Oh my, she is so cute. I am thrilled you have finally gotten a chance to hold her. How wonderful for you all. Jill, thank you so much for your blog. I read every word. I know that I don’t ofter write, but I am so moved. Love to you all.