Sunday, October 21, 2007
Sunday Current mood: ecstatic
Thankfully, there is no drama to report today! Macy Jane continues to amaze me with her unfailing strength and fighting spirit. She is almost off of her oxygen and her levels are usually between 98-100% even when she is crying! Now her face turns beet red when she cries instead of blue.......I'm loving it. She still has a chest tube, but hopefully that will come out tomorrow. The only other thing that she has in her pacing wires, which do not come out until she goes home and her central line, which is her IV access. I do not know if she will have to go home with that, I am thinking probably not. I can't imagine holding her without worrying about tubes and lines. We have NEVER been able to do that. I have a lot of adjusting to do once she goes home. We still can't pick her up underneath her arms for 3 months due to her sternum being cut into twice. That's ok though, she can have tummy time though! Oh yeah, she still has the mickey button, which they feed her through, but that is like a part of her now, lol I forget about it.
Her feeds are now up to 15cc/hr. They have increased it 5 cc/day and she has not thrown up yet, knock on wood! She hasn't even shown signs of wanting to gag. I am so thankful to God for that. If things continue to go well, she will be able to go upstairs to a room within the next couple of days. It is amazing that just a week ago it seemed that we would be in the ICU for a long time. God is so awesome!
I have a funny story to tell you. It is humorous to me just because I guess it is the nurse coming out in me,so you may not enjoy it. Macy Jane has been on IV nutrition for a while now and with that she usually poops once a day. If she has feeds going into her mickey button, she usually poops 3-5 times a day. Well, she has been being fed through her mickey button for 3 days now, I think. She hasn't had a major poop since surgery on Wednesday. Well, today we were fortunate to have Brian for a nurse and he gave her a butt bullet (suppository). About 2 hours later, MJs face kept turning beet red and she was grunting. FINALLY she passed gas and I knew things were working. So I waiting about an hour just to make sure she was done and I gently pulled the covers back. OH MY GOSH! That was the diaper from hell. She went so much that it was coming out the sides of the diaper by her hips, all up her back, all down her legs, and up the front. I am not kidding you, it was EVERYWHERE! I just laughed. I called her nurse over and said I need some washcloths, forget baby wipes. we got her cleaned up and changed the blankets under her and were about to put the diaper on her and the little booger peed everywhere!!!!! She is always one up on us. I just love her
I met my mom for lunch yesterday at the mall that is like 2 minutes from the hospital and we decided to go to Macy's and hit the Saturday sale. HA! That was a mistake. Actually, it was a wonderful time because everyone knows that I LOVE to shop. Everything was like 30-40% stuff. I will describe what we bought for her so if you aren't interested, just skip right over this paragraph! We found some cute stuff made by Carter's. I got her a couple of fleece outfits. One has cream colored pants with a brown and cream polka dot jacket with a cute little bitty teddy bear on the left chest, a light green set that has a giant sweet pea on it and says sweet pea at the top, a hot pink set that has a cupcake on it, a seagreen colored one that has baby written on it and it is lined with a white cotton fabric that has baby ducks on it. I bought her some onesies that match the brown polka dot outfit and the cupcake one, it has the same stuff on it as the sets, only it is onesies. My mom picked out this really cute brown dress with pink and turquoise flowers at the top and matching shirt, and a Ralph Lauren dress that is navy blue and looks just like a polo shirt, only it is longsleeved and has a little flare at the bottom. It came with a red, blue, and green plaid belt. That dress is adorable! It was kind of pricy, but it was on sale and we had to have it! Lemme see, what else...... mom got her some bibs--one for halloween to match her witch outfit and one for thanksgiving that matches an outfit my sister bought her.
I cannot wait to go to the gap and get her some jeans and khakis to wear! One thing MJ will never have to worry about is having cute and stylish clothing. Between me and my mom and my sister and even my brother/sister-in-law, she will not want for anything. She doesn't really have any clothes for winter and most of her other clothes are for 0-6 months. She is 5 months old today! We had a hard time deciding what size clothes to get MJ because she is still only 10 pounds and something, but theoretically she should start putting on the weight. We got her some 3- 6 months stuff and then the rest 6 months. I can't wait for her to be a chunky monkey!!!! She is going to be so cute.
Well, it looks like we will be home by Thanksgiving if everything continues to go well. Maybe even before then! As long as she doesn't get an infection, she tolerates her feeds, and the right ventricle of her heart looks good on the next echocardiogram, she should be able to go home in the next few weeks. Keep praying for her, I know I sound like a broken record, but we all know that it works!
Much love,
Bethany
p.s. There is a baby next to MJ that is teeny tiny and the parents got some news today that sounds exactly like what we have been going through over the past 5 months. I do not know what is wrong with the baby exactly, but please just remember them in your prayers. It is so hard to not only go through something, but to hear other parents being told exactly what you were at one point, and just knowing what lies ahead for them. My heart goes out to them! Just pray for them. I don't know their names, but the baby is a boy.