8 days old - Good and Not So Good News

Some good news and some not so good news... which would you like to hear first? We'll start with the not so good news...

Ashlynn had an "event" today. Her heartrate dropped below 100 for a couple of seconds due to apnea (she forgets to breath sometimes) so now she has to be monitored for 5 days no matter what. We were hoping she would be home in a day or two, but it's official that she has at least 5 more days in the NICU. When I talked to her doctor he said that she was able to snap herself out of it pretty quick and her breathing and heart rate went back to normal but it is still something that needs to be watched. He told me not to get my heart set on her coming home in 5 days because some kids will make it to day 4 and then have another event and then they are back to day 1 of 5 days again.

We're bummed that she has to stay longer but at the same time we are thankful that it happened while she was still in the hospital. As much as we want her home, we don't want her to come home before she's completely ready.

Now for the good news, she is gaining weight!!! She got down to 4lbs 15oz and stayed there for a couple of days but now she is up to 5lbs 5oz!!! She's almost back up to her birth weight!!

Also she ate really well last night and has continued to do so throughout the day. This morning when Dave was feeding her she finished 47 cc's in 8 minutes!! That's definitely a record for her, she usually takes close to the full 30 minutes that they give her to eat. When I was there feeding her she didn't want to finish the last 15 cc's so they had to put that in her NG tube. But the 2nd feeding I did today went really well! She finished everything in just under 15 minutes.

The last thing that the doctor told me today was we are waiting on 3 things before she is able to come home....

The first thing is the apnea event that I talked about at the beginning of the post. As soon as she makes it 5 days without an event we can scratch that off the list.

The second thing is passing her carseat test. They had us bring in her carseat 2 nights ago and they monitored her while she sat in it for 30 minutes (well, she didn't make it the full 30 minutes...) to make sure she wasn't going to have any events while sitting in it. They want to make sure she'll be safe on the car ride home and any car rides after that. Because she's a preemie her airways are so small and when she's sitting up like that they can be blocked off. She had an event during the test so they will retest in 72 hours, which I think is tomorrow night. Hopefully she'll pass next time or else they will have to wait another 72 hours before they try again.

And the last thing is her bilirubin levels. They are still going up a little bit but he feels like they are going to go down on their own because she is eating and pooping a lot. They are going to check her levels again in 2 days and as long as they are on their way down by then she won't have to go under the bili lights again.

Of course other things can come up but as of right now those are the only issues.

Now for some pictures! :) I brought her a new hat and a cute blanket today. The hat was too big, her head is just so tiny, I think you can kind of imagine how small her head is with this picture. That binky is huge in her mouth! At least she can use the blanket I brought. :)


I think this next picture is my absolute favorite so far. She was wide awake while I was holding her and just staring at me. ♥ I think we both were in heaven.