The First of Many Diaper Changes...

This morning we got another good report from the NICU. Elsie continues to have fewer and fewer episodes of Apnea and Bradycardia. According to Pregnancy.org Apnea is a "pause of breathing" and lasts 15-20 seconds, and is associated with Bradycardia or a slowing of the heart rate. Yesterday she had three episodes in 24 hours where the nurse had to actually stimulate her to get her heartrate back up, the others Elsie corrected on her own. When I spoke to the Doctor this morning she said that Elsie's lungs look great and seem to be mature past her 29 weeks, so they think this may be due to how developed (or underdeveloped) her brain is. She is simply forgetting to breathe. This is common for a baby of her gestational age. She is on a Sinus CPAP (the tubes you see going in her nose in the pics) that is hooked to a ventilator. Right now she is on a "back up" that sends 20 puffs of air into her lungs when she forgets to breathe. If she continues to do well today, they may try turning off this back up overnight tonight to see how she does. This is to eventually get her off the Sinus CPAP all together. As you can imagine, having prongs stuck in your nose 24/7 does not feel nice. Three times while we were there this morning Elsie tried to pull them out. She is not a fan.

The other major item to report: I got to change her diaper! We arrived right at the time for her "cluster of care" this morning. Instead of doing a diaper, then taking her temp a little while later, and then checking her blood pressure a little while after that; the NICU practices cluster care. This just means they do everything at once instead of constantly messing with her. So after the nurse took her BP, I got to take her temperature and then change her diaper. For those of you that are wondering, you take the temp under her arm. I stuck a little probe under her arm and then kept her arm by her side so we could get an accurate reading. She did have a dirty diaper when I changed her, and since her behind is so tiny it was a breeze to clean up! I wish I could post how tiny the diapers are. They are smaller than the palm of my hand and still seem large on Elsie!

Luckily, Daddy and I remembered the camera so he was there to capture this pic. A girls gotta have her accessories when changing baby diapers, right? Also, when I say Daddy...I mean my Daddy. Since he is retired he offered to stay here with us until I can drive. He has been awesome. Aside from driving me to the NICU twice a day; he went to Target with me on Tuesday, took me to get my brows done yesterday, and is currently cleaning my bathroom. A girl always needs her Daddy. Maybe one day Ryan will be doing the same for Elsie?

Love Y'all,

Ellen