Elsie is now wearing clothes in her incubator. The onesie is the NICUs, it is a preemie size, and you cannot really tell in this picture...but it is huge on her. Isn't she cutie patootie? The purpose of the onesie is for her to learn to regulate her body temperature. Slowly they will start to turn down the temp in her little house, and assess her body temperature to make sure she can hold a good 98.6 degrees.
She is now 2 lbs 12 oz, which is 1260 grams. She only needs to gain 40 more grams to get the CPAP off. Hopefully this week she will gain the 40 grams needed and they can put a cannula in. According to the Nurse Practitioner micro-preemies (Elsie is a micro-preemie, meaning she weighed less that 1 lbs 11 oz) that have a CPAP until 1300 grams do better in the long run. So even though she is fighting it now, we hope that keeping the CPAP on until she is 1300 grams will allow her body to grow and her lungs mature enough that she does well for the next phase of treatment.
Next on the treatment plan is learning to take all foods by mouth. Once she has her cannula in, and the CPAP off, they will have an occupational therapist work with us on breastfeeding as well as bottle feeding. The OT can teach sucking, swallowing, etc. The NICU has an excellent lactation consultant that is rumored to be able to get a baby to nurse off the side of a wall. Let's hope it doesn't come to that...
Love Y'all,
Ellen
That's one good looking onesie! So cute! Awesome that you'll get to start working on nursing soon. I didn't know if that was going to be an option for you guys. I hope that she takes right to it!
ReplyDeleteSo happy to hear of Elsie's progress... and, yes, she IS a 'cute patootie!' :-)
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