Slightly askew

Amelia's Weight today- 1090grams - about 2.3lbs.; but suspected a lot of fluid weight, as that's an abnormally large weight gain overnight, as she was 990grams yesterday. (100grams where 20-30 is average.)
She was very stable yesterday, and Xina got to kangaroo for about 2 1/2 hours Wednesday night. She eventually napped a tad - it was cute, but I wasn't on the ball and didn't get any pictures. Her gases were good and basically the same all day and into Thursday morning.

Her urine output is down today, though, and she maintaining more fluid. They've given her another dose of lasix this evening, and we're hoping that will help. Her blood pressure is a little elevated, and that's likely due to the dopamine, so they decreased her dosage of that, which is another contributing factor. All of these factors have Xina worried, since they were precursors to the last crash... but the nurse is calming her down now and reassuring her that everything is normal, and nothing that can't be handled. Thick skin, thick skin, is what we have to remember.

She will need another PKU test, which all newborns inthe US have - which tests for certain proteins and things that are related to the thyroid. It's normal for a preemie of her gestation to read in a way that would need a second test to verify a negative or positive for the condition. It's nothing to be concerned about at this time, and I won't go into details on what it could mean. You all can use google if you want.

But, for the most part, she's stable and as fine as her current problems can let her be. No infections have been found, but the Dr is likely going to treat her as if there is one as her body is reacting as if she has one. It's a 7 day treatment, and after that he will probably want the surgery to close off the PDA. If a surgery is done on a baby with an infection, then the complications to the baby could be extreme, as it causes too much stress on the heart. So he wants to play it safe. He believes he can combat the results of the PDA with the medicines well enough to buy the time. And the surgery is common, and though likely to cause her to be ill for a few days afterwards as she recovers - who wouldn't? - it will likely help things tremendously once she recovers.

Our visit tonight has a been a little odd. We got here a little later than usual, but I did get to spend some quality time with her before dinner. Our dinner was brought to us tonight by an old work buddy of Xina's - chicken enchiladas - and we're taking leftovers home for lunch tomorrow. Our pod was receiving a new baby tonight, lifeflighted from somewhere, so we had to wait until about 7:30 to get back in... but the baby did not come until 7:35, at which time we were kicked out while they stablized the new baby - which, at 10:00, they are still doing. But they let us back in about 8:50pm. We now have 6 babies in our pod, when over the weekend we were down to 3. 4 babies have visitors, one has 5 nurses around him, and there's gurgling and beeping everywhere. There's limited time for other nurses to help ours with the exchanges that take place in order to kangaroo, so all in all, it is not the soothing environment for that tonight. Perhaps it's best Amelia not go through the trauma of the exchange tonight, anyway, and get her undisturbed rest.
So we're leaving early. Tonight is just one of those minor slopes and not a wide valley that will arise (or more aptly decline, if we keep the metaphor consistent ) that we need to get used to over the course of the next few months. She will be fine, and we know that because of our faith and the prayers of our family and friends.