Amelia the Amazing

Amelia is amazing! Of course I think so because I am her mommy, but she was really doing well yesterday. I went to the hospital and I held her for three hours. She had her eyes open a little bit. They look like they are lightening up and aren't the dark, dark, inky color they were before. She sat'ted well the entire time we kangarooed. At one point yesterday she was down to 30% oxygen! She has lost even more fluid and she looks like herself again instead of a mini sumu wrestler. She is so beautiful. But again, I am her mommy so I have built in bias.

They have begun fortifying her milk with extra calories. Breast milk averages around 20 calories and they want her to have 24 calories. Can you imagine being on a 24 calorie diet? But this is huge for her and will put fat on her frame and bulk her up. She weighed in at 1390 grams last night. That is 3 lbs. 1 oz. She has lost weight, but it is fluid weight so that is good. Nutrition and growing will help her develop lung capacity and healthy lung tissue which will help her breathe and get her off the vent. Also when she gets fat enough she can maintain her own body temperature, she can start wearing clothes and they will move her to an open air bed.

The doctor told me that he thinks she does NOT have pneumonia, but something called tracheitus. They had her on some antibiotics, but they are resistant, so they switched her to some different ones. They don't seem very concerned about it. They think it is very easy to get rid of and she seems to be making good progress despite it.

Miss Amelia continued to do well through the night and this morning. Her blood gas was 52 on her CO2 so they weaned her on her rate to 32 BPM. I don't recall ever seeing her rate this low. As always, they will give her another blood gas to see how she is handling the change.

Her old attending doctor came by to check on her yesterday. I think it is wonderful how much these people care about their wards. Her primary nurses call on their days off, my ObGyn looks at her records online, her attending physician always comes by when he sees us here to talk to us, nurses come by her bedside (even when they aren't attending to her currently) to check up on her. She has scores of healthcare professionals invested in her healthy future.

One of her primary nurses is leaving on vacation for 12 days! We are going to really miss her. She has been the one that has advocated all this aggressive suctioning which I am convinced is the key to her recovery. Before she left she said she wanted to see Amelia on CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) when she gets back. CPAP are those sleep apnea masks that people have to wear at night when they sleep. Moving to the CPAP is a huge leap. It means she won't be on the ventilator much longer because she can breathe a lot on her own without assistance. Do I dare to dream? I won't let myself get too excited about this possibility yet.