***Written by Chris McDowell, Jill's Mother***
Thank you all so much for your prayers. Jill and Tom were able to meet at length today with the neonatologist who was on duty. He happens to be the one present at Noelle's birth and helped take care of her and has even checked in on her this week when he was off.
First off, one correction is that Noelle has hypOthyroidism not hyper--. That was a misunderstanding on the terminology. Anyway, the medicine they started her on for that seems to be helping. Her blood sugars have been stable the last couple of days.
Her breathing is doing very well. She has done very well with her oxygen levels even as they have stepped down the work that the ventilator is doing for her. We hope to see improvement soon in the one small area of lung that wasn't as developed.
Major praise today--Jill actually got to hold Noelle outside the incubator for about 30 minutes. Noelle just snuggled up and slept.
The doctor took Jill and Tom to an area where he could show them all the images of Noelle's brain and show them the area that was of concern. The big concern is for a brain bleed. He said they aren't seeing symptoms of that. The lateral ventricle (I don't know if just one or both) slightly larger than what they usually see. He said this may just be normal for Noelle and not mean anything. They are watching for a brain bleed and for fluid build up in the brain, but he said that if this were to be going on there would be symptoms and Noelle is not exhibiting any symptoms so they will just continue to monitor closely.
Her feeding tube was bumped up to 0.3 ml/hr today. She tolerated the 0.2 well the last 24 hours. Still a ways to go. They usually like to see babies this small be taking in 3 ml/hr. I figured out that at the 0.2 level that gets her 1 tsp. in 25 hours. At 0.3 she should get 1 tsp. in about 16 hours. I pray she continues to do well so this can step up to a more substantial amount, but she is tolerating this well and it is allowing her intestines to grow and start to function properly.
She weighed 440 grams today which is about 15.5 ounces. That is good. She had so much swelling and edema from the birth that they warned Jill and Tom that she would drop weight -- most likely below her birth weight (365 grams/13 ounces). The swelling/edema/retained water is almost gone, but her weight is still up. She did drop 10 grams today because yesterday she was 450 grams, but that is not anything of concern. We hope to see this weight continue to go up.
Lastly, Jill and Tom would appreciate your prayers for recovery, rest and calmness in the midst of stress. It's beginning to catch up a bit. (That's why I'm doing the update tonight). They are trying different ways to work their schedule to see what will work best and I know they would appreciate prayers for wisdom and discernment. Thanks to you all and my God Bless!!
Thank you all so much for your prayers. Jill and Tom were able to meet at length today with the neonatologist who was on duty. He happens to be the one present at Noelle's birth and helped take care of her and has even checked in on her this week when he was off.
First off, one correction is that Noelle has hypOthyroidism not hyper--. That was a misunderstanding on the terminology. Anyway, the medicine they started her on for that seems to be helping. Her blood sugars have been stable the last couple of days.
Her breathing is doing very well. She has done very well with her oxygen levels even as they have stepped down the work that the ventilator is doing for her. We hope to see improvement soon in the one small area of lung that wasn't as developed.
Major praise today--Jill actually got to hold Noelle outside the incubator for about 30 minutes. Noelle just snuggled up and slept.
The doctor took Jill and Tom to an area where he could show them all the images of Noelle's brain and show them the area that was of concern. The big concern is for a brain bleed. He said they aren't seeing symptoms of that. The lateral ventricle (I don't know if just one or both) slightly larger than what they usually see. He said this may just be normal for Noelle and not mean anything. They are watching for a brain bleed and for fluid build up in the brain, but he said that if this were to be going on there would be symptoms and Noelle is not exhibiting any symptoms so they will just continue to monitor closely.
Her feeding tube was bumped up to 0.3 ml/hr today. She tolerated the 0.2 well the last 24 hours. Still a ways to go. They usually like to see babies this small be taking in 3 ml/hr. I figured out that at the 0.2 level that gets her 1 tsp. in 25 hours. At 0.3 she should get 1 tsp. in about 16 hours. I pray she continues to do well so this can step up to a more substantial amount, but she is tolerating this well and it is allowing her intestines to grow and start to function properly.
She weighed 440 grams today which is about 15.5 ounces. That is good. She had so much swelling and edema from the birth that they warned Jill and Tom that she would drop weight -- most likely below her birth weight (365 grams/13 ounces). The swelling/edema/retained water is almost gone, but her weight is still up. She did drop 10 grams today because yesterday she was 450 grams, but that is not anything of concern. We hope to see this weight continue to go up.
Lastly, Jill and Tom would appreciate your prayers for recovery, rest and calmness in the midst of stress. It's beginning to catch up a bit. (That's why I'm doing the update tonight). They are trying different ways to work their schedule to see what will work best and I know they would appreciate prayers for wisdom and discernment. Thanks to you all and my God Bless!!
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