Today, Emma reached 32 weeks gestational age. Around 9pm this evening they removed her IV from her arm so she is now on 100% Mommy's milk for nutrients. They've upped the fortification on the milk to 26 calories per ounce and she's now receiving 13ml of milk every 3 hours. That will remain that way for a while. If they change anything anytime soon it will be the amount of fortification that will increase. They don't know how long she'll be on 13ml each feeding, but they will not increase her again anytime soon. She's tolerating everything very well, digesting her feeds great, and seems to have adjusted to life in an incubator quite nicely! She's doing great and we're so, so happy and proud of her. Keep it up baby!!
I've gotten a lot of questions lately about how the rest of us are doing, so the post tonight will be a little update on that. Emma's stable so I feel maybe I should address the rest of us tonight. Britne and I are hanging in there the best we can. Unless you've been through something like this before then there is really no way to describe exactly how we feel. You get the whole gamut of emotions. Every time the nurses or doctors tell you something good, you feel euphoric and you start getting very excited thinking about the future, which we've been told not to do. As I have said before, everyone there has told us that for a while, Emma will take 1 step forward and 2 steps back. And as soon as we find ourselves thinking ahead, we will get the news about her taking the 2 steps back that they keep telling us are coming. When that happens we feel devastated. It brings us back down to earth and then some.
The highs are awesome, and the lows are terrible. I think it's probably normal, but we get higher on the highs than the doctors and nurses want us to and we get lower on the lows than they want us to. I would imagine that for the first few weeks most parents are probably the same. As I said at the beginning of tonight's post, Emma's only 32 weeks gestational age. Her older sister wasn't even here for 5 more weeks from where we are right now, and we have a baby that's now 15 days old. So this is definitely a very different feeling than the first time around. We are doing as well as anyone could expect us to be doing. The team in Chapel Hill taking care of her has been just wonderful. We know that everything happens for a reason, God is giving us this right now as part of a plan. Our faith is getting us through this. Our friends and our family are getting us through this. But most of all, Emma is getting us through this.
Speaking of Emma's older sister Eden, she's adjusting about as well as anyone could expect her to adjust also. Mommy and Daddy aren't home as much recently, including the 9 days we spent in the hospital in Chapel Hill initially. But she loves going to her grandparents' house. It's a big vacation for her there. They've got tons of toys and a dog that she absolutely loves! Thank God for Bailey!! But it is an adjustment for her too. I think it will end up being a good thing because it gives her a chance to get used to the idea of not only having a sister before Emma comes home, but also to the fact that Mommy and Daddy are going to have to take care of Emma when she comes home so we'll have to divide our attention between the two of them. Until now it's been all Eden all the time. She's going to be in for a big adjustment when Emma finally does come home, so I think this will ultimately help her with that. Only time will tell. But she's an amazing little girl, too. The poor thing has also had a change in her daycare class this week to deal with on top of everything else, but other than not napping for the first 3 days in that class she's adjusting nicely. We're as proud of her as we can possibly be, too. She's a sweetheart and we love her so much. She keeps us smiling!!
So that's how we're doing. Thanks for all the messages of concern recently, it made me realize that we haven't let you guys know how we are handling everything. Like I said, we're hanging in there the best we can, still adjusting to having a baby in the NICU. There are good days, and there are bad days. So far the good have out numbered the bad. We definitely hope that trend continues! I think that by the time we get completely used to Emma being there, she'll be on her way home to our house. But we're hanging in there pretty well given the circumstances.
No comments:
Post a Comment