Day 25

Today I got to go to my first meeting since having Ava. Afterward, I went to the hospital to see her. She was up to 7.5ml of food today. She does spit up a bit of it, which they call reflux, but the nurse said that typically happens to babies at the gestation age of 27-28 weeks. Ava was high up on her O2 in the 90s but her saturation was pretty good. They also had to go up on her amplitude as well, but her CO2 gas was stable at 62% CO2. Ava also had another blood transfusion which will hopefully make her stronger. They put the transfusion in her head again. I really liked the nurse today and I spoke to her about yesterday's nurse situation. I showed her how they moved Ava and she said that isn't how you should move her. She also said that it is my job to protect her and that is the only real thing I can do for her. I was able to change her teeny diaper and wash her up and bit and put lotion on her. I spoke to the doctor again, and he told me that most likely she will need steroids for her lungs at a month. I said that a month is next Wednesday. He couldn't believe it. He told me that one of the other docs start back on days again that day, so we'll be dealing with a new doctor. He also told me that steroids can really affect the brain and cause disabilities even when given during pregnancy. It usually happens when you have more than two doses. I thought that was interesting since I had never heard of that. I will have to look that up.

I did meet a really nice mom tonight who has a two pound daughter in the NICU. We talked quite a bit so that was nice. She also has two boys at home so she knows what we are going through.

I also brought home 3 of Ava's diapers - One for Ari, one for Ali and one as a keepsake for Ava. The girls hugged the diaper and took photos with it. So cute... I also got a few photos of Ava with her eyes open. She had her eyes open more than any time and the nurse said that was the only time that day that she was awake and her eyes open that long. Ava must love her mama! =)

I spoke to the nurse before her shift was over and asked her if she could also be one of Ava's primary nurse. She told me that another nurse had signed up to be her primary as well and that if we wanted her to be as well, she would. Now we should have three on days. Yeah!

I just called to check on Ava and she was doing much better tonight. Her O2 was in the 70s and her saturation most of the time is in the late 80s, early 90s with some 70s. She hasn't had any problems with her food so we should be going up tomorrow. So we're only about 4 days away from her full feed of 12ml which would be on Monday. Praise God!