I'm Thankful For.... Googie Pt. 2

As the holidays approach, I continue thinking about what I'm thankful for and reflecting on Googie's 10 days spent in the neo-natal intensive care unit of our local Children's hospital.


Monday, July 25, 2005

Googie is starting to show signs of improvement. The Hub and I were able to spend the entire afternoon at her bedside. Yesterday she was down to 70% oxygen, but that had to be upped overnight and she was back to 100% this morning. When we arrived this afternoon, she was down to 85%... and throughout our visit they were able to slowly wean her down all the way to 55%. We called and checked on her about 9pm tonight... they did have to up her oxygen level to 60%, but that's ok. During our visit she showed little signs of agitation and was resting well.

Her pneumonia is responding to the antibiotics and today's x-ray showed improvement. That's all good news. Her echo cardiogram came back A-OK. In fact, to quote the cardiologist, she has "the prettiest little heart" he's ever seen. That was wonderful news for us.

So I asked her nurse why her oxygen levels had to be put back up to 100%. Basically we're still dealing with her lungs maturing. She's not yet producing the Cerfactin on her own (that helps lubricate the lung tissues so they operate properly). She will soon start producing the stuff on her own... some babies just take a little longer than others... and after all, the first 36 hours of her life were exhausting for her.

My little girl still has to have a machine help her breathe.

She's still breathing on the ventilator, but more and more while we were there we noticed she was taking very deep breaths on her own. That's also good news. She's getting stronger. Her heart and blood pressure rates are fine, well within the normal limits. Her respiratory rates are staying in the 40s... SO MUCH better than the 110 times a minute earlier this weekend.

She's got a touch of jaundice, but her levels aren't high at the moment. The nurses were going to test her levels again later tonight or tomorrow morning... she may end up on the Billi-Light... but that's normal for a lot of newborns.

She's still not able to eat... instead getting all of her nutrition from an IV. Eating will have to wait until she's off the ventilator. It's still too early to tell when she might be able to go home. I would guess best case scenario *MIGHT* be by the end of the weekend, but I'm betting mid-week next week or later. At this point, I don't care... as long as it takes... at least I know she's getting better. Googie is healthy and improving and USA's staff is doing an AMAZING job. I just can't say enough good things about these wonderful people. They are as gentle with the parents as they are with the babies... asking as many questions about how I'm doing as I ask about how she is doing.

I am healing well, at least physically. Emotionally and mentally it is a very hard road for me at the moment. It's very hard to come home and see all this baby stuff and not have her here... I really miss her a lot and want nothing more than to sit at her bedside 24/7. I know right now I can't physically do that, so I'm trying very hard to get as much rest as possible. I will get my staples removed on Friday.

The Hub is going back to work Tuesday so he can save his vacation time for when she comes home. Since he gets off at 10:30 every morning, we'll have all day to spend at the hospital with her before we have to come home so he can get some sleep in the evening.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.