Madison was fed 3 times today and digested just about half of each feeding. She is tolerating her feedings very well and will start to be fed more and more each day as she continues to digest the majority what's given to her. She remains on the ventilator with her oxygen levels ranging from 24%-31%, although an x-ray done today showed that her lungs are still pretty immature. She's still under the phototherapy light as her bilirubin levels are still showing some jaundice, though her color is looking better and better by the day. She wasn't really pooping as she should, so the nurse gave her a suppository and this really helped her along. Normally I wouldn't share that information, but isn't that what parents of newborns talk about? Food, sleep and poop?!?! ;-) No really, the importance of the poop is that her jaundice should get better as she expels toxins through her bowel. So pooping in her case is extra special. ;-) She didn't have any apnea/bradycardia episodes today, which is great news! We noticed today just how curious Maddie is. Even when she has her eye mask on, we can see her trying to peak
at us from the openings on the bottom. She usually has her eyes open and she looks all around like she's trying to figure things out. She's noticed the ventilator tube hanging out of her mouth and she spends a nice portion of her day trying to rip it out! She's already doing the funniest things. Like in this pic
ture where she throws her foot at Mike as if she wants her feet rubbed. She does it all the time and it's so cute! That may be the only trait she's gotten from me, a love of foot rubs, since she looks just like Mike (and his sister)! ;-)Melia was fed 6 times today and digested almost all of her food. She is tolerating her feedings very well and will now be fed on a schedule every 4-6 hours. I fed my daughter for the first time today - holding the syringe that sends her formula down through her feeding tube. It wasn't the way I envisoned the first time I'd be feeding my daughter, but it was awesome n
onetheless. Her lungs are still very immature as shown on an x-ray done today, so she was given a second dose of Surfactant. She was still on CPAP in the morning, with her oxygen requirement ranging anywhere from 28%-40%. The fact that she's creeping up to a 40% oxygen requirement (and the fact that she required more Surfactant) isn't a good sign for her lung development and we were starting to think she might need to be on a ventilator like Madison. Plus, she was clearly struggling to catch her breath on the CPAP and it was really hard to see her like that. So sure enough, around 3pm Dr. Kaptorn came to the room to tell us that Melia was being placed on a ventilator. Aside from the oxygen levels and the x-ray, Melia had several apnea/bradycardia episodes throughout the day, proving that she was struggling too hard with CPAP alone, and a ventilator was the best route to take in order to Melia to get some rest and be able to catch her breath. Oh, and it looks like we've figured out which one daddy will turn into a tomboy. Melia is way into touchdowns!
