Today was a better day. Maddie seems to be looking okay - and screamed through her entire bath tonight, so she's definitely got her attitude back - not that she ever really lost it this time around. They were FINALLY able to identify the bacteria from the blood culture that was taken on Friday night and it turns out that it's a strain of staph infection. This is easily treated with antibiotics, but apparently it isn't combated by the cocktail of current antibiotics that she has been on - so this can explain why she became sick again only a week after seemingly getting better. The antibiotics she was on before, and on this time up until today, worked to an extent, but not completely because they aren't the appropriate medications. So they changed her antibiotics - leaving her on two different antibiotics that can combat this staph infection. So hopefully she'll start to really feel better in a couple days - and hopefully this time, she'll stay that way! She'll be on antibiotics for possibly 2 weeks, so Dr. Sanchez (our doctor while Dr. Kamtorn is on vacation) is going to put in a PICC line tomorrow. If you remember from when the girls were first born, the PICC line is a central line that they put in so that all of the medications, fluids, etc. can go through one line. Madison's veins are so shot from the constant IVs, that they can't find enough veins to keep moving her IV every couple days (which needs to be done to prevent additional infection). Once the PICC line is in, it can stay in place until all the antibiotics are complete so she doesn't have to be poked and prodded every couple of days with nurses/doctors looking for a vein to put an IV in. They increased her lipids today to help her gain weight. She had lost a little bit of weight yesterday, but today she went back up and she's 3lbs 8oz as of tonight.
Melia is doing good. They increased her bottle feedings again to every feeding. She did really well with this throughout the day, but tonight, for the first time in days she couldn't finish her bottle and had to have the rest put through the feeding tube. Tonight was bath night, so I don't know if giving her a bath exhausted her or what, but her 8pm feeding (which is usually her best feeding because she's usually the most awake and alert at this time) didn't go well - she desaturated her and there and even had a couple bradys - she couldn't seem to coordinate her breathing while eating as good as she usually does. But, this is expected since she's still learning and trying to build up enough energy to do every feeding by bottle. Melia gained weight since yesterday too, now weighing 4lbs 8oz.
Hopefully today is the beginning of moving forward for Madison. I'm not worried about Melia not being able to handle all of her feedings by bottle - I know she'll get there in the next couple days. My girls are strong. They're fighters. And they're stubborn - insistent on doing things at their own pace - and as long as they're healthy, I can deal with that.
- Mike and Amanda
- I am a 29 year old mother of identical twin girls, Madison and Melia. They were born at 29 weeks, 1 day gestation and spent 8 weeks in the NICU at St. Barnabas Hospital in Livingston, NJ. They hit 40 weeks gestation on August 20, 2009 and are now considered full term. Even though they are actually 11 weeks old, they are just now considered to be newborns. I started this blog as a way to keep friends and family informed on what was going on with the girls while they were in the NICU. It has turned into a keepsake and a therapuetic outlet. I hope that everyone continues to follow along and enjoys sharing this first hand experience of first-time parents of premature twin girls.
Words that I came to live by while on strict bedrest for 6 weeks during my pregnancy, 4 of which were spent in the hospital ~ Redirect the substantial energy of your frustration and turn it into positive, effective, unstoppable determination. Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you'll start having positive results.
