Week 36, Day 3, Sugar-Water Diet

(Note: This is a special links-out-the-wazoo blog entry. I didn't intend it, but noticed after finishing up that it seems to have more hyperlinks than usual. So, click away and follow those links if you want.)

Hannah's doing fine, but they took her off stomach feeds (tube or bottle) yesterday until they make sure that some bubbles in her intestines are nothing serious. The X-rays showed that they had moved on and the blood tests all came back negative for infection, so at least it seems to not be NEC. It's probably just air bubbles, like she had a few weeks ago.

At the moment, she's just getting IV nutrition (sugar water and sodium) and will probably go back to TPN (a richer IV nutrition mixture) later today, after which they will quickly ramp back up on the gavage feedings (through the stomach tube), and then back to the bottle. The bottle can be tricky with the CPAP mask on her nose, but she may go back to the nasal cannula before she gets back to the bottle anyway.

For her (hopefully brief) return to the ICU, she's actually got one of the few actual "rooms" in the NICU, with four walls and a window to the outside. They usually reserve these for infants that need more isolation (because of noise sensitivity or infection) and long-term care, but in Hannah's case, she just happened to get it because she swapped with another baby headed to "Baby Steps" (the less-intensive area of the ICU). Sorta like checking into a hotel and getting the VIP suite for regular price just because it was empty and already cleaned.

This little jaunt back to intensive care is a good example of how they tend to play it safe and cover all the bases with these babies. If Hannah's breathing decline had been caused by something more serious, they want her to be where they can intervene quickly and fix it. Hopefully, it was just caused by her immature lungs, some air bubbles in her intestines, and some booger build-up caused by the air they're blowing up her nose (they can moisten the air, but then that can cause fluid build-up in the lungs, which also decreases lung function). I'm glad to see them being so thorough.

We went to the wedding reception of a good friend of mine last night (photo by Megan Resch). Three weddings within a month! It was great to see Jason get married, cause he's really too good a guy to leave on the shelf past his expiration date. And although I barely know her, it's obvious that Jennifer is just as wonderful a person, and that this is a perfect match.