Heidi got to hold Cori Lou for the first time today! When the baby was put in her arms it was a joyful eye-watering moment. After all the help from the nurse getting the IVs and other tubes arranged, mom and baby snuggled for about half an hour, during which time Cori Lou had THE most content look on her face. Here are a few other highlights of progress and what happened today (video at the bottom):
- Right after we arrived, Cori Lou began maniacally pulling out her gastric suction tubing. It was reinserted and taped down more securely. The doctors are still waiting for signs that her bowels have regained activity since surgery. Anesthesia “puts the bowels to sleep” and the muscles of the bowels need to be noticeably awake before any real volume is allowed down there. Meanwhile, she will continue to get occasional drops of colostrum.
take. this. out.
- Respiratory support was discontinued for good at 2 PM yesterday. Her respirations are still being closely monitored (along with everything else). The oxygen content of her blood continues to be excellent. The heart rate and respiration rate, however, are used as indicators of how much pain she is in. Although they have decreased the doses of morphine, she is still getting some regularly for pain control.
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content in mom’s arms They must be doing a good job of balancing it all, because Cori was active and fussed some, but she was not continually crying or inconsolable. It was both good to see her cry and good to see her settle down.
- Having a tube down the trachea frequently leads to some swelling of the inner throat near the epiglottis, and this was the case with Cori Lou. A slight to moderate rattle can be heard when she is breathing, more when she is agitated, but we are told that her lungs sound completely clear. A topical epinephrine has been given a couple of times to keep the swelling from inhibiting her breathing. She also seems to gag periodically on the gastric tube.
still attached to quite a few tubes - The edema seems to have gone down some from yesterday AND her weight is up about 4 ounces from birth weight. It is still unclear how much of that is from water retention.
- Cori Lou’s incision looks clean and healthy. Her belly button is looking cuter every day.
less puffy
Cori Lou’s dad and big sister got to visit later in the day.
