The Emma Report

Emma had another busy day and by mid-afternoon she was a very sleepy girl:

She had one more (and hopefully last!) head ultrasound and it was, as the others have been, completely clear with no evidence of any intracranial bleeding. I must say the possibility of brain bleeds is one of the things I’ve feared most, so it was reassuring to hear today that everything looks good (with the added caveat that they won’t know for sure about her development for months/years to come).

Emma did better at bottlefeeding today and is gradually getting the hang of the “suck-swallow-BREATHE” thing. We actually had her completely off the monitors (until now she’s been attached to various leads which record/monitor her heart rate, respiration rate, and oxygen saturation rate 24 hours daily) while she was eating. Partly this is because she’s doing better, and partly it is so that we get used to “reading her signals” and don’t rely so much on the monitors to tell us how she’s doing.

Emma also had another bath care of Mom (under the watchful eyes of the nurses), and we appear to have passed that test, too

I had a long chat with one of the neonatologists and he is very pleased with how Emma is doing, especially over the past few days. The blood transfusion seems to have made a huge difference… He’d like to see her gain more weight, but he confirmed that (barring any unforeseen occurences) she’ll likely be able to go home within the next 2 weeks (Yay!! and Yikes!!!)

So, there are a few more tests that Emma must pass before discharge (another eye exam and a hearing test will be done later this week) but it looks like we can start to see a bit of light at the end of this long tunnel.

(P.S., thanks for the preemie clothes Nancy…. we think Emma makes a lovely model ;~)

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