That describes Emma’s skin tone today…much rosier than the past couple of weeks! Amazing what a little bit of blood will do 
She’s obviously feeling a bit stronger, too. She was able to bottle more than half of her feedings today and hasn’t needed any additional oxygen since last Thursday. That means she is a few steps closer to coming home!
I just spoke with Emma’s nurse: The transfusion went well, she’s feeling better, and she had her last two feeds by bottle. Sounds like she’s back to her new self!
Emma also hasn’t required any supplemental oxygen in almost two days, which is a very encouraging!
Emma and I had a good cuddle tonight, and she remained on room air throughout the evening. She’s still looking pale and didn’t really wake up while I was there – definitely not the active little baby of a few days ago. Of course if my hemoglobin was at 82 I wouldn’t feel too energetic either. The blood finally did show up around 11pm, but unfortunately the IV they put in on Friday in anticipation of the blood’s arrival is blown, so the nurse will have to poke her again to transfuse the blood. I bowed out to let the nurse work without me looking over her shoulder. I imagine that starting an IV on such a little one is hard enough without an audience. They have Emma down for a “double” transfusion (30cc), so I expect that Laurie will arrive tomorrow to find a pink, wide awake little girl.
It would appear that Canadian Blood Services have some logistical challenges and the blood that was supposed to arrive yesterday hasn’t. Kinda scary that FedEx can get an envelope anywhere in the country overnight, but CBS apparently can’t move blood around town on schedule. We’re told that it should be delivered sometime tonight.
Emma is doing well on room air, but she’s a bit pale — hopefully she’ll perk up when her blood finally arrives.
11 weeks. 77 days. 1854 hours. That’s how long Emma has been in hospital.
Can you tell how eager we are to have her home with us??
As she is now 35 weeks gestational age, Emma has reached the minimum required age for discharge from the NICU/SCN. However, while she is gaining weight (up to 1490 g today – approx. 3 pounds, 4.5 ounces), she is still very small and in an incubator, is not yet off a feeding tube, and is having occasional spells (periods of apnea and/or bradycardia). Emma must be spell-free for 7 days before she can come home, so she will remain in hospital for at least a few more weeks.
Emma was more alert today (staying awake for a while after each feed, kicking and wriggling around her isolette) but is still sleeping more than usual. The team is hoping that once she receives her transfusion (we’re still waiting for the blood to arrive) she’ll perk up a bit. She was able to bottle part of one feed today and hasn’t required any supplemental oxygen in 24 hours, so she is already showing signs of improvement.
Emma remained pretty sleepy today, but she seemed better (and was more active) than yesterday. The team decided not to test her too much (in an effort to let her rest), so she received all of her feeds by NG tube. They also decided to order some blood tests. The results came back fine, indicating she is NOT developing an infection (Yay!!!!). However, her hemoglobin has dropped considerably over the past week, so Emma will receive a blood transfusion as soon as Eric’s donated blood is available, likely Friday evening or Saturday morning.
Emma also had another eye examination today. The ophthalmologist feels that her retinopathy has progressed from Stage 1 to Stage 2 (indicating moderately abnormal blood vessel growth). While many babies who develop Stage 2 improve with no treatment and eventually develop normal vision, if the disease progresses, Emma may need laser surgery before she comes home. The doc from CHEO will come back to see her next week to assess her again.
Otherwise, Emma did well from a respiratory viewpoint today. She was able to remain on room air (with no supplemental oxygen) for a good part of the day and only had one tiny little spell.
Let’s hope Miss Emma is back to her fiesty self tomorrow
Not much to report today as Emma spent much of it sleeping.
Her hemoglobin remains low, so Eric will be making another blood donation tomorrow (he and Emma share the same blood type and he is able to directly donate blood for her) in the event that she needs another blood transfusion. There is still some concern that Emma may be developing an infection, but, for now, the team is just watching her closely as she doesn’t show any other signs of being sick (apart from being more lethargic). The general consensus today was that Emma is simply exhausted from her Herculian efforts at bottle-feeding yesterday. She likely just did too much, too soon and now needs time to recuperate. Today, she took only part of one of her feeds by bottle (the rest through her NG tube). We hope that by letting her rest and recover today, she’ll feel better tomorrow.
Rest well and grow strong, little one….
Emma continues to do really well with her feeds… she was able to take 3/4 of her milk by bottle today (1/4 by gavage) and had another good try at breastfeeding. She’s shown some interest in nursing, but like most preemies, Emma tends to fall asleep and doesn’t have enough sucking power to really get any milk on her own. She’ll likely need another week or two (she’s currently 34 weeks) before she can really start breast feeding–but even then, it will have to be supplemented with bottles or the NG tube.
The team is also trying to slowly wean her off oxygen, so she was “tested” a few times today by removing the nasal prongs entirely. Her nurse also changed her NG tube this afternoon, so I took the opportunity to snap a photo of her beautiful face, completely tube-free: 
Emma also had her first Mom-assisted bath today…. until now, the night nurse has always been bathing her (mostly because it tends to be a bit less hectic in the NICU/SCN overnight), but today, Mom was able to join in the fun 
Eric reports that Emma was more sleepy and lethargic this evening (she also had a couple of spells while he was there). Hopefully, this was just because she had such a busy day, and is not the first indication of an infection, something we still have to be concerned about.
Well, we thought Emma was doing well yesterday when she was able to take 5 ml. from her bottle.
Apparently, we ain’t seen nothin’ yet!
Overnight, she took 10 and 17 mls. by bottle. This afternoon, after a trial of breastfeeding, Emma took another 14 mls. by bottle. Then, her nurse called after her 6:00 p.m. feed, just to let me know that Emma had taken her entire feed (24 ml.) by bottle. Eric was in to visit Emma tonight, and he just called to say that she had taken another full bottle! She’s just doing amazingly well and the team is astounded by her progress… Let’s hope the trend continues!
Nothing like good burp!