The Emma Report

Compared to Emma’s early rollercoaster days in the NICU, the past week has been rather boring (well, except for the little spell she had while in the ambulance en route to CHEO for her eye exam on Tuesday, an event that bought her another week in the SCN).

Today, Emma spent her 98th day in hospital sleeping and eating and sleeping some more.

So, what might the Big News be? Could it possibly be that we now have a planned discharge date? Perhaps :~)

We’re going to try to respect the Curse of the NICU and not say exactly when the team told us she could go home, but you might want to stay tuned late next week :>

Another uneventful day in the SCN…

Last night I expressed my dissatisfaction with the hospital, both here and via email to the two physicians that run the SCN. In the spirit of fairness, I should tell you that I did receive a very prompt reply. The doc was quite understanding and indicated that he’d be looking into the issue to make sure it didn’t happen again.

I had a very pleasant (and 3000% longer) visit with Emma tonight. Her 9pm feed went well, although she wasn’t all that awake and required a bit of oxygen to help her along. Overall, she’s doing quite well.

She did have a “spell” en route to the eye exam earlier this week, but travel is hard on the little ones. Hopefully this doesn’t delay her coming home too much.

Emma eye exam today indicated that both her eyes have improved since last week. There is evidence of stage 1 and stage 2, whereas last week’s exam indicated areas of stage 2 and stage 3. Since ROP can progress rapidly Emma will be seen again next week, but according to the doc by 38 weeks (which Emma will be on Friday), the probability of worsening ROP is relatively small.

Over the past four months I’ve put up with my fair share of hospital bureaucracy, and for the most part I haven’t complained about it. Given the dozens of nurses and doctors we’ve dealt with, annoyances like conflicting information and the occasional health care professional with marginal interpersonal skills are to be expected. Most of the staff have been great, and watching Emma improve has helped me to focus on the positive. But tonight the Ottawa Hospital has really pissed me off.

With few exceptions, Laurie visits Emma during the day, and I visit during the evening. I hold Emma for a while, feed her, hold her for a while longer, and put settle her in to her cot for a sleep. I arrived at the hospital tonight to find out that the nurse had just called our home to advise me that I would not be allowed to visit.

Now before anyone’s stress level gets too high, Emma is doing great. They did let me see her for a few minutes, but then I had to leave because they were setting up to perform a “three hour sterile procedure” on another baby in the same room.

For those of you who haven’t been in the SCN, there are three rooms, and the one Emma is in has space for 8 or 9 babies. It has two large entrances, neither of which have doors. Parents visit with their children in the room, hold them, change them, feed them, etc. It’s about as far away from an operating room as you can imagine while still being in a hospital.

So I don’t get to hold or feed my baby tonight, and neither do any of the other parents with babies in that room.

“Three hour sterile procedure” — Isn’t that what an operating room is for?

Emma’s eye exam went well. Both eyes are showing signs of improvement. More later…

Emma has officially tripled her birth weight… she weighed in at 4 pounds, 10 ounces this afternoon!

Actually, the docs are a bit concerned that she is gaining too much weight and have given her medication to ensure she isn’t retaining fluid (which can make it harder for her to breathe and may account for her ongoing need for oxygen during feeds). By this evening she had lost 90 grams (about 3 ounces), so hopefully her need for the O2 will decrease.

She had a busy day… we had 2 good sessions with the lactation consultant and Emma did really well with her feeds. Today was also bath day and Emma had the nurses giggling when she managed to cover Mommy and herself with a mid-bath poop [Emma will now be sooo embarrassed to read this blog when she's a teenager :~) ]

Emma is going to CHEO (via ambulance) tomorrow morning for another eye examination. Depending on the results, she may have to stay at CHEO for a couple of days in order to have surgery… I’ll update tomorrow evening.

Nothing new to report – Emma appears to be holding her own, only requiring a bit of oxygen to help her out during feeds.

Wow, it is hard to believe it has been 3 months, but look at how far she’s come:

Emma at 3 weeks
Emma at 3 months

Overall, Emma continues to do very well. Unfortunately, however, she had a Little Ugly Spell this morning, which means she will likely have to spend another week at the SCN (as one of the discharge criteria is 7 days without a spell). We’re disappointed ’cause we were really hoping she’d be home this week, but we obviously want what’s best for her and that means a few more days in hospital.

91 days, but who’s counting!

Emma was put back on a bit of oxygen today to avoid exhausting her. She’s feeding well, but it takes a lot of energy. Other than being a bit tired, she’s doing well.