This week we had a lot of mixed emotions, just like any week but one scary thing happened... And a few big victories, big awesome news came our way.
Saturday morning Ivanna woke up with a big blister under her right nostril and on Sunday a similar smaller irritation was on her left one. This meant I can't feed her... They had to place the feeding tube into the mouth instead of the nose and with a feeding tube in the mouth she wouldn't be able to properly breastfeed. This was sad but the good news doctors thought it was a small irritation which will go away in a few days and we decided to take out the tube once a day to let her breastfeed at least once a day.
On Wednesday evening it got worse on the left nostril even though the right one was almost healed and Ivanna was immediately put on IV antibiotics as a precaution. Also the swab came back with the results that it is a staph bacteria but as the doctor explained to me this was a common type of bacteria which can be found on anyone's skin but if it gets into open wound it can cause blisters, exactly what Ivanna had. However, since we were still waiting for a detailed analysis of the type of staph bacteria and since some of these types of bacterias could be very dangerous if they enter the eblood stream - they started IV antibiotics. This was really scary since blood infection for small babies... Are too dangerous. But doctors reassured me that they are almost sure that it is a small local infection which will be done soon. So far today her skin is almost completely clear, she should be off IV soon and we will start proper feeding.
I'm so excited for the feeding! On Wednesday we tried bottle feeding (my fresh milk) and she took 5 ml! On Thursday because of the new IV they didn't let me feed and on Friday she took 15 ml!!! I was so happy! Her full feeds is 19 mls so she almost took a whole feed from the bottle! She takes less from the breast since it's much harder work but we will be working on both bottle feeding and breastfeeding once the tube is out.
We will be sent home on bottle and breastfeeding because we will need to add extra fats and proteins to my milk, that's why we can't avoid bottle feeding and I wouldn't want to do exclusive breastfeeding anyways. Now home seems so close..
also she is 1534g!
And yesterday she finally had a heart echo which kept being postponed a few times and we found out that her PDA IS CLOSED!!!! I was happy beyond words. We all had a big suspicion that it was closed or almost closed since the Tylenol treatment she got over a month ago since her heart murmur became very soft instead of loud (plus she is breathing on her own which means PDA didn't cause any symptoms anymore) but there was still a small chance that if it is not fully closed then she would need a heart surgery when she is older. But it's a full victory! And she doesn't even have pulmonary hypertension which PDAs can leave as a consequence of all that extra work and pressure on the baby's heart and lungs. Yes, I was beyond happy. She is such a miracle! Born so tiny with a humongous list of risks of health complications and the only thing she has now is a hernia. And that's it. Her rooting / feeding reflexes, alertness, everything is so excellent. She is beyond cute when she is awake and looking around with her big eyes wide open, listening to my voice... Just WOW. God is sooo good.
