Baby Ella: Day 1 and 2

February 24th from 8 a.m. on:

Our schedule: I go down to the  NICU every three hours. They have us take her temperature and change her diaper and then I try to nurse.  This generally takes an hour and goes by sooo fast.  I am then supposed to come back up to the room and pump.  This takes about 30 minutes and then if I am lucky there is about an hour and a half to try to sleep. This time usually consists of me just falling asleep and then a nurse comes in to check vitals etc.  At this point I have honestly not slept more than 2 consecutive hours since Sunday night.  All day Friday adrenaline carried me through but I was a zombie by Saturday morning. I have never felt so tired or lonely as I made the walk to the NICU over and over Saturday night. 

At 24 hours old (8/25 at 2 am):
-Ella's weight was at 4 pounds 6 ounces.
-Her blood sugar was stable and no longer a concern. This was the primary concern in initial NICU assessment.
-Ella had nursed for about 3 minutes during one feeding despite attempts every three hours.  Not unexpected.  She had eaten a bottle in the NICU soon after birth. All other nutrition has been from IV.
-Ella is in isolation due to unidentified infection.  This means all hospital empoyees going in have to scrub in, wear masks and gowns.  Even to drop something off. Any equipment going in and out has to be completely sanitized. Visitors have to scrub in and if they have had any illness, wear a mask.  It is somewhat unnerving to have your baby treated like a biohazard.
-Due to high bilirubin she is under the lights with a little mask to protect her eyes.



February 25th 4 a.m.--
Ella's nurse for the night was in with her other baby when I got there so I got be alone with her for a bit, changed her and took her temp.  And then I had a little talk with Ella about what we need her to do to come home.  And that little lady listened, she nursed for about five minutes.  I was so excited  and so was her nurse.

8 a.m.--
Wop, wop.  Our morning report was not great.  Despite the lights, Ella's bilirubin levels continued to rise (13.9 should be around 3 or 4). She cannot be off the lights, even for nursing. So we don't get to hold her anymore.  JD did feed her a bottle and she did alright.  They will continue the formula with a bottle if she will drink it, otherwise they will use a feeding tube.