Juliana has been having a fantastic week following her surgery. She is off of her blood pressure medication (dopamine) and she is still maintaining her blood pressure. We have also been able to lower her ventilator settings. Since she has been so stable, little Omar was able to meet his baby sister for the first time. After seeing her and all of her body parts (which we named), Omar decide that he wanted to adopt all of the other babies in the NICU. I am sure he would be a great big brother to all of the babies, but I had to explain to him that we only get to keep one (the best one of them all).
Now to the exciting part... on Sunday for the first time in her life I was able to hold Juliana in my arms. I will be able to hold her everyday for as long as she is stable and having a good day. We started Kangaroo Care yesterday which Juliana just loved. Kangaroo care is a way of holding an infant so that there is skin-to-skin contact. The baby, wearing only a diaper, is held against the parent's bare chest. This close contact is comforting and really helps stabilize her heartbeat and blood pressure. If only I could stay with her all day in the hospital.
Last night I got a call from the hospital which of course makes me nervous. Fortunately the first words the doctor said to me was "Juliana is fine". Through some type of error (not sure if it was human or mechanical yet) Juliana's TPN (total parenteral nutrition) which is administered through iv to give her all of the necessities (sugar, amino acids, electrolytes, etc.), was set at a faster rate. This means she received a lot of fluid too fast which brought her blood sugar way up and caused her to have some issues with her oxygen saturation. Fortunately Juliana is tough and has been through way more than a little extra fluid, but this does set her back a little. The doctor put her feeds on hold again (of course right after she was finally able to get some). She did not require insulin, but her blood sugar, although much improved, is still a little high. Her blood pressure did fluctuate some but not enough to put her back on the dopamine. So for now the plan is to let her work this out on her own. If she does not lose the extra fluid on her own there is diuretic on standby. I am sure like everything else we will get through this with a little faith and prayer.
Juliana has been having a fantastic week following her surgery. She is off of her blood pressure medication (dopamine) and she is still maintaining her blood pressure. We have also been able to lower her ventilator settings. Since she has been so stable, little Omar was able to meet his baby sister for the first time. After seeing her and all of her body parts (which we named), Omar decide that he wanted to adopt all of the other babies in the NICU. I am sure he would be a great big brother to all of the babies, but I had to explain to him that we only get to keep one (the best one of them all).
Now to the exciting part... on Sunday for the first time in her life I was able to hold Juliana in my arms. I will be able to hold her everyday for as long as she is stable and having a good day. We started Kangaroo Care yesterday which Juliana just loved. Kangaroo care is a way of holding an infant so that there is skin-to-skin contact. The baby, wearing only a diaper, is held against the parent's bare chest. This close contact is comforting and really helps stabilize her heartbeat and blood pressure. If only I could stay with her all day in the hospital. 
Last night I got a call from the hospital which of course makes me nervous. Fortunately the first words the doctor said to me was "Juliana is fine". Through some type of error (not sure if it was human or mechanical yet) Juliana's TPN (total parenteral nutrition) which is administered through iv to give her all of the necessities (sugar, amino acids, electrolytes, etc.), was set at a faster rate. This means she received a lot of fluid too fast which brought her blood sugar way up and caused her to have some issues with her oxygen saturation. Fortunately Juliana is tough and has been through way more than a little extra fluid, but this does set her back a little. The doctor put her feeds on hold again (of course right after she was finally able to get some). She did not require insulin, but her blood sugar, although much improved, is still a little high. Her blood pressure did fluctuate some but not enough to put her back on the dopamine. So for now the plan is to let her work this out on her own. If she does not lose the extra fluid on her own there is diuretic on standby. I am sure like everything else we will get through this with a little faith and prayer.
It's great to see that Juliana is holding her own. Reading about her course reminds me so much of what we went through with our girls (born at the same GA) two plus years ago. Anyway, we will keep checking in, and if it is okay to link Juliana's blog to Hallie's, drop me a note on the blog or email me...
ReplyDeleteBest wishes for a peaceful and uneventful day!
(PS---our overdose was on steroids, which the docs gave Hallie 10x the proper dose of when they were trying to get her off the vent. It worked to get her off the vent, but it scared the heck out of us. Thankfully it was caught by us, and nurses who rallied to our cause when we said that we *knew* something was wrong, and she seems to have had no long term side effects from it. But still, I wish they'd be more careful with our little precious ones!