Avery Kate

Went to see Miss Avery this morning. She was of course doing wonderfully. She was being a bit of a wiggle worm today and didn't seem to want to get situated.

They had her under the blue lights again for the jaundice. I guess they monitor a chemical in her blood called bilirubin. They put the babies under the light if they have a bilirubin score of 5 or above. Yesterday hers was 4.9 so they went ahead and put her under the light. Today her score was down to a 2.2. When we went back this evening the lights were gone. They said in the morning they will check and see how much her bilirubin goes up and that will determine if the lights come back.

Also found out today there is a drug that most babies Avery's size are on so that they don't forget to breath, however Miss Avery is such a champ she hasn't had to be put on it. Doesn't mean in the future she might not, just means for right now she is doing pretty well at remembering to breath on her own. She does forget to breath, however from what the nurse said no more than if she was on the drug. I guess it is pretty standard for the little ones to do this. When she forgets to breath the nurses just come over and jiggle her little booty and tell her to wake up and she does. She usually gets irritated with them messing with her, but then settles down.

They upped her feeding amount from 2.2 cc's to 3.3 cc's every 3 hours. Another good sign. She seems to be taking to her mothers milk quite well. Sounds like they evaluate her feeding amounts every other day and determine whether to increase it or not.

We bought miss Avery her first teddy bear today. We will be washing it and taking it up to be put in her condo hopefully tomorrow. The rule is she can have it as long as it is smaller than her.

The nurses were telling us today that a former NICU baby came up for a visit today. They said he was one of there smallest when he was born and that now he is 18 months and looks like he is 3 he is so big. Hearing stories like that are a nice reminder that this phase of Avery's life is going to be a small small piece of it. In a few months she will be home and just like any other baby. Granted when she first comes home we will have to be germaphobic, but I hear that only lasts for a few months than it can be life as normal. We have no problems being germaphobic if it will keep little Miss Avery Kate healthy.