Mercy NICU tour

Welcome to Mercy St. Louis NICU. We are so thankful and blessed to have such an awesome hospital and NICU just 20 minutes away from our house. We have met many other people who live much further and really have to juggle their lives to visit their little ones.

After exiting the green elevators you are greeted by this sign letting you know you are in the right place

There two sides to the NICU we are currently in the Green side

Upon arrive at the front desk everyone (including Mom and Dad) must sign in and get a visitor sticker

Then they open the double doors to let you in

Everyone must also stop and wash their hands, we don't want any germs in the NICU

The Green NICU is divided into 4 pods Kangaroo, Giraffe, Elephant, and Butterfly

Abigail is in the giraffe pod

There are 10 rooms in the pod. They are not always all full. A few weeks ago it was mostly full, currently there are 6 rooms occupied

We are at the end of the hall

Abigail's bed is covered with a blanket donated to the hospital. It stays covered up most of the time to help control the stimulation and give Abigail's brain more time to develop.

This monitor is hard not to pay attention to, it shows her heart rate, respiratory rate, and oxygen saturation. We spend the most time paying attention to the O2 saturation because that is how they determine how much oxygen she needs.

We aren't allowed to put anything on the walls but have this bulletin board to decorate her room.

If you have never visited a NICU it is a unique place and a blessing to those who spend time here. I didn't take pictures but there is also a parent lounge with a fridge for parents to keep food, a fridge of basic hospital food (applesauce, pudding, jello, milk, and juice), there's also a bathroom with shower, laundry, and computer area.

Double size

I spent the night at the hospital last night and got to help weigh Abigail. She went from weighing 2 lb. 11 oz. to 2 lb. 14 oz. A pretty big jump. I think that maybe since her weight didn't change the day before that maybe there was an error in Thursday nights weight.

The most exciting is that Abigail has doubled her weight since birth:

1 lb 6 oz

2 lbs 14 oz

Abigail is also really starting to look around. She doesn't spend a lot of time awake but she is becoming more alert during her cares. I love seeing those big beautiful eyes checking everything out.

Edit 7 weeks not 8

PI still have a hard time believing we have been here for 8 weeks.

Abigail is still doing well. She is up to 1200g or about 2lb 10.3oz. She is growing. For the several days she has steadily gained an ounce a day. 

She lasted about 18 hours extubated onFridat till early Saturday morning. Her oxygen requirements were just too high and she was working too hard. They were able to get in a bigger tube so she doesn't have an air leak any more. They started her on nebulizer treatments to help clear her lungs.

It looks like the staph infection is gone. Praise God!

Abigail is starting to look in the direction of someone talking to her. She also likes to try to turn her head on her own. Thus last strength is not always the best as she can't move her ET tube as well. Hopefully she doesn't end up extubating herself.

WARNING EXTRA DETAILS

One of the doctors suggested to me to start giving her just the hindmilk so she gets a high fat content. For those of you who don't know, foremilk is the first milk that a baby drinks or is pumped in a feeding session. It has a lower fat content and is a little clearer (like skim milk). Now when I pump I stop about 5 minutes in and switch bottles to separate the hindmilk. Hopefully this fattier milk will help her gain even more weight!

Getting bigger

Abigail is now 2 lb 7 oz. she has steadily put on an ounce every day for the last several days.

Her respiration has improved so the doctor decided to give her a try today with getting rid of her tube. Earlier just 2 days ago I wasn't sure if we were getting closer or not. They had turned her vent settings down earlier in the week but on Wed and Thu her O2 rates were higher but you could also hear her air leak (movement of air around her tube and trachea) more. The dr made some adjustments and then moved her O2 down and asked nurses to only bump her up a little if she really needs it. She was able to stay in the 30s for her O2% over night so they decided to give her a try!

At first she had a hard time coming down on her O2% of 80 after the excitement and drastic change of getting the tube out. Slowly throughout the day she has come down.

The nurse and I were discussing how it must feel going from having a tube in your mouth and throat to now having air forces down your nasal passages. She thought maybe like sticking your head out the car window.

She is working hard to make the adjustment. The nurse practitioner reminded us that even if she does have to get intubated again, any time without a tube is good for her lungs.

Easter Break

I know it has been over a week since I updated but it hasn't seemed like there was much to report and with it being Easter Break our schedule has been kind of off.

Over Easter weekend it was fun to do some special things with Joshua.

He was a big fan of dyeing eggs however I think we cracked about half of the eggs in the process. He is pointing to the green because it is his favorite color

We also made sugar cookies. 

You have to eat some of the sugar sprinkles while you decorate

Easter morning Joshua woke up in his Christmas PJs and discovered his Easter basket

Look at these. He was a big fan of his bubbles.

Joshua got to hunt eggs three times on Easter: at home, at Great Grandma's, and at Great Aunt Connie's. We took an incomplete family picture before splitting up so that Daddy could go to the hospital and Mommy and Joshua could go to the Steele side of the family.

This week has been uneventful but also kind of big for Abigail.

On Easter when Travis got to the hospital we found out that Abigail hit 2 lbs! 

She lost a little a few days later but has gained it back and is currently 2lbs 3 oz (990g). The next big deal with her weight will be when she hits 1 kg.

Throughout this week they have been able to start weening her ventilation support. Every day they have changed different settings to get her numbers low enough that we can talk about extubating.

Yesterday they doctor said they would look at her blood count numbers in the morning and if she needed blood they would wait to try to extubate on Saturday after she gets blood Friday (today) or if her numbers looked good they would extubate today. She will still receive ventilation support but it will be through nasal cannulas.

This may be the last picture of Abigail with an ET tube!

I also took these pictures to show off her fun new hat. Her nurse yesterday asked the physical therapist for a Tortle Midliner hat to help her head be more rounded since she spends so much time with her head on the sides. The hat is a little big but she seems to enjoy it.

I forgot to mention how Joshua spent his Easter Break.
He got to spend the first day with his Mawma (my Mom). Then Tuesday the two of us enjoyed the Science Center since it was too rainy to go to zoo. Then he had a great rest of the week with his Aunt Kimberly. They went to the zoo, the library, and had fun outside when it wasn't raining.