Day 41 Update

Good Evening! Sorry for the late posting, but this is literally the first chance I have gotten to write.

I went to visit Golda last night for the evening session (9 pm) and my mom came along. We found Golda in her new room at the end of the hall. She was resting quite comfortably and the nurse was about to do her vitals. While I was scrubbing, Mom and the nurse uncovered Golda and as she was waking up she pushed her Repogle right out! I haven't seen her actually get the whole thing out before, but I guess she has really built up her tongue trying to push it around! I jumped on the opportunity though to get some photos of her cute little face without anything in it. I have put them up at Picasa along with some other photos of the bris and random other stuff. The links are below.

Anyway, Golda was doing okay. We got to see her get her sponge bath and I changed her clothing. That wasn't nearly as easy as for Leah since Golda is still hooked up to many wires and tubes, but I managed. The nurse suctioned her and replaced the Repogle then I got to hold her. It was one of those really rare occasions that she was wide awake while I was there! Such pretty eyes she has! She was getting cranky waiting for her meal and then got really calm and happy when it started flowing. A really good sign was that she was hungrily sucking on her pacifier while waiting and during the feeding. Hopefully she will retain that reflex through the wait for her surgery and we won't have as many feeding issues afterwards.

The nurse told us that one of the doctors felt that Golda had an infection in her g-tube and had started her on antibiotics. This was, of course, after they had removed her broviac that morning so she had to have an iv started. Really poor foresight on their part and I wasn't too pleased, but really, what could I do at that point? I spoke to the resident in charge of her case today on the phone because I had some questions that couldn't be answered last night. Basically they feel she has an infection even though they haven't done a culture because her total white blood cell count is elevated, although her lymphocytes and neutrophils are not, and because she has a white discharge from the site that doesn't seem to be milk. She does not have a fever and hasn't exhibited any other signs of infection (like apnea) which is good and might indicate that they have caught it early. She has been on the antibiotic two days now and will remain on it for five to seven days. This should not interfere with any transfers to St. Mary's since it should be gone in a week and the transfer would not likely be before two weeks.

They have also changed from putting the Maalox on her stomach to using Ilex, a petrolatum-based paste that is made for this use (to protect her skin from stomach acid). Aside from all that, she weighs 1512 g (3 lbs. 5.33 oz.), about the same as the day before.

Leah and Micah are doing okay. They gave us some trouble last night. Micah seemed to be in some pain from his circumcision and was making a lot of noise causing Leah to wake up and become cranky. Thankfully today I was able to remove his dressing and that really made him feel better. I didn't have to do that for Harry - Jon took care of it because I couldn't bring myself to so this was the first time I saw it looking so raw :( Jon said that was how Harry's looked too so it should be fine. Poor little guy, I would cry too!

We are also thinking that Leah and Micah are showing signs of possible reflux. Like that wasn't expected. They grunt and groan and complain while eating and after. Burps are accompanied by the "icky face" and crying and lots of spit up. Even an hour after eating they are sometimes still burping up milk and they do better if we leave them sitting up after eating. Such fun! We are going to wait until Micah heals a bit more to make sure this isn't from that and then we will take them to the pediatrician.

I weighed them today and was shocked to find that Micah is now 6 lbs. 15 oz. and Leah is 5 lbs. 5 oz.! They are really packing it on, especially Micah! And they are both looking so much longer than they were. I can't believe how fast they are growing. I suppose some of their crankiness could be due to growing pains, too!

Harry was feeling much better today. His sniffles were almost completely gone, his voice was back to normal and he only coughed once or twice. The day off did him a lot of good and he was happy to get back to school today. And he even managed to make it through the day without getting any warnings / time outs!

That's about it for now. Here are links to the photos:

http://picasaweb.google.com/WindyNYC/BrisAndBabyNamingX2#
http://picasaweb.google.com/WindyNYC/BBBVisitToGolda#
http://picasaweb.google.com/WindyNYC/GoldaSCuteLittleFaceWithoutTubes#