The transfusion sure gave our little girl some energy. She was not nearly as tired as the last couple of days - she was wiggling, squirming and stretching a fair bit today. It sure was nice to see her moving.
And it turns out she does have an infection of some sort. So they (it's so funny to write "they" because who are "they" - "they" are the doctors and nurses in the NICU) have given her some antibiotics to fight the infection. At the same time Alice is on the antibiotics another group of "they" take the infection and put it in different petri dishes and use different antibiotics to see which one fights the infection - and then "they" will change Alice's antibiotics (if she's on the wrong ones) to fight the infection within her.
At the same time all this was happening today, a resident cardiologist came to check out a murmur another doctor had heard in her heart. The murmur could possibly be a PDA (patent ductus arteriosus). In regular people terms here's the explanation - when a baby is in-utero there is a valve in the heart that is open and it prevents the blood from entering the lungs. When a full term baby is born, the valve knows it's time to close. When a premature baby is born, the valve doesn't always close. It has an argument with itself on whether it should close or not. An ECG was done today to check on whether Alice's valve had closed or not. If it hasn't closed, there are different solutions (which we don't know yet) on how to get the valve to close. An open valve affects the breathing. We'll find out tomorrow what the next step is, or if there even is a need for a next step regarding her valve.
As she was so busy today being poked by the cardiologist and the tech for the ECG we didn't have any cuddles. But tomorrow we will for sure! All of what is being posted is "normal" for a premie - when we are told to worry, we'll let you all know it's time to worry as well.
Well, Mommy had her cuddle time today and Granny and Poppa had their touch time with Alice and what an opportunity and wonderful experience for us. She has changed a lot, I think, since I saw her about 12 days ago. Her head has grown! Her hands and feet are big. I mean big! long fingers like her Mom and feet, about an inch long. My oh my, she does have some growing to do! We love her so much and we know she is doing fine and will be a big strong girl when she grows up! Keep all those good thoughts coming in, they sure have helped her, our Alice. Much love and kisses xoxo to our little Alice!
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