Day 34

It's hard to believe it's almost been 5 weeks since Alice decided to pop into this world unexpectedly. Has the time gone by fast? Yes and no. As I was holding her today I realized how much she has grown over the last 5 weeks. She's almost at 3 pounds (and was a mere 2 pounds when she was born); she is 37.5 cm long (grown 3.4 cm since birth); and looks more like a baby each day. She no longer fits into the crook of my chest like she used to. There's actually some weight there when the nurse hands her to me. She's also one of the senior members of the room in the NICU that she is in. I can't remember if I said before, but there are are 12 beds in Alice's room. Some of the babes have graduated to a different room where they are no longer attached to machines and some of moved to other hospitals closer to their homes (the hospital move may not be a 'graduation' but just a closer commute for mom and dad).

Alice is hanging strong with her breathing. This is day 3 and she isn't tired like she has been previously. Her feeds have changed as well - to give her time to work on her breathing, the feeds are now continuously pumped into her stomach. This is a step backwards, but if we can move forward on the breathing and then worry about the feeds, that is a good thing. She is consuming 17cc's every 2 hours - so almost 200 in a 24 hour time period.

Here's a couple of pictures from today of Alice in her incubator (or as I call it her 'home').

And here's a picture of her incubator - something I realized I had never included on any previous posts. This gives you a sense of what her 'home' looks like. The yellow material you see draped over half of the incubator covers the entire incubator when she is not being attended to by the nurses, doctors and me. The cover helps block the light and sound. The incubator is heated and as the babies grow, the heat is decreased to a point where an incubator is no longer required and the babes can be in clothes (onesie and a sleeper) and in a crib.

The monitor (computer screen) to the right is what tracks all her vitals - heart rate, respiration, 02 levels.

If anyone ever has any questions, please don't hesitate to post a response on the blog or send me an email (cooper_prod@telus.net), I'm more than happy to share any information about our experience.