34 WEEKS!

Day 16 in the NICU wow SIXTEEN days.. That seems so long!

Today Jaidynn is officially 34 weeks Gestation. She's hit a lot of mile stones lately. Today she had the speech Pathologist come in and test her feeding potential. He really was a great guy and really loved his job. He kept telling us how smart Jaidynn is for her age, Mainly because when she is hungry she finds her hands and uses her mouth muscles to "practice" eating. Basically saying she sucks on her hands. I wasnt aware that at this age its rare to find babies who have that ability. ( or maybe he was just sugar coating it for us.. haha ) Currently Jaidynn is on step 1 in the feeding process. She gets a feeding by mouth once a shift, which is once every 12 hours. And all her other feedings are through her tube. She has to stay on that step for 48 hours, than move to step 2, which is two feedings by mouth in a 12 hour period, and than step 3 is 3 feedings by mouth, and step four is basically no feeding tube. I've been able to go in and feed her when I can, but I have approved to have them give her a bottle if I cant be there to feed her. She's doing really well. Today was her first day taking a bottle. The Pathologist said Jaidynn has a natural preemie thing which makes them forget to breath when they take feedings by mouth. He listened to her chest while she took the bottle, and I guess she was just inhaling her feeding, but not breathing consistantly. We learned that she wants her food so bad and a full belly so bad that she forgets to breath. He also mentioned that it could go away within days after she gets use to eating by mouth. Lets hope she catches on quickly!

Here are a few pictures from the other night. She's still in her Crib, and the nurse mentioned that we could have a " nice christmas present" and that Jaidynn has a very good fighting chance to be home before Christmas!! Its so rare for anyone in the NICU to give any type of time frame... That night I really needed to hear that! It was really a rough night. I'll get to that later. Here's the pictures from the other night.

LET ME SEE THAT MOM!!

Look at that double chin.. ( more like Double skin, but still! haha) Her daily weight!

She's the "yo yo girl" in the NICU, On her oxygen, off her oxygen.. :)

I'm getting bigger!!

This is Jeff's typical "eye brow face"

This is her Preemie outfit in the NICU, notice how it drowning on her...

So this will be short, but a few nights ago I was having a melt down. Basically just had a few nurses that had a bit of attitude towards me. I felt like non of the nurses that day cared one bit with involving me with my own child. The NICU was for sure on my crap list that night. The nurses work 12 hour shifts, so I call and come in when I can, well I try to get as much information from that nurse that day, Usually involves her weight gain, how her feedings are going, temperature stable,de-sats, oxygen levels, any blood work or tests... those things.. Its usually a list... Well after the "shift change" the nurses go over all of that babies information from their 12 hour shift, and any specific information or details. So I went in the NICU and met the new nurse who had just came on, and basically got the complete opposite information that I had heard from the previous nurse... I was told I could feed her twice that day and she didnt know about that, I was scolded for not bringing in my "home bag" which has certain things I need for longer stays at the NICU. Which I had forgot... Ooopps.. I made a mistake... good lord! Than basically just got ignored the whole time I was there. She tried to give me instructions to change her diaper... Ugh... I do have ANOTHER child at home.. I've done it before even on Jaidynn many times! I got a lesson on that.. I just broke down. I felt like I was in a prison camp and my daughter was hostage. Thankfully there was this nice blanket that was left by a stranger with a nice note. Its a bit blurry, but if you can read it you will see how it helped with that day. Also I'm lucky to have friends to vent to, without them I'd be a wreck all day, every hour and every second of each day! :) Thank you for always listening to me and for everyone's support when I really need it.

We also went in today and recieved another generous note and gift about a preemie who was born at 32 weeks today and spent the holidays in the NICU. I guess he's now an 8 year old and very smart, tall and healthy boy. The mom stated in the note that she wrote a Journal for each day, which helped her vent out any frustrations, and kept track of the stay there. So the gift bag had a Journal, pen, Lays potato chips, mints, mini candy bars, and jolly ranchers. What nice people...