Tuesday, 6/26
Comparison is the thief of joy- Theodore Roosevelt.
Maybe you have seen this quote recently on a gift shop coffee mug or framed on a friends bathroom wall. I’m not sure the context of Teddy’s quote, but I think it fits pretty well for a child growing in the NICU.
In the Growth and Development Unit Isabelle has two roommates in her immediate room and three more in the adjacent room. All six babies are generally at similar stages of development but all have their own strengths and challenges.
At 26 weeks, Isabelle was born earlier than the other five and the extra time they had in the womb made a big difference in their developmental progress. Three are fully eating by bottle, all five are off oxygen and sometimes it feels like Isabelle is a step behind. There are days when she skips a feeding or falls asleep a few minutes into a bottle, and next-door we hear how great the boy is doing and how he might go home soon. And while we are happy that everyone is doing well, it can be hard to sit there and hear other babies are doing better than Isabelle. I’m sure this happens to everyone, not just babies in the NICU and comparing developmental milestones of other babies is probably a past time of most parents with young children. We’ve promised each other that we will try to not let this happen when we bring her home. This experience has taught us that Izzy will dictate her own schedule and she will hit milestones when she is good and ready.
Sure enough, after a frustrating week, Isabelle hit a few new milestones that we are happy to share. If you remember from the last post Isabelle was noticeably struggling with her breathing, and doctors put her on a three-day treatment to reduce fluid in her lungs. We are happy to report that the medication worked and her respiratory rate has improved, oxygen saturation is better and she seems to be more alert; especially before feedings. She is now on a smaller dose of medication and might stay on that for a few weeks. As she grows, the dose will remain the same and eventually she will wean herself off the medicine. And just today, after a few days of improved breathing, the Doctors decided to remove her oxygen completely and do a trial run in room air. She managed to stay off oxygen all day and is breathing like a champ. We couldn’t be happier.
Last post I promised a video of Izzy in a spaceship. Well, I’m sorry to say but the spaceship experience didn’t exactly go as planned and I cut the video short because our baby hated the space trip. But I did manage to take a few photos. The spaceship is actually called a Peapod and it measures a babies BMI and weight by creating an airtight capsule and using air displacement to determine the volume of the baby. It’s science. The goal is to track the growth of babies in the NICU compared to full term babies to see how well they do. We figured since Izzy spent 2 months in an incubator she wouldn’t mind a few minutes in the pod, but boy were we wrong. She whaled the whole time. Breaking my little heart Izzy…
Izzy had a few more lovely visitors this week and Grandma and Grampa had their first chance to hold her. She told us it was the best part of her weekend. Looking forward to another week ahead, only a few more to go.
Meet Isabelle 