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GOD IS OUR FRIEND
John 15:15 | I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
WEEK 10: Day 64 - Day 70 | June 8 - June 14 | 32.5 -33.5 weeks gestation
Prepping for Father’s Day this week! I am excited. I’m more excited because Victoria continues to progress. She finished the week at 3lbs 8oz and she is up to 32ml on feeds. As usual this is where she is doing very well.
Victoria is moving around so much. She tosses and turns in her sleep. Most of the time it doesn’t look like a sign of distress but rather it looks like she is just squirming around trying to find that super comfy position. One of the nurses told us that during her shift one day this week Victoria actually rolled off her bed and was pressed up against the side of the incubator! A tad scary but she is alright. It’s a good thing we can laugh at the incident.
The eye doctor returned this week and said that Victoria’s eyes are the same as the previous week. She is still at stage 2 ROP in zone 2. That is more good news than bad news in my opinion. We are hoping it goes away but thankful it hasn’t gotten any worse. The eye doctor will return weekly.
The medical team tried to take Victoria off the C-pap breathing machine again and she did very well for 24hrs but then all the sudden she had one major desatt and the attending doctor decided to go straight to C-Pap instead of letting her fight through the episode. I was indifferent on the decision. I just want the best for Victoria.
She had to get extra blood again this week. I’m hoping this will end soon, but it’s what she needs now.
Otherwise lil girl is doing well. Praying for God’s covering over Victoria and praying specifically for her eyes to improve and to be free of harm and also continuing to pray for lung development.
10 weeks complete! Always giving God praise for his mercy.
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WEEK 11: Day 71 - Day 77 | June 15 - June 21 | 33.5 -34.5 weeks gestation
What a week it has been on the positive side! She met a weight milestone, a feeding milestone, a breathing milestone, and a temperature milestone. … And I got to hangout with my daughter for my first Father’s day! Father’s day was special. We went to church and then we had brunch with my family; celebrating my Dad’s 40th Father’s Day and also celebrating the first Father’s Day for both my brother Rodolfo and me. After brunch we went to the hospital and I Kangaroo-held Victoria for the first time! We got almost 2 hours of dad & daughter time. Twas very memorable and a great Father’s Day.
When it comes to weight, this girl is getting big. She finished the week at 4lbs and she is gaining good weight each day. She also started drinking from a bottle and completed her first full bottle. This is a major step because it takes a significant amount of coordination for preemie babies to suck, breathe, and swallow bottle milk. She started out drinking one bottle a day and now she is on two bottles a day. Some days she does better than others.
Regarding her breathing, she chunked the deuce to the C-Pap machine or in other words she is no longer requiring the help of the C-Pap breathing machine. Her third attempt on the nasal cannula was much better than the previous two attempts. She only had a few desatts and Brady’s each day and most of them were minor. The desatts that were more significant were feeding related. With her body trying to figure out bottle feeding her breathing gets compromised. It’s a process that she’ll learn soon. She hasn’t perfected her performances on the cannula yet, but she is getting there.
Miss Victoria is no longer in her enclosed incubator box! She held her own temperature and she no longer needs the assistance of an incubator. Victoria moved to an open crib and it is much easier to interact with her.
Her eyes made a slight improvement. She still has stage 2 ROP in zone 2 of her eye but it has not spread. That's good news. Hopefully it'll continue to go away.
Because of all the progress Victoria made ,the doctors felt it was time to graduate her to the 8th floor! On the last day of this week Victoria moved from the Level 4 NICU to the Level 2 NICU. Level 2 NICU is for stable babies who aren’t too far from going home. I almost can’t believe I am writing this! “Stable babies who are close to going home.” Wow. God is good. We are grateful. We are not out of the danger zone yet, but the day of discharge feels nearby; I'm guessing within a month. We'll continue to pray for the mercy of Almighty God.
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WEEK 12: Day 78 - Day 84 | June 22 - June 28 | 34.5 -35.5 weeks gestation
In some ways we like Victoria’s new room in other ways we miss her old room. In particular we miss her primary nurses who did such an excellent job caring for her in her most critical stages. The good thing is we met new nurses on the next floor up who are classy individuals as well. The 8th floor or level 2 NICU is a more relaxed atmosphere which we like. The really nice part about her new location is that every baby has his or her own private room. Family time is much more intimate. While in this new room I gave Victoria a bath and I changed her diaper for the first time. I did not do so well and needed assistance on both. I’ll get it down eventually!
As usual, Victoria is doing very well on weight gain. She now weighs 4lbs 8oz. She is starting to look like a typical newborn now. That’s a nice feeling.
A physical therapist began giving assistance to Victoria to help her / us with bottle feeding. I believe she’ll also be helping with exercises to perform with Victoria to makes sure her limb development and coordination is progressing well.
Victoria received another ultrasound on her head and on the good side they found no brain bleeds or blood vessel problems; however they did find what they called a "choroid plexus cyst" Sounds scary, but they said it's very small and in almost all cases it just goes away within a few weeks. Praying this cysts dissipated rapidly. They’ll check again in a few weeks.
They eye doctor said her eye condition is improving and now she is at stage 1 ROP. Good news! Because she is improving the doctor said she’ll return in two weeks as opposed to every week.
As Always, we praise God for another positive week with our Princess.
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| Week 10: Mom helping Vicky with her pacifier. |
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| Week 11: First Bottle Feed |
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| Week 11: Father's Day Gift ...Kangarooing! |
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| Week 12: 4 pounder in her open crib! Bye-bye incubator! |
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| Week 12: Bonding Time. |
