NICU Journey Week 5 - $250,000 Mark, Mother's Milk Bank, and a Cold

Anastasia's growth this week: 
Weight: 1180 Grams (Was 1090 Grams)
Length: 36.5 Centimeters Still (Was 36.5 Centimeters)
Age: 5 weeks old (Should be 32 weeks gestation)









Friday
We just got our first bills from the hospital. As of today, Anastasia has reach the $250,000.00 mark. Yeap, a quarter of a million dollars to survive. I can't help but think what a cool house that could get a person. I did the math and figured it costs roughly $8,100.00 a DAY to be in the NICU. 

She just might be our million dollar baby because we're looking at 2 more months in the NICU. Don't get me wrong here, I don't begrudge her in the least. It's just, wow, that's a lot of money. Like, we'll be on payment plans until she's in college.  

Tomorrow will be the first time I'll have seen Anastasia since Wednesday. Heidi Anne had bit of a cough, maybe even a cold. One might wonder, "Why does that matter?". It's easy, if you or someone in your family is sick you're not supposed to go to the NICU. Preemies have such weak immune systems that a simple cold can turn into pneumonia. Therefore, I haven't gone down to see Anastasia. I miss my baby girl so much, I can't wait until she's home and I don't have to plan these visits, she'll be right by me. 


Saturday
This is the first time I've seen Anastasia since Wednesday. I didn't even say hi to the nurses, I just made a bee line right for her isolette and folded back the blanket. (Luckily, one of the nurses' recognized me.) I got some cute pictures of her waking up. She loves her nests.

As you can tell she isn't as big a fan when you remove her nest from her (she wouldn't face me while I tried to get a picture of her face). But it needs to be done so we can change her position and her diapers. As the nurse and I do her cares we discuss her growth, she's now 1120 grams (2 pounds 7 ounces). An increase of 80 grams since she was born. She's not growing as much as they would like but she could just be a tiny girl naturally.

Then came our favorite time, Cuddle time! I have tried for weeks to get a good picture of her during cuddle time, but they always came out blurred or just bad in general. Today, I finally got a good picture. She even sleep smiled a little. We got her brain ultrasound back today and everything came back normal, yeah! No brain bleeds (which is sadly common in preemie's as young as she is). 

While she was getting feed she started to suffer a weird reflux mixed with sleep apena. They have acid reflux and then they close their airways to protect from the reflux. It's just a thing preemie's do. But a side affect is their oxygen and heart rate go down. Since Anastasia is on room air (free of the nasal canula) they do open flow air. 

 It's amazing how little things like breathing on your own become a major accomplishment. Or getting feed a milliliter more and tolerating it, is a big deal. A degree lower in her isolete means she is starting to keep herself warm. All of these things we take for granted (breathing, staying warm, able to eat) are all things she is fighting to do every second of every day. You have to be a fighter to keep it up and not just survive but thrive. Imagine the will to live these tiny babies have.  

Before I knew it, our visit for the day was over. This was Anastasia just as we were finishing up her cares and about to nest her. She's getting more and more alert with each passing day.  

Sunday
I finally have a baby that loves baths. According to the nurses she is just so calm like a little girl having a spa day. She likes to have her hair brushed- she's so tiny they brush her hair with a soft toothbrush. I finally got to see it via web cam. She stayed still as they put a bow in her hair, not a struggle or fit. She adores to be pampered. I think we have a Little Lady on our hands. 

Monday

 I only got to visit Anastasia for roughly a hour today. It was well worth it! I love every minute of cuddle time with her and we visit her as often as we can for as long as possible. Sometimes that's just 60 minutes other times that's a few hours. Her feedings have been increased to 22 mls!! Hopefully, these steps will help her grow. 

Rory came along for the visit today, we had doctors appointments today and a few errands to run. This little guy was just smiley, happy little boy the whole day. 

I just want to take a minute and thank those anonymous moms out there that have helped save my baby girl's life. My milk never came in and a preemie's tummy can't tolerate formula without serious side effects (like their intestines dying). See? Serious side effects. 

Luckily, in Utah there is an option for mom's like me, it's called Mother's Milk Bank. Basically, women who are lactating are generous enough to pump and donate their hard earned milk (or donate their frozen milk that they aren't using) to certain IHC Hospitals / clinics or to the U of U. From there it goes to Denver; where it's screened, pasteurized, and sent out to preemies and infants in need though out the Inter-mountain West. 

I'm normally an either / or breast milk or formula, who cares as long as the baby gets food? But this has been the only time I couldn't nurse a baby of mine that needed me to so badly. If Mother's Milk Bank wasn't around or if people didn't take time to donate who knows what issues we could be dealing with. I view it like someone donating blood, even an ounce can help save a life. I'm adding a link in case you're curious or want to donate, (just copy and paste it to the browser). I can't get it to link like it should. Now, I'm getting off my soap box. 
https://intermountainhealthcare.org/blogs/2015/02/mothers-milk-saves-lives-donate-these-utah-collection-centers/ 

Tuesday
Anastasia's webcam is down today, it will be down permanently down starting April 1st (no joke). This isn't fun, I love watching her on webcam. I can pretend it's a nanny cam and she's just a room away, not 90 minutes in the hospital. I have been spoiled by the webcam. I love getting to see her every day. Guess I'll just have to call more then my current 2 times a day? 

It's just so hard having your baby hours away. I envy those families that are just down the road from the hospital. I try not to feel jealous towards anyone, to me it's a bad habit. But when moms are saying "I'm running home for lunch, be back in 45 minutes." I can't help be get a little teary eyed.    

Wednesday
I am tired! I did the early morning thing today. Today, however, involved a slight set back. I needed gas but the door to the gas opening had frozen shut. So I went to the gas station figuring "If I run out of gas at least this is the best place to be." I figured out that I needed another person to pop open the latch while I pried open the actual door. I waited 15 minutes for someone to help me out with my issue. It worked like a frozen glove. Man did I have to pry open that door, I didn't think it would open for a few seconds which seemed like forever, when finally I heard a screech as it popped opened. 

Then I got to enjoy a lovely drive in a snow storm through the canyon. In all this delayed me roughly 30 minutes later than I wanted to arrive at the hospital. Glad it wasn't an emergency. 

I got there in time for her cares. I love the way she wakes up. Once you un-nest and unwrap her, she'll immediately block her eyes from the lights with her little arms. Next, Anastasia will slowly remove one arm at a time from her eyes but keep them right by her face. (I guess in case we're just tricking her and we're going to wrap her back up?)
Then, she realizes she's not going to be bundled again until cares are over. She'll open her eyes one at a time while turning her face from left to right. Suddenly, she's alert and staring at you with her big mysterious eyes (they're not quite blue but not brown neither).

Finally, after she's getting cuddles or has been wrapped back up she falls back to sleep like a rock. Seriously, nested or cuddled and BAM! Back to sleep. Literally, those are the steps.

Thursday
Good news! Anastasia doesn't suffer from a common preemie eye condition known as ROP (Retinopathy Of Prematurity). ROP can cause blindness in the worst case scenarios to distorted vision (basically needing glasses starting in infancy) in the best case. But somehow she's is ROP Free.

Anastasia also gained nearly 100 grams this week! That's an average of 12 grams per day! She's finally growing some. She needs to gain more (preferably 15 grams per day - not an average-but a minimum of 15 grams a day). 

In other news, I have a slight cough. It could be a cold so I can't visit Anastasia until this is resolved. Which bites but better I have a cold and not visit her then visit her with a cold and she ends up with pneumonia. I'm not being paranoid, it's been known to happen because a preemie has such a compromised immune system.  I heard this story of a mom visiting her baby while she had cold and after five minutes of sneezes and coughs the nurses kicked her out of the NICU. Sadly, the cold passed to her baby (which passed away from pneumonia) and infected 6 other babies (who all survived but suffered in various degrees). I don't want to be that mom that infects other babies because some little ones are in open air bassinets.

By the way, we're looking into bassinets for Anastasia, any recommendations?