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06/22/2002 Entry: "Viviana at 3 days old..."
Viviana has surpassed just about everybody’s expectations with her progress since birth. She is still on a ventilator and still has a few secrets that the doctors have not figured out yet (like what is that mass on her left side, and where is the fluid in her abdomen coming from), but they are running tests almost every day to try to figure out what is going on.
Good news -- she is no longer on the high frequency jet ventilator! Before the CT scan they ran yesterday, they put her on a “normal” ventilator, and she adapted to it well. They’ve also been able to reduce the amount of oxygen they have to give her (from 100% to 50%).
They also let Chrissy hold Viviana yesterday. They pulled up a rocking chair for Chrissy to sit in, and very, VERY gently placed Viviana in Chrissy’s lap. The NICU nurses have been wonderful – even though we’ve pestered them with questions and shown up at odd hours, they’re hugely supportive and actively encourage us to spend as much time with Viviana as we can – touching her, talking to her, and holding her.
Chrissy has started pumping milk and is making great progress! The first few times she got a few milliliters, but this afternoon she pumped almost 40 ml’s! While Viviana can’t use the milk yet, they do have a freezer in the NICU that they keep pumped milk in for later use.
Tomorrow (Sunday) is checkout day, so we’ll be packing Chrissy’s belongings up and heading home. The plan for next week is for at least one of us to be at the hospital every day, and for Chrissy to pump milk at home to take in.
We will probably update more often once we’re not living at the hospital, and Chrissy will likely resume her position as main reporter. :-)