The second week of Jasmines life was a period of adjustment. I was fortunate that my other amazing kids were school aged- 12, 8, and 6 so they kind of understood, to an extent, that their tiny sister needed me a lot more, but it was still extremely difficult for us all. I found it hard to be away from them so much and I know they really struggled too. I was 99% positive that Jazz would make it, but that minute sliver of doubt still lingered enough that I wanted to be sure that if Jazz didnt make it, Id been there for her as much as humanly possible. It was a difficult thing to juggle. And it never got any easier.
My routine kept developing, and I began to learn the workings of Nicu.
It was during jazzies first weeks, that another 24 weeker came to bay 7, I was keen to get to know her mum and perhaps share our journey. This little poppet was put on a ventilator called a high frequency oscilator, it delivers hundreds of breaths per second and vibrates the babies. It is gentler on the babies. When jazz was born she'd been put in a sandwich bag, but this baby was on a flatbed in what looked for all the world like an oven bag! I never met her mum, she passed away after about 3 days. Although I never met her mum, or her, it hit hard. I was sad for her and her family, but it also hit home just how precarious life was for Jasmine too.......she wasnt out of the woods yet by a long shot! I pushed any doubts and fear back into the shadows and kept being as positive as I could.
On day 8 Jasmines delicate skin was beginning to get damaged, A skin swab was done. Her CRP (indicates infection/inflammation) went up so Jazz was put on 2 lots of antibiotics. Her tummy was getting distended, which would become an ongoing thing for miss jazz. Her eyes began to open! just a sliver, it was amazing! She cracks them open a tiny bit when you talk to her.
My expressing routine was increased to 2 hourly in an attempt to increase my milk supply.
Day 9 saw me beginning to express 25ml from each breast! I was starting to relax a little.
When jazz had her 19 week ultrasound, one of the things we noticed was how she was clinging to the umbilical chord, it was interesting to see that since her birth, she'd grab any tube she could get her little hands on, typically it was the ventilator tube, but this day it was the I.V drip. Her eyes were opening more, and it was amazing to watch her develop and grow!
So far her oxygen was still low- 23% and she was still tolerating her feeds.
On this day I saw her ventilator tube get suctioned for the first time, they didnt warn me what they were doing!!! They undid the tube and suctioned.....I felt it with her and almost gagged!!! Because the respirator is a foreign objext, her lungs produce mucous to try to get rid of it. The mucous is quite thick and needed to be flushed with saline to loosen. They suctioned her twice and each time the poor mite would braddy and desat....I reckon I would too!!! She managed to pick up her heart rate on her own, but her oxygen needed to be increased to 100% while they did it. I found it very scarey that first time but it would soon just become a normal part of the routine. As soon as they finished her oxygen was lowered to 30%.
Her tummy had distended to 19cm.
Her feeds were increased to 2ml every hour so they would now have to keep a very close eye on her tummy now.
By that evening, her tummy had distended to 19.8cm, but fortunately was still soft. Due to the distension, they stopped her feeds for the moment.
Day 10 Jasmines tummy was still distended and she wasnt pooing so well. She had another suppository overnight in the hopes she'll do a big poo and possibly reduce the size of her tummy. If she does have a big poo and tummy size doesnt decrease, she'll need an xray to see whats going on. Poor little thing keeps pulling her little knees up and frowning, must have tummy pains. :(
Her skin was looking better, it had gotten scaley and theyd begun applying nilstat cream.
Her nurse said that in a couple of days her humidity would begin to be weaned down, then its a matter of her temperature being more stable and we could start Kangaroo care!! I was dreaming of Kangaroo care!!
Her eyes were opening more every day.
She had her tube suctioned again today and she coped better than yesterday.......we both did!!!
The evening of day 10 I called to see how she was doing, her CRP and Haemoglobin were fine, and her tummy was .5cm smaller thanks to a good poo! Nurse said shed been very settled and was a very good girl!
Day 11 I called first thing in the morning to see how Jazzies night went. Shed been reasonably stable, although the carbon dioxide levels in her blood had increased, so her oxygen was raised to 28%. Shed been a bit warm and was currently sitting on 37.8 degrees. Tummy still distended but soft, and no poo's.
Mum drove me in because I was exhausted and had been having lots of dizzy spells. By the time we got there her tummy had reduced to 18cm! Ava's mum, Bec, had bought Jazz a 1kg size premmie body suit, it was gorgeous, but massive in comparison to jazz!! We put it beside her in the isolette and took a photo. Jazzies feeds were started again, at 1ml per hour, and she was so far tolerating it.
We left early afternoon to get to the other kids, and I rang again that night at 7.45
She was restless and her tummy was back to 19cm. The kids stayed the night with Mum, and Paul and I went back in to see Jazz around 10pm.
Her tummy looked better to me than it had the other day. Her humidity had been reduced again. It had started at 80% that day then decreased to 70%, then 60% was currently on 50%. Her oxygen kept going up though, she fights against the respirator. B.P keeps droppig and they made a note to query PDA.
Day 12
3am Right breast extremely sore and no milk, 7am took an hour to express 25ml from the right breast using hot compresses. Saw the G.P....mastitis. boo.
When I arrived at NICU, jazz was having a big, bad desat and just couldnt pick herself up, so her o2 increasedto 48%. That helped and they were able to turn her o2 down again later. The doctor had listened to her heart and heard a murmur, so they think she has a PDA (this is a duct in the heart that closes after birth in full terms but usually doesnt with prems) she'll have an echocardiogram, then possibly medication if needed. She doesnt like handling, desats a lot, particularly during her cares and suctioning. And she has a lot of very thick mucous in her lungs.Her humidity is down to 48% and oxygen has reduced again to 25%. She'll have another blood transfusion this afternoon and should be perkier tomorrow as shes been very tired for the last few days.
At 6.30pm, when I called, her oxygen was still 25%
So far, Jazz had completely exceeded every expectation, and I just kept praying she'd continue to do so!
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