Day 99 in the NICU- December 6, 2012

I didn't do much relaxing on my day off. It was a busy day at the NICU. I worked with Victoria, OT (occupational therapy) trying to bottle feed Avery today. Avery was just not having it. Even Victoria couldn't get her to eat. Eating from a bottle is a lot of work for Avery. 50-60% of the formula that gets in her mouth ends up going into her cleft and she has to work hard to clear that out of there so she can breathe. This is why they only try bottle feeding her once or twice a shift. It is just exhausting for her. Aves was supposed to be going for a MRI today but the MRI machine was broken. I am not sure if she ended up going later in the day. They want her to get a MRI as a follow up to the one that I had when I was 20 weeks pregnant showing her cerebellum was measuring a few weeks behind the rest of her body. Then Mary, the Director of nursing, came in to talk to me about the letter I wrote to the Ombudsman. Then about an hour after that, the Ombudsman (patient advocate) came from main campus to speak with me. Avery was pretty fussy the whole day and we couldn't do much to settle her down. The good thing is that Avery is on no oxygen assistance! Even that she has been crying much of the day, her oxygen saturation levels remained really good. It did dip once in awhile, but she would always bring herself back up quickly.  She still had the cannula in today, just in case they needed to turn the oxygen back on.

 

Mommy and I had a hard time today trying to bottle feed today



 

I need to get the hang of this so I can come home soon