Heavy Weight

We’ve made it, and passed it! 

We have reached the 1.5kg milestone and smashed it…weighing in at 1.78kg.

Lily is rocking her way to full size baby weight!

We get to have lots more cuddles now that Lily is getting stronger, and each kick, stretch and move is more powerful than the one before…With the positive changes we’ve seen in Lily over the last couple of weeks, it feels like there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Eight weeks in the NICU, and seven more weeks until we can expect to see her looking full term size and a bit closer to coming home!

She's doing a great job with her breathing, still with a fair bit of oxygen, but doing the breath on her own and relying on the machine to provide her with pressure to keep her lungs open.  She has been much more settled when we visit, and its a pleasure to watch our little girl growing and becoming more content with her little life.

Mr T and I have been putting together a nursery at home for Lily over the last week, I have just a few finishing touches to go, and then I’ll share some pics. Sammy has been checking it out and making sure everything is to her liking!

Lily the wonderbaby

Lily update: 7weeks old, 49 days & 32 weeks gestation

After a huge week last week, Lily has managed to stay off her tube for the entire week. A super positive week for the T household with Little Miss proving her strength and determination once again. 

Lily has been having treatments over the last seven weeks to close what they call her PDA. Patent Ductus Arteriosus. When big term babies are born, this duct closes itself with a big cry and seals it off forever so that the blood can be directed to where it is needed. With an open PDA blood is diverted away from the lungs and back into the heart, some blood does not get oxygenated, creating a lack of oxygen delivery to the rest of the body and a corresponding increase in carbon dioxide levels. In addition, the amount of blood supplying other vital organs may also be reduced. The heart may enlarge in order to increase blood flow. A severe PDA may increase blood pressure in the lungs and cause weakness in the left ventricle of the heart. This in turn may create pulmonary edema, which is fluid build-up in the lungs, which will make breathing very difficult.

This has been Lily’s achilles heel…Lily was given a few medications to assist in the closure, the first two, ibuprofen & indomethacin didn’t work for Lily, but the last course of paracetamol has had some effect…yay!!! Her duct is now much smaller and her left side of her heart has gone back to a normal size. We could see these changes reflected in her oxygen saturations and respirations as she has been sitting much higher and more stable the last few days. 

We have had Granny Fe and Papa Vic visiting over the weekend, so Lily has had special visitors and more cuddles for Mummy T and Daddy T too. We think she is going to be Daddy’s little girl, Mr T has a very calming ad soothing effect. His cuddles and voice make her very settled and content. 

Lily is growing big and strong, and I can feel the power and strength of our little one, when we change her nappy and do her cares. She is on 10mls per hour of feeds which are full feeds for her weight, she is so, so close to 1.5kg now, and will be there any day now as she is currently 1.48kg. 

I can’t believe how big she is growing, if I had doubled my weight in seven weeks, I would be very concerned…so when I think about it that way her growth has been very fast. All that growing equates to more use of her bowels, and she swapped houses yesterday as the other one needed a good clean, and was getting a bit too stinky. There was a rather terrible pooing incident the other day; involving multiple nappies, wipes and the cleaning down of the windows in her house…

Since having her tubes removed from her throat, we have heard a few tiny squeaks from Lily, but nothing big yet. Her tubes were placed either side of her vocal chords, so her throat is a bot hoarse and dry, but with time she will recover and hopefully we’ll hear a fully blown scream one day soon, I can’t wait!

Lily has now been in the NICU for 50 days, and we have seen so many other babies visit in the spot next to Lily. Going from strength to strength at the moment, as she grows and gets bigger, she copes better with the big wide world she arrived to early into.

A big week for Lily

Butter wouldn’t melt in this little mouth right? Wrong! 

Peaceful and snug as a bug in a rug, little miss Lily had big plans for herself this week…we were enjoying a quite Friday night bedside with our little girl after a big work week for Mr T; but Lily decided to give us one more little surprise for our Friday night. The self extubator did it again, only this time she did while we were there. I’m not sure there is a more stressful experience, and I’m not going to challenge Lily to find one, this one was more than enough! The horrible feeling in the pit of your stomach, when you know something is wrong, but you can’t fix it, and you’re not sure if everything is going to be ok….I’ll be charging Lily when she’s older for the hair appointments I need to cover up the grey.

Clearly annoyed with her ventilation tube, Lily decided to make matters into her own hands and dislodge it; the quickest way to get every nurse and doctor in the NICU to race in and see what’s happening. The sounds and noises are more serious than usual, as the oxygen saturation drops, followed by the heart rate and respirations.

A silver lining this time though…they trialed Lily without her tube, and a ventilation called CPAP, delivering oxygen just through her nose, rather than directly into her lungs…and so far the little rascal is still on it and going well. Still having desaturations in her oxygen and forgetting to breathe every now and then, but coping so well. Her new gear makes her look a bit rapper, a bit hip hop and bit spaceman like. She has a groovy little hat and a nose shaped cover with prongs that give her oxygen.

I think she must have just been ready to have a go on her own.

More exciting things over the weekend as Mr T had his first cuddle. The first cuddle is so special… Hopefully if she is able to stay off her tube ventilation, cuddles will be able to be more frequent and regular, so she can have more Mummy and Daddy skin time.

 I had a secret hunch that this week Lily was doing a little better, her growing size (1.4kg & 31 weeks yesterday) is helping her cope with life just that little bit easier.

We needed some good stuff this week, I had been starting to get a bit sooky again lately…earlier this week (after two strong weeks of no tears) I found myself balling in the car on the way to hospital listening to Taylor Swift- ‘shake it off’…that’s not even a sad song! I also met my first drug affected mother in the expressing room, and combined with the smoking one I see at the hospital entrance every day on my way in, was all getting a bit too much for my weepy heart, and it’s been feeling a bit heavy.

But our little gem has had a ripper weekend and left us feeling super positive about what she is capable of…no stopping her now! 

Boobie Biscuits

Aka: Lactation cookies

This one is for Mummies today. Mummies breast feeding or expressing. 12 months ago, I would never have thought I would be googling the words lactation and cookies together.

I’m not sure who came up with this idea, but I suspect it could have been a postnatal, sleep deprived Mummy who needed something sweet, appetising and delicious to go with her afternoon cup of tea. I don’t believe eating a bowl of oats, brewers yeast and flaxseed (the key ingredients) would have the same effect or taste quite as good on their own, as they do in combination with some added goodies to make these tasty treats. What’s more, you can eat them and pretend you have to because they have the added benefit of increasing your milk supply for bubs.

So, I figured that if I am to continue expressing until little Lily can feed herself, then I’m going to have something tasty to help me through it…because that pump…words cannot describe how monotonous, tedious, repeated, and never ending that sound is!

After a few friends and hospital nurses (not the scary lactation one…) had mentioned and recommended the above biscuits, I decided to ask my Mum to make some for me, and try them for myself. My supply has been plateauing of late, could be stress, tiredness…who knows, but a great reason to try some boobie biscuits! Who knows they may even up my supply to help me keep with Lily’s increased feeds; the little rascal.

The verdict: This recipe is from bellybelly and totally delicious, regardless of whether or you not you are feeding. Mr T has tried them and he isn’t leaking…yet! They are a tasty treat. This is the link below.

http://www.bellybelly.com.au/breastfeeding/lactation-cookies/

There are some fairly wacky testimonials…but if you can get past those, the recipe is delish!

Prep time: approx. 15 minutes

Oven temp: Preheat to 170C or 338F

Makes approx: 14-16 cookies using a tablespoon (double recipe for more)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup self raising wholemeal flour (if you have plain flour, add 1/2 tsp baking powder)
• 1/2 cup butter (for a healthier option, use organic, virgin coconut oil instead)
• 3/4 cup brown sugar (if wanting to reduce sugar, you could try just 1/2 cup)
• 2 tablespoons flaxseed meal
• 1 egg
• 2-3 tablespoons of water (depends if you prefer moister cookies)
• 1 tablespoon vanilla (optional, for flavour)
•  1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional, for flavour) 1-2 tablespoons of brewers yeast (do not substitute with bakers yeast or any other yeast).
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (use himalayan salt if possible)
• 1 & 1/2 cups oats
• OPTIONAL: 1/2 cup of your fave biscuit ingredients (My Mum added white choc chips and cranberries)

Method:

1. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar then add the egg and vanilla. Mix well. 
2. In a separate bowl, combine the flaxseed and water, let sit for a few minutes before adding to mix.
3. Add the dry ingredients (apart from the oats and your additional ingredients) and mix well again.
4. Finally, stir in the oats and your additional ingredient.
5. Make the biscuits and place them onto a lightly greased or lined baking tray.
6. Flatten them a little with your fingers or a spatula – if you like a soft centre, don’t squish them down too much.

Yum!

No News Is Good News

 29 weeks and counting

Just some pictures of our gorgeous little girl today. Now four weeks old (29 weeks) and 1.265kg. At her weigh in this week I got to give her two kisses on her warm, soft, forehead. 

Not too much has happened in the last week, she’s growing big and increasing her feeds to 5ml an hour. She is becoming more alert and used to the sounds of my voice and Mr Ts voice. She greeted me with big wide eyes one day this week as I chatted with the nurses...

She has managed to fight off a couple of new infections, and the doctors are still working on closing her duct and getting her ventilation right. She had an ‘episode’ earlier this week and was given a teeny tiny bit of morphine to settle her down and give her a good night’s sleep.

It’s pleasing to see her developing personality, even at such early stages. Lily displays her displeasure when being handled by the nurses and likes to kick at them and swat them away with her arms. When it’s all too much she makes her alarms sound to make them back off, and then quickly recovers herself when they leave her be…she raises her hands to her head in exasperation as she contemplates her next blood test…too cute! Her face tells us when she is crying, sneezing, hiccuping and upset…when her ventilation tube is eventually out, there will be sounds to go with it. I can’t wait to hear a cry or a grizzle!

We have looked at baby pictures of Mr T and I this week and can see similarities and family traits in Lily girl.

Mr T and Mrs T

It still amazes me how strong and resilient she is, she takes it all in her stride and just keeps going.

She is getting quite the reputation for herself and has a couple of nurses who regularly come to check on her and make sure she is not misbehaving. When we go in to visit her it’s common for the nurses to have her wrapped and swaddled so that she can’t wrap her little fingers around her breathing tube…as Mr T says it keeps her from touching things she cannot afford!

Keep on keeping on little one!