NICU Day 8

Yesterday at 4:22 marked Madeline's completion of her first full week of life! She is now well into her second week, and she is continuing to make progress. Some days (such as Saturday) the doctors were not able to ween her off any of her Dopamine medication (for blood pressure) or to lower her ventilator and supply of nitrix (both of which help her breathe). Other days, however, such as yesterday, the doctors were able to be more aggressive, and lowered all of her numbers, most obviously with the nitrix which went from 4.9 to 2.9 in one day! Ideally, the doctors will ween her off all of these things...but all in good time. For now it is great to see her progressing.

Beyond all of that she is looking a lot better! Her edema (excessive fluid in the body) is not as bad now that she is on less medication, so she is less puffy and very cute! To Heather's delight the nurses asked her if she would like to change Maddie's diaper, and of course she said yes. Linda was there to see H do it the first time and was very impressed to see her jump right in there with no fear. She also changed her diaper last night, and she does a good job of it!

The doctors also said that if things continue to progress well before too long we will be able to hold her. She has to be more stable though, and currently she still does see her oxygen numbers fall when she is moved or touched (this number, the amount of oxygen she is getting, you do not want to go down). One other important thing is the problem she is having with air seeping out of her lungs into her thorax. When she first had this problem we were minutes away from losing her, but since then the doctors have been able to control it and Maddie has been working to heal the holes that let the air out in the first place. Our nurse told us that her x-rays show Maddie is healing, but the holes are not closed yet, so that is really are biggest immediate concern.

Thanks again for everyone's support. We all appreciate it greatly and can't help but believe all of the good thoughts sent out on her behalf have helped her in some way.