Washing It Away

Thank you all for the kind comments, text messages, emails, tweets, and carrier pigeons. I don't have pity parties very often because, really, feeling sorry for myself is not a good use of my time, and I have too much to be thankful for. However, everyone needs to let it out every now and then.

Maddie's new amped-up Xopenex breathing treatment works wonders. After she has it, she breathes like a normal baby, not a wheeze or whistle to be heard. Of course, four hours later, that's all back, but then it's time for another breathing treatment. The diuretic is making her pee like a freaking...hmm...what is something that pees a lot? Insert that thing here. Because she's peeing a LOT. Friday morning's blood tests will determine if it's too much pee. Apparently you CAN pee too much. That reminds me of that one New Year's Eve where I got so dehydrated I didn't pee until 4:30 pm on January 1st. Man, did we celebrate when I flushed that pee down!

What the heck am I talking about?

We were worried the higher oxygen setting would be very uncomfortable and disruptive to Maddie's sleep, but it actually had the exact opposite effect. She slept like something that sleeps a lot (insert that thing here). Last night she slept from 12:30 to 6:30. Mike and I did a damn jig this morning when we realized we'd had six straight hours of sleep. Then we pushed each other over as we ran to make sure she was okay. I know every parent does that the first time their child sleeps for a long period of time.

I received a few comments and emails with questions. For example, Memphislis asked Dr. Google (who is looking for new patients, by the way) if the extra oxygen would hurt her eyes. Dr. Google is not trained in The Ophthalmology, so she deferred to Dr. Looove. Dr. Looove said that oxygen is only a detriment when eyes are developing, and Maddie's eyes are done developing. So that's good. Kailey emailed me to ask if two liters was a lot. Well, for Maddie it's a lot. The highest she's ever received was 2 1/2 liters/minute when she was in the NICU. We're hoping that two liters is only temporary.

I want to open up my comment section to any questions you all might have about Maddie. Anything from my pregnancy to her time in the NICU up to today. It's all up for grabs. I'm hoping your questions will help me keep a better record for Maddie, and also help remind me of crucial things I might have forgotten over time. I also want to make sure I'm not leaving anyone behind with my jargon. Should I have an FAQ section? Mi blog es su blog. Or something.

If you don't have any questions, feel free to tell me I'm awesome. After all, tomorrow starts my birthday week! We'll keep you all posted on the test results.