Chloe – Page 13 – Andelin Adventures

Chloe’s progress

Today Chloe is doing better. She just keeps getting better and better each day. The doctor this morning decided to reduce her IV fluids from 12 ml/ hour to 5 ml/hour. His explaination being that the IV fluids contain a lot of sugar and reducing that should help her be less sleepy and have more of an appetite.

We took the kids down this afternoon for a chance to get to see her, and Dinah was SO sad when she had to leave her again. Ethan and Tyra went in to see her first, but she was sleeping and there wasn’t much to look at. They enjoyed seeing her anyways. Jeremy went in with me, to see her when I went in to feed her. I unwrapped her and changed her diaper and woke her up, so Jeremy got to see her awake. I showed him her tiny little feet and he said ‘how come they like raisins?’ I told him that she had been in water in mommy’s belly for a really, really long time. He had a good time checking her out, and I pointed out her tiny little ears, and tiny little nose, and showed him her little hands. He was asking what all the little cords hanging off of her were for, just being a very curious cute little boy.

When I went back for the evening feeding I heard her screaming, from the hallway. She was HUNGRY, which is so exciting. They have also removed the IV in her arm. They weren’t using it any more (since they put the PICC in), but decided they would leave it there ‘just in case’ but when I got there tonight they said that it had ‘gone bad’ so they removed it. My guess is that means they tried to flush it and it wouldn’t flush. But that’s ok, I’m GLAD it’s gone. It makes it so much easier for her to move her arm to where ever she wants to, and now that the needle and tape and padding is all gone it makes it easier to get her into a comfortable position to try to nurse her on my left side. So things are looking good.

A tube free face!

They finally removed the feeding tube from Chloe’s face. So that’s one less thing dangling off of her to have to worry about keeping tangle free. Isn’t she so cute:

Things are looking up

Chloe has been doing much better than she did previously. She still has the IV in her arm, and still has the feeding tube in her nose, but we’ve been told the doctor approved removing the feeding tube if she eats regularly. Also, they have said the IV will be replaced with a PICC since the antibiotics are so abrasive on her vein, and that way it will provide the antibiotics directly into her blood stream through her heart. Personally, that sounds rather scary, but we just have to assume they know what they are doing.

She’s also been nursing and feeding from a bottle more regularly. Rebecca has been released and is now at home, and she and the nurses have decided they can alternate feedings every three hours (so Rebecca nurses once every 6 hours, and they use formula for the other 3-hour feedings). Rebecca can then just pump during the times she’s at home, which gives me a chance to go in and help as well. I must say, waking up for the 2am feeding was not fun (the nurse said to just let them handle it since they were already there), but it was nice to spend some quiet early morning time with my little girl. I just held her until she fell back asleep and then put her back down.

One thing more that Rebecca was told is if they can do the PICC, they might be able to release her to our care if they wean her off the IV fluids, and we’ll just be able to give her the antibiotics at home. So that would be great, although the idea of having her at home with a little tube leading right to her heart is a bit concerning.

Update on Chloe

Well today has been really a miserable day. I know things could be worse than they are, but they certainly could be better too. The pediatrician on call today came to my room to tell me that Chloe’s white blood cell count has actually increased from the last time they counted. Which means that they will need to continue the IV antibiotics for the next week, and Chloe won’t be coming home with us tomorrow. 🙁 I am SO upset. I’ve spent most of the day just crying. He said they also needed to put her on a feeding tube, to be able to get some food into her tummy so she can learn what it feels like to be hungry. Right now she’s just been on IV fluids and is so lethargic, and has no concept of hunger that it’s not really working to go in there and nurse her. I keep trying, and I tickle her and blow on her, and unwrap her and touch her, and talk to her, and the nurse helps with rubbing Chloe down with her cold hands to try to wake her up and we are just not having any success with it. And they have decided to put her on previcid (for reflux) since she keeps coughing yucky stuff up, and she chokes on it most of the time. The only ‘good’ news I have to report is that she has been off the oxygen since yesterday afternoon, and she is breathing just fine now.

The kids meet Chloe

Well Kyle left me for a bit today to go home and shower and walk Chewy, then he went over to Laurel & Roine’s to pick up the kids. Then he brought them over to see me. But right before they got here the nurse called my room to tell me that Chloe was awake and I can come and try nursing her, so when Kyle and the kids arrived I was in the nursery. There is a limit of only three people in with a baby at a time so that meant that Kyle was stuck out in the hall with the kids while I was sitting in the nursery nursing Chloe. So they left to go get ice cream, and Kyle got the kids happy meals so that they could eat dinner with me. After dinner, the kids had to take turns going in to see Chloe.

So here I am with our brown eyed kiddos, the nurse was getting Chloe ready for me to nurse her again, and Jeremy and Tyra were so excited to meet her. Ethan had a turn to see Chloe first (so he is outside looking in, here), and he went in with Kyle while the others finished eating their dinner. Ethan just happened to finish his food first. Dinah didn’t actually get to go in the nursery. They said that they must be 2 years old or older to go in, and Dinah is just 3 months shy of that, so she had to see Chloe through the windows. But she was so excited to see ‘baby’ that she kept trying to escape from my room to go out and see the baby again.

Debby also showed up while I was in nursing Chloe, so she is the first auntie to see her. 😉 Debby was excited about that.