All continues to be fairly well here in London.
Ella is starting to take her feeds better and she is now up to 4mL every three hours. They have been increasing her slowly hoping that she continues to tolerate her feeds. She has been doing fairly well with her ventilation with moderate levels of oxygen. Ella has also needed a blood transfusion.
Lucy is a big eater! She is now taking 8mL every two hours. They have started to fortify her milk with the nutrition she has been getting by IV. They do that for a bit to be sure she can tolerate the fortification and then will give feeds only through the milk. Her oxygen levels continue to be up and down and she is at quite a higher level than Ella. They have done several chest x-rays and her lung seems to be getting better and there is no indication of an infection.
Something that might be the cause is the on-going issue of the girls' open ducts leading from their hearts. I had explained earlier that in most newborns this duct closes soon after birth, but in pre-mature babies is almost always opens back up again. This has been the case with both Ella and Lucy. Both of them were given medication to see if the ducts would close, but they didn't completely work. They still have small to moderate openings. The doctors were just waiting and seeing as there had been no clinical symptoms suggesting that they needed surgery right away. Lucy's ventilation troubles might be an indication that she needs the surgery to close the duct sooner than later. As with many things, we just have to wait and see.
I should clarify what I mean by "feeds." The girls are fed breastmilk through a small tube that runs from their nose to their stomach. You will be able to see the tube in the pictures. Babies are not able to suck and swallow and breathe all at the same time until they are quite a bit further in their gestation age. They will be fed this way for at least six to eight more weeks.
It is amazing to see the changes over the last two and a half weeks - they are starting to be much more filled out. They were very red at the beginning but now are pink. Their tiny fingers and toes still amaze me. Ella continues to be much calmer and laid back and Lucy still insists on having at least one leg kicked out of her nest. But both of them look more comfortable and content than at the very beginning.
Ella is starting to take her feeds better and she is now up to 4mL every three hours. They have been increasing her slowly hoping that she continues to tolerate her feeds. She has been doing fairly well with her ventilation with moderate levels of oxygen. Ella has also needed a blood transfusion.
Lucy is a big eater! She is now taking 8mL every two hours. They have started to fortify her milk with the nutrition she has been getting by IV. They do that for a bit to be sure she can tolerate the fortification and then will give feeds only through the milk. Her oxygen levels continue to be up and down and she is at quite a higher level than Ella. They have done several chest x-rays and her lung seems to be getting better and there is no indication of an infection.
Something that might be the cause is the on-going issue of the girls' open ducts leading from their hearts. I had explained earlier that in most newborns this duct closes soon after birth, but in pre-mature babies is almost always opens back up again. This has been the case with both Ella and Lucy. Both of them were given medication to see if the ducts would close, but they didn't completely work. They still have small to moderate openings. The doctors were just waiting and seeing as there had been no clinical symptoms suggesting that they needed surgery right away. Lucy's ventilation troubles might be an indication that she needs the surgery to close the duct sooner than later. As with many things, we just have to wait and see.
I should clarify what I mean by "feeds." The girls are fed breastmilk through a small tube that runs from their nose to their stomach. You will be able to see the tube in the pictures. Babies are not able to suck and swallow and breathe all at the same time until they are quite a bit further in their gestation age. They will be fed this way for at least six to eight more weeks.
It is amazing to see the changes over the last two and a half weeks - they are starting to be much more filled out. They were very red at the beginning but now are pink. Their tiny fingers and toes still amaze me. Ella continues to be much calmer and laid back and Lucy still insists on having at least one leg kicked out of her nest. But both of them look more comfortable and content than at the very beginning.
posted by Theresa | 12:22 pm
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