I arrived at the NICU at 10am this morning and I just sat with her for a bit while she finished her feeding. After she was done having her meal around noon it was time to change her diaper. I got to change her very poopy diaper! It was a messy one! (Sorry, had to share that! It's exciting for a first time mom!) After her diaper change Olivia and I had another great cuddle session again today:) We spent 2.5 hours together this afternoon. I got to cradle her this time skin to skin so I got to see her cute beaty little eyes again. She watched me for a bit while I talked to her and hummed to her. She had a couple of bradycardia's during our cuddle (a bradycardia is basically a slow resting heart rate which is common in premature babies. Brady is greek for "slow" and cardia is "heart". Slow heart). Dr's and nurses call is Brady's for short. To bring her heart rate back up you just rub her back or tummy and it comes back up. Guess she's so relaxed when cuddling me:). I didn't get any photos of miss Olivia while cuddling her this afternoon but I did get some after our cuddle:) Hope you all like this one, it's one of my favourite photos:) You'll see why...
As for Olivia's progress she's still doing good so far. She's still on the same feeding schedule (feeding every two hours then having a break for an hour). She lost a bit more weight last night but that's to be expected in a newborn. They fluctuate in weight. She's down to 650 grams. Hopefully tonight she will go back up a bit tonight. Oh, she also started her iron supplement today. I was telling Olivia how I hated Iron and how it made me sick when I was carrying her! Hopefully she will tolerated it a lot better than I did! Yuck!!
After holding Olivia today I had a chance to take a break for once and head over to Janeece Place. For those of you who are not familiar with this place it's a place where families who have children in the hospital can stay if they live from out of town or families who live locally, like we do, can use the facilities during the day to relax. It's an amazing place! You should definitely check out their website and see what it's all about. It's a great place for me to take a break from all the go go go. I actually had a nap today!! Something I don't usually have time for at home. Here's their website if you're interested: Jeneece Place.
After my lunch, milk pumping session and a much needed short nap I headed back to the NICU to help out with Olivia's next handling which was to be scheduled at 5pm. Turns out they didn't need to do it until 6pm but that's okay, I spent a bit of time with her just putting my hand on her back while she slept. Once 6pm came it was time to change her diaper again. This time it was a nicer diaper, not so messy:). Thanks Olivia! Mommy love's you!
Shortly after her diaper change Daddy came around! He came from work. While daddy had a visit with his little girl I went to pump more milk (It seems that all i do now!! Such hard work!!)
Well, that's all for now! It's time to pump again then time for some sleep! Some much needed sleep! Hopefully I can get more sleep tonight so I can teach tomorrow morning!:)
Thanks for reading! Have a great night everyone!
-Monique