Today I'm heading to another session at 10:30 where we will be learning out to take out Olivia out her incubator and hold her/move her by myself. That'll be a challenge! She's so tiny and I'm afraid to move her around, haha. I'm looking forward to it though. Today we will just be practicing with a doll and an incubator.
At the season yesterday I also got a chance to get more information on the Family Integrated Care Study program that they offer at the NICU. In short it's a 3 week program where parents spend 6-8 hours a day 5 days of your choice (or split up hours) and take care of your baby under the supervision of a nurse (of course!). The nurse will do all the manditory duties while the parents will do all the basic care for the baby such as changing the diaper, taking their temperature, weighing them, feeding them, bathing them as well as doing kangaroo care (skin to skin holding). Although I already know how to do most of those things I'm not there all day to do it 8 hours. This study is across Canada at select hospitals as well as it has expanded recently to a few hospitals in Australia. Basically this study is trying to prove that when parents are involved in the care of their premature babies it:
- reduces stress on the parents
- babies gain weight faster
- babies get to go home faster (maybe a week or two earlier than expected)
- you get to bond with your baby
- and my favourite: You get to slowly learn how to look after your baby instead of being sent home right away and being lost at sea as to what to do!
I have just signed the contract to do this study with Olivia but don't know when I'll be able to start as she has to be stable and maybe a bit bigger. I'll found out soon! I'm sure you'll be hearing about our progress:)
If you're interested in reading more about the program you can visit the website for a more detailed article and description HERE:
Speaking of Olivia, her update is that she gained more weight today! She's now up to 889 grams! Hoping she'll reach 900 by today! I'll be finding out tonight at her weigh in (haha, sounds like she's on the biggest loser! She needs to be on the smallest gainer show!). She also had her echocardiogram on her heart this morning. Because it's the long weekend we won't be finding out the results until Tuesday sometime. That's okay as there will either be no change in her PDA or some change (getting smaller). They won't be doing anything anyways right at the moment as she's still stable, growing and doing well. Will keep you up to date on that!
Anyways, this is a bit of a shorter post but looking forward to tomorrow's! I had a lot of fun today! Won't be blogging today's events until tomorrow morning.
Hope you al have a great long weekend and thanks for reading again! Here's todays question of the day:
QUESTION OF THE DAY: What was your favourite childhood movie?
Be sure to comment below with your answer:)
-Monique