Life in the NICU

Well, baby Elva should be coming home tommorrow - Monday Dec 17. She has spent the last two weeks in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Her first two days were at the Foothills hospital but she was doing so well so they sent her to the Peter Laugheed NICU which is a step down ICU for babies. I was discharged the day she was sent over there. It has been so wonderful to sleep in my own bed and be around for Caeleb more in the evenings. Elva has done so well eating from the beginning and has been growing steadily. She is already past her birth weight and gaining weight daily. I have been at the hospital from 9:00 am to 7:00 pm most days to feed her and cuddle her. She is such a good little girl. Does not cry much at all. The Nurses do say that she has quite the lungs and lets out a loud howl when she is hungry but I haven't experienced much of that yet so it must happen mostly at night. I guess I will hear for myself soon enough. I love it when she has her quiet awake moments and just looks around. I love the feeling of purity and innocence that Elva and all newborn babies radiate.

We thought Elva would come home last Monday but she has had to stay longer because she was having bradycardic episodes where her heartrate and oxygen saturation would drop periodically. This happens alot with premature babies and just needs to be monitored but it does not mean she has anything serious. We feel so lucky that she is good health. She needs to be 5 days free of those episodes and that will be tommorrow so we are crossing our fingers. She has been given such great care by the nurses and doctors at the hospital. I love the environment there. There is such a special spirit in the nursery with all the babies. I have gotten my hospital routine of every 3 hour diaper changes, temperature checks, feeds and cuddles. I have seen a few of my roomates from the Foothills Antepartum unit here with there little babies and it has been nice reconnecting with them. I was really worried about one of my roomates who ended up having an urgent c-section at 31 weeks because her baby was not growing. Her baby is here now and doing well so that is a relief.

I worked in a special care nurery (like a NICU only on a smaller scale) for about 16 months when I was doing my Bachelors degree at BYUI. I loved it and have decided that I would love to work in that setting again someday. Probably not in the near future but someday. I now feel like I am not meant to be a Labour and Delivery or Emergency or Adult ICU or Pediactric Nurse but I do so enjoy my time working on my Medical unit and at the Extendicare and I loved my time with the babies and feel like that is something I can do again.

Well, I will upadate my blog when Elva comes home. Tommorrow really should be the day and we are excited! We feel so blessed to have Caeleb and Elva and love having Nathan living with us to share life's experiences. We are also saddened at this time for those families who have lost loved ones in Conneticut and our prayers and thoughts are with them. We pray they can find comfort and peace at this time.