Monday, November 5, 2007 - Update

I was able to spend the afternoon and evening with my precious daughter. Olivia continues to do very well, although she has been struggling more lately on her lowered CPAP setting. She has had more desats, apneas and bradycardias lately although the frequency of these episodes is still below what they consider the norm. Olivia has not been gaining weight as well lately either. She’s only gained 25 grams within the last 3 days which puts her about 25 grams shy of the 1500 gram mark. Previously, she had been gaining almost 40 grams per day. They increased her feeding to 31 cc and may increase it again depending upon what her weight is tonight. Please pray that she continues to grow like she should as this is very important for her development. Olivia managed to pull her OG tube out about 3 times today and even managed to get her feeding tube out as well. One of the nurses had to hold her arms down when they put the OG tube back in because of the force Olivia was using to push them away. Everyone remains to be very impressed by my sweet Olivia. There are not many long term studies or even any data on 23-weekers. Many places do not even resuscitate babies born before 24 weeks. I hope babies like Olivia change people’s minds and prove that every baby should be given a chance. Olivia has a little friend with her in her isolette. A few weeks ago, somebody donated little stuffed animals to all the babies in the NICU. Of course, they have to be put in plastic bags, but Olivia has a little elephant sitting with her everyday that we call Horton. Everyday, Horton whispers to Olivia “A person’s a person no matter how small.” (Horton Hears a Who still remains one of my all-time favorite stories.)

Last night I mentioned another baby that was admitted into the NICU. Sadly, she was another precious child that God called home. Please pray for the family of that baby. I was also greatly distressed to learn that Olivia’s little neighbor had to have surgery today. This little girl was born about a week after Olivia and is one of the few babies that have remained in the NICU throughout our stay. Please pray that she is able to recover fully. You are not supposed to pay a lot of attention to the other babies around you and for good reason. It’s hard, however, not to notice the babies around you because their condition greatly affects the atmosphere of the entire room. I just want every baby there to be able to go home with their family. I wish Logan would have been able to and I pray every second of every day that Olivia will be able to in the near future.