I'm a Week Old!

This last week as felt more like a month! Our schedule has been turned upside down and we have spent so much time loving and worrying for our new daughter. We have made a lot of progress in the first week and are way ahead of anyone's expectations; we continue to be thankful for all the love, prayers, and gifts that have been sent our way.

Claire did get started on caffeine this week. Preemies brainstems are not mature enough to keep their heart rate and respiratory rate always at a normal level which leads to them having apnea and bradycardia or A's and B's. Most of the time they recover on their own but sometimes they need some stimulation like a pat on the back to remind them to breath. Caffeine can also be given in her feeds twice a day as a stimulant so that she won't have these events. Since her twice daily espresso shot (no, they don't really give her starbucks) Claire has very infrequent self-resolving A's and B's. By the time we take her home she will be off caffeine and has to prove she can do it on her own.

This week has also brought us skin to skin time. This is when the baby is stripped down to her diaper and put right on mommy or daddy's chest. Babies like to hear the heart beat that they were so used to and they actually feed off the mommy's heat to stay warm. Claire and I both enjoy are bonding skin to skin time!