Mikaila on the Catwalk

Mikaila was a sight to see today, resplendent in her new digs (sans hat unfortunately- she is very efficient maintaining her body temperature and thus overheats with the hat.) She of course was very cute as you can see in the pictures.

Mikaila continues to do very well with her feeds. She didn’t have any aspirates last night so her doctors, nurses and personal dietitian, henceforth referred to as her team, decided to bump her up to the 24 calorie blend. Assuming she conquers this elixir as she did her prior mix (and she did well with the 2pm feed), they will likely move her to the 27 calorie mix within a few days. That said, when they weighed her last night, she had dropped 20 grams. No big deal. Remember what I said about expectation setting and artificial milestones. She must have been extra wiggly yesterday.

We were able to drop off the chair we purchase last night during our lunchtime visit. In fact, Kim sat in said chair for 90 minutes while she Kangaroo Cared her little girl. I arrived at the NICU moments after the chairs arrival. I walked into Nursery 1 only to see Nurse Amy lounging in the chair. Needless to say, both Amy and Kim have given resounding thumbs up on the chair.

It has been suggested by someone in the comment section that this blog should be published. I can only assume that either the person commenting is a close family member of mine or that they have been drinking heavily; I should add that those two are certainly not mutually exclusive. Of course, I’m joking and flattered by the way. I do think there is merit to the general notion that learning about the experience of others going through similar, difficult times can be both educational and cathartic. Just today, I received a note from a friend of mine who had forwarded Mikaila’s blog to one of his friends. His friend delivered their child at 7 ½ months at Albany Med and he was kind enough to share his experiences. They were very helpful and I’m sure Kim and I will lean on our new friend from time to time as we continue on this journey. If we can in some way help others by relating our experiences, we are all too happy to help. We will continue to post to this blog in an effort to update our friends and family. If the results serve others in any way, we’ll view that as a wonderful little byproduct.

As always, if there is news of consequence tonight, I will repost. If not, I will wait until tomorrow.

Quick update: they weighed her early again and she regained the 20 grams she lost yesterday so she is back to 810 grams. She handled her feed well again. That's all for now.