Upward and Onward

Mikaila had another great day with her feeds. I’m not aware of any aspirates. She did so well that they decided to bump her up to 16mls every three at her 2pm feed. They decided to give her another day at the 22 calorie blend but will likely go to 24 calories with tomorrow’s feeds.

The exciting news is that Mikaila will be sporting clothes the next time we see her! Preemies of her vintage are monitored constantly for body temperature. Her monitor is easily observed in the pictures already posted; it is the silver, heart shaped probe that typically lives on her stomach. When the sensor is on, she cannot wear clothes. This afternoon, at the recommendation of her favorite nurse Amy (that's her in the photo), her doctor decided that she no longer needed constant monitoring for temperature. She has been maintaining her temperature for a while now without issue. In fact, her nurses have been lowering the temp in her isolette. So, stay tuned for some excruciatingly cute pictures of Mikaila in her various outfits. I’m sure we’ll have a few tomorrow.

The other little nugget of news is that we found an appropriate chair for Kim to use during her Kangaroo Care sessions with Mikaila. I should provide the back story. The NICU at Albany Med is sorely lacking appropriate and comfortable chairs for mothers to use while spending time with their babies. At present, there are two comfortable chairs in the entire unit. That’s two chairs for seven nurseries and somewhere on the order of 50 babies. That just won’t do. Kim and I had an idea. We decided to seek out a chair to purchase for Kim to use while she is with Mikaila at the NICU. Other mothers would be free to enjoy it when Kim wasn’t using it. When we bring Mikaila home, we would happily donate it back to the NICU as a token of our appreciation for their diligence in caring for our daughter. The idea seemed so simple, but proved a much greater challenge when we put the plan to action. After countless hours, we finally found a suitable chair at Taft Furniture. We picked it up this evening and we’ll deliver it tomorrow, hopefully in time for an extended kangaroo session.

That’s about it. If they weigh her early again, I will do a quick update post. If no news, I’ll wait until tomorrow.