Month in Review

Ava is one month old today. She is having a really good day to celebrate! She had an awesome night so the doctor decided to decrease her flow from 4liters to 3.5liters. When I called a few minutes ago her nurse said she was doing well but seemed to be a little bit more tachypnic (breathing fast). She just can't seem to get it quite right. Either she isn't breathing or she is breathing too fast. So hard to learn to breathe for these little preemies. But she will get it right eventually. The plan was to decrease her flow to 3liters after 12 hours if she was tolerating it, but most likely if she continues to be tachypnic that won't happen. She is up to 2lbs 15oz! Just one ounce shy of 3lbs! Yahooo! She is also done with her antibiotics so now she is just getting two meds to help her remember to breathe, vitamins, and fortified breastmilk. Pretty good for a little preemie princess!

So lets take a quick look at what our little Ava has been through this past month. To most, time is flying, but to me, living it day in and day out, it feels much longer than a month. Ava was on CPAP when she was born, shortly thereafter she was moved to the high flow cannula. She was doing amazing for a few days. Slowly she started to deteriorate. The doctor noticed he could hear a hear murmur. After an echo, it was discovered that she had a LARGE PDA. Two rounds of Endocin were used on her to try to close it but to no avail. At 8 days old, Ava had surgery to close her PDA. She was placed on a ventilator for the surgery. The surgery itself went well, but not long after, infection set it. She had an infection in her lungs, her blood, and in her incision. This made it difficult for her to come off the ventilator. She finally did after 8 days of being intubated. Since being extubated Ava has been very up and down. She forgets to breathe often and drops her heart rate and her oxygen saturations. Two days ago she was put back on CPAP and recieved a blood transfusion. The blood seemed to help her immensly and she is back on the high flow at 3.5 liters! She is getting 26ml of breastmilk every three hours and in a week she will get to start learning to eat by mouth! Here are a few pictures of the last month!