Welcome home Chloe!

Well it has been a REALLY long week. But the doctor has decided that Chloe could come home tonight after her last dose of antibiotics. So she got her last dose at 6:30 (pm) and then they removed the PICC and when I came for the 8:00 feeding we signed the discharge papers, I nursed Chloe then I got her ready to come home. So now our whole family is home and it’s just wonderful.

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As we were leaving the hospital both Tyra and Ethan made comments to the nurse about we would see them again when we have the next baby. Do they know something I don’t?????????

Chloe’s progress

Today Chloe is doing better. She just keeps getting better and better each day. The doctor this morning decided to reduce her IV fluids from 12 ml/ hour to 5 ml/hour. His explaination being that the IV fluids contain a lot of sugar and reducing that should help her be less sleepy and have more of an appetite.

We took the kids down this afternoon for a chance to get to see her, and Dinah was SO sad when she had to leave her again. Ethan and Tyra went in to see her first, but she was sleeping and there wasn’t much to look at. They enjoyed seeing her anyways. Jeremy went in with me, to see her when I went in to feed her. I unwrapped her and changed her diaper and woke her up, so Jeremy got to see her awake. I showed him her tiny little feet and he said ‘how come they like raisins?’ I told him that she had been in water in mommy’s belly for a really, really long time. He had a good time checking her out, and I pointed out her tiny little ears, and tiny little nose, and showed him her little hands. He was asking what all the little cords hanging off of her were for, just being a very curious cute little boy.

When I went back for the evening feeding I heard her screaming, from the hallway. She was HUNGRY, which is so exciting. They have also removed the IV in her arm. They weren’t using it any more (since they put the PICC in), but decided they would leave it there ‘just in case’ but when I got there tonight they said that it had ‘gone bad’ so they removed it. My guess is that means they tried to flush it and it wouldn’t flush. But that’s ok, I’m GLAD it’s gone. It makes it so much easier for her to move her arm to where ever she wants to, and now that the needle and tape and padding is all gone it makes it easier to get her into a comfortable position to try to nurse her on my left side. So things are looking good.

Things are looking up

Chloe has been doing much better than she did previously.  She still has the IV in her arm, and still has the feeding tube in her nose, but we’ve been told the doctor approved removing the feeding tube if she eats regularly.  Also, they have said the IV will be replaced with a PICC since the antibiotics are so abrasive on her vein, and that way it will provide the antibiotics directly into her blood stream through her heart.  Personally, that sounds rather scary, but we just have to assume they know what they are doing.

She’s also been nursing and feeding from a bottle more regularly.  Rebecca has been released and is now at home, and she and the nurses have decided they can alternate feedings every three hours (so Rebecca nurses once every 6 hours, and they use formula for the other 3-hour feedings).  Rebecca can then just pump during the times she’s at home, which gives me a chance to go in and help as well.  I must say, waking up for the 2am feeding was not fun (the nurse said to just let them handle it since they were already there), but it was nice to spend some quiet early morning time with my little girl.  I just held her until she fell back asleep and then put her back down.

One thing more that Rebecca was told is if they can do the PICC, they might be able to release her to our care if they wean her off the IV fluids, and we’ll just be able to give her the antibiotics at home.  So that would be great, although the idea of having her at home with a little tube leading right to her heart is a bit concerning.