Days 34-35 - February 26-27

Yesterday and (so far) today have been really good to both girls.

Aubrey first today.

Yesterday she was extubated! In case you don't remember what that term means, yesterday Aubrey's breathing tube was taken out.  She now has a nasal cannula that gives her extra pressure and extra oxygen.  Here's a picture of her without her breathing tube.

It's not a very flattering picture of her, but is shows all of her tubes really well.  That big clear thick tube that goes across her face under her nose is the nasal cannula.  It has two prongs for each nostril.  The tube above it that goes into her left nostril is the feeding tube.  The tube that goes into her mouth is a gastric tube.  It goes into her stomach.  The reason she needs the stomach tube is because the nasal cannula forces a lot of air into her nose, some of which goes down into her stomach.  The gastric tube is used to release the air that gets trapped in her stomach.

Aubrey has been doing very well since her extubation.  Her oxygen levels have been really stable, and she seems a lot more comfortable.  Now that she is extubated, she's been crying a little and making some other random sounds.

We've also been giving her a pacifier since her extubation, and she really likes it.  Here's a picture and a video (her hair is really funky because I started to mess around with it, haha).

With that pacifier in her mouth, she seems to forget all of life's worries, and every time it is taken out of her mouth she lets out a little cry.  Here's a picture of her today after a nice hair shampoo from her nurse.

This morning the occupational therapist came back.  She said that Aubrey's official foot diagnosis at this point is everted foot.  She showed us some exercises we can do to help her out, and also made a cool little splint that she'll be wearing on for 3 hours and then off for 3 hours.  Here's her splint.

Her feedings are being increased to 20 mL every 3 hours (up from 18), and her milk is going to be fortified to ensure she is getting enough calories.  In general, preemies can't be given enough milk to get the amount of calories they need because it would require too much fluid.  Eventually, she'll be given enough fortifier to increase her calorie intake by 20%, but for now it will be a 5% increase in calories to make sure she tolerates the fortifier.

Aubrey has had good blood gas tests (used to determine lung function) over the past 24 hours, so her heal sticks (literally stick a lancet in her heal to get blood for lab tests) are being changed from every 6 hours to every 12 hours.

Andrea and I are probably going to get to hold Aubrey today.

Paige's turn.

Apparently she got a little jealous that her sister was extubated, because when we came into the NICU today she was off the oscillator and on the conventional ventilator!  The room is so much quieter now. Here she is wide awake to greet us when we came in. She's a cute little thing.

Here's mommy cupping her head and legs.  That screen in the upper left of the picture is part of the conventional ventilator.

Here's another picture of Paige and mommy.

She had a good blood gas after the switch to the conventional ventilator, so hopefully she'll continue to improve and won't have to go back on the loud oscillator.

Paige's feedings have been increased to 2 mL every 3 hours (up from 1 mL every 3 hours).

Here she is playing around with her fingers and mouth.

That's about all I can think for today's report.