One month old

Elyse was one month old on Wednesday!  I realized last week that I hadn't ordered her any monthly onesie stickers like I had for Emmett -- it was on my 'to do' list, only about two months from now.  I could just imagine the fights that would result from her brother having monthly sticker photos and her not (she is destined to be dramatic, remember?), but fortunately I was able to find some in time.  Crisis averted!

one month old

Elyse's transfer back to the General went well.  We did, however, have some unexpected hiccups later that day.  First of all, despite her 48-hour blood cultures being negative on Tuesday night, the lab discovered some yeast growing the next morning.  The doctors were quite surprised by this since clinically she was not acting like a baby with a fungal infection.  They suspect it could have been from the PICC line, and since it was removed on Sunday the yeast might be clearing up on it's own.  She was started on a daily dose of Fluconazole (an anti-fungal drug) until we see if the yeast is still present on her repeat blood culture in a few days.

The second hiccup was that the latest round of blood work showed that her hemoglobin level was quite low, and she had become anemic.  Again, she was not showing any clinical signs, other than being a little pale -- she is one tough cookie!  But because the level had dropped so much since her last test, and it could be related to the yeast infection, they decided to give her a blood transfusion.  She received 20ml of packed red blood cells, and it went well.  Her colour had already improved already when we saw her the next morning.  She will also start receiving an iron supplement in the next few days to try and prevent any future anemia.

I was definitely feeling pretty down yesterday -- even though all of her issues so far have thankfully ended up not being too serious, it's so hard to constantly be hearing that something else is going wrong.  Some days it just feels like she can't catch a break.  I have to try and keep reminding myself that a lot of these issues are quite typical for preemies, and to think of all the positives -- how far she's come already, and how well she is doing in the grand scheme of things. 

snuggles with Daddy

Like most bad days, things always seem better in the morning.  Today Matt and I had a good visit and were able to catch the doctors on rounds and get caught up.  Despite the few recent setbacks, there are lots of positives too.  She is finally tolerating the fortified feeds well, and has already moved up to the higher calorie dose.  Her feed volume also just increased to 27ml every 3 hours and she has barely had any brady spells or decelerations since her transfer.  It is also getting easier to hold her now that her IV line isn't hooked up all the time -- Matt even got some snuggle time in this morning.

I went back for an evening visit tonight, and she was bright eyed and alert which was so nice to see.  She was even able to try breastfeeding for the first time, which felt like a huge step forward.  And her last (but certainly not least) big accomplishment is that she is now 3 whole pounds!

taking it all in