8 Days Old, 28 Weeks Getational Age!

Hello to all. Josh here again for another day of blogging. I actually kind of enjoy it, so Lindsay may have to trade me off and on for the job. Well I got to Kangaroo Willow Hope again last night. Here's a pic (she's under all those blankets somewhere). It is an awsome experience. It really makes me feel like I'm her dad. It's a difficult feeling to bring forward, as everything right now is mostly in the hands of her Drs. and nurses. We laid there together for about 2 hours and she slept almost the entire time. When I talked about her "numbers" going up yesterday, the number I was talking about was her oxygen saturation level. I'm no Dr., but it essentially is how much oxygen is in her blood cells, and they regulate it by giving her supplimental oxygen. Willow was down as low as 21% supplimental o2 a couple days ago (which is the same as room air), but now she's up between 25-28%. Her doctor said this is normal because of her size and prematurity. Anyways while I was Kangarooing her, her o2 saturation level was nice and stable, except when she got a bout of the hiccups, and then it temporaraly dropped until they passed. Let me try to explain what it feels like to kangaroo a premie. It's kinda like putting a small animal (puppy, kitten, hamster, ect.) on your bare chest and every once in a while it squirms around a little bit. Not sure if that helps, but you get the picture. Fortunatly her grip isn't to strong yet and she isn't pulling on my chest hair (ouch!)

I just got done meeting with Willows doctor, I try to go to the NICU when Willow gets rounded on. Willow lost a very small amount of weight from yesterday, 10 grams, but they aren't worried about it. They are also increasing her feeding amounts to 3 ml every 4 hours, up from 2 ml. She was working harder to breath today, which they said accounts for her increase in the amount of o2 they are giving her. They think that if that keeps trending that way they may need to put her back on a breathing machine. However, they said that isn't a step back, it's just what she needs. Willows lungs are so tiny and premature that eventually they will tire out and need a break for a while. Otherwise her Dr. thinks she is doing "remarkably well" and we are hopefull that will continue.

Yesterday after Lindsay left I moved into the Beacon House, which is only 3 blocks from the hospital. It's a donation based longterm living facility that is for families of patients in the hospital. It's essentially a converted 3 story hotel, but they built a very nice kitchen and rec room in the basement. The staff there are all volunteers, and are so nice it makes you want to cry. It's amazing to me how all these things exist (NICU, hospitality rooms, Beacon House) but you never know it until you need it. I encourage everyone that is reading this blog to go volunteer, give blood, donate money/goods, or even just help an old lady accross the street, as it touches so many hearts every time you do. I myself was never one to do much volunteering, but it's such a great thing, and also Obama wants us to, and this President I'll listen to. Hope I'm not being to preachy or anything, it's just a situation like this makes you look at things differently.

Yesterday in the OB department there were twins born that were in two seperate uterus' in the mom. I was talking to the father and apparently it's a 1 in 40,000,000 chance of it hapening. The local news was in the OB Dept. when I showed up and the twins were just accross the isle from Willow in the NICU. They were born at 32 weeks and so far are doing fine. If you check out the Marquette news you may see something about it. Well I guess that about covers it for today. I hope I can get some pictures uploaded. Thanks again for the comments, I looooooove to read them.
Til next time,
Josh