So Close...

The day started with great anticipation that we would be bringing the first of the three girls home tomorrow. I diligently got the car-seat into the hospital early and made it in time for the daily team rounds. All was in line for Caitlyn to come home tomorrow. 

A couple of snags in the plans -- Jennifer seems to have some kind of respiratory infection so I took her to the doctor's and sure enough, she was put on antibiotics. This is good in the sense that perhaps she will be able to get over her very long cold that has hung on for weeks. This is unfortunate in the sense that Caitlyn will not be coming home with us until next week to give time for the antibiotics to take effect with Jennifer. As you probably are aware from reading our very lengthy blog postings, premature babies are very susceptible to infection and, given the history the three girls have had, we want to take special care with them. 

So...plans went ahead to have Caitlyn car-seat tested. This is done on all premature babies - they are placed in the car-seat for about 90 minutes during which time they are monitored for any problems. Caitlyn did not pass the test - she unfortunately had some low oxygen readings. So regardless, she will be in hospital until next week and then we'll re-look at bringing her home. 

Emily too was not without some minor problems today. All the girls were missing their daily caffeine "fix" - I'm sure many of you can relate. Emily had a number of low oxygen readings, some of which required her to be stimulated quite a bit. She seemed quite sleepy to me today as well. The night nurse who knows the girls well also found Emily's desats concerning. The team decided to put her back on a bit of airflow in her nose and they will do some blood-work to make sure she's not working on an infection. I'm not sure if the caffeine will be restarted or not - likely this will depend on the how she does this evening...

Heather did not want to be left out of the "fun" so she opted to have some low heart-rate episodes today. None were serious. She and I had a great time together as she practised her sucking technique while having her lunch. Papa also had some one-on-one time with this girl and no doubt both are better for it!

Cheers,

Jan