Ok. So we are in the home stretch with Coraline… it seems like any day now she’ll be on low enough flow on her Vapotherm (her breathing support) that they can start trying out nursing and then bottle feeding as well. Once that happens we are mere weeks away from her coming home. This girl will likely have some continuing breathing complications. Dust and VOC’s will not really be acceptable in the house for months, or possibly years to come. Our bathroom has been neglected on projects primarily because its our only one, and any major work meant we’d have to stay somewhere else during the project.
But that is where we are now. The finishes and plumbing have deteriorated too far for us to keep it spotless and hygenic for our little one, and it has to get wrapped up before Coraline comes home. It is on like Donkey Kong.
I’ve come to an arrangement we can live with with some Contractors we trust. We came up with the project list, and we’re dividing labor between what I can do with friends, and what I’d like them to handle so I can get it done and still get my day job done, and see my little lady in the Hospital. It is definitely going to hurt the savings, but we need to have it done and over with. They start work on Monday. Almost all of my jobs have to be done before Monday morning.
I’ve posted a running project todo List on the Bathroom page. I have a bit of help lined up this weekend, and its a small room, but I could probably use some more help… Message me or text or whatever, and we’ll try to coordinate.
I’m pretty sure I need to pick up a sheet of special MDF tomorrow, and I either need to get it to Northwest Lumber to break it down to the pieces I need for the wainscotting, or to take it to someone with a good table saw, panel saw, or CNC setup to break it down. And I need to borrow a truck to do the above. The sheet is 49″x96″ I believe, so its a bit unwieldy. I’ll have to do that pick up and drop off sometime during regular business hours (likely in the 3-4PM range at the latest).
Apologies for not posting for a while. I’m warming up my car to head to work, so I have a minute.
Coraline is doing pretty well! She is still on the vent, and needs to get suction almost on the hour, but she keeps getting bigger.
She hit 1360 grams two days ago ( over 2 ounces more than the day before) but lightened her load in a big way shortly after weigh in. Last night she was down to 1330 which is just under 3lbs.
We are told Coraline might be able to move off the vent now that she has hit 1250 grams, but it’s more about how she tolerates weening. I’m anxious.
OT gave her a little corrective splint for her right foot because its turning outward. Also they have her a little damask high contrast picture on her canopy to focus her gaze. She seems to be into it.
Coraline had an ok day. She needed her forth blood transfusion, and has been really touchy.
Her new thing is kinda holding her breath, sometimes when we are fussing with her and sometimes for no reason at all. If she decides to stretch or gets angry she often bears down and you can see her close off her airway for a second when the vent isn’t getting any air in. Then you watch her oxygen level desaturate and then go back up. Good times.
She is getting some lasix today since the blood is a bunch of fluids, and they held feedings during her transfusion so she may be a bit lighter at tonight’s weighing. She did hit 1100g (2lb 7 oz) yesterday though so that is pretty outstanding… 8 oz in as many days!
Happy new year friends! We are looking forward to 2013 and hope for easier days for Coraline ahead!
Hello! Another snowy afternoon at the hospital, and Coraline got a new vent tube. She’s been growing REALLY well this week. When they had to re-intubate her 8 days ago she wasn’t big enough for the next larger airway tube, which was unfortunate because the smaller one was/is too small to maintain a good seal. She’s grown an inch or two and almost half a pound since then, and she is currently 1050 grams! We were hoping for 1000g by New Year’s Day so this was pretty great.
Her new tube is sealing well, and they are weaning her back down to lower oxygen supplement. I’m hoping she can get back to 21% (room air) shortly. If she keeps growing and needing less O2 supplement, hopefully she can move back to the Nasal IMV or the like in a week or so. Her poor little cheeks are red from getting tape pulled off them and having it re applied, but she is otherwise looking great and comfortable. We’ll get to do kangaroo care tomorrow.
The nurses are great today as usual, but at this point that’s pretty much been every day.
The post christmas snow unfortunately kept us at home and away from the hospital yesterday. This morning we shoveled out and managed to make it off of our street which hadn’t been plowed yet, though the rest of the drive was just fine.
Coraline was a handful yesterday! She apparently pulled her feeding tube out four times for the day shift, and at least once for the night shift. She hasn’t managed to do so today, but apparently is strong enough to manage to get her head facing the other way and shift around when she’s on her belly. Just one more thing for them to watch out for since she can (and did) kink her feeding tube off when she does turn her head the other way, though I like that she is strong enough to do so. She looks bigger every day, and her blonde hair keeps getting longer! I swear she looks way longer… I usually press my cell phone against the canopy to try to take a picture without glare, and today I couldn’t get her whole body in the picture. The hugest tiny baby.
As of last night she weighed 950g, or 2 lbs 1.5 oz. That’s 2 oz heavier since christmas eve… crazy. Her belly looked a little distended again this morning, I’m not sure what’s up with that, but things continue to move.
Nothing else to report on Coraline.
I will say our neighbors and friends continue to overwhelm with the niceness. I’ll see if I can enumerate all the awesome (I’m sure I’ll forget 12 things) in just the last couple weeks.
A neighbor hung a lovely wreath on our door (good thing too because we didn’t have time to decorate at all this year), and left snacks.
A friend stopped by the hospital with an epic Target run of seriously 6 bags of snacks and magazines etc. Amazing.
We had white chicken chili delivered to the hospital.
We’ve gotten some really nice gift certs for dinner out around here.
Friends helped me clean out the garage and most of the basement.
We’ve got a stocked freezer full of all kinds of good stuff that we’ve been working on… cheesy potatoes, cookies, minestrone, pasta, lasagna, casseroles. Yep.
Our walk and sidewalk was shoveled and snow blown!
We were taken to lunch and a movie.
This doesn’t even include all the family support we’ve received, as well as the assistance we’ve gotten via Coraline’s ChipIn Page Kristen setup. It really is so very nice.
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