Yesterday, Jocelyn came home.
We spent Thursday night in the hospital. They have a overnight room for families and we took the both and spent the night there. It is a sort of trial run, to help see if you can cope.
I am not much for big organizations telling me what I can and cannot do, especially with my own children, so I was tempted to tell them to stick it and just take her home. However, the wife seemed to want to follow the "rules" and I think it made her more comfortable to go through a trial run with medical help close by if necessary.
The whole system makes you consider what type of people they normally deal with. The first time I realised there were some very different people out there was during the first set of rounds, where I heard them talking about the wife in the thrid person and mentioning that "the mother" had no history of drug or alcohol abuse during pregnancy.
The hospital staff was constantly tiptoeing around us, making it very obvious they were not trying to pressure us, to make sure we were confortable with dealing with both of them. Nice of them to be so understanding, but it gets a bit tiring being treated like a teenage single mom all the time.
However, we jumped through the hoops and they are our children now.
We are free to screw them up just like everyone else.
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Thursday, September 28, 2006
So Close We Can Taste It
Yesterday, Jocelyn passed a car seat test and had her monitors removed. We have a meeting with the nutritionist in the morning.
We are now this close to bringing her home. I am hoping we can bring her home tomorrow. The wife expects a few more days, as she feels we need the time to start to get her on a schedule and she wants to spend at least a day at the hospital getting her used to our way of operating.
I don't thin they will wait that long and to be honest, I am starting to feel guilty about taking up a bedspace.
It is a great position to be in and I thought it would never come.
We are now this close to bringing her home. I am hoping we can bring her home tomorrow. The wife expects a few more days, as she feels we need the time to start to get her on a schedule and she wants to spend at least a day at the hospital getting her used to our way of operating.
I don't thin they will wait that long and to be honest, I am starting to feel guilty about taking up a bedspace.
It is a great position to be in and I thought it would never come.
Monday, September 25, 2006
Good News
We had a bit of a breakthrough with Jocelyn yesterday.
She took 20 ml of formula through a bottle yesterday. This may not sound like much, but it is the first time she has been successfully fed like a baby since she was born. This is significant as it is the only thing keeping her in the hospital. We have been hoping and trying to get her to feed for the past week.
Since she was born, she has been getting fed through an IV or feeding tube. Babies have a natural instinct to suck, but she has not been required to use it for the last 4 weeks. We were unsure if she would be able to. She has been showing us positive signs all week, but this is most encouraging.
Assuming she continues to improve this week, she may be able to come home as soon as this weekend.
She took 20 ml of formula through a bottle yesterday. This may not sound like much, but it is the first time she has been successfully fed like a baby since she was born. This is significant as it is the only thing keeping her in the hospital. We have been hoping and trying to get her to feed for the past week.
Since she was born, she has been getting fed through an IV or feeding tube. Babies have a natural instinct to suck, but she has not been required to use it for the last 4 weeks. We were unsure if she would be able to. She has been showing us positive signs all week, but this is most encouraging.
Assuming she continues to improve this week, she may be able to come home as soon as this weekend.
Friday, September 15, 2006
Babies Update
So far, everyone is doing better.
Mom still has some pain for the C section. It takes about 6 weeks to fully recover. You hear about women who prefer a C section, as it is more "convenient", more civilized and less painful. I do not see how anyone would choose a C section over natural childbirth. It is major surgery, one of the few that they have to cut you open for. I recommend avoiding it if possible.
Katherine is doing great. She is eating a lot, but she usually gives us 3-4 hours between feedings. We have to supplement her feeding with formula, as the wife is constantly pumping breast milk, as we try to get as much as possible to Jocelyn. I think the wife is starting to feel a bit like a cow.
Jocelyn is doing better. All drugs, IV's etc are out of her. She is still feeding through a tube and the plan is to wean her off of that. It must be done slowly, to ensure she still gains weight and can feed normally when we get her home. We hope to have her home in 1-2 weeks.
On the other aspect, we still do not know what is wrong. They are suggesting her brain development was not normal, based on an MRI. However, they cannot (or will not) speculate on what that means for her development. My understanding is that most of the time they cannot tell, and must monitor the child's development and base any predictions on that.
So, it seems unlikely that we will get any definitive answers. We will be taking her in for scans at regular intervals for probably the next 5 years, and maybe to special development training. Not much more to say on this subject. It could be nothing; she might be similar to her sister as she develops. Or not. And we may not know until it happens.
That said, she has undergone some tests that are grounds for hope. Her hearing and eyesight tests are normal. She was very alert the other day when I visited her and she seemed to look and respond to my face and voice. I also heard her cry to the first time, although it was a weak and half-assed attempt. Nothing like her sister's.
I want to thank all the readers of this blog for their positive comments and prayers. It means a lot to us that there are people thinking and praying for our daughter.
Mom still has some pain for the C section. It takes about 6 weeks to fully recover. You hear about women who prefer a C section, as it is more "convenient", more civilized and less painful. I do not see how anyone would choose a C section over natural childbirth. It is major surgery, one of the few that they have to cut you open for. I recommend avoiding it if possible.
Katherine is doing great. She is eating a lot, but she usually gives us 3-4 hours between feedings. We have to supplement her feeding with formula, as the wife is constantly pumping breast milk, as we try to get as much as possible to Jocelyn. I think the wife is starting to feel a bit like a cow.
Jocelyn is doing better. All drugs, IV's etc are out of her. She is still feeding through a tube and the plan is to wean her off of that. It must be done slowly, to ensure she still gains weight and can feed normally when we get her home. We hope to have her home in 1-2 weeks.
On the other aspect, we still do not know what is wrong. They are suggesting her brain development was not normal, based on an MRI. However, they cannot (or will not) speculate on what that means for her development. My understanding is that most of the time they cannot tell, and must monitor the child's development and base any predictions on that.
So, it seems unlikely that we will get any definitive answers. We will be taking her in for scans at regular intervals for probably the next 5 years, and maybe to special development training. Not much more to say on this subject. It could be nothing; she might be similar to her sister as she develops. Or not. And we may not know until it happens.
That said, she has undergone some tests that are grounds for hope. Her hearing and eyesight tests are normal. She was very alert the other day when I visited her and she seemed to look and respond to my face and voice. I also heard her cry to the first time, although it was a weak and half-assed attempt. Nothing like her sister's.
I want to thank all the readers of this blog for their positive comments and prayers. It means a lot to us that there are people thinking and praying for our daughter.
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Climb Aboard Space Mountain
The last few days have been a bit of a roller coaster ride.
On Thursday, Jocelyn was transferred back to be with her sister and mom, and she appeared to be doing better. Unfortunately, during the night she had a number of seizures, requiring drugs to stop her from shaking and eventually necessitating her transfer back to the Royal Alex. This increases the risk that she may have some sort of brain damage.
Needless to say, I am a bit concerned. I am not sure what is going on long term, but I plan to discuss it with the docs. Her regular doc is not on this weekend, so I may have to wait until Tuesday to get some real answers.
On a more positive note, mom and Katherine should be coming home today. They are both doing really well and I should be happy about that. However, I cannot help but think of my other daughter, stuck in the hospital, attached to a bunch of tubes.
I am not very religious, but I have been praying.
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