One Week Old!

Today Ainsley is officially one week old.
And yes if you were looking at my DOL post earlier and thinking that was off by one you are right, for some reason the NICU likes to count the first day she was born as 1. So on our board at the moment it says DOL 8.

Ainsley seems to have quite the appetite as today we got word that she was being moved up again. She was bumped to 15mL per feeding today, and we also got word that her PICC line may be coming out Sunday as the PICC line was used to supplement her feedings. We'll keep you informed on that one.

Mom got some serious kangarooing in today (since I have had several questions about kangarooing, I have included some info at the bottom of this post) all total it was over 4 hrs.

Ainsley was able to loose one bag off of her IV that was Y'd into her PICC line and that was her Lipids (or fats). Now that she is up much higher on her breast milk she won't need this supplement.

At last nights weighing she was 2lbs and 11oz. Only one ounce from her birth weight of 2lbs and 12oz.

Today did have some hard times though as it seemed like she was having apnea episodes more frequently again. This is something that we are just going to have to get used to seeing as we have been told over and over that there is no way to speed the development of this part of the brain. We should realistically expect these to continue until she reaches the gestation age of 35 to 36 weeks. After all she wasn't supposed to have to breath until 40 weeks.

I consider myself to be a realist, I understand that we are going to see progress followed by some regression; however at this point I just am amazed at how well things are going for our little girl. She is quite the fighter. We are so thankful for the all the progress we have seen so far, but we know we have a long way to go until we see her coming home day.

 One of the amazing things we are realizing is that it was so much more scary for us to have her on the way as opposed to actually being here.

Happy One Week Birthday Sweet Little Ainsley




What is Kangaroo Care?
Kangaroo care is placing a premature baby in an upright position on a mother’s bare chest allowing tummy to tummy contact and placing the premature baby in between the mother’s breasts. The baby’s head is turned so that the ear is above the parent’s heart. Many studies have shown significant benefits. According to Krisanne Larimer, author of “Kangarooing Our Little Miracles”, Kangaroo care has been shown to help premature newborns with:

Body temperature – Studies have shown that mothers have thermal synchrony with their baby. The study also concluded that when the baby was cold, the mother’s body temperature would increase to warm the baby up and visa versa.
Breastfeeding – Kangaroo care allows easy access to the breast and skin-to-skin contact increases milk let-down.
Increase weight gain – Kangaroo care allows the baby to fall into a deep sleep which allows the baby to conserve energy for more important things. Increased weight gain means shorter hospital stay.
Increased intimacy and attachment.

Exerpt from Americanpregnancy.org

Also check out this article:
http://www.babiestoday.com/articles/baby-articles/kangaroo-care-for-preemies-224