Happy 1 week! I can hardly believe it, really. It seems very surreal to me still that I am now watching her in her isolette rather than watching my belly grow or feeling her kick. We've watched several of her movements and laughed, because they were the exact things she would do in the womb!
So what have we learned about Elisa during this past week?
To start, she's received a double measure of the King/Hartzheim stubbornness. We should have known this with the shear amount of stubbornness that just the two of us harbor. Why do we think so? Well, lets look at her under her billi light. She hated the sunglasses they put over her eyes on this thing. I mean, hated. She would constantly finger it and attempt to push it off her eyes. She was also very active under this light as I think it just wasn't comfortable for her. Anyway, one night Andrew and I were in the room with her and watched her push her sunglasses off. So we reached in and put them back in place. Not two seconds after we replaced them, she had her hands back to them and pushed them off again. She did this several times in a row. We just laughed and laughed. Boy...what did we get ourselves into.
She likes baths. No surprise here again, as one of the tricks Andrew's mom used to use on him when he was fussy was to give him a bath. To this day, he always feels better after a shower or a bath. She received her first bath on Tuesday, and the look on her face said it all!
She has a mind of her own. Another not surprising feature she's inherited. She likes her legs straight out in front of her. No matter how much we attempt to contain her legs, she kicks everything off and sticks them right up. This is also how she was in the womb, so even though preemies tend to like to be comforted by a sense of "containment" and having their arms and legs balled up against them, she prefers that they are straight out. This is probably why she was footling breech in the womb. This is the exact position she would sit in those last few weeks. I don't have a picture of this one so you'll just have to imagine it.
Also, thanks to her great aunt and uncle in California, she is well dressed! She received several adorable preemie outfits and I was thrilled to find out we can dress her in those! So on they went...even though they are slightly too big. But she looks so adorable.
So, how's she been doing? Well, really, overall she's been doing well. Her only problems have been with bradycardia, which is where her heart slows significantly, usually accompanied by a bout of apnea where she forgets to breath. This is very common in preemies and is due to the immaturity of their lungs. She was evaluated by a developmental specialist who felt she was doing very well and her only issue was her breathing wasn't even yet. She also gave us some tips on how to read when she is overstimulated and needs to rest. Hiccuping, twitching, tremors, holding her arms straight out in front of her are all "stress" signs. When she's comfortable, her breathing will even out, her arms will tuck in next to her body and she's very calm. Also, when she puts her hand to her mouth, or sucks or pulls her arms into her body herself, she is "self-soothing." We've watched her for the last couple of days and are starting to be able to read her mood.
She really is continuing to amaze us. Andrew and I are, of course, worried still. We have no reason to be as she has no issues outside of normal preemie issues, but we are still scared. We will probably always worry until we can get her home with us. And still worry even some more, lol. It's always a wrench to my heart to leave her at night. I miss her tremendously when we leave and can't wait to see her again the next day. She's already captured my heart, I already don't know what I'd do with out her.
So happy 1 week Elisa! We love you very much.
No comments:
Post a Comment