Jessica’s second week in the NICU at Netcare Kuilsriver (21 – 27 November) was a bit of a mixed bag, though definitely with far more positives than negatives. Chantelle continued her recuperation at home, with me looking after her – and of course playing chauffeur to ensure that we made the daily trip to hang out with our daughter and most important of all, keep Chantelle to her all important Kangaroo sessions with Jessie.
Jessica fast asleep on Mommy's chest. If this isn't heaven, then I don't know what is! :)
Needless to say, as you might have guessed by the slight lack of blog updates, this daily juggle of work, care-taking, fatherhood and driving really took it out of me – not that this particular nugget of news is of any importance to you whatsoever I’m sure! ;)
My hand over Jessie's little back. And they laugh at me when I say I'm scared of breaking her!
The good news was that as the week progressed, Chantelle continuously got better, with less and less pain each and every day, never mind the almost complete disappearance of her swelling – resulting in a miraculous loss of 14.6 kg since the birth of Jessica! In other words, she was most chuffed.
As for the milk flow from Steri and Stumpie, well let us just say that I may as well open a dairy. The amount produced is on the increase with each and every day, and pretty soon those little containers they give us to store the stuff in at the hospital are simply not going to be big enough to handle the produce of my “mooman”! :)
Mommy, is this where all my milk comes from?
And now on to the most important bit: Jessica is doing well.
My beautiful little daughter is gaining weight at a constant rate, managing to finally surpass her measured birth weight. Although still being fed via a tube to her duodenum, the amount of TPN was slowly but surely being dropped as the amount of natural milk going in was being raised. Attempts were made to get her completely off the CPAP, but after giving us a couple of scares by forgetting to breath every now and then or desaturating at a rapid rate, these experiments of taking her off the oxygen pipes didn’t last for very long.
Further tests and scans however confirmed that nothing is wrong with my little girl, meaning that so far it can all be put down to the normal trials and tribulations associated with premature babies.
What's this damn thing stuck to my nose!?
Nevertheless, this did give Mommy a couple of nasty scares, particularly when one such occurrence happened while lying on her chest during a kangaroo session, so it will definitely be a good thing once we’re finally out of this little development phase.
But apart from that, everything else is running pretty smoothly, Doctor Edson remains happy, the sisters continue to be as wonderful and supportive as always, and little Jessie continues her journey home unabated.
And did I mention she’s getting absolutely cuter by the day?
Oh yes, my little baby girl is going to be a stunner, just you wait and see! :)
Iron Fist Dribble Monster, ready for battle!
(For further photographic proof as to how beautiful Jessie is, catch the full set of photos here!)