Thursday 18 November, Day 5 of Jessica’s journey marked the end of Chantelle’s stay at Kuilsriver Hospital. Finally the medicine had started kicking in and Chantelle’s blood pressure was showing signs of coming down nicely. Doctor Albertyn was happy and as such had no more reason to keep her under observation. Of course, in terms of pain, Chantelle isn’t quite yet a happy chappy, but it is now manageable and she is able to move about a fair bit – be it with a grimace on her face for most of the time!
I of course was excited at the prospect of extending my caregiver stint by bringing her home to me, and of course as with most things, I jumped the gun and raced through to the hospital in order to surprise her and take her home…
… which needless to say, kind of backfired on me! Why? Well on arrival, she informed me that the hospital had stated that she could stay as long as she wanted to on the day, as long as she left before midnight, meaning that this new Mommy was certainly not going anywhere in a hurry!
Chantelle watching over little Jessica
Of course, this translated into a lot of Jessie lying on Mommy’s chest time, doing both the world of good. Jessica is still doing well, still on 21% oxygen via the CPAP, still on all the medicines, but at least now finally getting in some of Mommy’s precious milk, via a tube that skips her stomach (where the problem lies) and heads straight into the duodenum.
As for progress, our little girl has managed to gain 50 grams at last, putting her now at 1.43 kg, meaning she has now made up for that initial 20 grams that she has lost since birth.
In other words, everything is still on track and going well with our precious little dribble monster!
As for Chantelle, I did eventually pick her up later in the evening, and successfully separated her from our darling daughter. Now is the time for as much bed rest as possible for her inner wound to close up (the outer wound is already pretty much fixed up!), meaning I gave her just enough time for a quick takeaway supper, before ushering her straight to bed to get some much needed sleep.
Craig looking over Jessica in the NICU
As for myself, I continue to be pretty exhausted, making it particular tough now that I am officially working again – albeit from home thanks to my boss’ magnanimous generosity!
I can literally pick my little dribble monster up in one hand, and shake her like a rag doll! Tiny doesn't even begin to cover it!
Day 5, successfully passed! :)