Father Christmas visited Eva today and gave her a Christmas Penguin! Obviously Eva thought it was worth coming early for. Eva had her Christmas blanket and a Father Christmas toy that Helen and Joel gave her. She was looking very festive. Andrew came for Father Christmas’ visit, which was watched with much entertainment by all staff. Laura, the registrar, took a photo for us and had lots of fun with the camera once she got the hang of it. One of the babies had a 4 year old brother who was very excited to see Father Christmas and remind him to visit Christmas Eve!
Andrew shared Kangaroo Care with us. Eva had just under an hour out with no mask or hat on today. It was just such precious time with her. Eva very soon settled into a deep sleep with some light snoring to be heard. There was only staff no other visitors, which meant it was relatively quiet. After cuddles had finished I went off to express while Andrew and Catherine, Eva’s nurse, had a photo session with Eva with no tape on her face and no tube in her mouth before putting the CPAP back on. Andrew and I both had the chance to do nappies and feeds today so it was nice to share it all. Now that she is looking more real without a mask on it does make us miss her more when we are home without her.
Eva’s weight is back up to 1015g today. James, the Consultant, decided to increase her feeds to 190ml per kg to increase her weight gain. So Eva now has 16mls every 2 hours plus all of her medications. Thus far she appears to be easily tolerating this. James wants to make sure that Eva puts of weight of muscles and tissue not just fat so her weight gain curve has to be gentle.
Eva has daily bloods to check her salts, which improved today. This means that she needs her heel pricked every day for which she has glucose drops to pacify her. I wonder does this mean she will associate sweet things with pain in her heel??
Eva had one break from CPAP during the day for 1hr 15m and will probably have another break overnight. James said that there is no exact science to weaning her off it is just a matter of doing it as she dictates. We are happy with the way the weaning is going so far.
I had lunch with Jamie’s mum, Lisa, today. We have decided that once a week we should make an effort to leave the hospital during the day. Also it gave us a chance to catch up on some gossip that just can’t be discussed in the expressing room. Jamie is in the nursery room so Lisa and I don’t get to see a lot of each other. It was a nice break if only for 45mins seeing as we had to coordinate it with the babies’ feeds!
Andrew and I are looking forward to the weekend where we are going to try and catch up on some sleep. Mum has kindly left us some meals so we don’t have to cook. I realised today that this is my first Christmas in Winter but it doesn’t look like there will be snow in Bristol.
