Your Daly Dos

Turns out there are a lot of puns to be made with the name Daly.  Given our location here in sunny Texas, it seems appropriate to work in the "dos" reference sooner rather than later.  For the Canucks and those who took french in high school, you may call them the Daly Deux.


So, here we are sailing along, right?  Well, one thing you hear about the NICU is that it is a roller coaster.... babies are fine, babies are fine, babies are fine, babies are not fine.  Things change quickly.  We were feeling pretty great because all signs for our little babes were pointing to a relatively rapid escape to the free world.


Yesterday we had a few set backs -- nothing too major -- just enough that we won't be headed home quite as planned.  Li'l Emma was a bit bloated yesterday.  Her poor tummy was really round.  She's not one to let a little gas keep her down, but when you weigh 4 pounds you need to make sure bloating is not a sign of other things.  The doc is pretty convinced it is just gas but wants to rule out some scarier stuff.  Since this post has a language theme I'll go to greek for a second --  there is a disorder of the gut that includes the word "necrotizing" in its title (not good!) so we need to watch for a few days and make sure it is nothing serious.


Little girl Charlotte was ready to leave her sister in the dust but then had a few "decels" last night.  These decelerations simply mean that her heart rate dropped suddenly.  It is a pretty common problem associated with preemies, but if a nurse has to stimulate a baby to help pull them out of a drop, then you start a five day countdown.  So now, five days have to pass with no episodes before Charlotte can go home.  


So that's the news on the health front.  Generally they continue to be doing really well, there are just a few things that need to get worked out before we all head home.  While it is disappointing to not get to take them home yet, we remain very thankful for the wonderful care and, of course, are glad to be where we are if these things are going to happen.  

In the meantime, we are trying to make sure we keep checking things off the list.  To that end, Emerson rocked her car seat test today!  Before discharge each NICU native has to sit in their seat for 90 minutes with no problems.  We got the seats rated to the smallest size (4 lbs) and the straps had to be adjusted to the smallest setting, but she did just fine.

Good Night to All!