Welcome to Omgili,
Omgili ( Oh My God I Love It ;) is a search engine for discussions. With Omgili you can find answers and solutions, debates, discussions, personal experiences, opinions and more... To learn more about Omgili click here.
This is a complete preview of the discussion as it was indexed by Omgili crawlers. Use this preview if the original discussion is unavailable.
Click here to view the original discussion.
 |
|
 |
|
One step closer to bringing Ava home! - Pregnancy.org Bulletin Board Community
Good morning all,
It's been a while since I was able to update, so figured now would be a good time to!
Ava is doing fantastic!!
She's sleeping in a big girl bed now that she's able to maintain her body temp.
The only thing keeping her from coming home now is her feedings.
The doctors want her to drink full feedings by bottle only & not the feeding tube in her nose.
She's improving greatly with that!!
She averages half (or more) from the bottle.
Yesterday for her AM nurse, she did drink the full bottle!!
When I fed her later on, she drank all but 10 cc's of milk.
She would've drank more if Mom didn't make her so mad by trying to breastfeed.
The nursing staff has allowed me to try to breastfeed Ava for the first time Saturday.
That is NOT working that well now.
But given Ava's situation with the brain injury, it may take her longer than usual to catch on to what is going on.
She's been really upset when put to the breast and would just scream & scream.
The lactation consultant came down a couple times to help.
But I've made the decision to not to try nursing until later due to the fact it's the feedings that's what is keeping her in the hospital.
I want her to focus & get the bottle down pat before we try something else.
I will just continue to pump, but just bottle feed her the breastmilk.
Saturday, I have been told about a facility not far from our hospital that they think Ava would be a great candidate for.
It's called The Childrens Home (also known as TIC - Transitional Infant Care), which is pretty much a step before going home!
It's a facility that takes premies or high risk infants that were in NICUs when the baby stabilizes and prepares to go home.
It's a facility that is homelike & comfortable for the babies (non clinical or hospital-like).
There's nurses there and the babies would still be on their monitors, but what's nice is the environment is comfortable & Josh and I can even stay there with her overnight in their nesting rooms.
They allow us as the parents to be more hands on in the care, and Ava can sleep in a crib in one of the bedrooms with us.
It helps transition Ava for going home, and helps transition US for taking them home.
Her referring doctors at West Penn do rounds there, so it wouldn't be like Ava would be seeing different doctors.
The same doctors will care for her.
They have developmental specialists on staff, infant massage therapy, and even lactation consultants.
Josh & I went on a tour there yesterday and were quite impressed with the facility, the staff & by how comfortable and quiet it is there.
We told them as well as Ava's nursing and the doctors at West Penn that we would like to move her there to help her eat then come home.
Her one doctor thinks that Ava will be home in no time if she went there...babies typically go home sooner when there rather than those staying in the hospital (amazing what the change of environment can do for healing).
The care there is covered by insurance, so we didn't hesitate on our decision to go there.
As soon as the insurance authorization is through, Ava may quite possibly be moved there TODAY!!
I'm so excited!! The facility is funded by The Lemieux Foundation.
His foundation has done so much for the childrens hospital units in the Pittsburgh area (his son Austin was premature...so the Lemieux family has been very active in establishing this facility as well as installing playrooms in all the local area hospitals to accommodate families with a child in the NICU).
http://www.childrenshomepgh.org/chp.asp?SectionID=2
The above is a link to the facility that we are going to have Ava moved to.
It would probably explain more than I can!
So close to coming home!!
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
That's awesome news Lauren.
I like the idea of the transition facility, it really sounds like it makes the transition so much easier for the kiddies.
I'll keep my fingers crossed for a quick move over there.
I'm glad you're not giving up on bfing and I'm sure she will get the hang on someday.
There are so many ways out there that can help, maybe the move into another environment already does the trick.
Pls KUP
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
That's awesome news.
Ava is a strong little girl.
And I think she'll do a lot better at the transition facility.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Oh I'm so excitted to hear about little Ave doing better.
Each step is one step close to home!!
I hope u get to go the tranistion place soon.
It sounds like a wonderful facility!!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I'm so glad that Ava is doing better and that you'll get to move her into the transitional facility.
A change of environment might be all she needs - who likes hospitals anyway?!?!!!
KUP on how she's doing!!!!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Well Ava moved over on Tuesday afternoon.
She had a hard night the first night.
She was very upset because she knew she was in different surroundings.
I spent last night & will spend tonight there with her.
Last night was interesting...I was up with her every 15-20 min when she was fussing.
We somehow made it to the 1AM feeding and she fell asleep after that.
We slept till her 5AM feeding, then slept again to her 9AM.
So at least she let me sleep SOME!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I'm glad you got her moved and I'm sure she'll get used to it.
Yay for spending your first night with her
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I'm so glad to hear you moved to the new facility.
How do u like it?
I'm glad Ava is letting u get some sleep!!
Please KUP. I love hearing your u and Ava are doing!!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ava's getting used to it.
She hasn't thrown any fits like that again.
I stayed last night with her too & she's falling asleep again right after her feedings.
I hate getting up every 3.5-4 hrs to feed her - but it's part of mommyhood!
Luckily she's going back to sleep and not up screaming.
Hopefully that'll keep up when we bring her home.
I'm home early today.
Sleeping at home tonight & tomorrow night at least.
I'm getting caught up on some rest & still recovering myself.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I really glad to hear your getting some rest and still taking care of yourself too!!!
Yeah for Ava falling back to sleep after feedings.
Any word on how long u will be at this facility?
How is she doing with the bottle feeding?
Has she gotten to the required ounces yet?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|