Weekend Update

So it's the weekend. This is when we usually hunker in at home on this cold winter weekends and suck down some hot coffee. But for us it means extra time to spend with Maria. We've been in and out of the hospital a lot today. I had the chance to talk with Maria's physician today. We spoke of a couple things particularly the potential for a blood transfusion. What her doctor said was that preemies' do not have the ability to respond to low blood counts like full term babies do. Think of your thermostat at home. If you live in Florida there's no need to turn on the heat, you just set the AC. If the temps drop low the house just gets cold. Maria's thermostat is kinda like that. In the womb there's not the need to watch out for anemia. So Maria's body has not developed the ability to sense that your blood is getting low. So it's very normal for preemies to become anemic. This is anemia of prematurity. It is very likely that Maria will require a blood transfusion. Sara and I are comfortable with this.

Maria's feedings continue to be tailored to her personal needs. She was consistently having about a half teaspoon of food left in her belly when it came time for her next feeding. So the doctor decided to reduce the volume of her feedings accordingly. At the same time she increased the caloric density of her food. In this way she gets the same number of calories in a smaller volume. After this change she is not having any residuals. As she grows the volume will increase again.

I asked a lot of questions about Maria's growth. The doctor said that it is very normal for preemies to lose weight after birth and then plateau at a lower weight. Around two to three weeks after birth the weight starts to increase, usually about half an ounce per day. So Maria's weight is behaving as expected. This was comforting.

Maria had a lot of alarms this evening. She seemed to be enjoying creating anxiety in her parents. I hope this isn't an indication of what her teenage years will be like. Alarms occur when Maria's heart rate and breathing slow down below normal. Alarms are a normal part of a preemies' life.

Well that concludes are fairly technical update. Hope you found it interesting. Keep the prayers coming. We feel them.