Another Day with The Bug

I'll be seeing Livy today!!!  It won't be for long but even an hour is much appreciated.  I'll be getting my IV out shortly so I'm even more excited that I can hold her properly (holding a 2 year old with an IV in your arm isn't the easiest thing - a very appealing contraption to the curious little mind).

Today is also Antepartum craft day.  Its seems silly but for those of us who are stuck in rooms all day with TV, internet and magazines its a wonderful way to have human interaction while doing things that are somewhat productive (last time I made a burp cloth and bib).

The material for the crafts are donated so I asked mom to buy some new patterns that we can donate since its been an activity while here that has been very well recieved by me.  Paying it forward :).

On another note, now that we're 14 hours away from 'full term' I've been able to once again focus on the survival numbers that the peri's have given Payton.  In a short time she'll no longer be considered preterm and we're WELL past the point of premature.  So I've been focusing on the 70-80% survival odds for her.

In trying to compare that to something I do know more about (and would possibly be of relevance to the average person), Payton has similar survival rates of a baby born at 25-26 weeks gestation (viability being 24 weeks).  Because her survival rates are a bit better at 39 weeks vs 37 (or 37w5d as we are hoping for) then its worth scaling back and saying that she'll have similar survival rates of a baby born at 25 weeks gestation.

The good news is if all goes well, her duration in the NICU will be MUCH shorter than a 25 week baby.  If she's doing well then we could be looking at just a month in the NICU (an average 25 week baby may see 3 months).  So while she'll be one of the sicker babies to start off her time in the NICU if all goes well she'll improve quickly (especially once she's out of the danger time frame following surgery).

I'll be filling our blog up this week with details on how we anticipate the time after delivery to go.  While Payton will be allowed visitors (with us as guides) for the first bit, especially while she's at her sickest, we'll be limiting visitors to those who are essential to the NICU.

I recently read about another CDH baby who, while very sick, was on the road to recovery and ended up growing his wings due to a Staph infection at 5 weeks old.  Its a stark reminder of how fragile these babies are and how its our responsibility as well to minimize any potential harmful infections/colds/virus not just for our baby, but for others in the NICU as well.  Thus, we'll sort of be playing it on a day by day basis on whether recreational visitors are a good idea or not.