One less PICC

Her foot PICC line is out!!

It came out sometime during the night when one of our new favourite nurses was caring for Payton.  I'm not sure if she got it out but we're giving her all the credit anyway (Thank you Allison!!!)

Our good night chat with Allison last night also resulted in us learning that Payton had a poop at one point (the night before but the day nurse wasn't very forth coming with that info). 

Today when we were in the NICU I changed Payton's diaper and saw some yellow (sorry TMI :)) poop smeared on her diaper so I'm doing a bit of a happy dance.  Yellow poop is from breast milk so its somewhat making its way down her intestines :D.

We made it in for rounds today and got to listen to the NICU team go over her care.  If I understood correctly they are looking to give her another week (so week after next) to figure out feeds before looking at a surgically placed feeding tube so maybe we have a bigger grace period to let her intestines figure things out.

They have also increased her feeding frequencies.  So now she's being upped 1ml/hr every 6 hours.  So she's now at 12 ml/hr which is just over half feeds (continuous). In 2 days she should be at full feeds and maybe, if things are absorbing we'll be that much closer to getting her final PICC line out of her.

Also related to feedings, I have had feedback from other CDH mom's and from that feedback I have learned about some of the reasons behind oral adversions in CDH babies.  One being where a baby doesn't do well with milk after learning to orally feed because they aren't used to the feeling of milk hitting the back of their throat.

So at rounds I asked if we could start giving Payton some milk in a bottle nipple (not enough to use the actual bottle) so she gets used to milk in her mouth, the taste and the feeling of it in her throat.  The Neonatologist thought it was a grand idea so we're giving Payton 5ml per shift of breast milk orally.  It gets drained out of her tummy by her drainage tube so its not adding anything to her calorie wise but it will hopefully help prevent too much oral adversion later on when she can start stomaching feeds.

On another note, the drainage from her stomach went from a greeny colour to now a brown colour.  The surgeons even asked to confirm what colour feeds she was getting (because apparently there's brown breast milk?? joking).  I'm not sure if that means her intestines are backing up even more than before (perhaps with the increase in the feeds??) but they are keeping an eye on it.  From the little bit of breast milk I fed her orally it turned the drainage fluids orangy (so no keeping the milk down quite yet) so hopefully that will go back to green even with the increase in feeding again.

Payton is looking so great, its hard to think that she's still needs to be in the hospital.    Looking at her I can't stop believing how lucky we have been with everything.