Protein Powder Baby

Overall Addison has had a fairly good week this week. She has managed to stay on the High Flow oxygen system, even though she is still struggling with some desaturations and brachycardia. The desaturations in her oxygen do not really seem to be the problem, as Addison is able to bring herself back up from these on her own, without any assistance of additional oxygen. It is the brachycardia that is giving her the real problem, as she is unable to bring herself back from these and actually stops breathing. Addison's little body only has so much reserve oxygen and unfortunately when she gets the brachycardia she uses this reserve up struggling to get her saturation or heart rate levels back up, which is not good. Addison then has to be either bagged with oxygen or stimulated by the nursing staff to start her breathing again. Addison's reflux seems to be a major cause of most of her brachycardia, along with some water that flows down her venitlator tube (as the system has to be humidified, so as not to dry her out while it gives her oxygen) into her little nostrils. The doctors are still assessing her need to be assisted by medication for her reflux problem, if they can all help it and not put a baby on medication that is the preferred method. We just hope that the pain Addison experiences from the reflux does not deter her from continuing to eat as well as she has been, which in turn will affect her weight gain. As the doctors always tell us it is a fine line between checks and balances when working with these litte wonders.

Addison also had some nutritional bloodwork done on Thursday, and all the results turned out fairly well. Addison showed that she had a lower protein count than the doctors like to see, so they have added additional protein powder to her breastmilk feeds in hopes to bring those counts up. Dad believes that she will be able to workout soon with this additional boost in her feeds. Doctors also tested Addison's ability to be able to reproduce her red blood cells as she grows older, as Addison had some blood transfusions while in hospital. Blood transfusions often can cause the babies body's to stop producing red blood cells on their own as they are receiving fresh red blood cells through the transfer of the fresh blood. Addison did very well as her reticlecite count for red blood cells was 450 and doctors like to see anything above 100. Nurse Debbie stated that she has never saw this high a count in a baby Addison's size in her 33 years of nursing. Gold star for Addison. Her weight gain has still been incredible and Addison is now weighing in at 3 lbs and 12 oz. Only a few more to go and she will reach the 4 pound mark. Our hopes were to have Addison at least 5 pounds by the time she may be able to come home from hospital and she may just reach that goal for us. Our fingers are crossed.

Addison has also received a cute new little butterfly friend in her isolet this past week, which is called a positional aid. This aid is propped up behind Addison's shoulders and head, which assists her in developping proper posture and spinal alignment. Babies are often laying on their backs for long periods of time in their isolets which can cause their shoulders to drop backwards and their heads as well. The butterfly helps to bring Addy's shoulders up in more rounded position and her head up so she will be able to stand up tall and straight.

Mommy and daddy continue to get some fantastic cuddle time with little Addy, and just marvel at her while she lays on their chest and in their arms. She has started to look like such a cute little baby, she really is just so beautiful. She has the perfect little mouth and ears and as JL has stated we think she is actually forming the "baby chubbies". You can see she is actually getting chubby little fingers and toes and when you can see her legs they are getting pretty round. Mom and dad have noticed that Addison has seemed to develop a red mark on her forehead just above her nose. We are not sure if this is a birth mark of sorts or some skin irritation Addison may have developped as a result of some of the equipment she had on her face for respirations. We will be watching this closely to ensure it does not develop into anything more. Dad believes it is the mark of someone special, like Harry Potter and his ligtening bolt. We are not to sure what Addison's character will be in her movies but we will let you know when we figure that out. This week Addison received a wonderful Christmas box from Nan Nan in Ottawa, with all sorts of fantastic outfits and goodies for her little granddaughter. Mom and dad could not help but dress Addison in this wonderful little red velour top with the little Panda on it. She looks soooo cute. Because of Addison's wee size the top actually fits her like a dress. Then of course during cuddles it was hat time again and Addison was sporting her wonderful pastel green knit hat that was given to us by granny, knitted by her mom. This poor little girl is going to have so many photos taken of her, she will be a regular little cover model by the age of 1.