I’m pretty proud of myself today. I’ll preface this by saying that I think my babies are in great hands and have very qualified medical professionals caring for them with great skill and experience. I also acknowledge that I am a brand new parent and nowhere near a “medical professional.”
However, I am reading as much as I can (while trying to avoid the pitfalls of Dr. Google) and asking all the questions I can for the babies.
Lydia had been sailing along with her breathing before she had the aspiration episode. Since then, she’s been doing well, but she is on the more-supportive NIV instead of CPAP. Also, when I was doing my “Lydia” update, I realized that I wasn’t sure what the plan was for her PDA. I asked about that a few days ago and the doctor looked into it and said that it was indeed a good time to treat her PDA. Score 1 for mom as an advocate. So today, she finished her last dose of indomethacin (that treats the PDA) and went back to “full feeds.” However, Lydia weighs only 1lb 7oz. Since she was just a little embryo, I have been worried about her size. She has consistently been smaller than her brothers. During the last month that I was pregnant, she was measuring near the 10th percentile for her gestational age. Today, I plugged her numbers into some chart I found through Google and saw that she is at the 3rd percentile. I talked to the other triplet parents and they said that the nurses have a growth chart on their computers that I could see. I asked, and Lydia is, indeed, in the 3rd percentile. So I talked to the doctor about her growth to see if her size was an issue (the doctor said not right now because she’s growing consistently), what we could do to help her grow bigger (the doctor said that we can, and will, start giving her additional fluids), and when it would become an issue (we’ll check again in 2 weeks).
Then I asked about Aubrey’s PDA. We were planning on treating it in early December, but then he had the bowel perforation and that was put on hold. I asked if we should treat it now that Aubrey seems to be doing well (BTW, he pooped last night!). The doctor told me that we treated Lydia’s this late because her PDA is negatively impacting her (one side of her heart is slightly enlarged). There are no real negative impacts from Aubrey’s PDA right now but there is the risk of another bowel perforation. We will follow his PDA and he may get it treated later (with surgery ) if it remains large.
I am pretty happy because I was able to ask about things that created action. Lydia’s PDA was treated, we made a plan for Lydia’s growth, and I learned about Aubrey’s PDA. Also, I asked about Lydia’s NIV and the doctor reviewed her charts and is lowering her pressure on the NIV which is the next step to getting her back on the CPAP. It’s exciting to be able to ask for things to happen and then to see them get done or at least to have answers about why they can’t or shouldn’t be done.
We’ve been in the NICU for a month and I feel so much less hopeless than we did 28 days ago. The babies were 13.5 weeks early. If they are going home around their due date, we have 9.5 more weeks to go. I spent longer than that studying for the bar exam. I can certainly survive the NICU for that much longer and I’m confident that our babies are at least as strong as I am!