Happy 1st week bday Mira

Happy 1st week bday Mira!

Written Oct 24, 2011 8:49am by Amber Gannon Medina

Today is Mira's 1 week birthday! We spent most of yesterday with Mira in the CICU. She is still making little strides, but they mean so much to us. There is so much we have to learn about her condition and the medical terminology that comes with it. A week ago, I would have heard myself talk and not understood about 99% of what I am now just spewing out. 

Mira had been having trouble with her urine output the day before yesterday. She had had an output of 2, where they wanted 3. Yesterday, that little overachiever actually started going into the teens! They even had to give her extra fluids because she was doing so well:)

They also took her off her paralytic-the medication that kept her from being able to move. She slowly came off the medication and later last night we started to see her little feet twitch and her eyes open. She is still being made very comfortable with a lot of medication-it blows my mind that my baby is on morphine, but I am so relieved she is not in pain. All her little issues from the day before-the overabundance of lactic acid, low urine output, high white blood cell count-improved:)

The next big hurdle is trying to get rid of her edema/swelling. Her little face is so swollen and because of the swelling, her chest is still open. We can actually see her heart beating-from someone who couldn't even look at blood before this (and who had a hospital phobia), its amazing how comforted I am by seeing her beating heart-it means she is alive and that her heart is so strong!! Once the edema is better, they will be able to close her heart, and once they do that they will be able to slowly start taking her tubes out and lowering her medication. Everything they do is such a balancing act. These nurses are amazing and I feel so lucky to have them take care of her.

We are starting to get comfortable at the hospital-finding the good spots to eat (popcorn at Froedert Cafeteria! Whoo hoo!), settling in to Miras room, hanging out in the Surgery Waiting Room when we need a break, taking some short walks through the beautiful hospital grounds....In fact, Mira's room is pretty amazing! It is FULL of her drips and monitors, but it also has its own space age bathroom (I should take a picture, I feel like I am in a spaceship), TV, and a pull out couch to sleep on (how you could with all the beeping and the bright lights on, I am not sure). We are trying to make it homey-both for us and for Mira. 

A home away from home? I am not sure it will ever feel that way....I still can't wait to bring Mira back home and have her sleep next to us in her bassinet and give her a bath in our bathtub and put her in her swing in the living room......But staying in the moment has been the only way to get through this-realizing that every day we have with her is such a gift! 

So happy FIRST WEEK birthday baby! You've already lived a full life in those 7 days-I am so