Millie's Milestones

Day 52 - The balancing act

Millie has spent the past 48 hours in a strange kind of limbo.

She is holding her own, but is quiet for a number of reasons.

The first is her bowel infection.

Until completely better, Millie will have only small feeds of milk.

The second reason is the Burn In The Foot episode.

This left Millie unable to have any nutrients through the drip for almost 48 hours because she had no more veins left through which to put a cannula.

Together, these two factors have had a number of effects.

The nutrient imbalance - not enough milk and not enough drip - means Millie is retaining fluid and has become slightly puffy again.

She has lost weight, although not seriously (about 14 grammes (1/2 ounce) in the last 24 hours).

She is not getting enough protein either, which means she is anaemic again.

To resolve this, Millie will have another blood transfusion on Tuesday (11 April).

This will be the usual slow injection of blood over a period of a few hours.

To overcome the nutrient imbalance, feeds of breast milk are being increased in volume and frequency.

She is now being fed 9ml (almost two teaspoons) every two hours.

The milk is being supplemented with nutrients through the drip which have been carefully resumed via a vein into her arm.

We think it will take a couple of days or so before Millie levels out and starts progressing again.

In amongst all of this frustration, however, she has picked up a new infection: an adenoviral infection in her bowel.

You can read about adenovirus here.

It is not as serious as the Necrotizing Enterocolitis Millie had three weeks ago, but she now has diarrhoea as well.

Mummy and daddy feel ok, but the whole thing is getting rather tiring.

So much so that daddy found himself humming Johnny Cash and Morrissey songs while he cuddled Millie this evening.

Not the most cheerful of tunes, but she should have a good taste in music when she gets older.

posted by Johann @ 10:49 PM