Update #3 on Isabella Rose - March 2, 2006 - 24 days old - Gestational Age 28 weeks

Isabella is having a great week.

She has continued on her CPAP since last Sunday, and
while she still receives supplemental oxygen from the
ventilator, and pressure to keep her lungs inflated,
she no longer needs the machine to help her take a
breath. Isabella is breathing on her own.

Her feedings of preemie formula have increased over
the last 5 days from 2ccs to 8ccs, so she now gets
about 1.5 teaspoons every 4 hours. After each
feeding, they check to make sure there is no
"residual" in her belly - meaning she cleaned her
plate - and then they crank up her feedings. Thanks
to her hearty appetite, Isabella now weighs 715g, 5g
more than her birthweight, an important milestone.

Some of you have asked what it's like in the NICU. It
is, at once, the saddest and most hope-filled place in
the world. There are five rooms, each with a capacity
for about 10 babies, arranged according to acuity
level. Isabella's room, reserved for the most
critical babies, is also the loudest, because the
sickest babies' monitors are constantly "alarming".
There are different bells and buzzers that indicate
which baby stopped breathing for a moment, which one's
heart rate dipped, and which baby needs to have the
oxygen turned up on their ventilator. The doctors
call these momentary alarms "events", and a baby's
progress is charted according to how many "events"
they have in a 24-hour period. Isabella averages
about six each day, which, according to the doctors
means that she is very stable, particularly for a baby
of her very small size. We can hardly wait for her to
graduate to a different room.

Yesterday was incredible. I held Isabella in my arms,
outside of her little, plastic baby condo for the
first time. Amy, her nurse, opened the doors of her
isolette, removed the CPAP prongs from her nose, and,
after gathering up her many wires and tubes, scooped
Isabella up and gently placed her on my bare skin,
directly on top of my heart. I thought for sure that
she would "alarm" from being yanked from her cozy
little bed, but after only a few moments on my chest,
Isabella nestled in and found a good spot, curled up
into a tight bundle, and fell asleep. It was magical.

They call this "kangaroo care" - I call it really,
really scary!!! The doctors and nurses tell us that
studies have proven Kangaroo Care helps preemies grow
and recover faster than those babies deprived of such
skin-to-skin contact. More importantly, they say that
even the earliest preemie can recognize her mother's
voice, scent and even her heartbeat, which is why they
place them on the chest. After several weeks now of
Isabella recoiling from anyone's touch, it's nice to
know that she knows her mama.

Thank you all for your great emails, and for keeping
Isabella in your thoughts.

Much love,
Marcia, Patrick & Jade