Gillian developed a Staph infection and her main IV line had to be pulled. They had to begin pricking her heels to get blood for what they call "blood gas" tests which were performed on a daily basis-sometimes more than once per day. It checks the baby's oxygenation levels and is an important test. It hurt to know they had to prick her so much, but there was no way around it.
At 35 days old she weighed 1lb 13 1/2 oz. I remember being so excited about her weight gain.
Every week, my son Aidan got to go see her. The nurse surprised him and let him hold Gillian (as seen here in the picture). It meant so much to him. He was very protective of her.
Her chest x-rays showed "a little wet" and they had to give her some Lasix to get rid of the fluid. This was also a constant battle that I remember. It was because her lungs were so immature.
Gillian's oxygen levels were not the greatest -she was not taking her own breaths so much so they started giving her some Caffeine to stimulate respiration. That is also something they use to wean them off the ventilator.
She reached a milestone of 2lbs! We were thrilled. She was able to wear some tiny preemie clothes that I had purchased online. They were so small they looked like doll clothes, but had places for all the wires.
At one point in her 2nd month one of the Neonatologists was talking to me and mentioned how great Gillian was doing, considering she was one of the sickest babies on the unit (back when she was doing so bad).
One funny thing that is SO Gillian is that the janitor was in vacuuming and she did not like it one bit. Those vacuums they use in the hospital are so quiet too. Her oxygen saturation levels were dropping so they had to tell the janitor he could not vacuum because it was upsetting Gillian!
She developed E-Coli in her endotrachial tube (the breathing tube). They caught it early and were able to treat her.
Her weight at the end of 2 months was approximately 3lbs 8 oz.
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