Birthday/Father's Day Update

Had an excellent birthday yesterday. Got to spend it with my wonderful wife, precious daughter, and my mom and dad....not sure what more I could ask for....o wait...cake...ice cream cake...and I got that last night too!

Haddie is doing okay right now. She had to be intubated 2 days ago because she was having trouble breathing due to the infection. She has been recovering the past two days and seems to be coming back to her feisty self. They had stopped her feeds again but they started her on 6mls of fortified milk yesterday. They arent sure what caused the infection. The antibiotics seem to be working on whatever it is. They did an ultrasound last night to check and make sure it wasn't meningitis. They don't think it was but they have to check. We'll find out the results today on that.

I still got to hold her yesterday...Kate let them know it was my birthday. We also found out a few days ago (and I forgot to post about it) what Hadassah has to do to get out of CHOP. We werent given a timeline so I asked the nurse how it would work for a typical preemie. I told her throw out the brain injury and teratoma...what markers do we need to see?

- Growth. If she gets up to 1500 grams she can be taken out of the incubator and we can put clothes on her. I cannot describe how excited this makes my wife! Trust me, we already have a ton of clothes for her. Haddie is at 1400 grams which is 3lbs 2 oz. Then she would have to continue to grow and manage her temperature since she will be in open air. We don't have a set goal weight really.

-Breathing/Eating. She could technically go home on oxygen but that wouldn't be ideal. Shes already proven that she can breath mostly on her own...thats just be hindered by a PDA and infection. She gets over that and we think she's fully capable. She could also go home with a feeding tube...but we are pretty sure when the time comes to try breastfeeding...she will be a champ.

-No Bradys- She has to stop dipping her heart rate so low. Preemies usually stop doing that around 34-36 weeks. Haddies at 32 weeks. Part of her bradys are probably due to the PDA and infection along with her prematurity. So we feel good that she can handle this challenge too.

Most preemies do not leave the NICU until their due date. August 8th is Haddie's due date. So you factor all of that and we have a timeline. It may be longer due to any complications the brain may cause and the surgery she needs to remove whats left of the teratoma. We arent really sure when that surgery will be.

So that's what we know. Haddies making progress and she looks to be gaining weight in the right way...her belly looks normal again. I'm looking forward to celebrating Father's day with her...and my great dad tomorrow. Hope you all are having a great weekend. God bless and happy father's day!