May 16

She is dressed in little clothes for the first time!

Kiley is our newly assigned Occupational Therapist, who will help monitor Audrey's normal development and be an advocate for her with the other staff on helping her to prepare for normal life outside the hospital. She wrote a beautiful note about helping Audrey to have positive experiences around her face and with her mouth so that she can hopefully avoid some of the oral aversion that is such a problem for babies and little children who go through major trauma like this. She also wrote another one to help nurses understand the importance of gentleness with her Replogle tube, trying to avoid taking it out etc. as used to be our status quo. 

While Kiley and I are talking to Audrey and soothing her after a band-aid change on her hand, baby decides to stop breathing for a minute or so, scaring us all and keeping her crib-bound for most of the day. She simply looked up at us and started to turn purple, and her blood oxygen level dropped to about 45 percent. They think it could have been a stimulation of the Vegas nerve that caused it, possibly due to the nasal Replogle.

The night nurse, Audrey, vents her differences of opinion over the nasal placement of the Replogle. She is worried about it causing damage to the nasal passages, and wants to get it back to the mouth-- Kiley just happened to be working a late shift this day, and had come by to ask (big) Audrey a question, and fortunately for me and (little) Audrey, was there at the critical moment to diffuse the situation and help Audrey feel a little better about the plan.

This photo makes me giggle. Even though it's mostly just the tube pulling on her nose, it makes her expression funnier, like she's just a bit perturbed.