Kangaroo Time with Bella Marie

We got some great pics today of Nikki and Bella.  They are allowing us to now Kangaroo with Bella when she is sprinting off her C-Pap in the afternoons.  Kangarooing is basically allowing torso to torso skin contact between the parent and baby.  I've yet to engage in it, partly because she hasn't been sprinting when I have been there, and partly because I don't want to traumatize her.  But I have to say that this is my favorite picture so far:

Mom & Bella Kangaroo style

Mom and daughter…Bella with her eyes open fully engaging her mother.  Mom's symbols of life-giving nourishment.  It's rather poetic, at least in my mind.  Skin to skin.  This is what we missed a month ago when they were born so prematurely. 

Bella has been doing terrific the last few days.  They are maximizing the amount of milk she gets and she has been sprinting for four hours at a time during the day.   All would be terrific if it weren't for the MRSA.

Since the last post, we've learned that Bella does in fact have MRSA.  On Monday nite we went into the Dogwood room in the Children's Hospital NICU, where the triplets have been since day 1, and I noticed that Bella's normal spot to the right of the door was empty.  I was actually a bit excited because I thought they had moved her near the boys, since we had been requesting that for a few weeks.  But I walked over to the bed with the pink sign nearest the boys, and was shocked to see it wasn't her.

Now, the nurses tell you at the beginning that they often move the babies without alerting the parents.  But we had been in the same room for a month and I never thought they would split up the triplets. 

Turns out that since she had a positive MRSA test, and the rest of the babies in Dogwood tested negative, they moved her out of there and into a room with all the other MRSA babies.  I'm having trouble getting consistent and accurate information about this strain of Staph infection.  The doctors at the hospital tell me that once she has it, they consider her positive for the rest of her stay.  So she will be away from her brothers for the next couple of months.  They also told me that she may walk around with MRSA for the rest of her life, as a carrier.  Many people carry it but never exhibit any symptoms, and attempts to eradicate the disease via antibiotics are often unsuccessful. 

She has not had any symptoms or adverse issues from the MRSA either, and they don't make us wear gloves or gowns when we touch her, just as long as we visit her last at night and don't go back to touch the other babies. 

Mom & Bella Kangaroo again

In any event, I understand that they want to keep the infectious babies away from the others, but we were a little upset that no one had told us that she was moved, and that we were under the impression on Sunday that she had a false-positive test. 

Not to end this post on a sour note, we had a very nice night holding Bella in a secluded area of her new room.  

She's just a few grams (less than an ounce) shy of 3lbs now and in fact has overtaken her brother Owen.  Noah is at 3lbs 10oz and has been doing quite well the last few days.

We got a call at 2am this morning that Owen had a bit of a setback and wasn't tolerating his food.  We were trained pretty quick that whenever you get a call in the middle of the night, it is going to be bad news from the hospital.  So they stopped feeding him, hence his falling behind his sister in weight.  They also X-Rayed his belly and he appears to have some air pockets in there again.  Nothing too serious at this stage, they will just watch him and keep him off his feeds for a bit.  He's at 2lbs 12oz.

I've got some articles ready to start posting, hopefully early next week.  As I stated last post, I'm hoping that this blog can be expanded a bit to include information that might be helpful to other new parents of preemies and multiples as well as general help and advice to focus on the important things in life and not let them ever be at the mercy of the unimportant. 

As I learn this art and science of blogging a bit better, the site may change look and feel a bit.  As always, we appreciate everyone's thoughts and prayers.  Thank you and bless you all.

-Papa Charley