Baby Olivia Jade West was born to our son Bryan and daughter-in-law Bree on June 30, 2023. She was over two months early, born at 29 weeks gestation. She was 11.5 inches long weighing 2 pounds and 14 ounces at birth. She was immediately placed in the NICU, where she has been ever since. This is just a brief history of her first month of life.
She is our seventh grandchild, or as Tim likes to say, our seventh Jedi. Seven is the number of perfection, so we think this is the perfect number of grandkids. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Olivia’s APGAR scores were normal, as for any newborn, so for that we were grateful. Her lungs were strong, and Bree was relieved to hear her cry almost immediately after birth. She got to hold her for about a minute, then Olivia was whisked away to the NICU. Mommy had some hemorrhaging, which they were able to stop, but once the baby was born her body bounced back pretty quickly. It was a few days before mommy and daddy could hold her properly.
They put her in an incubator to help regulate her temperature, and hooked her up to a CPAP. Not because she needed oxygen, but to help force air into her lungs so she didn’t have to work as hard breathing. She needed all the calories to go toward growing. She also had a feeding tube down her throat, and has been fed through the tube ever since.
We got home on July 2nd and went to see her with the whole family the next day. She was SOOOO tiny.
Since then we have seen her grow to over four pounds. They have removed the top from her incubator as she is regulating her own body temperature. They just took off the CPAP and moved to a nose tube for feeding. I was in The Woodlands and stopped by after treatment. I happened to get there right before they put in the tube, so I took some pictures of her cute little face and watched that process. She did great. I held her for the first time while she was eating. I’ve never held a baby that small that I can remember.
I had just come from MD Anderson so they covered me in a blanket. It was so cozy.
Tim and I also stopped by to see her a couple of days later.
Within a few days they told me they were going to start feeding her with a bottle. They hadn’t started yet when Tim and I went by to see her. I haven’t been back yet, so I just checked with Bree on her progress. She said they haven’t started feeding with a bottle as they put her on a nasal cannula for breathing. (This was after the CPAP was removed. It’s common for them to go off and then back on oxygen.) They want the strength of her nasal cannula at a 2 and she’s at a 4 right now. She’s doing good.
They’re also giving her a diarrhetic for a couple days to see if excess fluid is making it more difficult for her to breathe. From what they explained to Bree, as soon as she’s breathing easier they will start to try feedings, and once she takes a full feed every feed for 3 days she comes home.
From what I understand, when they start feeding her with a bottle, it will be a slow process. She has been sucking, so this is a good sign. Apparently premies get tired easily and can’t down the whole bottle at first. What she doesn’t finish they will put in the tube. The nose tube stays in until a couple of days before discharge, when she is eating a full meal on her own.
We are hoping she comes home within another week or two, but the projection has always been her due date (September 9, also my birthday). We watched Mikayla on Saturday while Mommy and Daddy spent the day cleaning their apartment and disinfecting to avoid any possible germs. They are ready! We can’t wait to see her come home!
Thank you all for your continued prayers of this little one, and the family as well.
À la prochaine…hasta la próxima vez…until next time!