Calm in the Storm

Remember how I said that it was eerily quiet here yesterday in the NICU? Apparently, that was the calm before the storm. When we walked in this morning, it was like a tornado had blown in overnight and landed some more babies in the NICU. Yes, Naya now has a roommate and it's a boy. It's not the preemie, it's another full term baby with intestines that have grown into his lung area. They originally thought he was going to need Ecmo but luckily, he doesn't. Just another really sick little boy. The preemie was brought in late last night as well. So sad. Only 24 weeks gestational age. 24 weeks! I can't believe how teeny-tiny that poor little thing is. Picture a man's hand. That is how big a 24 week old fetus is. Breaks my heart. So needless to say, with these two new admits in this section alone, the ward has been a bit hectic today.

I did, however, title this entry "The Calm in the Storm." Naya had another stable night last night and another stable day today. Her sats were consistently in the mid 90's (highest I have seen them), blood pressure on the high end (enough to ween some pressers) and a heart rate that averaged about 150 for the day. This is almost normal. She also finished off the day yesterday with another -250+ fluid input/output and is trending towards another negative day today. Granted, she wasn't very active today but I think her body is just so not used to being so "normal" that it decided to rest after all it's hard work. She also looks sooo much better. Almost back to her normal size, which is a wonderful thing. This evening, her stats have slipped a bit but they also did a complete line change on all her meds and this causes all babies to slip. She is gradually building back up (a little too slowly for my comfort level) but we won't leave until we are comfortable with her numbers again. (Which they have just become while I've been writing this.)

Dan and I were able to have a pretty decent day today. We walked to Los Feliz for lunch and I found both a man selling cotton candy and an Italian deli selling pizzelles. I am a happy camper. The wonderful ladies I work with, Connie & Shawna, also sent me and Dan a cupcake delivery today. I still have to pick out a few favorites and then we are going to share them with the nursing staff. Any suggestions?

This afternoon, I took a long walk while Dan did laundry. I went by the crazy, large Church of Scientology that is down the block just to check it out. This thing is MASSIVE. Seriously, it takes up an ENTIRE city block and is bright purple. I took a picture of it but didn't venture any further than the sidewalk. Too risky for my blood ;) Later, a couple of Dan's friends visited us and took us to dinner. Pretty decent day.

My daughter is also officially famous. The New Times, a local paper, published an article about her today. Here is a link if you are interested. http://www.newtimesslo.com/strokes-and-plugs/6576/baby-naya-the-warrior-princess/ I love the title! Just goes to show you that Naya's plan all along was to go to Hollywood and become famous. You have accomplished your goal little lady. In all seriousness though, we are again blown away by the wonderful support we have in our community and from our friends and family. We love and appreciate you all. You are truly helping us get through this. Keep us in your prayers - the warrior princess still has a lot of fighting to do.