Day 3 NICU

This morning when we were in the cafeteria for breakfast, we ran into the on call trauma doctor that delivered Briella. He told us that the nurses said they didn't even know that babies could be born that way. He said she looked like a dinosaur egg. He gave us a few more details of that night & we had quite the emotional breakfast.

Briella is off the light therapy & sunglasses today. We found out she has a very loud heart murmur. It is not symptomatic so we are hopeful it will fix itself as she matures. If not there is medicine, and surgery is a last result way down the line.

Briella's nurse made her a teeny tiny pacifier. It is so dang cute. It fits in her mouth with the tubes & she just sucks away. Melts my heart. I will add a pic of the binkie, it's on a long white stick with a nub at the end.

Today I got to take her temperature, help weigh her & change her bedding twice. I love being able to feel like a Mommy. I love having her hold on to my finger. I never want her to let go. It is the closest I can be to her and its the best feeling in the world. I can't help but cry talking about holding her finger. I was so scared to touch her for the 1st day. I didn't want to disturb her or hurt her. She just looks so fragile and tiny. But it is good for my heart.

Today was measurement day. Her head is 21cm around, which I think is about 8 inches. She is 12 inches long. She hasn't grown since she hasn't started feedings yet so she was actually 12 inches long at birth. She weighs right around 1lb 5oz. Tomorrow they are talking about starting her feedings. Im excited to get her growing! I am a little nervous on the challenges of breastfeeding, but hope all will work out. My body just wasn't ready to be supporting a baby yet. They held off on her blood transfusion today so it will probably be tomorrow that she has it.

All the drs & nurses make it known that they are eerily surprised how well she is doing. They have told us that babies usually can hold there own for the first couple of days and then problems start to arise. They say she is still "honeymooning." I am holding on to the hope and faith that all of you providing us with prayers are going to carry us to health. I know God has this.

I am going to do a separate update about the special meaning behind being born in the sac. One of my pregnancy nurses stopped by to tell me about the sacredness of it.