Noah is 7 weeks old today! It has been 7 weeks of ups and downs, but she is a strong little lady and, looking at her now, it’s unbelievable progress since this time last week.
Thank you to everyone who prayed and sent us encouragement over the last few days. Noah is an absolute champion and has taken a turn for the better! It was touch and go for a while but this week she has been going from strength to strength.
Initial infection cultures indicated an infection of the blood. The infection was confirmed as Strep B streptococcus – a very serious bacterial infection for babies that can develop into pneumonia or meningitis, although initial assessment of her lumbar puncture looked clear – we are praying that the infection did not have a chance to cause any long-term complications.
An additional boost of antibiotics was given and her infection indicators are now down from 150 to less than 7, which is showing a good quick recovery 👏 she continues to have antibiotics and will do for the next 10 days.
Noah is also off of all breathing support and is managing her oxygen levels all by herself (hallelujah 🙌🏻). She is very active and is now looking much more like her usual, cheeky self – pulling on her feeding tube and pulling off her cannula support.
There were some issues with her cannula – it got blocked and made her leg swell up so she had to have it removed and a new one inserted. She was an absolute champion throughout (although she did continually kick the doctor away – she was impressed with Noah’s coordination 🤣🤣)
She had to have another eye test to check for ROP. This can be quite distressing for babies but she took it in her stride, like everything else so far. She has now been officially discharged from the eye doctor with no problems.
They have worked to increase Noah’s milk and she is now back on full feeds (they were increased slowly as she was unable to eat at all for the first few days – girl was hangry!). We are now working hard with breastfeeding – today we practiced feeding on demand, letting Noah signal when she was hungry. She managed 2 feeds exclusively breastfed, and a third, shorter feed that required a small top up via her tube.
She is doing such a great job, it definitely feels like we’re on the home stretch! Please continue to keep all of us in your prayers; because we are now trying to establish breastfeeding. This is her final hurdle to overcome before we can bring her home and, with restrictions because of COVID, it means that daddy cannot see his little girl.
Despite the severity of the situation, Noah is still with us, fighting hard. The doctors were very concerned, preparing us for the worst, but they are amazed at her progress.
She is now out of her incubator and has graduated to special care, continuing to improve every day – it looks as if she is well over the worst of it all. She now weighs 2.22kg (4.9lb) and she is looking so much better. She’s alert and beginning to stare at me, kicking around in her cot like a maniac! What a superstar!
Thank you to every single one of you who has prayed – we really have seen incredible progress! Today Noah came off all monitoring as her stats are steady, which is both amazing and terrifying!
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