January 20 baby update

I heard some good news tonight (in the big picture of things). The doctors believe that Jossie's in-utero erratic heartbeat was due to tightly wound blood vessels in the umbilical cord. As she was growing bigger in the womb, the blood vessels weren't big enough to accommodate her and thus she wasn't getting enough blood at times. Even though these past couple of weeks have been so hard, it's a relief to know I was here and in good care and being constantly monitored. And overall, it was not a problem with her health or with mine - just a problem with the cord. The doctor assured me I couldn't have done anything differently to avoid this problem.

We also got the results on the extra tests that were done - as far as the doctors can tell, I had no infection during this pregnancy that would have been the cause of her being on the small side, including toxoplasmosis (which you can get from your cat - I had to call Jeremy right away so he could stop looking up cat recipes on epicurious.com). And now I can stop feeling secretly guilty about having a bit of pasteurized blue cheese while pregnant.

Basically, she's small because she just is.

She had another good day, and we continue to take things day-by-day. Her feedings were increased from 4 ml to 12 ml! And she is digesting it well!  The doctors will take this slowly, but I am hoping they will continue to increase her servings through the weekend. She currently has had an IV that provides her with extra lipids, sugars and electrolytes, and they talked about the possibility of discontinuing it sometime over the weekend or early next week, and she would be sustained on breastmilk alone.

The doctor finished up by saying Jossie just needs to sleep, eat and grow like any newborn. Please keep praying that she does!

And I'm completely on the mend. While this situation is not ideal, staying in the hospital a few extra days has really helped me to heal quickly. I'll be discharged tomorrow. I can actually look at weather reports again with some relevancy. And it's supposed to be -20 degrees in Chicago tomorrow with the wind chill...