Moving on up

Today during rounds the Neonatologist mentioned that it was time for Ceilidh to be moved out of the NICU and on to the 4th floor. She is still working on feeding but that at the moment this her only issue. So you may think that moving her out of the NICU would make me very happy, however, I went into panic mode. Here at the NICU we live the life of luxury, at least in terms of medical care. When Ceilidh was first admitted she had one nurse devoted to her care. As she slowly needed less and less interventions ie medication and what not, she then went on to share a nurse. Now that she might possibly move on to the 4th floor I have no idea what level of care she might get and this unknown has me scared.  Since we knew that Ceilidh was going to need surgery we toured the NICU and we also had great friends who were able to share there recent experiences with the CHEO NICU. Not so for this mysterious fourth floor. 

Ceilidh with no feeding tube

I called said friends to share my panic and hysteria. They knew exactly what I was feeling and even though their daughter went to a different part of CHEO they could share their experiences with me. They apparently wanted to send them home with the feeding tube still in use and wanted to train them how to use it. They pushed and got to try feed her without the feeding tube in place and this seemed to do the trick for them. Armed with this knowledge I went back to feed Ceilidh. As it happened she pulled out her feeding tube yet again (actually for the second time today). It was clearly a sign. I asked the nurse to leave it out and see if we could feed without it. Ceilidh took almost all her feed (55cc instead of 60cc) and she had no spit ups. Yes it took 50 minutes to accomplish this small triumph but it showed them that she could indeed do it, just takes patience and work. Her next feeding we fed her earlier because she was wide awake and looking hungry,  this time we tried the breast and again she has done the best that she ever has on the breast. Granted she did fall asleep and probably only consumed 10cc but she showed us she can learn.

They did have to put the feeding tube back in her nose but I am hoping that these small victories of today can be repeated. And if we have to go to the scary 4th floor (only scary because I don't know what to expect) we hopefully won't be there long as long as she keeps things up. When we will be moved to said floor we don't know as there are currently no beds available but it could be as early as this weekend. I really do hope we won't be there too long.