What does a mom have to do to stay informed?

I left off on last night's blog saying that I was going to call the hospital to see how Emma's new IV was and if she was fussy after giving her Mylicon just before we left the hospital. The fussiness wasn't a problem, but the IV was. Apparently, all her veins were "blown," according to the nurse. The short-term IV's have temporarily worn out her accessible veins, and they had to try a PICC (a long-term IV). The problem with the PICC is that it would have to go through the only place where the veins aren't worn out - her head. Dr. Troup doesn't allow PICCs or IV's in his babies' heads because he doesn't want any risk of infection in there before or after he puts in shunts. So last night the nurse had to track down a NICU doctor, who then tracked down Dr. Troup to try to get his permission to get a PICC in. They did all this between 9 and 11 because Emma had to have one antibiotic at 9ish and the other at 3 am. They temporarily gave her the 2 antibiotics with a shot, and this afternoon they put the PICC in Emma's head. The PICC is a pretty big deal - so big, in fact, that I have to sign a consent form. And also a big deal because I know Dr. Troup doesn't normally allow them. But the ONLY way I knew about all this important stuff is because I called. If I hadn't called, they would have come looking for me this morning and scared the daylights out of my mom and mother-in-law probably because, again, this is a pretty big deal. Needless to say, I have requested to speak to a nurse supervisor AGAIN because this was only one of the many issues I had with last night's nurse.

I spoke with Dr. Troup's nurse this morning, and she and Dr. Troup both spoke with the grandmas today. It's not quite as big of a deal to have the PICC in Emma's head because she doesn't have the shunt yet. But once she's done with the antibiotics, that PICC will come out immediately. Dr. Troup and his nurse both thought her incision looked much, much better. I, personally, didn't think it had changed a whole lot from yesterday, but they were quite encouraged. The center of the hole is filling up with good stuff - skin, good tissue, etc. You can still see a little infection here and there, but it definitely looks better than it did a few days ago. The opening/hole is still about 3 inches wide by 3 inches long. The pediatric infectious disease doctor came by (there's a doctor for everything, I tell you), and she said that Emma needs to be on the antibiotics for 10 more days. 10 MORE! Which I'm pretty sure means that the shunt won't go in until after that. I guess we'll be here for 2 more weeks. From today. But that's just a guess. They didn't get the PICC in as deep as they wanted, but it goes 14cm deep in a vein, which is about to her collarbone. They hope that will be good enough for 10 more days. They're also going to ask a lab somewhere if they can swab the incision to see if spinal fluid is leaking. That's all we need. I don't think there's any reason to believe that it is, but they just want to be sure.

Emma had a few fussy moments today, and I only saw a little bit of them. Apparently she needed some Mylicon after her 8:00 am and pm feedings, but I wasn't around for either of those fits.

This picture is a shot of Emma's first hair accessory. I don't even want to think about how they're going to get all that tape off her head without ripping out her hair. Oh! Her hair is starting to turn strawberry blonde...there's only one person in our families with red hair - Russell's grandmother. Here's the amazing part - sweet Grandma (and I mean, SWEET, SWEET lady) has Alzheimer's. Not too bad, but it's there. She told me a few months ago that she wanted a redhead. I wasn't sure if she was joking around with me or if it was the Alzheimer's talking. But here we are looking at increasingly strawberry-blonde-colored hair! I wonder if it'll stay that way! Since we were born, mine has always been blonde, and Russell's has always been brown...