13 days

I've thought about it all afternoon, and I can think of only one logical explanation: the person who chose the medical terminology used to describe intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) is a bit of a sadist. Poor Christie was alone at the hospital this afternoon when the medical team came in for their daily rounds. Chloe and Bryce had each received another head ultrasound this morning, and the doctors were discussing the results. You can imagine Christie's utter dismay when she overheard Bryce's brain bleed described as "evolving." Fortunately, one of the nurses noticed that Christie was about to hit the NICU floor for the second time, and quickly explained that, in this context, the term "evolving" is used to identify a bleed that is dissipating!

Bryce's IVH improvement was the cornerstone of a day filled with positive news. Bryce has remained stable in spite of the fact that he's been off the meds for the past couple days, so they've restarted his bi-hourly feedings. This afternoon, Christie got to "feed" Bryce for the first time: 1ml of milk delivered by pipet into a tube that runs directly into his stomach. Not exactly how most mothers envision their first bonding experience with baby, but under the circumstances, we'll take it. :)

Chloe is also doing great. She's still on several medications, so she isn't ready for milk yet, but that's not surprising since she had major surgery a few days ago. Her ultrasound showed no additional bleeding into her ventricles, which is what we were hoping for. Also, her chest x-ray showed that she has much less fluid in her lungs, which we believe is another indication that her surgery was a success.

As we close out another week, I'd like to once again thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers. Bryce and Chloe's first two weeks haven't exactly been smooth sailing, but it definitely could have been a lot worse, and I like to think that the positive energy they've received from all of you had something to do with that. So, thanks! :) Print this post