Saturday October 14 - Still in the Hospital

Just got off the phone with Danielle this evening with an update on how things are going.  They were hoping to be home already, but some complications have kept them in the hospital for a few extra days. 

Ava is doing very well.  She was a little jaundiced for a bit and had a hard time keeping her sugar levels up, but the jaundice has improved and she is eating like a champ so there is no longer a concern about her glucose.  Her weight has dropped a bit, as is normal for newborns, and with the way she is eating, she'll be packing on the ounces in no time.  She is a very sweet baby, calm and pretty quiet except for diaper changes.  She is also exceptionally cute and I'm sure that's not just an Auntie's bias.  The nurses have been watching her overnight in the nursery to let Danielle get some much needed healing rest.

Danielle has not been feeling very well the last few days.  Friday morning's bloodwork revealed that her hemoglobin was down to 74, which is quite low and explained her shortness of breath, racing heart, and pale colour.  She received a unit of blood yesterday, and as she can't go back on the Fragmin (prevents blood clots) until her hemoglobin improves, when she's in bed she's been wearing calf wraps attached to a pump to increase blood circulation and avoid clots. 

This morning her hemoglobin was even further down, to 70, where it theoretically should have gone up about 10 points from Friday's blood transfusion.  She received two more units of blood today and was sent for an abdominal and pelvic ultrasound to check for hematomas or blood clots that may have formed somewhere.  We are still waiting for results from both the ultrasound and bloodwork to see if the hemoglobin has improved or not.

It makes for long days in the hospital when you just want to go home to your own bed and your own space.  Danielle and Timothy have had a few visitors, some who even came with a delicious lasagna dinner tonight!  Having had a sampling of the hospital menu from several local hospitals, Danielle says the menu is comparably delicious - yesterday she had "mac and cheese" reminiscent of a hospital meal from a few months ago (See this post), but this time thankfully it wasn't quite so pureed. 

For now, we are thankful that Ava is doing so well, and doing our best to wait (patiently) for some good improvement to Danielle's health so that the two of them can go home.