New Stuff about Preemies we learned

We have been learning quite a bit about the challenges that a baby born this premature faces on a daily basis.  They have little hands, feet, arms, legs, hearts, and if that is not enough, little brains.  The reason is that some major parts of their brain are not yet developed and were not in the plans until around 36 - 37 weeks.  Many of these developments are related to the nervous system.  Our nurse explained this like a contract that a baby had, and when they are born early we have 'renegotiated' the terms.  When they come out early they have some side effects (clearly) because of this.  Here are a couple:

One of the side effects of 'life on the outside' for a baby is that they are used to a tight and confined space with little room to move around.  Now they are in a big area and are not squeezed and they will lift and flail their arms and legs quite a bit.  This is a sign of stress for a preemie.  You want to see them laying with their arms and legs in tight to their bodies, still in the fetal position. Because of that we do a lot of hand containment to make them feel that confinement, we also have pillows and stuff all around her to make her feel there are still some walls around her.  When she breaks free of the pillows, we try to get our hands on her as fast as we can.

The other effect of her new living arrangements is pretty major.  Babies don't breathe in the womb and aren't asked to do so until about 40 weeks.  KelliAnne is breathing room air with a tiny bit of help from a some air into her nose.  I think she is doing pretty good considering, however, this exerts a lot of energy which makes it tough for her to gain weight.  Her body would be using that energy to grow if still in the womb.  The other issue is that the part of her brain that tells her to breathe consistently is not fully developed.  No big deal though, she alarms herself, her parents, and the nurse with bradycardia.  This started yesterday when her heart rate just dropped from the 150s (normal for a baby her age) into the 60s.  Apparently this is normal until her brain development catches up with her required activity of breathing.  Luckily she is strong enough to recover and basically wake up immediately and has not yet required the assistance of the nurses.  We are told by fellow NICU parents that we can expect some of that in the future, it just happens, but for now to enjoy how she is bringing her heart rate back up on her own.  They increased the air pressure on her O2 flow today, which is nothing major as she is still breathing on her own.

It is best to not watch the monitors.... we are still learning.