As soon as we found out that one of the babies was a girl, Campbell was her name. :)
I pictured a little girl with dark brown hair and bright eyes. It was a glimpse of my future daughter. And she was beautiful.
And from the moment she was born, I knew she would be different from her sister. It was obvious that she didn't want to be born yet. I've always felt that if she'd had it her way, she'd have stayed in a while longer.
As time went on, that same, laid back personality shone through.
Which I suppose in some ways, can be viewed as sort of refreshing. :)
At the same time, it can be maddening! Eric and I have said many times that God is teaching us patience through this little girl.
Many times during her NICU stay, she was referred to as "a puzzle."
We were very thankful that her PDA was closed with medicine, and her brain bleed did not worsen.
She remained on cpap for 10 days. After which, she was weaned down off her nasal cannula.
And put back on oxygen.
And weaned off.
On.
Off.
And so on.
Would this baby every be able to breathe on her own?
One of her problems was desaturations. That means her blood oxygen levels would drop too low.
And as a result of being on so much breathing support, she developed scarring in her lungs known as Chronic Lung Disease. Her lungs would eventually heal, but its a very slow process.
It was explained to us that with twins, it is not unusual for Baby B to have more problems. Being the second one out can mean a lapse in blood flow and oxygen.
Another problem of hers involved feeding. She started on a feeding schedule, which involved giving her small amounts of fortified breastmilk through a feeding tube. Each day, the amount was increased. After the fourth day, her belly was distended and she had whats called green "aspirate" which meant her food was not moving out of her stomach very fast. This can be an indication of a very scary sickness some preemies get called NEC, which can be deadly. A chest xray showed dilated loops, another indication of NEC.
We waited on pins and needles for test results. (During which I developed a bad case of mastitis.)
She did not have NEC.
Thank you God!
She was taken off her feeds, and put back on IV nutrition in order to let her premature digestive system regroup.
After a week, she restarted her feeds. After the fourth day, she had a distended belly, green aspirate, and dilated loops.
She was taken off her feeds. Back on IV nutrition.
No NEC. Our neo was worried about an anatomical problem in her intestines.
A lower GI was performed. It was normal.
A week later, feeds were restarted. Fourth day, distended belly, green aspirate, dilated loops.
Upper GI performed. Normal.
Our doctors were puzzled by her. Our resident (whom I adored) stayed up with her all night once, trying to figure her out.
It was ultimately decided that her premature digestive system was having problems digesting breastmilk. Which at first, I had a hard time with. Isn't breastmilk supposed to be the most digestable food? And preemie breastmilk is specifically made for these preemies? She was placed on a specialized (in other words: very costly) partially digested formula called Neocate.
Amazingly, that did the trick! Problem solved. She remained on Neocate for 3 months.
Once she started nippling (taking food by bottle), she once again struggled. She just didn't want to eat. She fought it. Every bottle, every day. It was so frustrating!
After much observation, it was decided that she was having reflux problems and therefore just wasn't comfortable eating.
Campbell ended up staying almost 4 weeks longer than her sister.
10 weeks in the NICU.
This beautiful little puzzle was teaching us a load of patience.
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