Friday update

Emma is now a week-old and she had a busy day. Her heart murmur was detected again today, so she was given another dose of medication. Our hope is that this will resolve the condition over the weekend. If not, one more dose of medication can be given. If all else fails, she may need to have surgery to repair the heart valve/blood vessel mid-next week. Hopefully that will not be necessary!

Emma also had a PICC line inserted today (basically a central catheter that will stay in place longer than a tradition I.V. line to allow medications to be given without the need for frequent poking with needles) and reportedly tolerated the procedure well.

Although she had not tolerated the breastmilk feeds yesterday, she did so today, so the team is planning on increasing the amount she receives to 4 cc's every 4 hours tomorrow.

Finally, the umbilical lines (catheters that were placed into blood vessels within her umbilical cord) were removed and she was finally able to be placed on her tummy (important in the prevention of sores/skin break-down). As I left the NICU tonight, she was sleeping peacefully with her legs curled under her and her little bum in the air :)