1/4/2012
Today I got the results of Danika's echo. She has a small PDA (patent ductus arteriosus). There is a small valve in her heart that isn't closing all the way. This causes her to work harder when she is breathing. Working harder when she breaths causes her to lose weight and we need her to start gaining weight, so their giving her more BPM's (breaths per minute) so that she doesn't have to work so hard for air. They decided not to give her medication for the PDA. They want to wait and see if it will close on its own.

Their trying to get her digestive tract and intestines moving. She eats 1cc every 12 hours. Tonight they will change it to 1cc every 6 hours.

I got to hold Danika today for the first time! They call the program Kangaroo Care. They say that the best medicine for her is skin to skin contact with her mom. Her best sense right now is her sense of smell. I held her for 45 minutes before her heart rate started dropping and they couldn't get her to pick it back up so we put her back in the incubator.