Leah is taking a bottle from David now, which is a good sign since she hasn't had much to eat since the surgery. At this point, she has had about 5 ounces of breastmilk, which is quite a bit. There's a high possibility that she is going to projectile vomit most of it back at us, but since there's a small chance she will keep most of it down, we are proceeding. Mostly, it's a good sign that she is able to get some liquids besides what is going in through the IV. The nurses have scaled back the amount going into the IV as a result, but if she changes course overnight and stops taking bottles, they will switch it back to its original amount.
At this point, her eyes are completely swollen shut, but she doesn't seem to be too bothered by it since she's still only semi-conscious. We can see her eyes moving behind the lids a bit when she starts to get fussy, so it must be confusing to her not to be able to see. The nurses who have worked with "cranio" babies in the past say that they will start to tip their heads back because it allows them to see out of the inside corners of their eyes once the swelling starts to recede even a little bit. She said we should expect to see that tomorrow or Thursday.
Dr. Taylor was in to see Leah this morning, and said everything looked great. It's strange for someone to look at her in this state and say that she looks perfect, of course, but since he's the expert, we are going to trust him! We have also had an amazing nurse today, Peggy, who has really been great about getting me some extra help and information about how to nurse Leah with all those IV lines and monitor wires coming out of every limb. She has also been really great about advocating for us. This morning when a host of doctors and med students came by to do "rounds" outside the door, she grabbed me and took me out there too, introducing me to the doctors as "Mom" and then nodded her head so they would proceed with rounds. They seemed a little surprised, but went on and launched into a whole laundry list of points to discuss about Leah's case. I didn't understand all of it since some of it is in medicalese (the point of which I still don't understand--if edema means swelling, why not just say swelling?...), but overall it was really informative. This is a teaching hospital, so the attending was asking questions of the group like, "Given her increased sodium and potassium levels, what might be a natural concern?" and using words like "extradural exposure" which made about 75% sense to me. But it did help me to see how the doctors negotiate, and agree upon, a plan of action for Leah for the day, and now I can be watching for things on that plan to make sure they are carried out. It has made this day much easier for me in the end.
I have also learned that, with the constant changing of the nurse and doctor shifts in the hospital, I can stay on top of information by always answering the question, "Did they explain to you..." with a "no." Even if the last doctor or nurse did tell me in great detail what was going to happen when, for what reason, it's highly likely that the doctor or nurse coming on will either have a different understanding of that who-what-when, or will add some information that will be helpful for me to know in the end. It does sometimes make me forget which person told me which bit of information, but it's a worthwhile tradeoff.
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