happy 1 mth, minzy!

11 June

our 1 week visit was actually on 10th, but we decided to go on the 11th cos it would be Minzy's 1 mth.

i can't say how happy i am that she has gotten this far! and she was looking so so so much better when we saw her.

for one, the number of machines were only 2-3 now. and she has only one IV on her right hand. she was off the trembling oxygen. her blood pressure has stabilized so she doesn't need the med anymore. she was also passing larger amounts of poop and urine. however, her weight was still at 540g, and the doctors say that this is her actual weight without the bloat and any weight she put on from then onwards should become her actual weight. at least she looks much normal now without all the extra bloat on her neck and ears. also, they have removed her sedation so we should expect more movements, and she would also open her eyes at times.

true enough, she was still tiny but she was moving a lot! both her arms and legs were moving at once (so it dispelled our worries that she might be half-paralysed). she opened her eyes to look at us (but i'm not sure if she could actually see us, since babies can only see black and white).

i noticed her diapers were too big and it turns out that they have finished using the preemie diapers we got for her (they should have told us!!). it was so big that minzy could rest her right leg on top of it. i wonder if she kept stretching her legs because it was so tiring to rest it on top... her excretion bag seems to have gotten much bigger too. i guess she can hug it as a pillow now...

i quickly snapped this when i saw that she kept struggling to open her eyes. kyaaaaaa!!! this little cutie!!! (btw there's a baby crying super loudly in the background cos it just had a shot.. poor thing...)

nampyeon captured something even cuter. minzy stretched out her arm and grabbed the iv drip in front of her. it's so adorable i have been playing it everyday and sending it to those who knows about it. too good to not share!

today we received the labels stamped with 1 month on it. can't say how much satisfaction i derive from looking at it.

my milk volume has also increased. so much that i needed to separate it into 3-5packs, since Minzy can't drink so much at once. thankfully she's drinking 10ml every 3 hours now! please drink more!!

the doctors also told us that we needed to get the fortification powder for our milk so that the nutrients can be enhanced for the baby. it sells in boxes of 100 and can only be brought in from overseas. it's a whooping 160usd for this... whoa.

we were also told to get preemie pacifiers. i made a mistake and got small milk bottles instead... the search words they gave me in korean led to these results T_T yes, you gotta give a foreigner the picture instead of the keywords you know... the bottles are still very cute and hopefully we'll get to use them when minzy's discharged.

the actual pacifier we were supposed to get. it's called a philips wee thumbie. the ones i found was like 40usd with shipping. gg. thank goodness there was a local shop selling all products for preemies but it was still around 15usd. so cute! i wonder when she will get to use it cos her mouth's full of tubes...

there wasn't a lot that we can do for her 1 mth except give her the 'presents' that the hospital needs. hopefully she will be much bigger at our next visit... here's a final picture of my adorable minzy... (gosh, all the mini curly wurly baby hair!) just when can i touch her... T_T

i kept thinking as i look at the videos and photos... that IV cap on her right hand. i had it on me previously and it was so small, but on her it looked like a cannon (as nampyeon says)... how is she able to wave it around so frequently?

it hurts so much if my iv was pricked near the joints... and the needle was small for me. but a small needle for me is something huge for minzy.. and if i were to make a comparison, the size of that needle to her arm is like a knife to my arm... how was she able to endure all the pricking? nampyeon did tell me there were preemie needles, but i wonder how small it could be... technology is amazing... but minzy (and all the other preemies) are even more amazing, for enduring such pain when they are so so young... so much so it hurts my heart just to think about the pain she's going through. :( my strong baby...

oh, and i took a picture of her feet cos it was just so tiny and cute. those little toes. *love*