12/18/2009

Jack is 13 days old today. He now weighs 2lbs 4oz (1030 g) it's great he put on some weight over that day. When we arrived at the hospital he had been taken back off of his ventilator. His setting were at the lowest they could keep him at for that particular machine. He was placed back on the SIPAP machine. They doctor upped his feeding again from 6 to 7ml, and he was doing good digesting the extra food. He was also taken off of his antibiotics.

During his care time Jack seemed to be have a blast sucking on his feeding tube and gumming at his thumb knuckle. This evening Jack has an EKG done to see if the doctors might find some clue as to why his heartrate was on the high side. It was probably the most stressful thing I've watched so far. I wasn't intrusive, but the had so many probes on him that it bothered me. I almost had to leave the room. It was also a pain trying to get all those probes back off. They all had very sticky adhesive on the back and Jack fussed and cried the entire time.

Today had it's stresses, but overall it was a good day. He gained some weight and isn't on that ventilator anymore. He also got to put a couple pictures of his puppies in his sleep chamber. Now we can enjoy a night in the Orlando's trailer.

We're doing better

Well, overnight, Jack was put back on the ventilator. It wasn't unexpected after all of the apnea episodes. He was doing good on his oxygen levels today and hasn't had any problems. This morning Jack was still hovering around 2 lbs 3 oz (980 gs). We would like for him to start putting on a little weight, but not losing weight is a good start. The doctors have increased his feeding from 3ml to 5ml per feeding. He is still tolerating and digesting all of the milk that Mary is supplying for him.

His bilirubin levels came back down again, so no more big blue light hanging over him. It nice not to see him under all that phototherapy equipment. The nurse he had today said that he was being pretty feisty and was doing pretty good for where he is at now. They are also measuring his head to check for any swelling, today he was at 25cm yesterday 25.5 cm. We are hoping that they are measuring in the same place everytime and that his blood/fluid is decreasing.

Jack did get a few bonus visitors today. He had Aunt Sharon, Aunt Bev and Cousin Derek swing in to say hi. Mary and I did take a little break for ourselves and venture across the street and watched a movie. It was nice to decompress a little. At the end of our day, we swung back in for his 9:30pm care time to say goodnight. The nurse said he had been doing good all evening. We said goodnight and each gave him a little goodnight kiss. We are feeling a little better tonight.

Somedays are not as good as others.

Today Jack is 11 days old. He weighed in this morning the same as yesterday, 2 lbs 2.6 oz (980 gs). He is still doing good keeping down and digesting all his feedings. Jack has started having increased episodes of apnea. He had enough that there is talk that he may have to go back to a ventilator. Also, some eye gunk returned. It is possible that he has gotten an infection and they have taken some blood to run tests on. We should know more on that front tomorrow or the next day, but they would start him back on antibiotics is they found an infection. If it is an infection it could be contributing to his apnea, because his system is overloaded trying to fight the infection. His bilirubin levels went up again so they placed Jack back on phototherapy. The blood that was in the fluid near the brain hasn't absorbed/drained as doctors had hoped. Again that could be a side effect of the infection (if he has one). It hasn't got any worse, but it hasn't improved. It is something the doctors will keep an eye on over the next week.

Earlier in the day Mary and I went to a preemie handling class that gave us some pointers handling Jack while he is doing his care time in the NICU. I think everything just took it's toll today. Jack didn't have a very good day, and we just need to keep focused on the overall goal. There will be ups and downs, and today was a downer. Mary and I are back at the house for the night. We will destress, recharge, reload then head back out to Kaiser tomorrow.

Some Ups and Downs

Today Jack is 10 days old (27 weeks 5 days gestation age). He weighed in at 2 lbs 2.6 ozs (980 grams), that is up 1.6 ozs (40 grams). We arrived to do his care and he also got a visit from Great Uncle Mike and Great Aunt Mary. They were both surprised at how smaller he looked in person than in the videos, but said he was the cutest. Uncle Mike got to watch me change a very poopy diaper, still no more rejected feeding (hooray Jack way to digest!!). They have decided to up his feeding amounts from 2ml to 3ml per feeding. They're trying to get him all plumped up. Jack didn't do alot of fussing today during his care. Either he has gotten adjusted to us messing with him, or he was tired.

Jack has been having some apnea issues and had to be moved from his CPAP machine to a SIPAP machine. They are very similar. The CPAP kept a steady pressure inside Jack's lungs to keep them from deflating when he exhaled. The SIPAP does the pressure thing, but also aids him in breathing by assisting with little breaths. Not a ventilator, but should his apnea keep up or increase he would have to be placed back on the ventilator (fingers crossed he gets better). We also noticed a little yellow gunk around his eye. The nurse got it all cleaned up and we will watch for more to appear. Hopefully it won't come back, but if it does it might be an infection and Jack will need to get some antibiotics.

Ventilators and PICC lines.

Today was Jack first official day off of the photo therapy lights. All of his organs are processing things and, for now, jaundice is not an issue. We showed up and he had a blanket over the top of the incubator to keep it nice and dark for nap time. Originally the thought was to keep Jack on a very low ventilator setting. But the doctor and respirtory assistant decided that since the setting were so very low they would remove it entirely. He has now been place on a NcPAP system that keeps positive pressure in his lungs (to keep them inflated) but he is breathing on his own. He has a tiny head gear that keeps a mask in place over his nose. It looks like he is training to be a fighter pilot.

We also learned that he is taking caffiene to stimulate his breathing. Preterm babies will more than likely have apnea, because the brain is so immature it forgets to tell the lungs to breathe. The caffiene helps keep apnea to a minimum so that he does better breathing on his own. Also it sounds as if his PDA has closed. Hopefully everything has been taken care of with his doses of medication and we can put that part behind us.

We were also happy to get to be a little more "hands on" with Jack. I took his temperature and changed a diaper, and cleaned up some gunk around his mouth. Mary got to change a big poopy diaper, and do some mouth cleaning of her own. When little Jack got his PICC line put in I had to excuse myself from the room (because I'm a sissy and hate needles, IV's, shots, etc). Mary stayed in and watched the procedure....because she's a pro at that having had the procedure about 2-3 weeks ago. We are very thankful for another good day and positive strides made by Jack today. Fingers still very much crossed for more days like this in the immediate future.

Jack Get's Some Visitors 12-06-09

Jack is doing well, stable, but critical. His lungs are still the same and need to get developed. They have switched him to a different ventilator, one that doesn't over-inflate his tiny little lungs. Due to his jaundice they have put him on photo therapy. It's all very scary inside the NICU, Mary and I are very thankful that we have such great nurses and doctors that can explain things to us. We are still in a very strong state of shock and we have information overload. I'm going to do some reading online to become better informed. Mary is recovery well from her C-Section she is very sore, but she can get up and go down to see little Jack.

Jack's Grandma, Christi, and Grandparents, Dennis & Patti, arrived to get a look at Jack. He also had a few other family members stop by to peer into his incubator and say "Hi".