Time to Eat

Hello everyone from blog world. Jack ended his streak of episode free days yesterday. He had a big one around 7:30 & one smaller this mornings. It wasn't as bad as the episode he had about 3 weeks ago, but they had to give him oxygen with the bag mask. The doctor came in and took a look at him. It's possible that his feeding tube was causing an irritation in the back of his throat that trigger a response that made is heart rate drop. He also hadn't had a good poo in about a day so he may have been holding his breath while straining to push. To solve that problem the nurse gave him a laxative and it seemed to clean the system out.

So, Jack is now tube free. All his feedings are coming from a bottle, and he has no set care times. We let him wake himself up hungry and then feed him as much as he'll eat. The therapist came by again and checked on how he was doing eating from the bottle. He passed with flying colors and we got a few pointers on feeding him. The therapist is going to come by again on Thursday and give him a check up. She may also give him a discharge eval if all is going well. That doesn't mean he's going to be discharged, but it's a step closer. If he doesn't pass, we will know better the things Jack needs to accomplish to be discharged.

Jack also gained a little weight yesterday and is up to 5 lbs 13 oz, who knows how much of that stayed in after his laxative poo he had. Hopefully, he will stop these episodes with the changes made today. Jack was busy today, he also got a visit from his Great Aunt Mary and Great Uncle Mike (who somehow managed to dodge the camera again).

First Milestone Reached

Jack had a nice day today. He reached the 5 pound mark today, that is the first hurdle towards coming home. He has been doing well since they switched him over to his new oxygen set up. He's now set at 1 liter per minute and he's been holding his levels pretty steady. Last night he got to have part of a feeding from a bottle. The nurse said that he did very well. He had a little trouble burping but he made it just fine. The doctor has said he want the therapist to check him out before he gets the OK to start full time on the bottle, so we will wait until the beginning of the week to see what happens. The heat has been turned off completely on his isolette and he is maintaining his body temperature nicely. With that step done he will probably be moved over to a regular crib (another step towards going home).

Jack had another nice day, we want them to stay this way. Hopefully he can get bigger and strong enough to make it home with in the next 2-3 weeks.

Double the Fun

Howdy, Jack officially reach double his birth weight today. He is 4 lbs 3 oz (1900 grams). We were surprised that he gained so much weight on back to back days. Hopefully it won't be an erroneous weighing and he'll show more gain. Today Jack stayed all day on his back all bundled up, also wearing his first preemie outfit. We were so excited, it's like he graduated up to the next grade. He is still on the antibiotics, probably for 1 or 2 more days, and still has his oxygen up at 4 liters per minute (though at last check they lowered the oxygen percentage to 22%).

Mary did about an hour and fifteen minutes of kangaroo care today. Jack's levels stayed up nice and high the entire time. He did have a couple minutes of fidgeting around, but was nice and relaxed until after that. The doctor came in and talked to us for a while. She said that Jack was doing well. They are still watching him to make sure he handles all his feeding amounts and doesn't have a repeat episode of Monday. She is going to monitor a little bit longer before decreasing his flow again. It was another nice day for the Passalaqua family.

32 Weeks

Jack turned 32 weeks today. He also passed another milestone, reaching 4 lbs 1 oz, he gained about 3 oz yesterday. We think he might have been mis-weighed because that is a lot to gain, but hope it is accurate. He is still on his antibiotics, iron and extra vitamins. Also, everything is still the same in terms of oxygen and his feeding amounts. He had a very good day, no reports of big apnea or bradycardias episodes from the nurses.

I got to do some more kangaroo time today. Was very nervous after his huge incident on Monday. Jack laid on my chest for about 1 hour with ever setting off any alarm for either his heart rate or breathing. It was very nice to have a good kangaroo care. I'm also very thankful for nothing big to report.

At 9:00pm Mary and I went back in for his care time. Jack had been wrapped in a blanket and was wearing his first little baby suit. They are seeing if he can maintain his body temperature then they can leave the top of his isolette open and he is one step closer to being home.

Day of Recovery

Well, it has certainly been a nice day after all the shenanigans that happened yesterday. Jack did gain about 20 grams, up to 3 lbs 14 oz, getting oh so close to 4 lbs. By the end of the day/afternoon today Jack was very tired. He had another chest x-ray, it was a little hazy in the lungs so he is getting some antibiotics. They should clear up anything in there and protect against infection. He got an IV for that. Then he got a nice bath, because he was a little stinky. He seemed to enjoy his sponge bath for the most part. Jack also had his eyes checked today. The doctor says that all looks good now, but they will repeat the test in about 2 weeks. They have taken his feedings down to 28ml for the time being to make sure he is digesting and handling what they give him. They also put his oxygen flow back up to 4 liters per minute.

Aside from all the changes he did well today. He didn't have any major incidents of bradycardia or apnea. He had his slight dips, but came back up. We were very glad he didn't give us any scares today, we hope it was just an isolated event.

Four Weeks Old

Jack is now 4 weeks old, not quite a month, but 28 days. He gained a little bit of weight today. Up to 3 lbs 1 oz (1400 g). Over night they had to put his oxygen flow back up to 4 liters per minute. He had a few apnea episodes after decreasing his flow to 3 lpm so he wasn't quite ready for the change. Doctors are still keeping an eye on his red blood cell count. Being so early he doesn 't produce sufficient red blood cells for himself, but he is at the stage where he should start. So he is getting a couple meds to help kick start the process. They are hoping he will start to show increased red blood cell count before they need to do a transfusion. His oxygen and breathing should increase with more red blood cells.

Mary got to do some kangaroo time this afternoon. Jack had a very nice time just relaxing and resting.  He also got a visit from Mary's Aunt Sharon.  Everything else is going well, still making slow and steady progress.

3 Weeks Old

Jack has had a very nice string of good days now. Today he weighed in at 2 lbs 9 oz (1170 g) it was a nice increase from yesterday's weight. He is still breathing on his own, but all his oxygen is coming through a Vapotherm machine that heats and adds a little moisture to his air. He had a couple bradycardia episodes today, but he recovered from them all on his own. The nurses say when he does that there is good chance that he is trying to poop.

When Mary went in for his care time this morning he had wiggled free of all his bedding and was laying all sprawled out in his isolette. He also had a couple times when he tried to pull his feeding tube out. He is continuing to develop his own personality and we love that he is slowly filling out and getting better. Sorry I didn't get any new pictures today, but promise I will take a few tomorrow.

Merry Christmas to all.....

This was obviously Jack's first Christmas. Sadly he didn't get to spend it opening presents or watching them being opened. He did, however, receive many wonderful gifts from friends and family. He will get to see them when he comes home. Jack did well overnight. Well enough that they took him off of the CPAP machine and he is now on high flow oxygen through a nasal canula. The doctors increased his feeding again, now up to 23 ml of fortified milk. It must be paying off because he gained another 10 g overnight (now 2 lbs 7 oz). He still doesn't care much for laying on his back, but he is starting to tolerate it more which is good because we don't want him to have what the nurses call toaster head (a skinny narrow head from only laying on the sides of his head).

Mary got to do about another 30 minutes of kangaroo time before I sang some silly Christmas song, made Mary laugh and startle Jack. So he went back inside his isolette to sleep. Also, this fortified milk is making Jack have big smelly poops. We are happy with, as the doctor put it, slow and steady improvement.

Christmas Eve

Another day and Jack is making slow but steady progress. Yesterday he gained 50 grams, he now weighs 1120 g, 2 lbs 7 oz. He's had a few bradycardia episodes, most of them around his care times. He recovers from a majority of on his own. Again they have increased his feeding amounts. He is up from 19ml to 21ml of the fortified milk. Since he isn't getting IV fluids they also removed Jack's PICC line. He also had his oxygen pressure on his CPAP lowered. They are thinking about moving him over to a nasal canula with low flow oxygen.

He is still feisty as ever and we think he is getting stronger. We also took a trip up to Cousin Penny's house for Christmas Eve dinner. It was delicious! We are staying the night at the trailer, watching classic Christmas movies.

Two Weeks Old

Jack turned 2 weeks old today. Over the last day he lost 10 grams, so he's now at 1020 grams, but they still consider him 2 lbs 4 oz (we like to round up). We had figured he would lose more than that with all the stress and activity he had yesterday. We haven't heard anything back from his EKG, but his heart rate has leveled out to a nice calm number. His oxygen level on the SiPAP is down to 21% we are thrilled about that, also that pressure to keep his lungs inflated has been decreased. He had a very calm day and per his nurse he was behaving all day long.

Again they increased his feeding amount, he's now at 9.5ml and slowly being weened off of his IV nutrients. Soon he could be on purely mommy's milk. He's also digesting everything well, as evident by the 2 diapers he demolished (one right after the other) that Mary got to change...hahahahaha. Hopefully Jack got alot of rest today and he's getting bigger and stronger.

Tonight we are back at the homestead again. Dogs were very happy to see us, but they quickly lost interest.

1000 grams...hooray!!

Well, today Jack is 12 days old. He has gained 20 grams since yesterday. Technically he is still 2 lbs 3oz, since they were rounding up when he was at 980 grams. He did good overnight and stayed stable. The doctor has again increased his feedings to 6ml. Also, good news came back regarding his blood culture. Nothing was found to indicate anything was wrong. He is being given some antibiotics though. The gunk around his eyes and mouth are clearing up and he is looking alot better. At the first care time this morning his heart rate was a little high, thought are that it's possibly because he is too hot. When we came back later his heart rate had gone back down, and it was steady so we were glad to see that.

Around lunchtime Jack got his tiny footprints taken. By accident the nurse used the wrong side of the ink pad, and his feet looked like they were tattooed. That mess got all cleaned up without further incident and we got a nice set of foot prints. The nurse he had today made him a rather fancy name card for his sleep chamber. Jack thinks it's pretty cool, it has robots and his name in big letters on it.

On his last visit the nurse told us that Jack's oxygen levels had been nice and low all afternoon. Right around 21 percent, which is what most people on Earth breath. He also had a nice big poopy diaper that he decided he would save for my turn to change him. I have to say it's very nice to have a couple good days back to back.