Just a Little Tired

The weight that Jack gained the day before has gone back down. He is still considered 2 lbs 6 oz, but went from 1090 g down to 1070 g. The doctor upped his feeding from 15 ml to 19 ml of Mary's fortified milk (fortified with a few extra calories to help with weight). Jack continues to be more and more of a wiggle worm during his care times. He really does not like his diaper to be changed. He kicks and swings his arms, but we always seem to prevail. We had a talk with the doctor after his head ultrasound today. He said that some of the blood near his brain (IHV) had drained and that his head circumference has stayed good. We breathed a sigh of relief with that, but they still needed to keep an eye on it week to week.

Mary tried to do some kangaroo time again today. After about 10 minutes of fussing and a few bradycardia episodes we had to put him back in his isolette. We think that Jack might be tired from all the activity he had the day before. With being switch over from SiPAP to CPAP and his lengthy kangaroo time it was a bit much. After that care time Jack had a very good day, without any episodes. Hope he keeps up the good work.

Not too many pics today. We tried to keep his isolette lid down for the most part to keep him warm and resting.

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.