As You Saw on the main page, the boys are here! They were born Wed June 16, which was a gestational age of 33 weeks and 4 days. Aaron Edwin Druley was born at 12:10 PM and weighed 4 lbs and 4.5 ozs. Mitchell Timm Druley was born at 12:11 PM and weighed 3 lbs and 7 ozs. Jake Emil Druley was born at 12:12 PM and weighed 4 lbs and 3 ozs. All three were braught to the special care nursery at Abbot and were placed in their own isolettes. All were doing very well. Aaron and Jake did required just a little extra oxygen. By later in the evening, Jake was having a little trouble with his breathing due to his slightly immiture lungs, so they decided to transfer him to the NICU at Childrens Hospital. They put him on a CPAP(?) machine. It just forces a little extra air in through his nose to keep his lungs a little more inflated. That is what the tubes are coming over his head in the picture. He is now holding his own and they are going to leave him on the machine for a couple days and hopefully his respitory rate will come down a little. Aaron is still getting a little extra oxygen but other wise is doing well. Mitchell is the nurses' "little over-acheiver". He is doing excellent and was able to come out of his isolette so dad could hold him by the evening after the delivery. They all have a lot of monitoring equipement hooked up to them, which is what all the
tubes and wires are in the pictures. Mom is also doing well. She was up for the first time after the c-section today and got to go visit the boys. She will be discharged on sunday. That is all for now. Keep checking for more pictures and updates once Chrissy gets home.
Here are the latest updates:
CHRISSY was discharged from the hospital this morning so we will now have to commute to visit the boys.
AARON is now off of oxygen. His respiritory rate has come down and he is doing great. His bilirueben (sp?) level, which causes jaundice when too high, is hovering around the amount where he would need some phototherapy under the uv lights. They believe he may have peaked and may start coming down now, so they are going to wait and see if he will even need the lights. He has begun his feedings through a feeding tube that runs in his nose to his belly.
MITCHELL is still doing wonderful. He did go above the acceptable bilirueben level and had to go under the UV lights. He started that saturday at noon and will probably be done some time in the next day or so. He has also begun feedings through a feeding tube.
JAKE is still having some trouble breathing. The Neonatologist noticed on his chest x-rays that he is accumulating more fluid in his lungs and his heart is slightly enlarged. He had an echo cardiogram done on jake and they determined that a vessel that runs around the heart that is supposed to close off and turn into a ligament hasn't This allows blood to go from one side of the heart to the other without going through the body. For you medical people, it is a PDA or something like that. This causes the heart to be overworked which is why it is enlarged. It also can cause the lungs to retain fluid. They are going to start him on a medication this morning which they will give for 36 hours. The medication is about 60% effective on getting the vessel to close. If it doesn't close by later in the week they will then consider surgery to go in and tie it closed. Until they get him fixed up and on the road to recovery, he will keep getting his nutrition through IV's rather than feedings into his stomach. We were able to hold him a couple times yesterday and like the other boys, he really seemed to enjoy that. They have reduced him to 3 hours on the CPAP maching and 1 hour off, so at least one of the holdings he could snuggle his face against mom. He will also be going under the UV lights today too.
AARON will hopefully not even have to go under the UV lights. His bilirueben level has started to drop slowly. He put on his first outfit today after his bath. He is getting feedings of milk and formula through his feeding tube which runs through his nose and into his stomach. The doctor is hoping to be able to remove his IV's within a few days.
MITCHELL put on his first outfit today also. He was taken off of the UV lights today, which he should be done with now. He is also getting feedings off milk and formula through his feeding tube amd the doctor also hopes to have his IV's out within a few days.
JAKE is also doing well. They took him completely off of the CPAP machine today and he is also off of the oxygen and just breathing on his own. His latest x-ray showed that the fluid in his lungs has decreased and his heart is starting to go down in size. It appears the medication is working. He does still have a murmur though, so the vessel has not completely closed. They will have to wait a little bit to start feedings since he was on the medication for his heart, so for now he will keep getting nutrients through the IV's. He did have to start UV light treatment today. The doctor is hoping he will be able to join his brothers in the special care nursery in a few days.