Lauren's feedings were increased to 11 cc's every three hours overnight. Her vent settings remain low. Adcording to the nurse, she had a good night and a good morning. They are increasing her feedings again to 12 cc's every three hours, and her IV fluids are set to a very low rate. LAuren is making Mommy and Daddy very proud.
10/25/01 10:00PM:
Mommy and Grandpa Gilberto went to see Lauren tonight. Grandpa Gilberto got to see Lauren get a bath, get her diaper changed, get her stoma dressing changed, and get weighed. He stated that she definitely looked much bigger than the last time he saw her. Her weight tonight was up to 1 lb, 12 oz. Her feedings have been increased again to 13 cc's every three hours, and her intravenous fluids have been stopped. She is now relying on her milk feedings for her total nutritional and fluid intake. Way to go, Baby!!!
10/26/01 9:30PM:
Lauren got moved out of the isolation room, but she is still under contact isolation (can't touch her without gloves and gown) because she still has a couple of days of antibiotic therapy left. She is now being fed 14 cc's every three hours and she is tolerating the feeds very well with very little residual volumes. Big brother Preston got to see her from about four feet away (through the window) and kept throwing kisses at her and waving to her. He just can't understand why he is not allowed to touch and kiss his baby sister, but he does know that he will be able to when she gets a little bit bigger. Tonight she weighed 1 lb, 11.8 oz. Her ventilator settings were lowered again to minimal support, and she is tolerating that without any bradycardia or oxygen desaturation episodes. If she keeps this up they might just extubate her again. The nurse told us that they are running low on the frozen breast milk supply, so we will have to make a milk run tomorrow morning. Good thing - we are running out of space in our freezer at home.
10/27/01 11:30AM:
When Mommy got to the unit today she had a nice surprise: Lauren got extubated this morning and they put her on a nasal cannula for oxygen. She did fine for about an hour, then started to have apnea and bradycardia episodes, so they put her on nasal CPAP prongs. She also had some stridor, which is a high-pitched sound made by the upper airway that indicates some swelling, probably due to irritation from removal of the tracheal tube that she had in there for the last two weeks. They gave her a couple of breathing treatments and that took care of it. She was still having some mild A's & B's even on the nasal CPAP prongs, so they are going to draw blood to check for the theophylline level - a low level can cause apnea episodes that lead to bradycardia episodes. The feedings are still at 14 cc's, and she is tolerating them even off the ventilator.
10/27/01 8:00PM:
Lauren is still having apnea and bradycardia episodes, and is having some retractions with her breathing. They have increased her feedings to 15 cc's every three hours and she is tolerating them with small residual volumes. She is sleeping peacefully after her bath tonight.
10/28/01 10:30AM:
Lauren had to be reintubated during the night. Her periods of apnea and bradycardia did not subside, and the nurse said that she was back to normal after the reintubation and going back on the vent. Her ventilator settings are very low, and so is her oxygen setting. It seems that the small amount of pressure the vent is giving her is just enough to make a big difference. Her weight last night was 1 lb, 11 oz. All that work she did breathing off the vent burned up a lot of calories.
10/28/01 9:00PM:
Lauren is doing fine on the vent. They are adding small amounts of MCT's (Medium Chain Triglycerides, a fatty liquid) to her feedings, as well as multivitamins. This will increase her caloric intake to speed up her weight gain. The bigger she is the easier it will be for her to stay off the vent. Mommy got to bathe her and change her tonight. She's getting good at all this... The nurse said Mommy would make a good NICU nurse.