Lauren had a good sponge bath tonight and was nice and shiny when we got to the unit. Her official weigh-in tonight was 579 grams, or 1 lb, 4.4 oz, a slight drop from yesterday. Her new IV site is working fine and there is less chance of infection due to its location on the right side of her neck. Lauren's gut has been working well and they have increased her breast milk feedings from 1cc to 2cc's (5cc's = 1 teaspoon) every 3 hours!!! Her IV feedings continue as well. Her ileostomy site is looking good and the baggie over it is holding up well, with no leaks. The episodes of apnea & bradycardia continue, however, but as the nurses say: "It's par for the course" and not uncommon in this size babies. Lauren is starting to open her eyes more and looks around quite a bit. She does not seem to focus on any one thing in particular, though. Daddy found out tonight that Lauren is ticklish on the soles of her feet!!!
10/13/01 NOON:
Lauren continued to have apneic periods through the night, so they reintubated her and put her back on the ventilator this morning. The neonatologist felt she was working too hard to breathe and wants her to rest for a while. Her vent settings are very low and she is on 21% oxygen. She is still breathing over (more times than) the vent and she is still awake and alert. She will probably gain weight quicker now that she is not using up so much energy to breathe. Her feedings are going well, she is tolerating the increased amounts without any problems. Grandma Ann (Grannie Annie) and Aunt Kathy flew in from New Jersey today and will be coming to meet Lauren later this evening. Grandma Nidia donated blood for Lauren this week. Thanks Grandma!!! Aunt Kathy says she is going to donate on Monday, but she is nervous about it - she has never given blood before. Daddy is going to go with her and is going to bring his camera...
10/13/01 10:30 PM:
Baby Lauren is resting peacefully on the vent tonight. Her ventilator settings were lowered even more. Her tube feedings were increased from 2 cc's to 3 cc's every three hours. She seems to be doing well. Grannie Annie and Aunt Kathy went to the unit tonight to visit, and both of them said she is bigger than they expected. They both also said they think she is very pretty. She had not been weighed yet tonight, but her face seems to be filling out a little more. Daddy got to hold the syringe when she got her dose of Mommy's milk tonight. Cheers!!!
10/14/01 11:00 AM:
Lauren weighed in at 1 lb, 6.6 oz last night, a nice increase. Her vent settings were increased a little bit due to some bradycardic episodes. She has been handling her increased feedings somewhat well, except for the fact that she has had some residual feed left in the stomach at the end of three hours. Right now it's nothing to worry about but they are keeping a close eye on it. If her residual volumes get worse they might have to decrease the amount of feeds or make her "NPO" or nothing via the stomach. She is still having sporadic apneic episodes, but they usually resolve by themselves. The neonatologist is going to start her on Reglan, a medicine that stimulates the gastrointestinal tract to move. Eat up, Baby Lauren!!!.
10/14/01 6:00 PM:
Baby Lauren had a lot of residual volumes left in her stomach after her last feed, so they are decreasing the volume of Mommy's milk that she gets. She is also getting another dose of Reglan. If her gut doesn't respond, they will have to stop the feedings altogether. The neonatologist ordered blood cultures on her today, lab tests that tell whether she has an infection or not. This morning's lab tests showed an increased level of white blood cells, and an infection would cause that. Let's hope she remains stable and doesn't have any more setbacks. Setbacks, however, are not uncommon at this stage.
10/15/01 12:30 AM:
Daddy is back to work now and checked in on Baby Lauren by phone. Her weight is now up to 1 lb, 7.8 oz. She has not had any bradycardic/apneis episodes tonight. She is having very high residual volumes with each feeding, so they are trying feedings with different bottles of Mommy's milk. Yesterday morning her belly was a little distended so they did an X-ray of her abdomen. It showed a lot of air in her intestine, so let's hope it comes out soon...