Friday, November 30, 2012

Update on Jude

I figured I should probably do an update on Jude for everyone.

Sunday, November 25, 2012
After Jude was born, he was intubated to help him breathe.  They thought that he would quickly transition to the regular nursery, but he needed a bit more help so they kept him in the NICU.



Monday, November 26, 2012
I wasn't allowed to go to the NICU until I had my pain pump, catheter, and IVs removed so it was the afternoon before I even saw him for the second time.  He did really well, they took out the tube Monday morning and had him on a low flow of oxygen through a nasal canula.  They hadn't tried to feed him anything, intending to start on Tuesday.

                    

Tuesday, November 27, 2012
We got to hold our sweet boy this day!  It's so hard to get to look at your baby and want to squeeze and snuggle on them but not get to because they are hooked up to a lot of cords!  He has a catheter threaded into his umbilical cord instead of an IV, this is also where they get blood for his labs so that they don't have to routinely stick him. They swaddled him up for us and actually let me try to nurse.  He wasn't interested in feeding at all even from a bottle, he just wanted to snuggle.  They took him off of oxygen altogether and gave him a few bottles in the afternoon that he took after a lot of struggle form the nurses.  Later in the evening, I got a call from the nurse that he had an apnea spell where he basically forgot/stopped breathing.  These aren't considered a huge deal because sometimes babies are just tired from the events of the day (like eating for the first time, or a really big poop), but it is a setback in bringing him home.  The nurse said that they got his sats up fine and weren't worried about him.





















Wednesday, November 28, 2012
This was not my favorite day.  I went to visit in the NICU around 5am and was told that Jude had been doing really well.  They had him on the lowest percentage of oxygen and were pleased with all of his labs and everything.  Then, when we went back in the early afternoon, we found out that he had had three more apnea spells in the morning and was on higher oxygen and they were going to be feeding him through a feeding tube while on the oxygen.  This really sucked, I already knew that I would be discharged from the hospital without being able to bring Jude home.  But the rule for apneas is that they have to go five full days without one before they can go home.  Not good.  Everyone reassured us that he was fine, it was just taking him a while to get the hang of things.  Breathing is hard work, especially when your lungs aren't cooked all the way through.



Thursday, November 29, 2012
Jude had a really great day!  The doctor was pleased with his labs and his oxygen saturations and wanted to get him off of the umbilical catheter so that we could love on him some more.  They also scheduled an appointment with the speech pathologist to recommend a good nipple for his mouth and to make sure he didn't have any issues that would impede his feedings.  They started an IV and removed the catheter because he tolerated the IV well.  They also gave him two bottles in the afternoon that he scarfed down!  At his 8pm feeding, Ryan was able to hold him and give him his bottle.  He didn't drink very well because he was so tired and they wound up giving it to him through the tube later, but this is normal since he had a huge day!



Friday, November 30, 2012
We are getting ready to go see our little lamb.  I'm going to attempt to nurse him again.  The doctors haven't rounded yet, but Jude had a great night and has taken his bottles really quickly (it's important that preemies eat in a small window of time because otherwise they burn more calories than they take in).  They are going to work on getting him onto a low-flow nasal canula today and off of the 2 liter oxygen tank!


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