Our Story
 

Day 2 -- 07/21/04

I got up at 6 a.m. to pump, and called the NICU to check on Joshua.  The nurse said that she suctioned him (helped clear out his lungs) and turned him over, and that there was a little bit of blood in his ET (endotracheal) tube.  As a result, they went back up a little on his pressure and oxygen.  They say that many preemies go through what's called a "honeymoon phase" because the babies do really well with very few setbacks, then fall into a pattern of ups and downs that are more "normal."  Most likely, Joshua is coming off his "honeymoon" and will settle into a more realistic pattern of improvements/setbacks.  He had a chest X-ray that wasn't great, but that's typical of a baby in his situation.  They did a hematocrit (which measures the percentage of red blood cells in his blood) and it's down from 36 yesterday to 28 today.  Most likely, they will transfuse him today to bring those numbers back up (when I first heard about transfusions, I was really scared, but they only use blood from a special group of donors who have gone through a very stringent screening process...we thought that possibly we, or our friends and family could donate directly, but the nurse actually told Chris and I that we probably wouldn't even pass their screening test).  His vitals stayed stable overnight, and his weight looked really good -- up to 2 pounds, 9 ounces (he'll probably lose down to below his birth weight, then come back up, but that's normal of any baby, whether term or preemie).

This afternoon, his vitals looked good.  They transfused him earlier in the day (he now has an IV in his head because he managed to pull the one in his hand out while they were transfusing him...definitely his Daddy's boy!).  Seeing the IV in his head is a little unnerving, but the nurse said that it's actually much easier to find a vein and put an IV in his head, and as a result, it's less painful for him.  His pressure is at 40, and oxygen at 35 (meaning that the ventilator is helping him with 40 breaths per minute and he's doing the rest on his own, and the air he is breathing is 35% oxygen...what we breathe is about 21%).  I got to change his diaper and take his temperature, which was SO scary, but so wonderful.  He's just so tiny and feels so fragile!  The little diaper is no bigger than my hand, and it's still big on him!

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