Meanwhile, we've had so many different up and downs over the past two days that I don't even know where to start. One question we've gotten a lot is about why we haven't been able to really touch Luke or interact with him. The bleed leaked into the spinal fluid surrounding his brain which caused serious sensitivity throughout his body. Not to mention that when you feel like crap you just don't want people messing with you. I can sympathize with that. The nurses said it's a lot like the preemies they get, they're just super sensitive in general. Light, noise, touch, any of it can agitate them. Being able to touch him a while yesterday afternoon was awesome, but the next visit he was very agitated and wouldn't let us touch at all. We were really discouraged last night because he wasn't tolerating anything. Today we went in and much to our surprise he was doing well enough for me to hold him. AND he took two feedings by mouth today, after having to have an NG tube put in yesterday because every time they tried to feed him he would try to stop breathing. I guess eating and breathing at the same time was too much for the little guy yesterday. Today he gobbled his food in no time.
I have no expectation for what we will find when we go back tonight. None. He may be awesome and let us hold him again, he may be upset, not breathing well, and not even let us whisper around him. Every visit is a whole different world right now. On the bright side, they took away the nasal oxygen tube. They're still having to assist him every now and then when his breathing gets shallow and he gets distressed, but he's done well without it so far today. If he can just start eating consistently and stop the shallow breathing and distress, we could bring him home middle of next week. I'm not harboring any real big hopes for that, he's got a long way to go, but anything is possible. This afternoon is the first time I've really though it might happen sooner rather than later.
Oh, and he's gained a couple of ounces. I know newborns are supposed to lose weight the first few days, but not my little guy. I call him the giant 8lb elephant in the room. His neighbor is 2lbs 3oz. The kid closest to him in size that I've seen so far is about 4lbs. Yesterday a lady was taking one home after 2 months that was less than 4lbs still. Seriously. I have a giant among tiny babies in the NICU. The nurse today said they were going to have to hunt him up some big boy diapers because he was quickly outgrowing the newborns one they had! Can't imagine they keep very many size 1's in stock!
No comments:
Post a Comment