Today I got to hold my warm, wiggly, squirmy little boy for the very first time!! It is so surreal. I can't even put the emotions into words at all. Even better, we cuddled up in the recliner and took a nap. :) Even Cam napped in the rocker while Sammy and I slept. :)
The best part is that our amazing nurse took our first family photo. :)
It was a little nerve wracking to get him to this point, but my heart was going a mile a minute because of how excited I was. We had to wait for his respiratory therapist to come before he could be moved, so I made sure I went to the bathroom at least 3 times so I could lay still with him for the at least hour of holding time.
His sats really dropped on his move over, but once he got comfortable, he was quite content. A little wiggling at the beginning and he settled right in. Then we had to take his temp to see how he was tolerating it and we got a little more wiggly. But we really liked laying on our belly for the first time! :) His sats didn't drop as low on the move back over to the isolette, so that was good.
We are told that they will encourage kangaroo care as often as Sammy will tolerate it. Cam has said he'll let me be the one to hold him each opportunity until Sammy's a bit bigger...I'm not sure that that will continue to be true. Cam also told me he wouldn't change Sammy's diaper until he was a bit bigger and he changed it today. ;) ;) They told us that once he tolerates being out with me well enough, he can come out twice a day, so Cam will have the chance. Of course they do encourage me holding him more so right now because it should help comfort him since I had him in my belly and because it may help my milk supply issues (HA! I actually had less after holding him!).
After his kangaroo care session, he had to have a blood culture and urine sample taken as well as his blood gas and all kinds of fun. Blood culture is because his CBC (complete blood count) this morning showed elevated white blood cell count. This, as most know, is a possible sign of infection. However, the senior resident managing his care came and told us that she and Dr. Saresh are about 99% sure that the increase in his white blood cells is because of the administration of his steroids, so they aren't terribly worried, but the blood culture will tell them for sure. It takes 48 hours for the blood culture! Momma is going to be nervous until it's back!
On top of that, his blood pressure was dropping and staying just below what his absolute bottom line should be, so they started to get a bit concerned. The NP came to talk to us and tell us that it could be any number of factors including if he does have infection. It could also because they dropped his fluids and the amount he's urinating is dropping off so maybe they dropped his fluids too much. It could also be because he has a PDA (hole in his heart that usually closes in babies within a few days of being born...not in Sammy's case). It could also be because he needs a little bit higher dosage of the steroids. Needless to say, it will be a wait and see to see if he needs to go back on dopamine for his blood pressure control. I did call a couple of hours later and find out that it had gone back up and was holding at that higher rate. So hopefully we will stay that way through the night!
Additionally, his blood gas was REALLY bad in the CO2 department. The respiratory therapist (RT) thought it was because he didn't have a good "wiggle" after he got moved back into his isolette. Sammy really doesn't like being on his right side and they had put him back on his right, so they moved him to his left and redrew his blood gas. That one came back just a bit lower, but still high. UGH! I really wanted to stay until we knew for sure, but we came back, got dinner, and relaxed at the hotel. I called his nurse and she told me that they had just redrawn his blood gas so they didn't have it back yet. Honestly, as much as I worry about his lungs, his blood gas and them playing with the settings on his respirator aren't as scary to me as the risk of infection or the blood pressure problems we're facing right now. :-S He's been very finicky with his respirator, so I usually assume that we'll have good days with it and bad. He actually has been WAY down on his O2 (50% or less) most of the day, so that's good. The goal in morning rounds was going to be to bring down his PIP since they weren't as successful at bringing down his rate yesterday. So it may be that he's just not tolerating these changes well yet. And the scary part of that is if they can't wean him down on one or the other, we still face the issues of his hyper expansion and his PIE not getting better. They are down to X-rays for all that stuff once a day now instead of twice though since they aren't seeing much change. I'm suspecting we will find out tomorrow that they are going to bring his steroids back up tomorrow to try to resolve ALL of these issues, but we'll see.
The GREAT news this morning was his 1 week head ultrasound showed NO brain bleeds! YAY!! Not even a grade 1! That's so amazing! They did say it showed an "artifact" which they will rescan for in a few weeks. I guess an artifact is just something they think messed up with the image, but they recheck after awhile to make sure that's the case. Okay, whatever, it's nothing to worry about according to his docs.
Other good news is that he' still getting milk. We're on a five day test of it. So he gets that with his TPN which now includes lipids. Now if only I could get my milk production up! But that's for a separate post...I definitely have some follow up for that!
Anyways...I'm off to pump and do my 4 hour sleep stretch before pumping again...I am sure I will post more again in the middle of the night if I can't get to sleep...and can I just say...a nice hot shower is the BEST feeling in the world.........
Yay!!! I am so glad you got to hold Sammy. what a blessing, he looks nice and comfy :) And wonderful news on his head ultrasound too!!
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