The Story of Nicholas' Early Arrival: Yummy Milk

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Yummy Milk

Getting smaller.

Snoozing to Baby Einstein.

Nicholas had a good day today. He has been on a continuous drip of half a cc of milk an hour since yesterday afternoon and has been digesting it. His night nurse told me early this morning he had a small residual but his day nurse said she didn't find any when she did his assessments during the day. Woo hoo! This is great news. Hopefully he will continue to digest it and increase the amount he can tolerate. And that also means the surgery was a success.

He also had good urine output. He was taken off of Dopamine last night and his output slowed down so they put him back on it at a level of 5. This is what they call the renal dose and it helps the kidneys. He is still on a dose of Laxis every 8 hours. His output for the last 24 hours was 5.6 cc per kg per hour. He still has some edema, swelling, but if he keeps peeing at this rate it should be gone soon and he looks so much better. It is hard to remember how small he really is since he has been swollen for 3 weeks. He will be a little guy again soon.

He is still on the oscillator but the settings and his oxygen level are good. They want to keep him on it until the edema is gone. They think it will be easier for him to adjust to the regular ventilator without having the extra fluid. He was switched back to the vent the day before we had our big scare so I have no problem waiting.

Everyone cross your fingers that he continues down this path and doesn't scare us again.

1 comment:

Tony and LisaJanuary 8, 2009 at 12:42 AM
Thanks so much for sharing this blog! I am a first time blogger (but many time Uncle), and think this is such a cool thing!
Nicholas has been, and will continue to be in our thoughts and prayers. Keep up the good news!!!

Uncle T
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Preemie Experience

The Preemie Experience
The preemie experience is the shattering of all your dreams
For a normal, healthy delivery,
Of the ability to carry home a beautiful squirming bundle
After a short stay in the hospital.
It is lying there in your hospital room listening to
The happy sounds of whole families joined
Together by the birth of a grandchild, cousin, niece,
or nephew, and knowing that your
Child is miles away and may not survive long enough
For you to see or simply touch.
It is that first glimpse of a skinny, scrawny, not much bigger
Than a Barbie doll child
And feeling, fear, awe, and joy for such a fragile soul.
It is sitting by your baby’s “bedside” day after day,
Week after week, month after month,
Alternating between the emotional high of “Look, his eyes are open,” or “he’s crying!”
And the lows of “I’m sorry, something has shown up in the ultrasound,”
Or even “There is nothing we can do…”
It is hearing the alarms go off for the twentieth time in less
Than fifteen minutes because your
Child’s heart rate keeps hitting zero.
It is watching children dying around you, wondering if
Your child will be next.
It is hearing your child’s cry of distress as the nurses
Insert yet another IV and do another
Round of daily blood tests.
It is meeting other parents of children who are doing far better
And wondering, “Why me?”
And meeting parents of children who have just died,
And praising God for His mercy
To your child and feeling guilty because your child is alive
And someone else is grieving for theirs.
It is days of nightmarish testing and coping with less
Than positive results to the tests.
It is days of joy at seeing the first eyelash appear,
The child gain a whole ounce in one day,
And two bright shiny eyes look at you and into your soul,
And knowing that your child now recognizes you as Mama or Dada;
Or perhaps looks at you and does not see you at all…
It is that final hurdle before coming home!
It is the sorrow of waiting for the monitor company Representative to show you what to do
If the alarm sounds when your child is choking,
Gasping for breath, or simply dying.
It is the joy of just being away from all those nurses
And tubes and wires and beeps, and
Walking into the nursery you hastily prepared because,
after all,
The child wasn’t due for another four months!
It is thinking the nightmare is over…only to realize it still Continues in the form of
Such acronyms as PVL, RSV, BPD, CP and numerous others.
It is the final realization that those developmental delays
Have to be dealt with,
That reflux is a normal and unfortunate
occurrence in most preemies,
That the constant fight to gain weight is in direct proportion
To a preemie’s ability to do so.
It is watching a child struggle to pick up his or her head, sit, Crawl, or walk.
It is witnessing only silence when the child should be babbling,
Because the child cannot hear.
It is the mental images of a child running and playing
And communicating with others in a
Perfectly normal manner that are marred when you face years of therapy
In order to simply get the child to eat by himself or herself,
To talk or walk and then run.

The preemie experience is a journey…A journey through your soul in order to find the faith and strength to cope,
A journey of the mind when you face the emotional weariness,
A journey of the heart…to accept that, no matter what,

This child is yours,
And you will love this child no matter what.

The Story of Nicholas' Early Arrival

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Yummy Milk

1 comment:

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