Thursday, March 15, 2012

Let the "real" parenting begin

The CCU is proving to be a true test run for life at home. Instead of kissing the forehead of a sedated baby and then going to the hotel to sleep through the night, we get to be real parents now! Its wonderful and awful at the same time! I love that he is more awake and alert because he is coming off of his morphine. However, he is also very fussy and sometimes inconsolable because he is coming off the morphine. He had a busy day today and yesterday with many people stopping by to check on him. Jensen just doesn't want to be messed with right now but his room is like a revolving door of lactation consultants, speech therapists, nutritionists, nurses, discharge planners, social workers, fellows, residents, attendings, physical therapists.... that poor boy.

Jeremy and I are also having a hard time differentiating what is "normal" baby stuff and what is heart baby stuff. We hear him make noises, but does that mean he is simply waking up, or is he gasping because his respiratory rate just dipped? He also spit up for the first time today. Does that mean he isn't tolerating his feeds because his stomach pH is too low, is he suffering withdraw symptoms, or is he spitting up because he is a 3 week old baby and that's what babies do? (Seriously, can I get a call button for a nurse installed at my house?!) Our attending for tonight wasn't too concerned, but is going to see if a pattern develops with the spitting up before they make any changes.

An ENT came by today to look at Jensen's vocal cords. One side of his vocal cords is not moving, which is not surprising given the intubation time. He basically said its something we will just have to watch. It will probably resolve itself, but we have no idea about a timeline and how well he will recover from the damage. His cry is still getting louder everyday, but just from the side that is moving. He will have the swallow study tomorrow, everyone say a prayer he does well. Feeding is now his biggest challenge. (Oh, guess who is down to 0.5L 02!? That's right, we're not so worried about his oxygen situation anymore!)

Here's Jensen doing physical therapy today! Although it looks like I am choking him, he was sitting up working on head control! He did so well!
And Jeremy was excited to find a candy store across the street from the hospital! He stocked up so he would have enough of a sugar rush to make it through the night with a fussy baby!
Hehe! I love his adorable face! He's still working on moving his eyes...sometimes they just go in whatever direction they please ;)

1 comment:

  1. that's great that he is only on half a liter of oxygen. that was my main concern with gabe in the step down unit. it seemed like he was never going to come off of oxygen lol. i felt like he would be on it forever. i remember they put him on .1 liter of oxygen before he was ready to be that low and his sats dipped into the low 70s when they should be between 98-100 lol. i was like ummmm put that baby on more oxygen please and thank you! as far as spitting up, i would try not to worry too much about that. gabe used to (and still does) spit up a TONNNNN!! like, full on projectile vomiting. if it was a one time good deal spitting up i wouldn't worry at all. babies love to spit up, especially at such a young age. anyway, it sounds like jensen is making great progress. hopefully his vocal cords recover soon too =). he is definitely a champ!

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