Friday, January 15

It's been a couple of days since we posted, and there have been a few changes. There are always changes in the NICU. It's like what they say about Texas weather. If you just wait a few minutes, it will change. We'd like to give a shout out to the NICU nurses who have been reading the blog. Thank you for keeping up with us and thank you for the awesome job you do in taking care of our babies. Please excuse any medical terms that we misspell :)

Let's start with Adelaide. The staff decided to keep her on the SIPAP machine, but only use the mask to give her oxygen. The pronged mask that went into her nostrils was irritating and causing bleeding. She's still on the normal mask. They decided to give her 48 hours on the regular mask to help her sinuses open up and for her nose to heal. She's doing very well. She's on minimal oxygen. She's lost a little weight, but is still over 2lbs. at 2lbs. 2oz. Tara had another kangaroo care with her yesterday. Adelaide was a little more vocal. Tara could hear her cry pretty loudly when the nurse put her on her chest. Adelaide did settle in and snuggled with her mom for an hour.

Mattie has had the most changes over the last few days. The doctor wants to ween her off ventilation by the end of the week, so they took her off the conventional ventilator yesterday and put her on the SIPAP machine with a mask. She did generally OK for the day. She had moments of needing more oxygen throughout the day. The staff decided to change her mask to the pronged mask that goes into her nostrils, and that didn't go very well. Mattie started to brady (heart rate drop) and her blood oxygen dropped. They quickly increased her oxygen intake to 100%, and she stayed that way for about a half hour until they decided that she wasn't ready for the SIPAP, re-intibated, and put her back on the conventional. We know that you might be wondering why they would do the pronged mask, if both Adelaide and Mattie have had trouble. The staff needs to change out their masks every four hours because of the wear and tear each mask can do on their noses. Having the same mask on for long periods of time could damage the cartilage in their nose, so they try to give them breaks. Since being on the conventional last night, Mattie's oxygen intake has been moved down to around 30%, which is great. Mattie is up to 15ml of food with extra fortifier. She now weighs 1lb. 14oz.

Andrew has been doing pretty well, and we've had an answer to prayer with him. We were really struggling on making a decision to allow a course of steroid treatments. The doctor told Tara yesterday that he's been staying at around 50% oxygen, which she can live with for now. She would like to give him the next 10 days to see how he does before making a decision on steroids. So, we need to still pray that his lungs would be clear and functioning properly. Andrew did have an episode Wednesday night while most of us were sleeping. He had a bad case of acid reflux and it came into his mouth and clogged his breathing tube. The nurse quickly removed the tubes, but had trouble suctioning it out of the back of his throat. They were finally able to remove it all and re-intibated him. He seems to be holding steady. He's now up to 19ml without fortifier, but weighs 2lb. 6oz. Can you say starting linebacker? Last night, Andrew got down to around 45% oxygen.

UPDATE: As I was typing this the doctor from the NICU called. They would like to try and give Andrew a small burst of steroid treatments instead of a longer treatment. They will be three doses of steroids to help his lungs. She also said that Mattie's lungs "look great". Awesome!

Praise
Adelaide's cry getting stronger.
Mattie's attempt at the SIPAP.
Mattie's response to going back on the conventional.
Andrew's holding steady on his settings.
Andrew's lungs holding steady.
Andrew coming back up quicker when his blood oxygen drops.
Andrew's need for less oxygen.
Friends bringing us meals to the hospital.
Care packages left on our door step.
Friends coming to the hospital to help us figure out insurance plans and lend support.

Prayer
Andrew's lungs would be clear, and he would respond well to the ventilator.
The small burst of steroids would improve his lungs dramatically and would do no long term damage.
The pronged mask wouldn't irritate Adelaide's nose.
Mattie would respond well to the SIPAP during the next try.
For the people of Haiti. We have a nurse in the NICU from Haiti, and we'd like everyone to pray for her friends and family.