Wednesday, January 6

The babies had an eventful day on Wednesday. The day started off relatively normal. The babies were all comfortable, and Andrew and Mattie would drop their levels on occasion. This is becoming a normal occurrence. Kevin came to the NICU to pick Tara up for an appointment, and the nurse greeted him at the door to ask him to stay outside. Tara was eating lunch in the cafeteria, and Mattie had pulled out her breathing tube. They were trying to re-intubate her. The staff assured us that this is normal for babies and it won't be the first time one of them pulls their air tube out. Mattie is fine, and they were getting her back to stable last night.

We have another poop story, so fair warning to those who don't like bathroom humor. Kevin got to change Adelaide's diaper at her 4:00 touch time. Adelaide had only wet her diaper, so Kevin was thrilled to not have to deal with meconium. The nurse told Kevin that Adelaide and Mattie had big poopy diapers earlier in the day, so nothing was expected. As Kevin wiped Adelaide down, she began to poop all over the clean diaper he had given her. The nurse began to laugh, and Tara was standing behind Kevin laughing as well. With the nurse's help Kevin cleaned up the meconium and put a fresh diaper under Adelaide. She went again! Sticky black tar all of the place. By now, the whole NICU heard us laughing and were asking what was going on.

During the 8:00 touch time, Adelaide's nurse noticed that half of her chest was puffy. Tara had been helping with Adelaide's care, and the nurse pointed out the puffy side of her chest. Adelaide has an iv line that goes up her arm and into her chest for feeding. The line had apparently moved and caused the iv to be leaking into her chest cavity. They removed the line and inserted a new one into her wrist. The fluid in her chest will be absorbed in her body, and she's not in any danger.

Andrew had a pretty decent day. He was resting most of the day, but still gets in a tizzy when the nurses touch him during their care times. He got very upset during the 8:00 touch time when Kevin changed his diaper. The nurse had to bump up his oxygen and wait several minutes for him to calm down after she turned him to a new side. Even though Andrew throws his fits, several of the nurses have taken a liking to him since he's so cute. UPDATE - As I was typing this, Tara called the NICU for an update. Andrew's labs came back awful, and his x-ray shows that his left lung is in bad shape. The doctor is going to purposely deflate his lung and start over. He's on full oxygen and will be getting blood gases every hour to check his levels. Here's another step back.

Praise
Adelaide increased to 19ml of milk every 4 hours.
Poopy diapers for all the babies.
Mattie looking bigger and beginning to fill out.
The awesome staff at the NICU.

Prayer
Andrew's procedure to collapse his lung would go well.
Andrew would have improved lungs and lab work.
Andrew would sustain the improvements.
Adelaide's puffy chest would go down, and her body would absorb the fluid.
Mattie would not pull out her air hose and that she would be calm.