Tuesday, June 24, 2008

How's the Boy?

It seems that they are trying to move Our Little Man right along. They switched him to a "lo-flo" canula on Saturday. I was there when they did it, but they just said "we're switching out his canula." I thought they were putting in a new one because the old one was gunked up. They had also changed to "bolus feedings," the all-at-one-time kind. The result of this was that he was spelling a little more and his belly was distended again. They switched him back to continuous feeds, and his belly has gone down a bit, but they are keeping him on the lo-flo for now because the hi-flo will fill him up with more air. This might be why he is desatt-ing more often, meaning the oxygen saturation in his blood is dropping below their limit more often. His levels on the monitor are set between 85% and 94%, and alarms go off whenever he is too high or too low. They go off a lot.

The whole place is alight and abuzz with alarms. Finn is one of six babies in his room, and there are rooms on either side of him with as many babies in each. You can tune out a lot of it, but it's still there.

The doctors are still pleased with him and his progress, though. He's up to 1225 grams, or 2.7 pounds, and he looks good to us. Last night, when we came in for our evening visit/cuddle, he was wide awake and squirming. We got him out for some daddy time, but he would not stop fussing. He wanted to move his head from one side to the other, and only really settled for a few minutes at a time. His heartrate was going up to 201 (his monitor levels are between 90 and 210 bpm), and he just seemed uncomfortable, which was making me worry, which was, in turn, making Pete nervous. We decided to put him back into his third womb and check his diaper.

Sure enough, it was wet. He really hates having a wet diaper, something which I think is just fine. Once we changed it, he settled down. Then the nurse moved him onto his belly, which he normally likes, and he eventually got fussy again. We asked the nurse to check his diaper again as we left at 10. It was not a very satisfying cuddle for either Pete or Finn, so we'll try again tonight.

On the bright side, Papa got to come and visit after his work at the LPGA tournament, and he saw first hand how much his grandson has changed in the last few weeks. (I'll have to ask Dad if that is how he spells it. That's how I see it in my head, but it might be "Poppa.") Grandma is coming this afternoon or evening. She's working the tournament, too, but she likes to point out that Dad is working more in one day than she works the entire time.

2 comments:

susan smith said...

This is wonderful--and you know your boy and his habits so you caught the diaper issue! By child development theorists this is called "signal reading" between parent and child, very important to positive development. Keep it up, never doubt yourselves when you think Finn needs something! You KNOW him--he is yours! Grammasue

Unknown said...

Amanda Cobb- From Ma.. Proud Mommy to former 30 weeker CJ--Now 6 months 16 pounds!!
Gramma sue has updated me on Finn.. I think about Finn and your family daily and always have you all in my thoughts and prayers... While reading your blogs It brings back so many memories of our time in the NICU. This blog especially with all the stats... That was the hardest for me and my husband while visiting CJ.. everytime that thing dinged you wanted to jump out of your chair and see what was wrong.. In time you do get use to the sounds and realize sometimes it goes off for no reason. When we took CJ home it was hard to get use to not depending on the monitors to know if he was ok..

When reading your blogs I know exactly what you are talking about.. and it puts me right there with you!!! I know you are very busy but if you need to chat or want to chat here is my email.. I am always here for chatting and questions...

Mandy3381@comcast.net

God Bless
Amanda