Jac sleeping on his stomach with his CPAP on.
Joseph and I showed up arond 10:30 am to visit Jac today. I had called at 2:30 am and 8:30 am and receieved positive reports for both of Jac's nurses.
When we arrived and took a look at him this morning he looked much better - yesterday he looked kind of gray (I couldn't find the right word to describe his color yesterday and his nurse used that word this morning and I think she is right). Today he looks like he is more back to his Daddy's coloring - and less like his Momma!
Jac had a chest XRay at 10:00 pm last night that showed that his lungs have re-expanded and look better than they did on the 25th when he had to move back from the ICC because of respiratory distress. That is good news as we have been worried about his lungs since that episode. There is some episode of chronic lung disease but that is very common in preemies that have been on mechanical breathing devices like the respirator and the CPAP. The doctor said that this will get better.
His blood gases also look better - his CO2 level and his pH are both trending in the right direction (down for CO2 and up for pH) which are also good signs that his lungs are improving. Mixed up with this is that he received a blood transfusion of 11 ccs last night. This greatly improved his hematocrit - which could also help to account for some of the change in his ability to carry oxygen around and improve his general state.
He also had another belly XRay this morning (following 2 from yesterday - one in the morning and one in the evening). This XRay looked the same as the previous one - which is good - meaning that if he has NEC it is not progressing - and possibly showing that he does not have it - he just has some extra air and possibly stool in his belly.
All night last night and continuing today he has been sleeping on his belly. Little babies have a much easier time breathing when they are on their bellies - it gives them some resistance to breathe against since their abdominal wall is so thin it tends to collapse when they are on their backs or on their sides. His nurse today said his breathe sounds are better when he is on his tummy. He is currently on 23/24 % oxygen on his CPAP.
He is continuing on antibiotics in case he does have an infection although his
C Reactive Protein (CRP) level has decreased from 0.8 to 0.7 (it is supposed to be below 1, which it is, but it had increased from 0.2) which is a hopeful sign that he does not have an infection.
He is also continuing to receive caffeine to to help his lung development.
There are no imminent plans to start feeding him again. Dr. T said on Friday that she did not plan on starting his feeds again until he is off the CPAP (which does not sound like it is going to happen for the next few days - but things change quickly) so we shall see what she says come Monday. Sometimes things change because there are many different doctors on duty and they have different views of things!
Jac pooped today - which Daddy did a nice job of cleaning up. He continues to have meconium poops which are quite sticky. Once he starts eating again he will start to transition to breast milk poops which are yellow and seedy (and apparently much easier to clean up!). He informed us that he had pooped by crying and fussing - Daddy and I fixed him back and up and he went back to sleep.
Jac is going to get to sleep most of the day - just a few tests to do later so we have decided to take the day off from the hospital and get some organization done around the house (as we still have boxes filling the living room and Jac's room) and our couches and chair are showing up on Thursday and we currently have no place to put them.
We need to get Jac's room ready (all we have is a crib so far!). Alexis s going to help me work on this next week (she is coming back on Monday from Detroit after visiting her friend Emily and having a weekend visit with her fiancee, Chris).
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