The happenings of 8/9 and 8/10

Okay - here we go.

8/9 - Taj's bday. A good day. Jac got his PICC line out which means that he now has both of his hands free! This is great and he is already adjusting to having them both and bringing both of them to his face. Without the PICC line all of his nutrition is now coming from breast milk.

We are still alternating fresh breast milk and colostrum every 4 hours. Yesterday they upped the kcal/ounce of fortifier to 24 kcal / ounce (regular breast milk is approximately 20 kcal / ounce). On 8/9 his feeds were increased to 5.0 ml / hour and today (8/10) they were upped to 5.5 ml / hour. for his current weight that is considered full feeds! Yeah! In terms of feeds this is where we need to be to be able to go back to Boulder so that is fantastic.

On 8/9 his weight was 870 and today (8/10) 880! Go Jac

He was also switched from the heated high flow nasal cannulae system to a nasal cannulae from the wall which is not heated. He has not tolerated this change was wel as we might have hoped. He has been having some A's and B's (which stands for Apnea and Bradycardia). His A's and B's are not considered terribly serious because he is able to self stimulate himself to breathe again - some babies need stimulation to start breathing again!

He has been receiving caffeine through his PICC line since 7/19 and when the PICC line was removed he was given an oral dose of caffeine and then no additional order was written to continue it. This was in all likelihood a mistake as typically kids are weaned off the caffeine (like taking away a morning Starbucks cold turkey!). He was given caffeine orally (through his OG tube) this afternoon at 4. His nurse thinks that the sudden decrease in his caffeine level may be the cause of the A's and B's since he has not had them before. They drew some blood at noon today to check his caffeine level but we won't have the result of that until tomorrow so we shall see what that looks like. I hope that is the problem! The A's and B's are very scary!

Joseph is doing Kangaroo care with Jac right now and thankfully they are both asleep. Yesterday was a nice day but today has been very trying and scary and I am exhausted. It is hard to rest when I am worried.

Today we did not have one of our primary nurses because of a leak in the ceiling in the bay next to ours that changed the nurses assignments. Fortunately we will get her back tomorrow. The days are always easier with a familiar nurse that knows Jac and what to expect from him and what he likes and doesn't like. This keeps me from spending the entire day feeling like I am trying to educate them and bring them to an understanding of the best way to care for him. Today has been difficult also because Jac has been having A's and B's all day (not too often but often enough) and crying jags brought on by reflux. This too shall pass I am told - he will grow out of the A's and B's and the reflux but in the meantime we have an unhappy baby and a stressed Momma.

If Jac stays on his feeds at 5.5 ml / hour we should be able to go back to Boulder Community Hospital on Monday or Tuesday - 1.7 miles from our house! Keep your fingers crossed!

Actually posted by Taj.