His oxygen level was back up a little today at 40% but his nitric oxide was down from 14% to only 4%! That is the medicine helping his lungs and it has to be a 0 before they can even think of removing the vent as it's the only way to give him that medication. The nurse said that starting now they will move it down 1% each time his blood gas comes back good, which is done every 6hrs right now. It was going down 2% but now that it's so low they take it really slow to be sure not to make him have a rebound and go back to needing it a lot. Once it gets to 1% they will go down by like .1-.2% each time until he gets all the way off. He still needs to come down on pressures as well and of course his oxygen level too.
He was off the jaundice lights and the whites of his eyes looked much better today. He hasn't needed much sedation medication today and was able to open his eyes better today. Yesterday it was like they were really heavy and hard for him to open and today it seemed easier though most of the time was spent with them closed still.
He is up to 7lbs 15oz...but again most of that is fluid from his swelling. He has also moved up to 15cc of breastmilk each feeding too!!! They hope to move up to 20cc tomorrow. It was really hard to watch earlier though because while I was there it was getting close to his feeding "time" and he was putting his hands in his mouth by the tube and was rooting around you could tell he was hungry but he had to wait the 20min to his "touch time" and then wait for her to finish everything else she has to do during that time before he could eat so he was hungry a good 30min before actually getting his food which killed me as we feed on demand and he couldn't have his food because the clock didn't say it was time :(
But during that "touch time" today I got to change his diaper for the first time!!! His cath is out and he's peeing really well now. They think the back up was because of his pain meds. They repeated the u/s on his bladder today and the right side has completely resolved and the left is much better. They also did an echocardiogram but they didn't have the results of that while we were there, so we should get those tomorrow. When he finally got his feed he settled right down and went to sleep so I went to pump. The lactation consultant in the other hospital told me to be sure I always pump at the hospital after seeing him because when you are around your baby your body just knows and you get more milk...boy was she right. This morning I had pumped at home and filled 2 bottles for the first time so I knew I'd get more at the hospital as I always do so I grabbed 3 bottles to go back in the room to pump. Yeah filled all 3 and still had more milk haha, I didn't get more because I would have had to put everything away go get another bottle or 2 and then get it all back out but I'm sure I would have gotten at least one more. I've been pumping every 2-3hrs around the clock and the hospital is stocked and my freezer is getting so full I have to reorganize it tomorrow so I will have places to keep it all! I'm hoping to get him completely breastfeeding once this is all over, maybe save some for the occasional bottle Mark can give him...maybe he can get up every once in awhile at night haha. But I'm going to donate the rest to the milk bank so the other babies at the NICU there can have it. It's amazing the difference in Preston since starting breastmilk.
Also, today was the first day we've brought one of the boys up to see him in the NICU, they haven't seen him since the first hour after he was born besides a couple of pictures. The other day when we brought the gifts from the boys up to Preston we laid them over him to make it look less scary for the boys and took pics and those were the first ones they had seen. After looking at 2 Landon's eyes got really red and watery and he said "I've already seen him I don't need to look at pictures, can I go?" like he was all tough and mad I'd be showing him pics. Really he was very scared and upset. Mark went back to talk to him and he said he really wanted to see Preston. So we took just him up there today to show him that he is ok. Landon really enjoyed seeing him and was talking to him, telling him about Halo of course lol. Telling him he'd teach him to play Halo and build things with Legos when he got bigger. That his brothers missed him at home and he needed to get better so he could come home. It was so sweet <3 We are going to take Casen up soon, we are trying to decide if we want to do it tomorrow or wait the 2-3 days and hope he's off the vent then and do it then. Though I think Casen would handle it really well because he's really matter of fact, he just understands things. Like he gets that Preston is sick and therefore needs these machines...Landon is really emotional about it all, he's just so caring that it makes it harder on him. Hayden is only allowed one pass to see him so we will wait for a bit, until we can hold them and he's about to come home to use that. Probably wont' take Landon and Casen up again until that time either. We don't want him exposed to anything more than he needs to be so it's been just me and Mark and will be until he gets home except these couple of visits with the boys. Even after he comes home we will be really careful about how many people are around him and making sure everyone is completely healthy and washing hands, etc. Don't want him to end up back where he is now, we want him home to stay! Hopefully that's within the next week!
Today's pictures!
Landon was so happy to see him
Looking at his big brother Landon
Eating his hand when he was hungry
Sleeping peacefully after his feed
This is all so great, Beth! Its great that you plan to donate milk from your super boobies and its great that Landon took it fairly well! I'm so proud of you guys and Preston! You're all doing a great job! *hugs*
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