Update 6/4/11

Today when we walked in and looked over he was moving his arms all over!!!!  He has been so sedated up until this point he doesn't move at all.  But they took him off the main sedation and are just giving him other meds that are allowing him to be more awake....well not really awake but not completely out.  So he's fighting the tubes now though which isn't good and he's getting more worked up then he should be so they will be upping those meds again but he shouldn't be completely sedated again unless he is getting really agitated.  Because he's grabbing stuff we had to hold his hands down but he was holding my hands almost the entire time <3  He cracked his eyes a couple times but not enough for us to get a good look.  He definitely knew it was us there, he calmed down for us but would get worked up again with the nurses or if we stopped touching him.  He responded best to me, he knows Mommy for sure.  He was holding my hand and if I moved it to do something he'd start flailing around again and getting worked up but if I'd touch his hand again he'd grab it and calm right back down.

He is completely off his blood pressure medication!!!!  His blood pressure was too low that's why he needed it.  His oxygen was just a little higher than yesterday when we got there at 75% BUT the machine isn't giving him as many breaths today as it was yesterday.  But while we were there they did another blood gas and it looked even better and they were able to go down to 70% oxygen and also decrease the pressure from 27 to 26.  He is currently being given 34 breaths per minute.  Since he has been able to come off some of the sedation and is fully off blood pressure meds they were able to start feeds for the first time today.  Since he's been born he hasn't had a bit of breastmilk....or any other food, only IV fluids.  Since I was there I was able to give him his first feed, it was through his feeding tube and only 5 cc but it's something.  She said he'll be on 5 cc every 4hrs for awhile.  His next feed is at 7 and she said they'll pull back on the feeding tube, draw up whatever is in there and that it is very common to bring back up the entire 5cc he was given first because his body hasn't had to be digesting it, so they'll discard that, give him 5 fresh and see how he does.  It may take 24hrs or more for his body to start responding and digesting it like it should.

He is jaundiced today, his levels this morning were high so they started lights, this afternoon they were even higher so they are waiting to see what they are tonight they may have to add more lights.  His next blood gas is at 7 so I'm going to call about 8pm to find out about that and see if they were able to go down more on his vent and also see how his bili levels are, see if they had to add another light.  Right now he has a light above him and then he's laying on a pad that has the lights.

They had to put a cath in because his bladder was really full and urine was backing up.  They said it is most likely all the pain meds he's on but it's possible it's something else so they did the cath and on Monday he will have another u/s to make sure it's emptying correctly with the cath and go from there.  If it isn't they'll have to check the structure of his penis, like the urethra and valves in it they said to be sure everything is good there but most likely it's the pain meds causing the issue.  He is retaining a lot of fluid but they said that's normal for how sick he is, his belly is a little swollen from it and you can see the swelling in his hands too.  He is up to 7lbs 7.9oz but they said it's from all the fluid and when he gets better he's going to drop below his birth weight like a normal newborn would and have to start working from there.  He also has had 3 poo diapers today, I know you all wanted to know, but it's his first ever, he hadn't been going before...so another good thing!


So all in all a good day, more small steps in the right direction.  He has a long way to go still to come off the vent but they said when he gets there things will probably move fast it's just getting him going in that direction better.  But he's doing good :)

Holding my hands

Holding Daddy's fingers with his toes

Preston's first ever feed!

Under the lights for the jaundice