"A Visit From Friends" (12/22/13)

Our sweet baby boy had another uneventful night.   One thing that he did experience last night was his very first thunder and lightning storm.  Nathan has a window in his room so he could probably hear it.  Those little moments, even as small as his first lightning storm meant the world to me because I was not sure if he would ever get another one again.  I was hopeful, sure, but he wasn’t home with me, healthy just yet.  When we got there in the morning, he was all bundled up and sleeping so soundly.   

He did get his PICC line back in today but they put it in his arm instead of his head again.  His nurse Lisa said that he bled a little when that happened but she reassured us that that was probably due to the fact that he had low platelets from the antibiotic that he was on.  When they put a PICC line in, they get an x-ray done just to make sure the positioning is right.  After the x-ray, it looked like it needed to be pulled out about 1 cm. The PICC line nurse came back, pulled it out 1 cm and then got a repeat x-ray.  Everything was fine.

His oxygen for the majority of the day hovered around 50%.  Not bad but the lower he gets with his oxygen percentage; the quicker he can go on a CPAP and not be intubated anymore.  But it was better than 100% oxygen like Colin was on.  While Nathan was getting his PICC line put back in and getting x-rays, they do turn his oxygen up because they are messing with him.  But that was pretty standard.

Nathan was up to 7 mL of my milk now.  It was still being fortified so they were going to do 5 feeds of the 7 mL before they moved it up again.  They also did some measurements on Nathan last night since he was at 26 weeks gestational age.  His head circumference grew 1/8 inch since birth and he grew 2 cm in length.  All these little things were so good for Nathan.  We needed him to grow and get strong and beat any infection or disease that came his way.  Another good thing with him was that the Respiratory Therapist listened to his lungs and the cracking was very minimal.  The pneumonia was hopefully going away!

We hung out with Nathan until 5:30 that day.  Our friends Tyler and Ally were in town with their friends Tim and Angie and we were going out to dinner with them.  This would be my first night that I would not go back and see our baby after dinner.  The ONLY reason I agreed to this was because he was doing fairly well.  Nothing major was going on with him.  I still would rather be with my baby, but I knew it was going to be nice to see some friends and talk with them.

So at 5:30, we said our goodbyes and goodnights to our sweet boy and went back to the RMH to get ready.  The restaurant they picked was not far from where we were, which was kind of a must in order for me to go out.  They chose a Mexican place that, from the outside, I would never look at that and think, “Hey! Lets go there for dinner! That looks good.” Haha. Kevin and I were there for about 10 min before the rest of them arrived.  Ally and Tyler were pregnant with a baby boy that was due April 7^th and Angie and Tim were pregnant with their second girl due in the middle of March.  We had all talked about getting all our kids together since they would have been born with in a few months of each other.  But now, things have changed.  Colin was no longer with us and we could only hope that Nathan would get to play with them someday.

When they got there, you could tell that they want to ask questions but don’t really know what to say.  I didn’t mind talking about it so I just started offering up the information.  We had a very nice dinner, full of good conversation and stories.  Any time I was anywhere other than the NICU, I made sure I had my cell phone out just in case the NICU would call and something would be wrong.  After dinner, we gave big hugs and said our goodbyes.  I wanted so badly for them to meet Nathan in a few months and I honestly thought they would get too. 

When we got back to the RMH, we called over to the NICU to check on Nathan.  We were allowed to call any time of day to get updates.  Pam was his nurse for the night.  The only update she had was that he was down to 38% (YAY) and he was a bit cold.  He was cold since there were a lot of people in his bed that day messing with him.  But other than that, things were great with him! 

Nathan’s Nightly Update 12/22/13

Sorry this is such a late update but Tyler and Ally Bowersock were near Cincinnati so we were just out to dinner with them.

So Nathan had a good day today.  They put his pic line back in but they put it in his right forearm instead of his head this time.  I am sure Nathan is loving that because he loves to move his hands and arms when he isn't all bundled up.  So with the nurse putting in the pic line, she put it in and then he had to have an x-ray done to make sure the placement was perfect.  So they did the X-ray and then the nurse had to come back in and pull it out one cm and then get another X-ray.  So there were a lot of people in his bed today. When she put the pic line in, he bled a bit but she said that was from the low platelet counts due to his antibiotic.  Nothing to worry about though.

We just called at 10:40 pm to check on him and the night nurse said he was a bit chilly but that was probably because so many people were in and out of his incubator so the nurse was not concerned about his temp.  She just put a Christmas hat on him and a blanket over him to help warm him up.

While we were there today, he was around the 48-50% oxygen and even got turned up to 60% at one point because they were messing with him.  But when we called this evening he is down to 38%!  Mom and Dad are PUMPED!

He went up to 7ml of my milk today and will have 5 feedings of that before he is bumped to 8.  The nurse tonight measured him and his head circumference was an 1/8 inch bigger than last Sundays and he has grown 2 cm in length which she said was pretty good.

The respiratory therapist came in to listen to his lungs today and she said that there was minimal cracking so hopefully that means this antibiotic is helping.

That is it for the main points with him.  Another momentous occasion that I like to recognize (I get excited over the little things) but Nathan had his first thunder and lighting storm last night. He is right by a window so I thought of him last night with the flashes of lights going into his little pod.  

Again, sorry for the late update and no picture since I am sending it through my computer.

Love you guys!

Kelly, Kevin and Nathan

P.S. - Kevin pointed out that I spelled diuretic like diarrhea with a tic at the end in my email last night.  I know you are too nice to point that out since I am going through all of this but there is no need to worry, Kevin has no problem making fun of me.  I have learned how to spell it now :)