There
is nothing like it in the world than to hold your beautiful baby on your chest
and both being perfectly content in one another’s arms. Today, I got to do Skin-to-Skin with him and
I can’t even explain how much joy that brings to my heart. He was having another fairly decent day when
we arrived that morning. Sarah was his
nurse today and once again, I wanted to get all the urine output amounts from
her from overnight. At midnight he had a
2mL and at 4 and 8am he had a 4mL. I
loved it when it was steady. We did not
want any slowing down.
His
blood/gas levels looked awesome and his potassium was a 2.9. Sarah did say at his 8 am care, when she
turned his head, his heart rate went down to 70. That didn’t sound like a moment I would have
been calm at if I was there but Nathan pulled through and he was doing fine
once Kevin and I got there. His skin was
still very fragile and when we went to do one of his cares, we put the temperature
probe under his arm and when we pulled it off, it took off a layer of his
skin. That is just how sensitive he is
right now. Because of that, we had to
put a bandage on it so it wouldn’t get raw or make things worse.
Because
of they way his skin was, they started giving him fluconazole a few days
ago. They are only going to give that to
him now once a week instead of 3 times per week because of his kidneys. It really is just a balancing act with his
entire fluid intake. Determining how
much is going in versus how much is going out can be very hard to determine I
would assume. Again, I just trust the
doctors because I clearly have no knowledge of the medical world, ESPECIALLY
when it comes to NICU babies.
At
his noon care, he had another 4 mL diaper and then at 4pm, he had a 3 mL diaper
and weighed around 1390 grams. That was
10 grams less than last night. Could
that be a signed that he is slowly getting rid of his edema? One can only hope. After we did his 4 pm care, they got the
Respiratory therapist so she could help assist getting Nathan onto my chest for
another skin-to-skin moment. Now I have
to tell you, I was a bit shocked that I was able to do this just because of the
sensitivity of his skin. I didn’t want
anything to be uncomfortable for Nathan so I just made sure this wouldn’t hurt
him even more. But when they put him on
my chest, and wrapped Grandma and Grandpas blanket around him, I just sat back
and Nathan did just fine after the first couple minutes. His SATS did drop to the 40’s for a moment
but then went right back up and stayed in the 90’s the rest of the time. I think he loved it just as much as I did and
the best part was that I got to hold him for almost 2 hours! What a treat that was for me and hopefully
for Nathan. I know how much skin-to-skin
with a mother can be beneficial and I could only hope that those moments on my
chest were like medicine to him. They
definitely were medicine for me. We just
sat there as I played calming music on Pandora for him and we enjoyed being
with each other while Dad sat close and watched.
After those 2
precious hours with my son, we were sitting by his incubator and Kevin asked me
if we could go to a bar that night and watch the OSU football came. I will admit, I was not happy with that
question. You want me to take time away
from my child so we can go to a bar with drunken college kids and watch a
football game? At first, I turned him
down and wouldn’t even consider the idea.
I could stay in the NICU if he wanted to go, but I was not going to
choose spending time with my son over being surrounded by wasted football fans
that have no idea what we are going through in our lives right now. I then suggested that he call his former boss
who lives 30 minutes away in Mason, OH to see if he would go watch the game
with him somewhere. Kevin did text him
but Jonathan invited us to his house.
At first, the
thought of watching a football game vs. spending another 2-3 hours with Nathan
seemed completely ridiculous, I came around to the idea because I thought it
might do me some good to be in someone’s home and sit on their couch and kind
of take a night to relax. Now if Nathan
was not urinating and things were REALLY bad then I wouldn’t have even
considered that. But Nathan’s urine
output was steady and he had another pretty uneventful day, I would say. Jonathan also has 3 kids and one of them was
only a few months old so I was looking forward to meeting her, too.
We stayed in the
NICU till it was shift change time. We
said our Goodnights to Nathan and told him we wouldn’t be back that night to
visit but we would be there bright and early in the morning. I think he was OK with that.
We went back to the
RMH to get ready and took off. It was a little nerve wracking being 30 min away
from Nathan if I am being completely honest.
What if he took a really fast turn for the worst and something
happened? Would we be able to get there
in time? Would I ever forgive myself for
agreeing to go watch a football game 30 min away? I never realized just HOW comforting being at
the RMH was. It was so close and if they
called us and said to get over there, we could be there from our bed to
Nathan’s bed in 10 min or less.
We were driving
north and getting farther and farther away from him. I think Kevin had to reassure me a couple
times that he was fine. Upon arrival and
Jonathan’s house, we come to find out that his wife and 3 kids were in Columbus
for the weekend. So there is no healthy
newborn baby for me to hold and now I get to sit and watch a football game for
2-3 hours. YAY! But in all honesty, it was fine. It was actually nice to be in a home with a
comfy couch and some positive company around us. Once the football game ended, we said our
goodbyes and headed back to the RMH. On
the way home, we called the NICU to talk to Nathan’s night nurse. It was Jhonda that evening. We asked how he was doing and she said that
he was doing just fine. His urine output
at 8 pm was 7mL and she had just finished doing his midnight care which was a
9mL! We were extatic! We couldn’t believe it. I had a big smile on my face and would be
able to sleep well that night. Now I
will never be able to tell you the score of the game that night or who OSU even
played, but I will be able to tell you the amount of urine my son produced and
to me, a 7 mL diaper is more of a victory than winning the Orange Bowl will ever be.
Nathan’s Nightly Update 1/3/14
Happy Friday Everyone!
Today was pretty uneventful
for Nathan which are the exact kind of days that we like!
He continues to have a decent
urine output which Kevin and I are happy about as well as the Doctors.
His creatinine has gone up a tiny bit to 2.1. We asked why this
would be and they said that it could either be Renal (meaning the kidney's aren't
functioning by themselves) or it could be Pre-Renal (which means the vessels
going to the kidneys are not providing enough fluid to get to the kidneys).
They are thinking it is Pre-Renal so by helping vessels give enough
fluid, we hope the kidneys will make close to or a 100% rebound.
So they are tweaking his
fluids to hope solve/help that problem. They are hoping to see a slow
decline in his Creatinine level over the next week.
His blood/gas level that they
took came back awesome this morning. His sodium/potassium etc are all at
good numbers for the most part.
I know all these numbers can
be very confusing and even sometimes I don't understand. But I realized I
didn't explain what Sat-ing really means. It is the oxygen saturation of his
blood. I look at this number on his monitor as his "happy
number". It starts beeping under 88. So if he is at 100%
oxygen and is high sat-ing around 99 or 100, then they can probably wean the
amount of oxygen he is getting. So if he can be at 40% or less with Sats
in the 90's, we are doing good. Eventually when he can start breathing on
his own, he won't need the ventilator or extra oxygen. I hope that makes
a little bit more sense.
His skin is still very fragile
and he is starting to form some blisters around his body. He did have a
temperature probe on him kept on by something sticky. They took it off
today and it peeled a layer of his skin back so he is very sensitive right now.
But even so, I did get to do skin to skin (which are what the pictures are
below). I held him for almost 2 hours and loved every minute of it!
He tolerated it very well this time. It took him a minute to get
his sats back up since they dropped to the 40's but after he came back up he
was in the mid to high 90's the rest of the time. So hopefully that was
as good for him as it was for me and he can get his creatinine level down!
Kevin and I are not going back
this evening so we already said goodnight to our sweet boy. There happens
to be some sort of football game that Kevin wants to watch and I promised him I
would put in the email that Nathan said "GO BUCKS". So there
you go Kevin! I really don't even care if 'GO BUCKS' are his first words
as long as he is around long enough to have 'first words'.
You all have a good night!
Love you!
Kelly, Kevin and Nathan.
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