We have had several very busy days since my last post. I should post more often but I usually fall asleep before I get the chance. One big milestone is that on the 10th Brandon and Katelyn turned one month old. It is strange. On one hand it is weird that they are a month old yet so far from coming home. One the other hand, it seems like we have been driving back and forth from hospitals for about a year now.
Let me start by giving an update on Katelyn. Last Thursday they decided to change Katelyn to the VIP ventilator. It is similar to the Dragor that Brandon was on because it allows the baby to breath more normally. The ventilator allows the baby to breathe more on thier own. Another benefit of this ventilator is that they can more easily move the baby. This means that on her 1-month birthday Amy was able to sit in a rocking chair and hold Katelyn for the first time. I got a turn two days later.
On Friday the nurses noticed that the placement of the ventilator tube wasn’t ideal. In an attempt to better position it, they accidentally extubated her(pulled the tube out) . In the time it took to re-intubate her they noticed that she was breathing really well on her own. They even considered just putting her on a c-pap machine but decided that they had just switched her to the new ventilator and it might be too much at once.
Katelyn is a very active girl. When she gets upset she really puts up a fight. When she is on her stomach she kicks hard enough that she can actually move around her isolette. I like to think that she is crawling already. That spunk can cause trouble already. She again pulled out her ventilator tube at about midnight last night but this time they decided to leave it out and just put her on the c-pap machine. She must have been trying to give them a message because she is still doing well this morning. They just hope she doesn’t get mad soon because when she is “crying” (previously without sound) her breathing isn’t quite as good.
Brandon also has had a busy couple of days. They took him off the ventilator Friday afternoon. We got the call and rushed up to see him. We got to see his face for the first time without it being covered with tape. We also got to hear him cry for the first time. Now, I need to clarify. They often have to point out that we just heard a cry. When they have been on a ventilator for so long it is much more of a little squeak than a cry. We went up in a rush so we didn’t have our camera. We picked up a disposable camera and we hadn’t developed the pictures yet. I hope to get them developed today.
Brandon did very well. He had an x-ray that didn’t look perfect before he was removed from the ventilator. They knew it might be pushing him a little but they decided to give it a shot anyway. He did really well for about 4 hours and then he got tired. He quit breathing as well as he should and he just wasn’t exchanging gasses well enough. They put him back on the ventilator and they will let him rest and grow. They plan on trying again in about a week. They have been increasing his feedings and he is doing really well. We will just have to watch and see how well he grows and matures this week.
One day we sat and talked with Brandon’s nurse about how amazing it is that he is doing so well. She told us how she talked with the nurses that took care of Brandon for the first couple of days and they all where pretty certain that he wasn’t going to make it. While we still have a long road ahead of us, I need to remember how incredibly lucky we are that everything is going so well. Before he comes home he still needs to have the T-tube removed and two other surgeries. He needs to have a hernia fixed and have his bowls closed back up. The good news is that once he gets bigger these are not very risky surgeries. One of the major concerns will be to try and keep him infection free during all of these procedures.
Let me start by giving an update on Katelyn. Last Thursday they decided to change Katelyn to the VIP ventilator. It is similar to the Dragor that Brandon was on because it allows the baby to breath more normally. The ventilator allows the baby to breathe more on thier own. Another benefit of this ventilator is that they can more easily move the baby. This means that on her 1-month birthday Amy was able to sit in a rocking chair and hold Katelyn for the first time. I got a turn two days later.
On Friday the nurses noticed that the placement of the ventilator tube wasn’t ideal. In an attempt to better position it, they accidentally extubated her(pulled the tube out) . In the time it took to re-intubate her they noticed that she was breathing really well on her own. They even considered just putting her on a c-pap machine but decided that they had just switched her to the new ventilator and it might be too much at once.
Katelyn is a very active girl. When she gets upset she really puts up a fight. When she is on her stomach she kicks hard enough that she can actually move around her isolette. I like to think that she is crawling already. That spunk can cause trouble already. She again pulled out her ventilator tube at about midnight last night but this time they decided to leave it out and just put her on the c-pap machine. She must have been trying to give them a message because she is still doing well this morning. They just hope she doesn’t get mad soon because when she is “crying” (previously without sound) her breathing isn’t quite as good.
Brandon also has had a busy couple of days. They took him off the ventilator Friday afternoon. We got the call and rushed up to see him. We got to see his face for the first time without it being covered with tape. We also got to hear him cry for the first time. Now, I need to clarify. They often have to point out that we just heard a cry. When they have been on a ventilator for so long it is much more of a little squeak than a cry. We went up in a rush so we didn’t have our camera. We picked up a disposable camera and we hadn’t developed the pictures yet. I hope to get them developed today.
Brandon did very well. He had an x-ray that didn’t look perfect before he was removed from the ventilator. They knew it might be pushing him a little but they decided to give it a shot anyway. He did really well for about 4 hours and then he got tired. He quit breathing as well as he should and he just wasn’t exchanging gasses well enough. They put him back on the ventilator and they will let him rest and grow. They plan on trying again in about a week. They have been increasing his feedings and he is doing really well. We will just have to watch and see how well he grows and matures this week.
One day we sat and talked with Brandon’s nurse about how amazing it is that he is doing so well. She told us how she talked with the nurses that took care of Brandon for the first couple of days and they all where pretty certain that he wasn’t going to make it. While we still have a long road ahead of us, I need to remember how incredibly lucky we are that everything is going so well. Before he comes home he still needs to have the T-tube removed and two other surgeries. He needs to have a hernia fixed and have his bowls closed back up. The good news is that once he gets bigger these are not very risky surgeries. One of the major concerns will be to try and keep him infection free during all of these procedures.
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