Day 8

Abraham is still on the conventional ventilator; He is breathing over it. They had to lower his ventilator settings because his C02 level was too low. Has mild pulmonary edema and is requiring frequent deep suctioning of in his trachea. I am not sure of the pathphysiology (cause) of the pulmonary edema. This might be a common thing for preemies. For an adult this is a bad thing would mostly likely be associated with congestive heart failure. I would need more information on the cause of this for him. In his case this could be related to the ET tube agitating this trachea. I can’t remember right now.

He got his head washed today in preparation for the EEG. The nurse advised that my voice could disturb the testing so I stayed out of the room. It will take a couple of days to get the results. This test looks at brain activity, specifically looking for seizure activity.

He is getting 1 milliliter of breast milk every 6 hours in his OG tube. I was there when he got it tonight. He had his first poop today. I got to help change his diaper tonight however I was very nervous even though I have changed many diapers when I worked as a pediatric nurse. He had some more poop to come out however we just changed him and let him be. He was getting fussy when he has a wet diaper or when you mess with him too much.

He also had a wonderful NICU nurse who worked at Phoenix Children’s Hospital NICU in the past. I worked on the pediatric ward with bigger kids there however I know that she come with a lot of experience as it’s a top notch NICU. She taught me how to comfort him with my hands. This involves gently pushing his feet up against his hamstrings and placing his hands on his chest. He seemed to like it. I will teach Glenn the same technique.

The nurses are requesting to be assigned to him. I think it’s because he is so adorable. The nurse he had today said tomorrow that he will have a new nurse. I already find it easy to feel comfortable with the nurses he has already had. It will be difficult to adjust to new nurses however most of them talk to me and answer questions any ways.

I went to Mother’s Own Milk group today. I was a little hard because all the mothers had a baby with them however I was able to get more information about breast feeding. The lactation consultant is going to get me a manual pump in case I am away from the NICU or Fisher House.

Glenn drove home today, got the temporary birth certificate and paperwork for the official one. He is going to check into his command tomorrow. He also got supplies for our cats and bought Dr. Sears Premature Baby book for me to read and some veggie tales that we can read to Abraham.

He also got the umbilical lines out today.

Good night and thank you for all the support.