5/2/09

Abraham had a spa night tonight. That's right complete with bubbles and lotion massage. The nurse connected a tube to the oxygen hook up and placed it in the water. He loved it. It seemed so weird for him not to be connected to all the monitors. I felt like something was wrong. I was so nervous and was constantly watching him for color changes and signs and symptoms of respiratory distress. He did not show any major signs however I think his oxygen level went a little low however he recovered back. quickly. I guess it's because he usually is connected all the time and most of my experience with babies is when they are in the hospital. He does not have very good head control however I don't think healthy full term babies do either. It's difficult for me to know normal for abnormal because I have always worked with ill children. Ill children tend to regress back in developmental stage a little bit. He is strong though, he pulls out his feeding tubes and oxygen and moves his head from side to side. The nurses are actually paying attention to when his oxygen level is too high, (this can cause the ROP and lead to blindness), since oxygen requirements and immaturity of his eyes are what is causing him to remain in the NICU. I find this very interesting that they are willing to be bothered by this now and not before. I have been telling each nurse daily for over a month, his oxygen level is too high and he already has stage 2 ROP. I even told a resident and charge nurse a few days back and the day nurse today changed the settings. This means that if his oxygen level is high, greater than 96% it will alarm to notify the nurse to that the F102 (oxygen concentation) can be turned down. Yes it's very annoying to be bothered when a baby has high oxygen levels however the nurses that have cared for him won't be taking him home and dealing with life long disabilities such as blindness. A few understand this however until they are faced personally with this issue I don't think some of them will ever get the point. Don't' get me wrong he has had some wonderful care from nurses, respiratory therapist, social workers, doctors and child life therapist. Working in the NICU must be a difficult thing to do however a great staff member listens to the parent's concerns and considers their imput. This might sound weird but when I washed his clothes tonight I saw my first poop stain. For the longest time he was in just a diaper with no clothes. I thought the warm water would have got the stain out. I plan to use Oxy Clean on it later when we are at home. Oxy Clean worked great on Glenn's white t-shirt that turned black when he wore down to the boat in San Diego when he was called in late at night. He is still very sick. I did my best, by phone, to determine if he needed to be seen by a doctor. He is doing a little better but he describes it as the "worse cold I have ever had". Some friends brought him some soup. Thank you so much. I feel torn that I can't be there to take care of Glenn however Abraham needs me to stay healthy since I am his food source. I got concerned about the Flu since Washington State might have been exposed. I have not kept up with the news about actual confirmed cases. This week I went to a mom's group at a church in Bothel and had dinner with ladies from my home church in Bremerton. Thanks for letting me come to the moms group. Also thanks for coming from the other side of the water to visit Abe and have dinner. It was fun. It still makes me smile to hear about Katie's youngest child flushing the toliet and watching the toliet paper go down. That is so cute.