Medical Unit Life

Abe has been on the medical unit since Thursday. It has been a very stressful transition. Some things that he made it stressful include new doctors and nurses, I stayed one night at his bedside and did not sleep, the whole high oxygen concentration and the immaturity of his eyes and the breast milk policy. The policy changed on breast milk storage from 48 hours to 5 days in the refrigator if fresh pumped. The policy changed in March however the nurses on the regular units deal with all ages, newborn to age 21. The nurses here were putting all the milk in the freezer. Freezing breast milk destroys the white blood cells. Fresh milk is better for him because if there is virus or illness going around the hospital the mother will develop protective antibodies against it and pass it on to the baby. Also fresh milk is easier to work with, no need to wait for de-frozed milk to be ready for use. They put him on "medical air" at 21% oxygen concentration which is air flow up his nose with oxygen prongs however he still is having episodes of low oxygen. The nurses rush in and put him on blow by oxygen and leave the room. I ended up yelling at the nurse today because I found him on blow by oxygen and his monitor showed 100%. He is awake now so I am going to hold him.