Tuesday, November 10
As I am starting this blog on Day 3 post birth (and much went on before the birth as well), the postings on here may end up being a little anachronistic. But my husband assures me that this will be fine as it will be just like episodes of The Walking Dead, where some are flashbacks. And we all know that everyone loves The Walking Dead.
This blog is dedicated to sharing the journey of two amazing little warriors: Alexander Middleton, born 11.8.15 at 12:26 am and Matthew Middleton, born 11.8.15 at 12:30 am. My plan is for updates to be broken down into three parts: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. That way if people are reading this, they can choose to not read about "The Ugly" or even "The Bad" if they wish. I am hoping it will also force me to focus on "The Good" of every day of this journey ahead of us.
The Good
Today was a good day for Matthew. He had a lumbar puncture in the morning to determine if he had any infections around the brain, and we got the results back in the afternoon and it was negative. That was great to hear - and he tolerated the procedure very well which was comforting. He also started today on breastmilk - his nurse, Kim, put in his feeding tube and he gets 2 cc's of breastmilk every four hours. He had three feeds all together today, and he tolerated each of them. His blood gas levels were also stable today. They bumped him up a little bit to help him through the spinal procedure, but he has been stable throughout the day. He does breathe above the vent at times, which is a positive as it means he is taking some breaths on his own.
Matthew had his eyes open for a good amount today, which is beautiful. He passed his bilirubin test which means for now they don't have to put the light on him and he doesn't have to wear the mask all day. They anticipate the light will come on and off as time progresses, but it is great when we get to see his face.
He certainly seems to recognize his mommy and daddy. Daddy got to spend a lot of quality time with him in the morning before rounds while Mommy was upstairs resting, pumping, and getting the morning poking and prodding. We both got to hang out with him in the late morning and Daddy also got to spend some more 1-1 time with him in the early afternoon when Mommy went up for meds, doctors visits and some more rest. We got to see him again in the late afternoon, and once more for bedtime. He seemed to really enjoy being around us, and that feels really nice. In the morning he seemed like he was really looking for us when he heard us, and at night he seemed very relaxed after Mommy read him some bedtime stories. Daddy read him the news and he seemed particularly interested in the Starbucks anti-Christmas cup fiasco.
The Bad
Matthew had another CBC today, and it still shows a low WBC. They are not sure why, which is why they ordered the spinal to check just in case. They are likely going to keep him on antibiotics for a little while longer. His gas sats have been OK, but his x-ray still shows underdeveloped lungs. We hope in the next few days he gets better at making his own surfactant.
The Ugly
No ugly updates about Matthew today. We met with the social worker today to start to make a plan with what to do for Alexander. She was great and very helpful and supportive, but for obvious reasons the whole process, no matter who is helping you through it, is just ugly.
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