Holding Our Breath

I got to spend a lot of time with Matthew today - I got to Yale around 11am and stayed until 6:45.  I thought it best to spend as much time with Matthew during this critical time.  There was a lot of movement today in room 4.  The twins have already moved onto room 2, and another set of twins have taken their place....

Today was the first time I got poo'ed on by Matthew.  I was changing his diaper and Lynn distracted me by asking a question!  Matthew had already pooped, which was what necessitated the diaper change in the first place.  So I had pulled his diaper out and hadn't put one underneath in its place because he still had poop all over his tiny butt.  So as I was wiping it he pooped again.  It went ALL OVER.  It was on his bedding, on his wires.  So I cleaned up his butt and put another diaper underneath him.  So what did he do?  He pooped a THIRD time.  After cleaning his butt again, we had to take apart all of his bedding, etc. to change it (and wipe poop off all the wires).  I will say that the biggest benefit of this was I got to hang out with Matthew with the top and sides of the isolette off, which is a totally different (and better) experience.  I'm sure my NICU ladies know what I mean! I snapped a quick pic to take advantage of the opportunity.

The Good

Matthew made it another 24 hours off the vent.  Dr. Gozzo said it was "touch and go" last night, but he was stable today with the increased vent settings.  He was at the max pressure they would give him on NIPV, but at the end of the day that went down just a hair.  His blood gas from the morning and afternoon were both good.  Matthew also continues to tolerate his food well.  He even tolerated his respiratory treatments well today - he might have even liked it a little.

I got to hear an actual cry from Matthew today, with the help of Lynn.  When we were doing some vitals, etc, Lynn said she would take off one of the temperature sensors that wasn't working as she thought that might get a cry out of him.  It did, and then of course I started to cry a little from getting to hear it.  Lynn handed me a tissue saying it was OK to have tears of joy.  Later on I managed to get a small cry on video for Sean.


The Bad

Matthew's NIPV settings are higher than we would like.  At one point today he was at the max - so the next step would have been reintubation.  Fingers are still crossed tight that we can avoid it.

His weight has not yet reached a consistent increase.  Lynn and I are both really hoping that now we see some gain each night - I said 20g but Lynn said she would take 15g (which is about a half an ounce).


The Ugly

No Ugly today for Matthew - fingers crossed it stays that way.