Jonathan's getting close to having stayed in each ward in the neonatal unit of St Thomas', after being transferred from SCBU (special care) back to NICU (intensive care) yesterday, and then up to HDU (high-dependency) today. All this moving around is because of his breathing and oxygen saturations. He does seem to like being wheeled around though.
Yesterday morning, the doctors transfered him to NICU not because his condition had changed dramatically, but so he'd get better monitoring of his breathing. During that night, they'd noticed his saturations hadn't continued to improve as they had over the previous days with the diuretics, so they increased his dosage and sent him off to NICU for monitoring. In NICU, there's one nurse for every two babies, so it's easier for him to be monitored there.
In NICU, because he still had low saturations, they were going to put the CPAP breathing tubes on him. These are the same breathing tubes he needed when he came out of his two stomach surgeries, where the tube goes all the way in down to his lungs, and forces air in to make sure he breathes, and is stuck on face with a whole bunch of sticky tape - which I can't imagine to be very pleasant. CPAP is different to the oxygen that he's currently on which just runs into his nostrils.
Anyway, when the nurse brought around the CPAP machine, it turned out to be broken, and in the time spent looking for a replacement, his saturations fortunately improved - so they decided he didn't need it after all! To celebrate escaping another set of breathing tubes, we let Jonathan have a go in his new bouncer. It's battery operated and bounces and plays music when you turn it on... but he didn't seem to be too excited about the experience...
Maybe he's just a bit too small for it right now...
We also tried to read him a story but I think he was more interested in sucking on his dummy.
Speaking of dummy's - he's had a lot of dummy action lately. Because of his weak breathing, the doctors have decided that he can't be fed through his mouth for the time being, so breastfeeding and bottle feeding are out. For now, he only gets fed down his NG tube. But, to help him remember how to suck, and also so he associates sucking with food, whenever they put food down his tube, they also put him on his dummy. Jonathan loves his dummy, so this suits him just fine.
Anyway, after spending a day and a night in NICU, he was today moved back into HDU. In HDU, they also have one nurse for every 2 babies, but the babies are a bit stronger and don't need as much attention. His saturations remained fairly stable for the day - they dipped and the alarms went off a handful of times, but that was only when he was upset about something (hungry? tired? nappy? itchy?) so not really too much of a concern.
The doctors are still trying to get Jonathan to put on some weight and grow more, as he's now over 6 weeks old, but still weighs the same as when he was born. They still think he's burning all his food on breathing, so they're going to fortify Tracy's breast-milk by adding energy in the form of a powdery supplement (I forget the name) which they just mix in before putting it down his tube.
Tracy now has the tough job of having to keep the milk supply up without actually breast feeding Jonathan, but by expressing every couple of hours. We might have to bust out Por Por Emily's lactation-enhancing fish and papaya soup recipe that she left ...
Yesterday morning, the doctors transfered him to NICU not because his condition had changed dramatically, but so he'd get better monitoring of his breathing. During that night, they'd noticed his saturations hadn't continued to improve as they had over the previous days with the diuretics, so they increased his dosage and sent him off to NICU for monitoring. In NICU, there's one nurse for every two babies, so it's easier for him to be monitored there.
In NICU, because he still had low saturations, they were going to put the CPAP breathing tubes on him. These are the same breathing tubes he needed when he came out of his two stomach surgeries, where the tube goes all the way in down to his lungs, and forces air in to make sure he breathes, and is stuck on face with a whole bunch of sticky tape - which I can't imagine to be very pleasant. CPAP is different to the oxygen that he's currently on which just runs into his nostrils.
Anyway, when the nurse brought around the CPAP machine, it turned out to be broken, and in the time spent looking for a replacement, his saturations fortunately improved - so they decided he didn't need it after all! To celebrate escaping another set of breathing tubes, we let Jonathan have a go in his new bouncer. It's battery operated and bounces and plays music when you turn it on... but he didn't seem to be too excited about the experience...
Maybe he's just a bit too small for it right now...
We also tried to read him a story but I think he was more interested in sucking on his dummy.
Speaking of dummy's - he's had a lot of dummy action lately. Because of his weak breathing, the doctors have decided that he can't be fed through his mouth for the time being, so breastfeeding and bottle feeding are out. For now, he only gets fed down his NG tube. But, to help him remember how to suck, and also so he associates sucking with food, whenever they put food down his tube, they also put him on his dummy. Jonathan loves his dummy, so this suits him just fine.
Anyway, after spending a day and a night in NICU, he was today moved back into HDU. In HDU, they also have one nurse for every 2 babies, but the babies are a bit stronger and don't need as much attention. His saturations remained fairly stable for the day - they dipped and the alarms went off a handful of times, but that was only when he was upset about something (hungry? tired? nappy? itchy?) so not really too much of a concern.
The doctors are still trying to get Jonathan to put on some weight and grow more, as he's now over 6 weeks old, but still weighs the same as when he was born. They still think he's burning all his food on breathing, so they're going to fortify Tracy's breast-milk by adding energy in the form of a powdery supplement (I forget the name) which they just mix in before putting it down his tube.
Tracy now has the tough job of having to keep the milk supply up without actually breast feeding Jonathan, but by expressing every couple of hours. We might have to bust out Por Por Emily's lactation-enhancing fish and papaya soup recipe that she left ...
2 comments:
Must be the most moved , beautiful baby in the ward. Nothing like a change , to keep things, from getting boring. Lucky break, from another tube. Lynda
Oh my goodness! The bouncer photos! They've just gone straight to the colour printer and will go up on my wall pronto.
Fingers crossed the extra monitoring helps them figure out the breathing issue really soon. xoxo
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