The Sound of His Life (Day 15)

Sunday, October 16, 2011
Day 15


When Jason and I went in to see Hazaiah today, we noticed right away that he seemed to be resting comfortably. When his nurse came in to speak with us, and update us of how he had been through the night and  this morning, we noticed he seemed pretty busy. The nurse explained that another one of his "friends"  was requiring extra care today; we were thankful Hazaiah was doing so well and didn't need as much medical attention. It's kind of funny, but we're learning in this NICU that it's better if the nurses aren't all over him so much, because it means he's a little more stable than he had been...

He told us that all of Hazaiah's vital signs have been really good today and through the night. He did desat a few times, but he didn't need any bagging at all. The only problem was that he had developed a fever that morning, so they were running some tests to see why. With him not having a bowel movement yet, there is a chance that it had built up and ruptured again, and that he was septic. He didn't want to just give him some Tylenol to bring the fever down, and not know "why" he was getting a fever. The test results came back showing only slightly elevated levels. The nurse felt that if he was septic, the levels would be much higher. So now we wait 48 hours to see the results from the blood and urine cultures. It could be some type of infection, but they haven't started any antibiotics or anything.
So we just watched him, held his hand, and talked to him. He did do really well today- the monitors all showed his breathing to be fairly well, and better yet- he looked fairly well! (Trying to remember to look at the baby and not at the monitor.) His oxygen saturation did drop in the 80's a few times, but he got it up all by himself!:)


We came back in the evening with camera in hand because the night nurse had told us that we could help her give him a bath tonight...
But soon after we were there, the sensor for the "sensor flow error" came on. That usually just means that water built up in the connection line, and they would normally just unhook it and shake out the water. Well, this respiratory guy comes in and mechanically gets the catheter and suctions out his lungs! I have no idea why he did that- Hazaiah was not desatting... But right after he left, Hazaiah did start desatting- badly too...
In a minute the nurse was in there trying to help him, but she ended up needing to bag him. I tried to explain what just happened, but either she didn't understand what I was saying, or she didn't want to admit the guy messed up. Anyway, baby ended up being fine- but not without daddy and mama being shook up. 
She changed his diaper then, and weighed him. His diaper was very wet, and he lost two ounces! That is good news because that means he is getting rid of some of that fluid retention all by himself!:) Then she listened to his tummy and bowels- she happily told us that she hears a lot of bowel noises!! They have heard either none before, or else one little tiny sound. Thank you God... Hopefully some stinky stuff is on it's way down!:)
She talked to us a little about his breathing. If his fever is related to some infection, then that could be why he is having more apnoea; however, if there is no infection, then the apnoea could be due to his Trisomy13, and may continue to get worse... We'll just have to keep loving him, being there for him, and helping him as much as we can, and let God decide...

I have a few pictures that go with this post, but the Internet at the RMH is too slow to load them at all... We'll take the computer to the hospital Wed or Thur and load them there...