8-30-10

Today Oliver was more awake than ever before. It is the small things in life that make life worth living. I got to see my son's eyes wide open looking back at me!! They decreased the morphine drip this morning from 30mcg/kg to 20mcg/kg. He woke up more than ever and he tolerated it well at first except for this afternoon when he started to go into withdrawals from the morphine. He started shaking terribly and his blood pressure shot up too high. They gave him ativan and fentanyl which helped for a while, and we ruled out all other things such as dirty diaper, being hungry, and needing to be suctioned. So they increased the morphine drip up to 25mcg/kg. He was calm only when I was at his side talking to him and comforting him as best I could. The nurse kept saying I had the magic calming touch. I said he knows who his mommy is. They ended up turning it back up to 30mcg/kg by the end of the day when I left. I got some pictures of him with his eyes open (sorry it is so dark, I still cannot use flash).

Also today they increased his feedings to 10ml every 4 hours and while I was there he had no residuals of previous feedings not being digested completly. I got to change 2 poopy diapers, take his temperature, and swab out his mouth with oral swabs. I think he will be a pacifier baby because he really sucks on the swab and also his ET tube. No real ventilator changes today except they changed to respiratory rate down from 25 to now 20 breaths per minute but he usually breathes more than that on his own. He is initiating most breaths now as well. His oxygen saturations (SPO2) level was great today in the 90's but they did not wean the oxygen concentration down today.

This is a picture of his room today. Since the stress precautions were lifted they were actually able to change his bedding and they got his weight. He now weighs 6 pounds 3 ounces. Although most of the weight gain is from fluid that is still pooling in his body. Also because they hadn't gotten a weight since his birth weight when he was so dry and had hardly any blood with his hemaglobin of 5 at birth. Normal hemaglobin for a newborn is 13 and that is why he needed so much blood and platelets transfused for the first few days. Since then he has been maintaining normal limits of hemaglobin and platelets so he is now making them on his own. He still hasn't had a bath but I'm sure it will come. The pink thing holding his legs in is called a "Zaky" named after a child that the mom made this for that helped sooth him. It looks like a forarm and hand that is full of beans like a bean bag. It adds weight and support like a mothers arm holding their child. The only one they had left was a pink one, I said I didn't care what color it was as long as it soothes him and it does. It keeps his legs pulled in close like he is being swaddled.