Waking Up on the Wrong Side of the Isolette

Henry was a bit fussy tonight. His nurse tonight was Melissa (a different Melissa than before; this Melissa has brown hair). She said that Henry weighed 870 grams.

Melissa was struggling with Henry's CPAP when we arrived. His saturations were a little low, setting off the alarm. Adjustments to his tubing didn't seem to help that much. Any improvements only lasted a few seconds. As usual, he had been trying to take his nose prongs out, so Melissa used Frosty the Bull (the beanie baby) to keep Henry's hands away from his face.

I did skin-to-skin tonight. The CPAP was problematic. It took several minutes to get Henry into my arms with the CPAP working. His saturations at one point dropped to the 50s. Once we got situated, Henry was great. Minimal fuss. One brady in my arms (he was too relaxed). His eyes looked alert, and he enjoyed staring at Jeff. He did spit up on me (first time) and managed to make a good mess with a relatively small amount of output. And, he pulled out his feeding tube again (but this time he worked the tube out with his tongue rather than using his hands).

Jeff and I did the 11PM cares. He had prepared a 22 gram diaper for us. I don't know if we mentioned before that they weigh the diapers after each diaper change to let them know about his digestive progress so to speak.

His feeding tonight was up to 14ml. He should reach his feeding goal of 16ml tomorrow. They stopped the TPN completely. After the feeding, I placed my left hand on his head and let him hold my index finger on my right hand (so that he wouldn't go after his nose prongs again). His stats looked very good.

Dr. Erin McLain was on duty tonight. Sadly, tomorrow is her last day in the NICU. She is a third year resident. She was only assigned to the NICU for May. As of June 1, she'll be on the third floor of the hospital. Then, in July, she moves to Pinetop, AZ to join a pediatric clinic. I'm sad to see her leave. She's been excellent throughout this ordeal in keeping us informed about Henry's progress and telling us about the logic behind various decisions that the doctors make. I ask a lot of questions, and she gives me the answers. She has an excellent personality...very kind and warm. And, informative and kind are exactly the characteristics one wants in a doctor.