Jurassic Pod

On Saturday night, Marcie was Henry's evening nurse. She had already weighed Henry by the time we got there. He was down 40 grams to 1410 grams. Jeff kangarooed Henry for a while. Marcie turned off all of the lights, so it was really dark in the pod (except for the light of the baby monitors).

I call Marcie before we went to bed. She said that Henry was quiet for about a half an hour after we left but then started to get fussy, so she held him for a while.

Around 8AM on Sunday, Jeff and I received a call from one of the pediatric residents in the NICU. She called to report that Henry had pulled out his feeding tube in the middle of the night. They think that it was out for about 20 minutes. For some reason, they ended up doing a blood test and found that his sugar levels had dropped to 34 and that such drops could indicate a sign of infection. They put an IV in Henry's foot, so that he could receive some dextrose. I told the resident that Henry has had infections where nothing was picked up on the CBC, but the CRP had picked it up. The resident said she would mention it during rounds to the attending doctor.

So, Jeff and I headed right down to the NICU. Joyce was surprised to see us because my dad had told her that my mom was coming in the morning (that was the original plan). I explained that we had been called by the resident about the blood sugar levels and possible infection. Joyce didn't think that there was as much cause for alarm because Henry, other than looking pale, hadn't shown any signs of problems. After rounds, Joyce had Dr. Edde to talk with us. Dr. Edde doesn't place much faith in the CRP test. The problems with running the CRP is that it takes 4 times as much blood as the CBC. So, we'll hold off on that testing until Henry shows signs of infection. The most plausible explanation for Henry's sugar drop may be that the stopping of the continuous feed while his feeding tube was out. Therefore, they will have to monitor him closely whenever they decide to condense the feedings rather than have them run continuously. Dr. Edde was concerned about the low sugar levels as the 50s is the preferred minimum on the sugar levels. At last check, Henry's crit level was back to 23.5 and his sugar levels were 56.

The census in the NICU was down to 19, so Karin had to shut down pod four. Joyce gave us some options on where Henry was moved. We could move to the isolation room. That's a nice space because it is a small, single room. The disadvantages are: (1) it opens up onto the hallway, which has a lot of traffic, and (2) if a baby needed isolation, then Henry would have to be moved again. The second option was pod three, or what Jeff and I have dubbed "Jurassic Pod," in a corner space. We cringed at Jurassic Pod because it has a few screamers in it. We call it Jurassic Pod because there is one baby in the pod that sounds like what we can only imagine a baby pterodactyl must have sounded like (which we could hear from pod four). I asked Joyce about pods one and two. But Joyce pointed out that although pod three has the screamers, pods one and two have the beeping machines. So, we decided to take the corner spot in Jurassic Pod.

The other big news of the day was that Joyce had me nurse Henry for the first time. Henry had been rooting. He did nursed for a couple minutes and then got tired. But it was a good sign.

Kathy came on duty at 3PM. Jeff and I left around 4:30PM. After we left, Kathy moved Henry into Jurassic Pod.

Jeff and I came back in the evening. Kathy had taken his head circumference, which read at 28.25 cm. That's a 1.25 cm increase over last week. He's almost on the growth curve now! He also grew 2 cm in length over the week.

I tried nursing Henry again. But he was too tired. Then, Jeff kangarooed with him. Holly came on duty at 11PM. We were going to give him a bath but decided to wait until the doctors decided about the blood transfusion. Kathy had prepared a new isolette for Henry before she left. Holly got everything in the isolette switched over. Once in his new isolette, she weighed him four times (1390, 1410, 1430, and 1430 grams). She was assuming that the 1430 grams was the right number. Jeff and I suspect it was a little lower because he has the IV in his foot. Holly mentioned that one of the reasons that they look at week trends rather than day-to-day fluctuations is measurement error with the equipment.

When we left, Henry was doing fine in his new bed.