Tonight Chris was Henry's nurse. When we arrived, he had been moved to his new place in the isolation room. He weighed in at 1740 grams or 3 lbs 13 oz. This is a new milestone; he has reached the same weight that Kate was when she was born. Kate was in this same NICU for 17 days after being born 7 weeks premature. She was able to go home fairly quickly because she started eating and growing right away.
The isolation room is very nice. It is on a busy hallway but while he has visitors, the doors can be closed. This makes it relatively quiet. It's not sound proof by any means but is vastly superior to being out in the pod.
Henry was sleeping well when we got there and continued to sleep well for an hour or two. He was finally woken up by the nurse to change his diaper and listen to his breathing. We took him out at that point which took some work. When they moved him, they put the feeding tube and oxygen tube through one side of the isolette and the monitoring cables out the other side. This makes it so you can't really take him out because the cords can't reach.
After some adjusting and hullabaloo, they got his tubes and wires all on one side of the isolette. Kate held him for a while, but he had real problems keeping his oxygen level up. They turned him up from 30% to 100% and it didn't seem to make a difference. They then turned up how much oxygen was flowing from .4 to .6 and still he had problems. Then they suctioned out his nose, which still did not help. Chris gave us a face mask that gives out a high level of oxygen to use to get him back up to a level that wouldn't set off the alarms. We hadn't had to use that in probably a month or more.
Finally, as he continued to have problems, we asked to have the respiratory therapist come back to make sure the equipment was working. Chris couldn't find him, so she checked herself and found something was loose. His oxygen saturation immediately rose to 100%.
I don't know if he was basically off of oxygen assistance that whole time, probably an hour or so, or if he was just getting a very little amount. If he wasn't getting anything, I actually think it was kind of encouraging. He was able to get by, although not at the level he needs, but pretty close, without any additional oxygen.
It was nice to see him sleeping as soundly as he was when we first got there and again as we left. I think the isolation room is going be very good for him. Hopefully, he can stay there. His old neighbor Ian was screaming up a storm tonight, so it seems we moved just in time. Ian isn't being fed right now so he is not happy about being hungry.
We have had some conversations with staff about the past and how far things have come in the NICU. One told us that they used to play rock music in the pods and Kate's parents said that when babies stopped breathing the nurses would bang a spring board the babies were laying on to make them bounce up and down. Now they know better. Kate and I were discussing what it is they will know in another 10-20 years. I believe they will realize that the babies should have as womb like an experience as possible, quiet and dark. Seems like common sense. However, it will probably require years of research and billions of dollars to come to that conclusion.
In non Henry news, it rained tonight. Yea! We need it.
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