Push Ups

Carol was Henry's nurse today. We've seen Carol several times around the NICU, but I don't think that she has ever taken care of Henry before.

The exciting news in the morning was that his Grandpa K got to hold him for the first time! His Aunt Erin stopped by during the lunch hour. She was impressed by Henry's ability to do push ups in his isolette when on his tummy. Aunt Erin helped contain Henry while I changed his diaper. Then, I kangarooed with him for quite a few hours in the afternoon. Jeff came later in the afternoon and is witness to Henry doing a push up that launched him at least three or four inches off my chest. He received bonus points for height and distance. It was very impressive. But it also scared me a bit because I had no idea he had such muscle strength. And, it will make me a little wary of sleeping while holding him. Grandma K arrived in late afternoon. She took over holding Henry for me. I think that his sats were better when my mom was holding him than when I was holding him.

When I was holding him, the nose prongs from the cannula weren't in tight, and I could hear air escaping from his nose. He was surfing, so Carol turned up the oxygen from 32% to 50%. I don't know if he really needed quite that much, but it was a quick fix during our kangaroo time. She adjusted his prongs after Henry was put back in his isolette. And Henry became the guinnea pig for a new nose tape device that is supposed to hold the tubes in place better. Seemed to be working. By the time Jeff and I came back in the evening, his oxygen had been turned back down to 34%.

In other news, the resident who had been taking care of him during June disappeared without saying goodbye. Her style was much less interactive than her predecessor, Dr. McLain, who gave me updates every time she saw me (whether they were good, bad, or neutral). Dr. McLain's approach was excellent. And perhaps a good deal of the anxiety that I've felt this last month is in part because we haven't received continual updates from the doctors. The interactions have been few and far between. The nurses are excellent when it comes to telling me about his current status, but the doctors are the ones who are supposed to come up with the game plan for recovery. Some communication on that front would be helpful. Apparently, Henry has been assigned a new resident for the month of July. I asked Carol who that would be, because s/he hadn't introduced herself/himself to us yet. Carol found out who the resident was around and asked someone to tell him that I wanted to meet him. He never showed up even though he was around the NICU today.

The doctors decided to take Henry off of Lasix. Jeff and I were rather surprised because his output on non-Lasix days hasn't exactly been stellar. Carol said that she didn't know why they reached the decision they did but thought that if they weren't getting as much out of Henry on Lasix days, they probably didn't want to continue the Lasix because it would dehydrate him. I feel like his output on Lasix days has been relatively consistent (around 8 mls per hour for the first 12 hours after receiving it). That would suggest to me that the Lasix is doing something. On the other hand, the nurses have reported that his chest sounds clear. So if there isn't fluid in the lungs and he doesn't have edema, then it is probably a good thing to get rid of the Lasix. The Lasix takes calcium, potassium, and sodium from the body. And, Henry has to take potassium and sodium supplements because of it.

Angela was Henry's evening nurse. We hadn't met Angela before. She had already done his cares by the time we arrived. He weighed 1270 grams. That's a 40 gram increase from the day before. Some of it, of course, may be fluid. Henry was pretty sound asleep when we arrived at the NICU around 9PM. We waited until he stirred around 10:30PM before taking him out of his isolette. Jeff and Henry did skin-to-skin. Both of them slept soundly during it. Both were a bit cranky when we put Henry back in his isolette around midnight. Jeff has never been a good napper. And, Henry is always a bit cranky when we put him back into his isolette. He much prefers to sleep skin-to-skin with his daddy. His sats were great during skin-to-skin. They were in the high 90s.

All in all, today was a good day.