The Duece, The Scare and Rolling Over

THE DEUCE: Randi spent her first night at home last night. It's good to get back to our routine, even if it is abbreviated. The boys will be home soon enough, and we will have to learn a new routine. Luckily, we will get a practice round with Parks coming home first before we get the full brunt of two newborns at once. Wyatt and Parks moved to the Level II ICN this morning. It sounds like Wyatt only has one more day under the bili lights. Parks's levels are still increasing, although he still does not need the same treatment. Wyatt is now on continuous feeds at a higher rate than Parks. This is great, but we are concerned again that they are trying to push him too much. We are going to set up a meeting with a neonatologist on Monday in order for them to give us a good reason to increase his feeds so much. We are risking so many things going wrong with his bowels that were starved of blood flow for so long in utero. Parks is still resisting increased food. We are hoping that he will pull out of this slump so that we can get him coordinating his suck-swallow-breathe reflex and take him home. This seems to be the only real hurdle he needs to overcome.

THE SCARE: I had my first experience performing kangaroo care late last night with Wyatt. I made sure to wear a button up shirt so that I could tuck him in well against my bare skin. I was really hoping he wasn't going to find out about the nipple while I was holding him. Anyways, I was holding him for over an hour with no one around singing some Johnny Cash to him. I was sitting in a position to where I could watch all his monitors while rocking him. All of a sudden his heart rate and breathing go completely ____________________________________flat. I started to see if I had unhooked one of his cords with my foot, but I could see no problem. I held him back away from my chest, and he was completely still. Not a muscle moved. I got panicked. I looked over to Randi, who was holding Parks and was in no position to jump up from her seat three days after surgery. I yelled for a nurse to come over and found that the lead monitor on his chest had come loose and lost signal. I'm sure that this is not the last time for a scare, but, crap, the first must be the worst.

ROLLING OVER: I arrived at the ICN today to speak with the nurse who had charge over our boys for the first day in Level II. As we mentioned before, Wyatt hates, I mean hates, to be on his stomach. The nurse told us today that she was trying to turn him over on his belly, and he was going to have none of it. He managed to flail himself about to, first, prop himself up on his side, and then, roll himself completely over onto his back. Of course, promptly after these gymnastics he fell into a deep, content sleep.