Two by Two

Saturday, June 2, 2007

Parks And The Ped

Parks went to his first pediatrician checkup today. He is now 5 pounds 12 ounces at 18 days old. The doctor said that it is ideal to have the babies at least back to their birth weight by their first checkup, and he is 10 ounces over that. She gave him a thorough checkup and said that everything looked great. Since he was breach in utero, she wanted to check him out for hip dysplacia, but she could find no cause for concern after examination. On Monday, we will be setting up his "little surgery" for very soon. Randi is not sure she want to see it, but we were reassured that they will use lidocaine prior to help with the pain. After that, he will return to her for a 2 month checkup for growth and his first round of immunization shots.

At home, he is doing spectacular. He is nursing every three hours, the same schedule that he had in the ICN, and is sleeping great in between feeds. He sleeps, he eats, he poops. We have tried out the car seat, pack 'n play, co-sleeper, bouncy seat, baby swing, changing pads, white noise machine, etc., etc., etc. I really could care less to have all this stuff, but I will absolutely use every last bit of equipment we have just to justify having it. Randi can have the infant paraphernalia; I'm ready for the sports equipment and action figures, as I was promised (tongue-in-cheek).

Friday, June 1, 2007

Wyatt Update

Well, I had hoped to update with all good news as I visited this NICU between 11 am - 1 pm and things seemed to be looking better. His blood glucose had normalized for two separate readings, one at around 10 am and another one right before I left at 12:30 pm. However, Todd and I went together this evening and found out the doctor had ordered his IV fluids be lowered and within an hour Wyatt's blood glucose levels were 44. Just so you know, they like them absolutely no lower than 50, but 60 is really as low as he should be. So, they raised the IV rate and when we were there his sugars were 77. Not too bad, but we are a bit confused why they keep pushing this child. He is clearly not ready to be off the IV. Unfortunately, his doctor is gone for the day, so I will have to call in the morning and see if he's going to be there then.

Without sharing too much detail, I have also learned that Wyatt was possibly not receiving the most prudent of care from his doctors last night when all of this got really ugly. Basically, it took them almost 30 hours to stabilize his blood sugar and he was having dips as low as 26. Sugars that low are extremely dangerous! Todd and I are very disappointed and very worried and are trying to figure out the best way to handle the situation. Please keep Wyatt in your prayers and also his caregivers, that they make the best decisions for his health and that they allow him to move at his own pace instead of pushing him harder than his fragile body can handle. Thanks so much!!

Wyatt

Things are going well here at home. Parks did great his first night at home; however, I still didn't get much sleep. Todd was planning to be at home with us for a few days, but ended up having to go to work, so I'm on my own for most of today. We'll see how it goes.

Todd mentioned in his post last night that we had some problems with Wyatt's blood sugar yesterday. Without going into too much detail, they are having an extremely hard time stabilizing Wyatt's blood sugar levels. His blood sugar levels have been dipping to dangerously low levels since yesterday morning, but it appears to have gotten even worse throughout the evening and early morning hours. His 24 hour continuous feeds were discontinued yesterday AM along with his IV dextrose and electrolytes. The only thing we can figure is this was too much for his little system to handle at once. They have been giving him IV fluids all through the night and have also put him back on continuous feeds and they still cannot get his blood sugar up to normal levels. It seems the neonatologists are baffled. They will round on him again the morning, hopefully in the next hour or so. Fortunately, all the doctors are in today so hopefully putting all their heads together they will figure out what's going on. In the meantime, they have moved Wyatt to triage where he can have a nurse that can give him more attention so that is good.

The worst part about this of course is that I have Parks, and I can't bring him to the NICU. That coupled with the fact that Todd has to work today, is making for a very neurotic mother this morning. Just now a friend called and is coming so I can get to the NICU and see what's really going on. Please keep Wyatt in your prayers!! I will keep you posted.

A Sort of Homecoming

We've got one down and one to go. Randi was very shocked today when she went to visit the boys to find out that Parks was being discharged today. We knew it was coming soon, but no one would give us a clear answer as to when it might transpire. So, as you can guess, today has been a bit of a mad dash to get everything "sort a" ready for his arrival. We got him home a little while ago, and Randi is nursing him for the first time here right now. Dante is not quite sure what to make of him, but all his fears and anxieties were quailed when he was offered a rawhide.

I am leaving you with a few pictures from tonight's departure. We have some more to tell about the discharge procedures details. We also had a scare early yesterday morning with Wyatt's blood sugar, but I am far too tired and not in the right frame of mind to go on. I'm surprised I'm this coherent. So, I will leave you with said pictures and go enjoy my new human being that I now own. We will hash out the other stories at some point tomorrow.

Parks and Wyatt with their "yardstick"