Enough is a muff

When we arrived yesterday morning, little man had ear muffs on....it's so noisy in this place. He was having bradycardias often which showed the nurse he was reacting to the amount of noise. He had a new, much bigger, much older, neighbour who was causing quite a ruckus. This coupled with the doctors' rounds and nurse shift change over, proved for a noise not dissimilar to a construction site for the poor little chap.

Last night when we left he was looking quite chubby, again just fluid from the surgery, the platelets, and just general goings on of the last week. They don't always like to give lasix as they drain all the liquid and this can lower sodium and potassium levels, but overnight they did as he had another blood transfusion. This was to top him up as his haemoglobin level had dropped to 87 and they like it to be around 100. Again this is because of the amount of blood they are taking for gases and full blood counts etc.

The surgeons have visited this morning and are just waiting for Prof Cass to give the all clear for feeds. His tummy doesn't look swollen at all now, he has a good colour, and is pooing and weeing like a trooper again. I think they'd just like to give his bowel a little more rest. I think he's hungry now as he gulped down four milk soaked cotton tips yesterday afternoon. Little piggy.

Again he's having lots of braddys this morning, and whispers of a return to Royal North Shore were heard. This means he's not happy with the tube, and it has quite a large leak which essentially means that he is doing most of the work himself rather than the ventilator. He is not ready to be extubated as yet and needs to remain ventilated for the ride home. Not counting our chickens though, but today would be a good option as it is not a public holiday, and NET staff availability may be higher now rather than in the next couple of days. Anyway, instead they are removing the tube from his throat and placing one in his nose instead. It is still the same type of respiratory support, but with less movement and chance of leak. They are hoping this will cease the frequent bradycardias.

The thing with NET (Newborn Emergency Transport) is that babies requiring transportation for surgery are priority, not ones who just need a ride home afterwards. They also cover the whole of New South Wales, so if they had one in Newcastle or Wagga they'd take priority also.

I told Jensen last night that he doesn't belong here. There are so many sick little ones here requiring or recovering from surgery, mainly newborns. They don't see a lot of preemies. Now that his surgery is done and he's recovering well and pooing, we just need to start feeding then hopefully get out of here. His morphine is now on 10, his sugars are good, he is saturating high on 30% o2.
Feeds won't start until tomorrow, then it will start at one ml four hourly and go up in increments of 15ml per kilo. Once he's done a poo and the doctor and surgical team are happy will be on our way north again.




Daddy and I bought Jensen's car seat today, we found the one we wanted for a fabulous price...very exciting. Thank you to grandma and grandad Jackson for helping us out with that purchase. This was the most exciting purchase I've ever made....it means that we know Jensen will be coming home.
Oh and Grandma James even got a little pat today as the nurses here appear a little more lenient with the 'no touching except parents' rule. Grandpa James and Grandma and grandad Jackson's turn tomorrow. Exciting times...

Posted with Blogsy