Ups and Downs

This week we got to experience our first "rounds" with the doctors. It's amazing how thorough they are and how much time they spend on each patient. They also took the time to translate because about 90% of the stuff they discussed we didn't understand : ) They took time to answer all of our question - it's just proof that we are in the right place!

Alexander had his first "down" that we had been warned about. Two nights ago he began needing more oxygen to breath. For his first week of life he had only needed about 20% through the ventilator, but it skyrocketed to 70%. Fortunately he settled himself and today was floating between 35-45%. Their goal is to keep him under 50% but ideally they would like him where he was before at using only the 20%. Oxygen aid impacts eyesight and in premies can cause blindness. So it's important to keep it as low as Alex can tolerate. 

Today, in Alex's daily x-ray, a spot of what they believe to be fluid showed up on his lung. They are trying to shift how he is laying to help drain it and are sucking more fluid out of his mouth than previously - he's so small he can't cough or clear his throat so they have to do all the suction out.

The positive news is that Alexander is tolerating my breast milk very well. He's up to 6cc every 4 hours through his feeding tube. He will be put on a pump today that will help give him the breast milk slowly over the course of the 4 hours instead of all at once, as he was getting. On Friday, they will be fortifying my milk with more vitamins and minerals. This also increases the calories. On average, an ounce of breast milk is 20 calories, and with the additions, it will be about 27 calories per ounce. I'd like to think that through my experience with fattening up Andrew, my milk is more like a Whitey's malt than the average but we shall see : ) 

This will all help him gain weight too, which is the ultimate goal because a bigger baby can fight lung disease and infection better. He's now back up to 1 lb, 4 oz. We expect that he will be up and down day to day, but should expect him to gain week over week. We believe that his digestion track is all working as he's been having wet diapers and he had his first black tar poo! Can't believe we could be so thrilled with poo : )

The doctors think it's "awesome" that he has been able to be off antibotics so far - so hopefully we can keep that streak going and avoid any infections.

They were able to turn off his lamps as his billirubin numbers were down to a 3 - they need to be under 7 to turn off the lamps. They had to be turned on a little today but were back off this afternoon. You will see him without his special goggles in the photos below!

So the next couple weeks will be critical for Alexander. Our focus is to 1) manage his lung disease and keep his oxygen levels down - if he can start to breath better and get a little bigger than they can move him to a different ventilator; 2) eat and grow; and 3) stay infection free!!

We also got to help take his temperature and change his diaper this week, which helped me feel more like his mother : ) Here are some new photos of our little man:

Are these two brothers or what?!?!?

Alexander

Andrew