March 8,2008

Below is a picture of Rylie. The nurse is getting a blood sample to send to the lab for analysis.

Rylie did not like getting his blood drawn. After the blood draw, Shelley changed his diaper, and that made him even angrier. You can see in the picture below that he pitched quite a fit.


The next picture is Reese. She is off of her CPAP in this picture. She was very active and was scooting down to the end of the warmer.

You can see that from the picture above, to the time of the second picture below (which was maybe 15 seconds), she has completely scooted off of the pillow.

Reese has started being cycled off of her CPAP. She can be off for as long as 6 hours, if she tolerates it; then she will be back on the CPAP for 6 hours. Thus far, she has only tolerated being off of the CPAP for about 4 hours; then she gets tired and her blood oxygen saturation starts to drop. We were hoping that we would get to hold her today while she was off the CPAP, but another baby in the room needed emergent placement of a chest tube, and the room was closed while that procedure was being performed. By the time that the room had re-opened, Reese was having apneic episodes and had to be put back on the CPAP. Once she was back on her CPAP, we were not able to hold her, so we missed that opportunity today. As soon as she was back on her CPAP, her blood saturation went back up above 95%. Without all the tubing, she appeared to be quite peaceful and was resting easily in her warmer.


Shelley got to hold Ryan today for about 15 minutes (see the picture below).

After Ryan was put back into his warmer, Randall got to change his diaper.


Rylie and Reese were getting the last dose of Indocin while we were visiting today. We will have to wait to see if it was effective in closing the Patent Ductus Arteriosis. They were getting reduced feeds, and had to have an IV restarted for fluid support.

Ryan is tolerating his feeds well. Without the tube in his throat, he is better able to protect his airway; so, even if he does spit up, he is better able to prevent aspiration of the spit up. Because the tube goes between the vocal cords, he had a very coarse cry today. He did well while Shelley was holding him. He was opening his eyes quite a bit today. He seemed to be taking a good look around.

Karen, Randall's sister, came to the Ronald McDonald House today and stayed with Racheal while Randall and Shelley went to see the babies.