March 9, 2008

Good news today.

Rylie got his last dose of Indocin yesterday afternoon. Today, Dr. Riley said that he could be tried off of the CPAP. When we got to the NICU, he was on Room Air, with no breathing support and his blood oxygenation was 100%. Since he finished the Indocin, he was restarted on his feeds, and has had them increased to the point that he no longer needs an IV. The picture below is Rylie off all CPAP. He still has his feeding tube.


This is a picture of Rylie's monitor showing that he has 100% blood oxygen saturation while breathing room air. That tends to indicate that the Indocin was successful in closing the PDA. He is scheduled to have a repeat echocardiogram tomorrow. He is also scheduled to have an ultrasound of his brain to check for bleeding in the brain (all three babies are scheduled for a brain ultrasound tomorrow). Bleeding in the brain is a real problem for infants that are born prematurely.


Shelley got to give Rylie a bath today, and then she got to hold him. The picture below is Rylie just before he got his bath.

This is Rylie, and Shelley is getting ready to give him a bath. The warmer is open and you can see that he is not on CPAP or any other ventilatory assistance. The whole time that he was getting a bath, and while Shelley was holding him, he maintain his blood oxygenation at, or above 95%. We got a good video of Shelley giving Rylie a bath, but we do not have the necessary equipment to be able to upload the video.


This is Shelley holding Rylie. He was opening his eyes and looking at Shelley; then, when I would say something, he would shift his eyes to look at me.


We were hoping to get to hold Reese today, but that did not happen. She was given a trial of being off the CPAP; but she got tired very quickly and had to go back on the CPAP. The nurse was concerned that she was still tired from breathing without CPAP, and she would not let us hold her. We had to settle for touching her inside her warmer. Her last dose of Indocin was around noon today. We are hoping that she has as good a response as Rylie appears to have had.


This is a picture of Reese's monitor. As you can see, her blood oxygenation was 98% with an FiO2 of 21% (the same as room air). It appeared to Shelley and me that she was stable enough to be able to be held, but the nurse was adamant about her staying in the warmer.


This is Ryan. He keeps having his feedings increased. Today, the feedings seemed to be responsible for his blood oxygenation dropping. While we were there, he was getting a feeding, and his blood oxygenation was dropping below 90%. Therefore, we chose not to try to hold him today. We will wait until he is more stable. His FiO2 is still at 21%, and he seems to be doing well.


A big thank you to my sister, Karen, and her daughter, Natalie. They came to the Ronald McDonald house to babysit Racheal while we went to the NICU to visit the babies (Karen helped take care of Racheal all weekend long). Also, another big thank you to Karen; yesterday, Karen brought the makings for homemade burritos. We ate that tonight for supper, and it was excellent.

Jan Johnson came to see us yesterday. She and my father are cousins. We want a big thank you to go out to her and Aunt Lib; they brought a present that had something for the babies, something for Racheal, and something for us. They were very happy that we were able to get them into the NICU so that they could see the babies. Jan lives in Colleyville, and has told us to call her if we need anything.

We leave the Ronald McDonald house tomorrow and travel back home. We want to be able to give Racheal as stable a home-life as is possible; we are going back home so that she can go to school on Tuesday, and Faith Weavers on Wednesday. We plan to return to Fort Worth next weekend.

The Ronald McDonald house is a wonderful place. We are very thankful that we have been allowed to stay here.

Please keep praying for us all. The babies continue to improve, but still have a long way to go. Please pray that Shelley and Racheal and myself will continue to be safe while we travel between Fort Worth and home.