Short and Sweet

Dear Samuel,

Today was an awesome day. Because it was so awesome, I'm really tired...so I'm going to make this somewhat short.

Your infection. Gone.
Disclaimer: For the most part, its gone. We are past the 60 hour mark of having a negative culture. They are still keeping you on antibiotics for another 7-10 days though just to make sure we completely got it.

Your breathing. Like a Champ.
You are still on the CPAP machine and doing really well. When we there tonight, you only had about 5 to 10 de-sats...which, compared to the other night is a complete 180. You WERE on 60% O2 though, which is up a bit but your RR (Respiration rate) is down to 20 (When you were on the vent this number was up around 40 to 50).

Blood Sugar. Stabilized.
They took you off of your insulin drip today, because your numbers were reading in the mid 100s (Tonight was around 130).

Hemoglobin. Well, not quite sure but I bet it's up.
You had another transfusion today, because your Hemoglobin had dropped to around 9.0. I have a feeling this may be helping with your O2 saturation levels as well.

If you have a good overnight, your Mom may get to hold you again. We are praying that you do.

See you bright and early buddy.

Love,
Mom and Dad

The Honeymoon's Over

Dear Samuel,

They told us this would happen.......

2 steps forward, 1 step back. We didn't want to believe them but in the back of our minds we sort of knew it would come.

Luckily, it's nothing "serious" although it can get a little frustrating. The past few days now your O2 saturation drops for no apparent reason especially while laying on your back. I guess this is not an uncommon stage with Premies with the O2 sats dropping and their oxygen intake on their vent going up (You are up to 60% oxygen....when you were first born you were at 21%). While it's good to know this isn't uncommon, it still doesn't make it any easier when your alarms go off every few minutes......

As far as we know, your infection is still there as well. The blood culture that was done on Wednesday was "clean" today, but so was the one from Monday at 24 hours of being cultured. It's once we hit the 48 hour mark is when it comes back positive. They have started treating this infection more aggressively by upping your antibiotics.

We still are chasing your blood sugars all over the map. Tonight's reading was 237 (They want it to be around 100). They have upped your insulin again to try and regulate it.

There was some GOOD to today though....

You did open your left eye just a bit today. It's about halfway "unfused". My guess is that you will have it fully open tomorrow morning when we come and see you. We can't wait to see both of them open!

We are all in for a long haul buddy.....but I think we have a pretty good thing going. You keep fighting and so will we.

See you tomorrow pal.

Love,
Mom and Dad

Up and Down

Dear Samuel,

Today was a bit of a struggle. Not bad, just a bit.

You are fighting off an infection in your blood stream (They can't tell us exactly WHAT this infection is, just that it is one) that is messing with your Blood Sugar and O2 sats. They feel that this infection is what was causing your blood sugar to spike from high to low.  You were started on antibiotics every 18 hours

For now, it sounds like your blood sugar has leveled off and you are no longer on insulin. Which is great, but you have been struggling with your O2 sats, as they will now drop unexpectedly from your optimal range (88-94%). However, when it does drop you are able to recover quickly which is a good sign.

This morning was busy. It was decided that your "Central Lines" needed to come out and it was OK that they came out because you got up to "Full Feeds" today (9 ccs of calorie fortified breast milk every 3 hours). First, they drew some blood for a culture to check the infection, as well as a fungal culture. Then, they placed a peripheral IV in your leg to take the place of the Central Lines that were in your belly button. Next, they removed the Central Lines from your belly. So, two fewer tubes but one more went in.

During all of this commotion you were a champ. Your sats only dropped once when you were getting poked and prodded. I think it was because you got to hold on to mommas hand during the whole thing.....but I might be biased.

Get some rest tonight buddy and fight off that infection.

Love,
Mom and Dad

In a Holding Pattern (Pun Intended)

Dear Samuel,

Today was one of those "once/twice in a lifetime" kind of days. Today was the day your Momma got to hold you for the first time. It took 4 nurses to take you out of your incubator and get you over to momma, but I think it was well worth it. I was lucky enough to have my camera ready to capture some of these moments:

You also got to experience your very first Packer's game (With No sound....thank the Lord). Unfortunately, I shouldn't have mentioned anything about a "streak" in a previous post. So, I'll take this one....my bad. 

After a few minutes on momma's chest I think you were all snuggled up and fell asleep for about 30 minutes.

They finally got to the bottom of why your Blood Sugar has been spiking. The did a blood culture on Friday and finally this morning were able to tell that you have some sort of infection in your blood stream so you were started on antibiotics immediately. Hopefully, that will fix this problem we've been having.

You continue to have really gross looking diapers (which is a good thing, because it means you are getting rid of all of that bilirubin).

Your feedings were upped again to 8 ccs every 3 hours. Our goal is to get you to 10 to 12 ccs every 3 hours. If you can get there, we may not have to do the PICC line (which would be awesome).

Hopefully, we will get a chance to give you a bath tonight....That's where we are heading right now!

See you soon.

Love,
Mom and Dad