Well, I’m going to start today’s update talking about Sawyer as he is struggling the most right now. During the night last night (night of October 22nd/23rd) the nurse noticed that Sawyer was really having to work to breathe. They decided to do an x-ray to see if anything was wrong and found that his right lung had a small tear in it allowing the air to escape into his chest cavity. As his chest cavity filled, it compressed his lung. This is not an uncommon complication for premature babies to have due to the pressure that the C-PAP and other breathing assistance devices put on their immature lungs.
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/To relieve the pressure in the chest cavity, the doctor had to insert a tube through his chest into the cavity. A vacuum attached to the tube is relieving the pressure in his chest as the air fills it. The lung will heal by itself, usually within a day or two but this could happen again as he is still receiving the pressure from the breathing helps. To make the day worse for poor Sawyer, he had just received his pick (pic?) or more permanant IV line, which for these babies is not a pleasant experience. However, soon after receiving the chest cavity tube, he visibly relaxed, breathed easier, and his vitals improved.
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/Later in the day, likely due to being very tired from all the previous activity, he was not breathing well and decided to put him on the respirator, which will breathe with him and make it much easier for him so that he can rest. I called his nurse shortly after he received the respirator and the nurse said he was much more content. He was visibly upset/traumatized by all that had happened today and apparently was not given any pain medication! Tough kid. The night nurse noticed this and immediately called the doctor and got him some.Â
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/Sawyer also has not been doing well with his feedings and they have had to skip tube feedings a lot due to his breathing (he still receives food via IV). He is now receiving 4cc’s instead of five and digested about 2.5 of several feedings. He also is not pooping but hopefully he’ll start soon.Â
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/He has had a tough few days and they are trying to give him minimal stimulation to allow him to rest. His vitals are fine and he is still mostly breathing on his own. So he could use a few extra prayers as he catches up to his siblings.Â
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/Oh, and he and Kimball are under the jaundice lights now wearing their cool sunglasses like their sister.
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/Kimball had another good day. His food was increased from 4cc to 9cc (about two teaspoons total) every three hours and he did very well with the larger amount, digesting almost all of it. He was taken off the C-PAP and put on the nose canola (not sure of the spelling) on the “3” setting. He has been sucking so well on his pacifier that they are actually going to try and bottle feed him tomorrow. So basically, breathing good, eating good, no other complications. He is doing very well. April was able to hold him again today as he received his feeding and, according to his vitals and facial expressions, he was very content with that.Â
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/By the way, the kids all sound mostly like baby goats when they cry/yell.
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/Brinlee also had another very good day. Her nose canola was turned down to “2” and they were going to turn it down to
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/”1″ at 1 am on the 24th and take it out altogether on the morning of the 24th if she continued to do so well. This would leave her breathing completely on her own. She is also doing well on her feeding and was increased from 1cc to 3cc and will continue to increase everyday if she does well. She is also sucking well on the pacifier. April and I both held her today and she only yelled at dad, which apparently all the kids like to do. Probably cause dad has a hard time warming up his cold hands.
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/All the kids are now receiving breast milk along with the formula.
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/My mother and April’s brother were able to visit this evening and see the kids. As we had held Kimball and Brinlee earlier in the day we didn’t want to play with them too much, along I did fumble through changing Brinlee’s diaper.Â
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/As for April, she continued to improve today and was visibly less tired and more hungry. For those of you who know April, food is very important to her and her taste buds are finally coming back after being on vacation for most of her pregnancy. Her acid reflux is gone (no more babies jumping on her stomach) and her surgery is healing well. We expect her to leave the hospital on Wednesday.
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/For both of us, today was emotionally difficult as we saw the babies, especially Sawyer, struggling to just live. I should mention that the babies are all much lighter now than when they were delivered. Sawyer is around 3lbs 4 oz, Kimball is 2 lbs 13 oz. and Brinlee is 2 lbs 15 oz. This is about right and we expect to see them start gaining weight in the next few days.
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/I’d post pictures, except it is 1 am and I’m going to bed. Thanks for the love and support!