Day 31: Blessed (longer post than usual) No day is the same in this upside down, backwards, little bubble that is the nisc. Some days are good for one reason but bad for another, some days are completely unchanged but no better or worse doesn’t mean unemotional and then other days are either good or bad depending on the situation. It’s the way you learn to deal with the ups and downs that determines how the journey feels I guess (or that’s the way I’m choosing to look at it). For me personally I feel blessed. Blessed that we birthed our twins in such an amazing hospital with the nicu only 1 floor away, blessed that our twins survived their birth, blessed that they have had an amazing team of doctors and nursing caring for them (all bar one or two – but that is to be expected in any hospital), blessed that so far they have been meeting and surpassing all the expectations placed on them and blessed that I have had such an amazing husband to gain strength and love from during this roller coaster and I believe that has only served to make us stronger than we already were. We have also been so blessed to have so much support from all of our family, friends, colleagues, acquaintances and even strangers. So as I have said before, thank you everyone for your support of us and of our precious babies. So onto today: ABIGAIL Abigail was so relaxed all swaddled up in her open cot, I know its been a few days now but I seriously can not help but smile every time I walk into the room and see her in her open cot. Abigail spent a lot of time today active and alert. She also really responded to my voice today during her alert periods and would follow me with her head and eyes. I really do believe all the reading, humming, chatting and kangaroo care is helping with her (and his) development and our bonding. Abigail remained on her CPAP 6 and spent the day in 30-35% oxygen again. Given that her requirements have not really decreased the Paeds ordered an x-ray just to make sure there was nothing else going on that could hinder her breathing. The results of her x-ray today were better than the x-ray she had 10 days ago so it seems Abigail just needs more time to be able to breathe on her own or at least without the CPAP. Eventually she will work it out though and when she does we will have a little happy dance for her. Given Abigails weight gain her feeds were again graded up today, she is now on 40mls of fortified expressed milk. The fortifier is basically just extra calories and it has obviously been working well as her weight gain has been fantastic! She was tolerating her increased feeds this evening and was even waking before her feeds and mouthing around a little. Abigail absolutely loved her mummy cuddles today. Her saturations were above 96% the whole time and she slept peacefully for over an hour and a half and spent the rest of the time alert. She left her prongs in for the whole cuddle as well. We did try a twin cuddle but Aiden did not tolerate that well. This afternoon Abigail became quite grizzly and her heart rate was high, the nurse took her temp and it was 37.9! We took off her clothes and just had her in a wrap, within the hour her temp was back down to 37.1….. our little princess was being cooked! She has had a stable temp since then. Oh and she had a cap gas done today which was apparently fine. Otherwise, Abby seemed to be a happy little camper today. AIDEN Aidens goal for today was to stay off high flow and move into an open cot. Unfortunately for Aiden, today was not that day. When I arrived this morning Aidens oxygen saturations were ranging from 80% to 100% but he was occasionally having some A&B’s that required stimulation and facial oxygen. He also had a few colour changes throughout the day as well. The Paeds reviewed him and we discussed options of high flow and low flow, it would depend on what Aiden did over the course of the afternoon as to what respiratory support he might need. At 8pm tonight Aiden was recommenced back onto high flow in 4 litres of air as he had a few more A&B’s and desats that required stimulation this afternoon/evening. He wasn’t quite ready to stay off his high flow this time around but that is ok, each trial off breathing support gets us closer to the time where he will stay off. And really he (they) are only 31 weeks and doing so so well. Aiden also had his feeds graded up to 40mls of fortified expressed milk every 3 hours. He also woke before his feeds and mouthed around however he didn’t tolerate his increase all that well and had a few large vomits. Our lovely nurse checked his nasogastric tube (and had it looked at by the paeds) and it was decided that his tube was not in his gut far enough. He had the tube moved deeper, from 16 to 19, and since then has had no further vomits. Aiden did not tolerate his mummy cuddle, I think the combination of not having any breathing support when he was clearly getting tired again, the increase in feeds (so full tummy leaving no room for his little lungs to expand) and the poorly placed nasogastric tube all contributed to him having a few colour changes in his cuddle requiring stimulation and facial oxygen. After only a short while we decided he wasn’t really coping with his cuddle today so we placed him back in his isolette. He did however saturate very well when I read him Peter Pan. In view of his unstable respiratory efforts, his increase in feeds and behaviour in the cuddle we decided that we would not push Aiden today and therefore not transfer to the open cot. With some high flow this evening and overnight we will look at the possibility of transferring him tomorrow morning as long as he is more stable and more settled. So today wasn’t a bad day, but it wasn’t a great day either. It was just another day in nisc, but one we feel so blessed to have had all the same.
Posted on: Mon, 13 Oct 2014 13:12:26 +0000
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