Day 55 - Eyes Looking Good - 2nd ROP Exam

Thursday, February 23, 2021

Update: James is receiving the steroids well. His FIO2 levels have been from the upper 30s to the upper 40s, which is down from the mid-50s last night. Due to this, the doctor thinks we can try the conventional ventilator, possibly on Thursday.  This would open the chance for Mom to do her first skin to skin! (Previously, Mom held Baby James without skin to skin due to the JET machine being too bulky and risky). The results from James’s eye exam came back good. He’s showing great progress here without concern. His next exam will be in two weeks. He is still at Stage 1, Zone 2. The progress made shows he has moved in Zone 2 closer Zone 3.

James did have the EKG yesterday, and the results are not concerning right now even though numbers show low due to compared to adult heart. There will be a follow up with Echo at the end of the steroid course and there will be another EKG done then to be certain.

The Clonidine medicine for blood pressure could be lowering James’s heart rate. It’s not concerning as of now being it’s at 120-130s, and sometimes 110s. The older he gets, the lower his heart rate will become. As long as it’s not in the 70s, we are good. 
The doctors have the roof of the incubator open due to James self regulating his temperature. This gives Mom and Dad a better view him. As James gets older, there’s different goals and plans moving forward.  The doctor suggests a parent conference as we begin approaching his due date, which is April 8th. There’s possibilities for all sorts of scenarios that could happen and the doctor thinks it could be a good idea to discuss them ahead of time.  Dad thinks we wait until the due date for the conversations, due to not planning or worrying for something that might never happen.  Mom thinks getting all the information now will help prepare us for what’s to come. James thinks ... 🤔... 
James is also getting his blood gas tested twice daily. 

James gets to wear clothes soon!

Since he is now regulating his own temperature, the nurses said it would be a good idea to bring in some clothes for James. They suggest onesies with snaps (ideally plastic) that go diagonal along his body down to his feet. These would also need to be footless since they need access to his feet for his pulse ox and heel for blood gases regularly. One nurse even suggested a onesie that swaddled the arms but snap down the legs. Well we searched the internet and couldn't really find anything. The only one we found and purchased was on Carters (photo below). We are really surprised there are not more NICU friendly preemie onesies out there! It's hard to find ones without the feet sewn together. Most of these still have the bottom sewn together around the ankles. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Thank goodness for Amazon reviews.