Day 79 - Gratitude Day! ☺️
Friday, March 19th, 2021
With the recent events and information that we have received in addition to there not being many updates today, we thought it would be a great day to be grateful for all of the things James has going for him! ❤️
Yes James has had several blood transfusions🩸for anemia, had to be on antibiotics for an infection 💊, and has had respiratory distress 🩺 which has led to broncopulmonary dysplasia 🫁. But he lucked out on a few things that are common to micropreemies.....
👁️👁️ His eyes! James is doing well on his eye exams. He has been opening his eyes more and more everyday! Some micropreemies get Retinopathy of Prematurity which is abnormal growth of the blood vessels in an infant's eye that can cause blindness. He is currently at Stage 1, Zone 2 and should have another exam on 3/23.
🧠 His brain! James has never had a brain bleed, which most nurses has let us know is amazing! An intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) is bleeding into the fluid-filled areas (ventricles) inside the brain. Infants born more than 10 weeks early are at highest risk for this type of bleeding. The smaller and more premature an infant is, the higher the risk for IVH. This is because blood vessels in the brain of premature infants are not yet fully developed. They are very fragile as a result. The blood vessels grow stronger in the last 10 weeks of pregnancy. And James was 14 weeks early!
🫀His heart! James had his PDA closed 2 weeks ago! Patent Ductus Arteriosus: In micro preemies, the short blood vessel connecting the main blood vessel supplying the lungs to the aorta frequently stays open in premature babies. Due to this abnormal opening, excess blood can flow into the lungs, causing breathing difficulties and in some cases heart failure.
🍼🍴🥡🌮 His GI tract! James has never had any issue with his feeds! Premature infants are more likely to have immature gastrointestinal systems, resulting in complications such as necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). This potentially serious condition, in which the cells lining the bowel wall are injured, can occur in premature babies after they start feeding. Also many premature babies suffer from GERD that can cause serious health problems like irritability, feeding intolerance, poor weight gain. This has never been an issue for James!
Only real update tonight is that James weighed in at 2765 grams (5lb 14oz)! 3 weeks away from his due date! Wonder if he would have been this big in the womb at 37 weeks! Oh and we also stopped the Albuterol, it wasn't doing much for him except agitating him.
🥛🐄🍼 Bringing home a 3rd huge bag of frozen and fresh milk to put in our deep freezer! Yes we are starting to stock up our second deep freezer! This way we can make sure James is getting the freshest of fresh having the nurses use the milk mom is pumping daily. AND Mom is bringing back to the hospital some of the frozen colostrum that was originally given back to us. If breast milk is liquid gold then colostrum is liquid platinum. Currently the nurses “make the milk" by taking fresh breast milk and mixing it with some of the fortifier. They mix these up in syringes for Jimmy's feedings that are every 3 hours around the clock at 8, 11, 2, 5. Prior to him being 34 weeks gestational the milk was mixed in the milk room....A secret place that no one is allowed to visit. 😂🤣😆 The nurses say it's not much to look at. But I like to imagine that it's something like the Willy Wonka factory with milk flowing down a river. Lol
Mom's first swaddle lesson from our Primary Nurse yesterday
We tried to have him sleep on his stomach, because it's better for the lungs; however, that was short-lived. He had been de-stating and I noticed he had face planted himself, sleeping but on ET tube! I grabbed a nurse. Poor baby just wanted to change positions.
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