Ups and now DOWNS!

1st time I held Andrew and Jacob together Thank You Jill for the picture :-D

jacob 8-26-09

Andrew 8-26-09

Logan was doing well for a few days. After my last post the next day I believe he was placed on a nasal canula thing not like Jacob's and Andrews high flow, but I believe it was called a vaperderm. It allowed him not to have the mask on his face, but receive a higher flow of oxygen then the high flow gives. He maintained 6 liters at 50% oxygen until 2 days ago. He slowly went up into the 60's more when he ate than anything. Early this morning around 4am they put him back on cpap with a flow of 8 and at 84% oxygen and ran a bunch of test. Turns out the doctor called me around 11am and told me Logan has tested + for RSV. There has been quite the outbreak of RSV in the NICU. I was wondering why all the babies that were in his room were disappearing. I just assumed they had been moved because they were getting better. Well, I was wrong. I found all the babies he had been room with over the past months were all in Pod 1 on isolation with RSV! Apparently Logan was the last of the babies that were there to test posative. He is strong and was fighting the cpap the entire time I was up there. Sad his body is so strong even though his lungs are so weak. Please pray for him. I know in my heart he will make it out of the NICU okay.
On a lighter note. Jacob and Andrew have been weening down on there oxygen and have both made it to 1 liter on there canulas. They have both been practicing on bottle feeding. Jacob surprised everyone today when he suddenly learned to suck swallow breath. This was day 4 for his once a day bottle feed. The last 3 day the most he has taken was between 4cc and 7cc and he would desat the entire time. Today he took 26cc! with very few desats and brought himself back up on his own. Andrew took 13cc this was his 3rd feed. Yesterday the nurse tried and he did not eat any and on his 1st feed ever he took 16cc. I does not desat at all when he feeds. He just does not suck hard enough and tires himself out. They are so close to coming home! Just a few more hurtles and a little more growing and maturing. They will be 34 weeks tomorrow. Jacob and Andrew are still co-bedding and doing great. Oh and they had there eye exams yesterday and they all just show premature retinas and nothing more yea!

BIG UPDATES!

Jacob

Andrew

Logan

Logan

I just spoke with Dr. Brown.

Jacob got moved to pod 3 2 days ago. I tried to bottle feed him 2 days ago he literally chocked down a total of 4cc. MD decided to discontinue the bottle feed for now and give him another week. Today she also decreased his oxygen flow from 2liters to 1.5 liters on room air. His TSH apparently has been high for the past 2 weeks (NEWS TO ME!) like 85 and 36. So she had him seen by an endocrinologist. He started him on syntroid for hypothyroidism. She thinks his hormone levels will correct himself over time. He is 4lbs 4oz still and doing well on feeds.

Andrew is doing very good he was been weened to 2liters on room. He is doing well on his feeds and is 3lbs 13oz MD said early next week he will be moved with Jacob in pod 3 if all goes well.

Logan was taken off the ventilator yesterday. He has been off for 24 hours now and is doing well. He started off on 70% oxygen is staying between 50-55% now with a peak of 8. She did start him on a 2nd round of steroids for some edema still hanging around. He has an inguinal hernia and his poor little scrotum is swollen and hard. MD said they would fix it before he goes home and that it is not causing any harm. She said they don't fix them until they are over 4lbs. His Hct is coming back up 28.8. Overall he has had many little miracles over the last week. Power of prayer really shows. Praise God! and I thank everyone who continues to pray for my childrens' health.

Praying things keep going up.

Happy to report at the moment all 3 boys are showing improvement tonight. First for Logan. I hope the steroids he is on no matter what the side effects are, are the miracle we have all been praying for. He has been on them for 24 hours now and his oxygen has been weened from 55% to 42% and when I left the NICU he was still was "high sating" at 99-100% He is still having desats but when they suction him he comes back up. He is still pales and his Hct is back down at 24. Jack did donate blood, so we will know in a few days if he can have Jack's blood. He did well with his first transfusion.

Andrew is still improving they continue to ween his oxygen he was at 4 liters and 28% now he is at 3 liters and 26% and doing fine. Still in Isolet. Hopefully in a few days if things continue to improve he can be co-bedding with Jacob.

Jacob is once again doing better than ever. He has been weened from 4 liters at 21% room air to 2 litters at 21%. He is still in the bassinet and maintaining his temperature. It is running low normal, but as long as he does not drop under 97 he can stay out of the box. He is running around 97.2 He is 4lbs 4oz now.

Not sure of the other 2 boys weights. Last weight on Logan a few days ago was 2lbs 11oz and Andrew was 3lbs 9oz.

I just hope they all continue to improve and the worse part is over, but I don't feel like I can relax yet. There is an order for Logan that if he pulls his tube out to try him on Cpap again. If he keeps it in they will try him off the vent after his 6 doses of steroids. His last x-ray still looked really bad though and he still needs alot of suctioning in his lungs to keep his sats up. I will continue that God has a miracle for him and that he WILL survive and thrive.

Is there going to be an improvement?

Last night I went to the NICU and stayed for a little over 3 hours. I held Logan for a good 2 hours. He did great! He had 1 major desat while I held him and it was just because he needed to be suctioned. He did great with his blood transfustion. Andrew is still very stable and doing well on his nasal canula. Jacob still on cpap doing very well though and getting his antibiotics.

2 steps back!

Last night I went to see the boys by myself. I had every intention of holding atleast Andrew and Jacob as long as I wanted without Jack or anyones bitching to leave. So I was holding Andrew and he was doing so well. Still on 4 liters at 28% but no desats. He is doing better than he has been in weeks. Logan is backsliding hard. His oxygen is at 49% they have increase the peak and flow on his vent and the meds for his pulmonary edema are not working. He has a bad sodium deficentcy requiring alot of supplement due to the diuretics he is on and his blood count Hct has dropped to 23 as of last night. While hold Andrew doctor comes in to tell me they are moving Jacob back to a critical care nursery to pod 1 and that he is going on isolation until they rule on RSV. Apparently over the last 36 hours they have had to increase his oxygen from 2.5 liters and 25% to 4 liters and 48% and he was still having alot of desats down in the 30s. He was retracting and struggling to breath. They ran a bunch of blood test and did some cultures and the moved him. They also put him on cpap. This was the end of the line for me trying not to cave in and loose it. I can offically say I have had a nerves breakdown. Today they have determined he does not have RSV thus far (btw there has been an outbreak of RSV in the NICU) they took him off isolation. He does show signs of infection and have started him on antibiotic. His longs look like crap, but on the upside he is on 21% room air with a peak of 7. They said they will try to start weening him tomorrow. Logan is getting a blood transfustion as we speak. I wish there lungs would just WORK!

Poor little Logan :-(

So I talked to Dr. Brown this morning. Logan is still really struggling on the ventilator. He either high sats or low sats. He has been dropping in the 70's alot like 5 or 6 times an hour or more. He is needing more support on the ventilator with higer levels of oxgen than he did last week. He still has pulmonary edema and has alot of fluid in his lungs. The doctor says she may have to start steriods when he is a month old, but there are side effects that are known to cause "brain developemental delays" in her words. She said his x-rays show cronic lung changes and scaring and he may be on oxygen when he comes home. She says there is a chance his lungs can improve during his first 7 years but there is a chance he will have long term life long respitroy issues requiring medications and oxygen. She says she does feel comfident I will go home with 3 babies at some point and that he will come off the ventilator one day.

They all 3 had eye exams yesterday and she says they all show "premature vessels at the center of the eye" but that his is normal for there age and they will all be recheck in 2 weeks.

Andrew is still off the c-pap but was threatening to go back on it last night. he is up to 30% oxygen and if he goes higher he will have to go back on cpap. He abdomen was also swollen this morning, but the nurse says he is still having normal bowel movements so they will continue to watch it.
Jacob is still doing great still has some issues reminding him to breath every now and then but overall doing well.

Jacob and his soothie

Logan and mommy

Logan and mommy

Andrew and Daddy

His pig nose will go away it is from the cpap hehehe Little piggy Andrew

Andrew

Logan

Andrew and Logan are meeting

Daddy holding Logan for 1st time

Mommy and Andrew

Sorry it has been a few days since I have updated. I am going to start with August 9th. This was the day Jack got to hold Logan for the first time. Jacob was doing fine and Andrew was still on his cpap. The NICU visit started out very well. The nurse was super nice and she made it where Jack and I could sit next to each other and hold the babies and not on opposite ends of the room. I held Andrew and Jack held Logan. After about 20 minutes of holding the babies Logan started making a weird noise and his heart rate dropped real low. Then nurse tried to suction him for a minute or 2 before she realized even though the tube was still taped to his mouth that the tube had extubated from where it was suppose to be. Logan was turning gray and the nurse and respiratory therapist were panicking a little because a 2nd baby extubated at the same time in the room. It took another nurse that was not taking care of Logan coming over lay Logan across Jack's chest and finally ripping the tube out of Logan's mouth to free his airway so he could breath. Logan's nurse was to worried about getting the stuff to reintubated than worry about his obstructed airway! Poor Jack didn't know what to do and I sat there helpless because I had my own baby with tubes tapped down to me. Logan can breath on his own so it was not a huge issue that it came out but I guess wherever the tube pulled to made it obstruct. He was reintubated and was fine after a few minutes.

8/10/09 I went to NICU with my mom all the boys were doing fine. It was Jacob's turn to be held. He was doing great on 2.5liter of O2 at 23% I believe. I held him for about 1 1/2 hours we only did a short visit with the other 2 boys. Then we got stuck in the rolling road blocks on I4 for an hour.

8/11/09 Jack and I had a good vist. Andrew was taken off cpap and has stayed off so far. He is doing very good. on 4liters at 25% Logan has pulmonary edema..this is the reason he can not come off the vent yet. He is being treated with diuretics and is doing okay. Jack held Andrew and I made an attempt to hold Logan. All went well while we were holding the babies. When the nurse put Logan back in his bed he extubated again! I will not hold him again until he is off the vent. I can't stand watching them have to reintubate him again. Jacob was doing good. He had just had his bath when we went to see him. He was so cute eyes wide open sucking on a soothie. They are having there eye exams today 8/12/09 Jack and I are going to head up there in a little bit.

Poor Logan shortly after he was retubed :-( He was already trying to pull it out.

Andrew wearing his 1st outfit

Jacob after his bath.

Jacob during his bath

Logan being wrapped like a burrito to stop him from pulling his tubes out.

Andrew

Logan...give me that tube!

Oh busy couple of days. Starting with Logan..... They took him off the ventilator this morning and put him on cpap. He lasted 12 hours and they intibated him again at shift change tonight. 1 step forward and 2 steps back :-(.
Andrew is still the same. Still sitting on cpap. He was having some irregular heart rhythms tonight. I asked to speak with to doctor tonight...she was busy and she has not call back. No other improvement or updates. He continues to gain a small amount of weight Logan too. Andrew is still 3lbs 2oz and Logan 2lbs 2oz

Jacob got transferred to another room early yesterday morning. He was moved to a step down nursery because he is stable. He is now in pod 3. He is doing great. All his oxygen settings are still the same. Never got his weight tonight. All the nurses were being bitches tonight. Was not very happy. They were just not very friendly.

Ava playing dress up. She decided she had to wear all the hair clips

Jacob wearing his first pair of cloths

Holding Logan for the first time.

Some improvements today. Jacob and Andrew are both up to 25cc feeds now and no long require IV nutrition. So the IVs are off and the PICC lines are being removed from there arms. Jacob is still at 2 liter of oxygen at 24% I believe and Andrew is still on Cpap at 22%. Logan is at 10cc feedings and they are very slowly weening him his oxygen is at 38% now was at 47% the other day. Not sure what his breaths are at now. Jacob is 3lbs 2oz Logan 2lbs 3oz and Andrew is 2lbs 14 oz. The doc has also added something to the breast milk to give them more calories. Oh and I got to hold Logan for the first time last night! Yesterday they took out his arterial IV.

Life on the vent This is his 4th tube in 2 weeks he wants it out but his little lungs don't

Andrew is very happy mommy is holding him head gear and all

Boys are doing okay pda did not close on Logan after treatment but he continues to maintain. He excubated himself again for the 2nd or 3rd time now. Dr Brown decided to try and keep him off the vent to see how he did. They put him on c-pap. It only lasted 3 or 4 hours by 1 pm he was back on the vent. Andrew is still on same setting on his c-pap continues to desat and have heart rate drops but all his test for infection were negative and they stopped his antibiotics. Jacob still on 2 liters he is doing great both Jacob and Andrew are up to 20cc feedings and are about to stop there IV nutritian all together. Logan is at 9 or 10 cc now :-D

I decided I am going to stop calling the NICU. I am sick of bad news. :-( Andrew stopped breathing this morning and they had to bag him to get him to breath. He apparently has an infection but they do not know where. His WBC was a little over 17 today. Poor little guy. He is still on c-pap but they changed it from the prongs that go in his nose to the mask the covers his face. Jacob continues to maintain his own. Nothing has changed on him respiratory wise. He continues to go up on his feedings and down on his IV fluid. Logan is having good days and bad nights. 2 light in a row he had lots of drops in his oxygen levels but less during the day. His blood gas levels are good and they weened him from 55 breaths per minute to 50, but had to go up on his oxygen to 45% She said he is doing better now and has him back at 40%.