Noah week 2 (1lb 13oz.)

Sorry I haven't posted in a few days. As you can imagine running back and forth to the hospital, keeping up with homework, and pumping baby food all the time has been keeping me very busy and is leaving me a little exhausted at the end of the day. I have managed to make up my homework and am in the last week of my current class. I expect to finish on time and maintain my grades, the faculty at Baker have been very helpful.

Noah has had a pretty busy week. His ultrasound showed a tiny bit of hemorrhaging under one of the ventricles in his brain, we have been told not to be concerned as this is semi-common. Our doctor rated Noah's bleeding on a scale of 0-5, 0 being no bleeding and 5 being bad. Noah is a 1. This condition is caused during birth and happens in about 50% of all vaginal deliveries. It occurs during the first 48 hours or so. The blood should dry up on its own but they will ultrasound him again on Monday to re-check his condition.

Noah also had his first blood transfusion this week. They did not remove any of his blood; rather, 13 ml was added. After the transfusion his IV was pulled from his belly button. He is now free of the two lines he was given in his belly button at birth. He is getting enough fluid from his feedings, and he now longer needs to have an IV. The other line was an arterial blood pressure monitor, they removed that early last week and are monitoring his blood pressure with a tiny arm cuff (only when it needs to be checked). Noah looks very cute with his tiny little belly button completely free of wires and tubes :)

A second echo was done on his heart late last week, his doctor wanted to re-check the size of the duct to see if it was closing. The cardiologist called the opening "Tiny", the first echo showed it as "small" so it is making progress closing. Noah's nurse will ask when and if another echo will be done during rounds this morning.

The last bit of news I have this morning is Noah's weight. We have been warned not to get too excited about his weight, as it will go up and down quite a bit over the course of his stay in NICU. This morning is a great morning for us anyways because Noah has finally come back up to his birth weight. He is 810 grams this morning, he gained a tiny 10 grams last night. This was just enough to push him up to 1lb. 13oz. and I can't help but be proud of him for this tiny accomplishment. His feedings are up to 6ml an hour and he gets fed 5 hour on, 1 hour off, around the clock. During 24 hours he is getting 120ml, roughly 4oz.

We visited with Noah rather late yesterday, normally I am there in the afternoon. It was after 8pm when we arrived and he was having his vitals checked by nurse Nanette. He was wide awake and responded very well to Michael and I. Nanette was pretty impressed and mentioned how wonderful he was to nurse Debbie this morning. The staff at St. Joseph NICU is wonderful. Every nurse we have worked with has been great. I cannot say enough good things about what they are doing and the compassion they show. Michael and I are going to take the camera up and start taking their pictures to post here. We want Noah to have a record of the kind and caring people that are taking care of him.

Jennifer