23-4-2008 - BABY'S DIARY - Week 2

My mood while writing this blog: n/a

WEEK 2

Mummys note: im still in a wheelchair, exhausted and breathless. However my swelling is starting to go down as im losing the water a little. I can only sit up for about 10 mins at a time so it kills me not being able to sit with DS longer. Ive been lucky and I still have a bed here in the hospital so at least i dont have to worry about travelling. I have a Winnie the Pooh book in my bag, so I can read to him :) However I usually get so busy with just watching him I forget, I cant take my eyes off him for a moment as he is just incredible. Anyways, I enjoy reading to him (its as close as we get to being at home) and I really think he likes it too, although im not sure how well he hears it with all the monitors making noise all the time. NICU is a surprisingly noisy place! We cant have proper cuddles yet but I love holding his perfect hands and he stops tensing his body up when I cup his head and feet so it must be comforting him. I just wish there was more I could do. Ok now im crying again just thinking about it. He really really looks like his papi, although he has more hair. Every part of him is just perfect, beautiful dark eyes and hair, long arms and legs. I brought these bootees with me, they are size upto 2.5lbs - but they are too big for his feets already! Well he might look like his papi, but he has my big ol feet lol..

Day 8 and 9 our lil man kept up on the CPAP and continued the IV to give his tummy a break. Hes on TPN, this is just a watery solution too but it is filled with vitamins, minerals, proteins and fat, it still goes straight into his veins so it wont hurry his tummy any. After bloods coming back with raised white cell count Doc suspected an infection, so he had to stay off the breast milk whilst he received a course of antibiotics. On day 12 the kind of antibiotics he needed got changed to one that would clear the infection quicker.

Because it takes up so much energy to breathe its back with the ventilator for the time being so he can use all his energy to fight the infection. His chest x-ray came back and RDS is definitely present and his lung capacity hasnt grown much so he has done really well to manage 4 days on CPAP. With the vent there is less on his face so I can see his gorgeous eyes and he is looking around more now.

DS's iron still isnt picking up so another transfusion. It seems his red blood cells just arent working properly at all. As well as being short of oxygen, and the anemia, all the cells are dying off too quickly. Not only are they not replenishing, but the waste isnt being cleared out his body so he has jaundice :( However im told its normal for the jaundice in all preemies as his liver wont be fully developed for another month or so. This means he is getting phototherapy from the billi lights to help get rid of the nasty toxins.

This week he has still needed a close watch on his sugar levels and blood pressure as they arent maintaining themselves so he gets meds for that too. This has been a really scary week as things actually seemed to get worse as he continued to lose weight. My friends baby dropped from 7lb 2oz to 6lb 4oz and told me not to worry as upto 1lb is normal after birth. Obviously she was only trying to reassure me, but must not have remembered that he was barely 2lbs to start with so losing 1lb would be fatal. Again, just another thing to make me a nervous wreck! Thankfully, although he is the size of a 25 weeker now, he has developmental advantages and he is a lil souljah.

Please keep my love in your prayers xx