And Another Step Forward

Guess who is OFF the blender, and guess who is NOT on the low flow, yep Lewis is oxygen free :), they took the blender off this morning and so far hasn't needed the low flow as he's done well without it and his sats are still sitting at 100%
he's also now on feeds of 75mils every 3 hours, but has been sick a lot of times so we're just worrying about the reflux and i do know it's a small price to pay and we pretty much knew he wouldn't avoid it but his nurse said it looks a lot to us but to them it isn't so i guess that's good and just hope it doesn't get any worse. sooooo proud of him, more than words can say.

1 step forward 2 back

but not all bad...

Lewis took really unwell the other night, was absolutely red hot, crying his eyes out, his heartrate was shooting away up and his resp thing was alarming (scary stuff) but his nurse said it was just wind, i knew it wasn't no wind, so anyway 18 effin hours later we were told he might have a wee bug or something, so they started him on antibiotics for now till they collect his samples and bloods and get them off the lab..anyway long story short, he has an infection, just so mad that 18 hours of precious time got wasted when he could have been started on antibiotics n things then, but cos of 1 nurse sayin it was wind he waitid them 18 hours while it really took hold. but yesterday and today he's looking much brighter and is more alert and more like his usual nosy self, still on the antibiotics though and last night and today pulled out his canula, if it's not canulas it's nasal prongs and NG tube, he's a little monkey.

The blender is now at a flow of 2.5 with 21% oxygen and were told when it got to a flow of 2 he could go onto the low flow, so it goes down in increments of .5 which means.... 1 more turn down on it and it'l be at 2 yippee.

He's on feeds every 2 hours of 50mils, they're changing it maybe tomorrow to every 3 hours with probably about 75 mils, but last night and today he has had LOTS of reflux, i must have brought back about 10 babygrows that are dirty just from last night cos of it, not sure what the deal will be with that at the minute.
I've also started doing his tube feeds now which is good cos it's somethin else i can do for him, inbetween trying him on the bottle etc, and good news is hopefully he can have a proper bath soon, he smells of that awful smelling carobel 'milk' stuff he gets.

that's about it for now lol.

good few days

on friday the doctor spoke with ricky and sia Lewis is doing really well and just has to grow and get a bit stronger and he'll be off upstairs to another ward, which means he'll be close to getting home, he also said they fluid isn't building back up again so they won't be doing anymore xrays for it unless they feel they need to, he was weighed again on friday and was 3.84kg. they also changed his feeds to getting 24 mils of milk all at once every hour, before he was getting it over the whole hour on a drip. dont think the 24 mils was enough though as he was wakening up and getting grumpy and looking for his feed just before the hour was up. he was quite a bit sick on saturday though he's on meds for the reflux.
On sunday night they gave him his last hourly feed of 24 mils at 8pm and then at 10pm he was getting 50 mils every 2 hours.

On Monday guess who got out of the incubator and into a proper big cot and guess who got his 1st try with a bottle feed, though he only took 10 mils it's more to get him used to it at the minute and get him used to sucking and swallowing, though sometimes he forgot to do both at the same time and was either choking on it or spitting it out, he was also weighed again and is 3.95kg, at least he's gaining weight quite steadily. Also had been quite a bit sick on monday as well. Tried him again with the bottle later on and he took 16 mils, done much better that time, no spit outs, he's on carobel which is fat free milk and also they put a thickener in it and he doesn't like the taste of it, don't blame him though it doesn't smell very nice either, he just kept looking at me as if i was giving him something poisonous. but then went to giveing me the biggest smiles ever, so cute.

Theres 3 bed bays in the NICU ward and Lewis was in the 3rd which is the one farthest away from the door, they say the closer they get to the door, the closer they are to getting home,Lewis was moved out of the end room on monday and into.....the 1st room which is a 4 bed bay, so only 4 babies in there and as it's the first room theres barely any machines etc so it's much quieter in there woohoo so pleased.

 and update for today, the flow on the blender had been turned down twice during the night and is not at 3.5 litres and at 30% oxygen, when he gets to 2 litres he can go on the low flow woohoo. the flow was turned down again to 3 litres but after the biggest paddy i've ever seen him take it was turned back up to 3.5, poor wee man was soooooo hot and was sweaty, his heart rate was going away up and his resp thing kept alarming, not sure what was wrong with him but nurse said wind, to me it wasn't wind though, she gave him some paracetomol and he settled down.
today i've done his tube feeds a few times, then tonight they give me the pack to read telling me how to do it and have to get it signed off to say i've been observed etc, don't know why bother giving me that to read telling me how to do it when they've let me do it all day lol
anyway that's all for now thought i'd better do an update, finding the time is hard, it's good that ronald mcdonald has wifi but don't get much time to get on my laptop at all, we're only here at night to sleep we spend all day at the hospital.

Soooooooo proud of Lewis and how far he's come in nearly 5 weeks, he's done better than any1 expected of him, he's just a wee star.

Guess who is......

wearin clothes, yep Lewis, we got to dress him this afternoon

and then Santa visited

Happy 4 weeks old Chumba

Another chest drain

Yesterday (sunday) when we went in the mornin were told lewis had a routine chest xray before we got there, which is nothin unusual but about half 4 the doctor came in and asked could she do the chest drain just now (sounded like she thot we knew he needed it done again, which we didnt) and could we give her about 15 minutes till she done it, so he had his chest drained again, 1st time was friday n this time she said it was nearly double the fluid than friday, wishin they wud just fit a proper chest drain now, can't bear the thot of them stickin a needle in him everytime n takin the fluid out that way, it reminds me of the amnio n that was really really horrible x startin to feel a lack of communication to be honest x anyway roll on xmas even tho we'll be spendin it in ronald mcdonald i can't wait to see lewis on xmas eve in his cute elf outfit and on xmas day in his equally cute santa outfit x

Update

yesterday the nurse noticed Lewis was workin a little harder at breathin, after previous concerns about too much fluid in his chest, though wasn't considered a problem at the time, they decided to drain some fluid out yesterday, he wasn't sufferin through it or anythin but was thought it was the reason he was workin harder to breathe, they never 'fitted' a chest drain but just put a wee line out and once finished drainin the fluid they took the line out. Pleased to say his breathin seems much better now, they'l keep an eye on the fluid and if it builds back up again they'll look at fittin a proper chest drain, so hopefully the fluid won't build up again. They put him ona  type of fat free milk yesterday as well as the fat could cause the fluid build up as well, he was only on half what he was gettin but now up to 16 mils an hour on it and he was on 22 mils an hour before they changed it, so nearly back to what it was. he's still doin well on the blender so hopefully he won't go back to Cpap. Got him a cute Elf outfit for xmas eve and a santa outfit for xmas day can't wait to see him wearin them. roll on next week to see if he's gettin in a proper big cot so i can dress him in his clothes :)

Lewis was weighed again today, he was last weighed on Monday after extubation and he was still weighin his birth weight of 3.5kg (7lb8oz), they said they expect them to lose 10 percent of their birth weight but..today Lewis weighs 3.5kg (about 7lb 11 and half oz)
he is a wee chumba :)

Guess who's OFF cpap

Went in this mornin to no cpap, lewis is now on what they call the blender, it does pretty much the same as the Cpap but with only 2 wee prongs up his nose for the flow, so no special cpap hat or cpap squashed on his nose, he once again looks like a different baby can now see his whole face at once includin his head it's great to finally be cake to see all of him and his gases have came back even better than they did when he was on Cpap so that indicates he prefers the blender. Way to go chumba i couldn't be more proud of both my boys hopefully next week he'll get a proper big cot am so chuffed it means we can buy him cot toys for xmas. I'm off home for the day tomorrow to sort out nathans place for xmas and to buy lewis some clothes now he can wear them yay so daddy is gettin his boy all to himself tomorrow x he's 3 weeks old today and has just done amazing in this short time, hopefully he'll be home before we know it