Zoey has been a rockstar the past few days. Not only on the c-pap & using no tube forced oxygen, they've also backed off the peep pressure to her lungs from 10 to 7 in the last 2 days, which is a huge deal. As the peep goes down it is more indicative of the fact she's breathing completely on her own & not needing the forced pressure to keep her lungs open for the nerve/organ/development. While she'll be on the c-pap for a long time, the peep levels hopefully we'll continually be dropped depending on how she does. Keep crossing fingers she does so well along with ours & everyone else's prayers, as her improvement by the day has been a blessing. One not so pleasant moment was her new born screening today, which tests for over 50 different potential errors with metabolic issues & multiple others. The lab techs failed twice on pulling the blood as they couldn't use the venus catheter for this procedure as the fluids within the line would contaminate the sample. So a transport nurse had to be called in to do the draw & apparently the best place to get this sample from preemie's is through the head in one of the veins at the top of her head. Unlike the last bone-head decision I made watching her be int-abated I chose to look away & not know what was exactly happening. Of course I had to know later so I pushed Sally at dinner and she shared. I need to start listening when she says,"you're not going like this" when she says that in regards to Zoey. Lesson learned again apparently haha. Zoey's milk intake has increased from .5 cc's every 2 hours to 1 to 2.6 to 4 cc's in the last 4 days, so she's went WAY up. Which is great as she's had minimal to zero residual (left-over in her belly) so it's moving down, however it is getting stuck in her intestines as her stooling has slowed again. So back to suppositories unpleasantness & monitoring how she does. However, I got to do the diaper today & she had a big duker so nurses/docs/parents happy, funny how a poop brings joy.Sally's parents came down for the day & were a great help once again. They made us a "picnic" lunch at RMH of corn dogs & corn on the cob, simple but great! Plus Sally wasn't able to eat corn dogs while pregnant so a return to normalcy a bit there. Krista went to Sally's doc appt with her while Allen & I ran a couple errands, had some coffee, & talked down in the Rochester "subway" while the ladies were at the appointment. We then proceeded over to the NICU for some grandparent time. I went and talked with another couple that is here that is going through a horrible ordeal getting their baby transferred back to EC after their baby was brought back to stable after she was brought to Rochester. Insurance, staffing issues, & beds thought to be filled by possible births. If we have this kind of problems they are going through when Zoey hopefully can be transferred I'm going to go ballistic.
We went back to RMH for dinner & Allen & Krista made us tater-tot hot dish. Amazing how home made comfort food makes ya feel "at home" a bit & is so soothing. Maybe why I'm so beefy, haha. They went home after dinner & we headed back over to the NICU for our night shift.
Oh almost forgot to talk about Sally's doc appt to follow up with her appointment from last week. Her BP has now completely flipped as being 100/50, which they are now concerned on as that's obviously way too low, so BP meds are being reduced & will hopefully improve her energy level, as she's been incredibly drained the last few days. Hopefully this will be the answer as to why she's been this way & back to her normal self. Labs were drawn for Sally as well for liver function, heart (for post-partum congestive heart failure concerns), blood platelet levels, and hemoglobin levels.
So, while back at the NICU........right now the nurses are struggling with moving the c-pap machine & getting it situated so Zoey & Sally are at least somewhat comfortable & relaxed for Sally's second kangaroo kare session. Alright, things are set! Time for a couple photos & sign off for the night.
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