Got a phone call in the middle of the night... I hate those because they aren't calling to ask how you are sleeping. This time it was Gracie. Apparently she was breathing fast shallow breaths. Mix this with too much air in her belly and her belly being too big = her saturation (oxygen level) going waaaay down and not coming back up quick enough. Solution: ventilator :( I got there around 3:30 am she was settled finally but was not tolerating touches or noise. Once they drew blood I was able to put my hands over her and talk to her she grabbed my hand and didn't let go. I knew she was ok. I finally started breathing :) Every time I tried leaving her to check on Brody and Madi she started to cry and her saturation went down so I had to wait until she was totally asleep to slip away. This is getting harder everyday to walk out with out our babies. Anyway, Brody and Madi were just fine. Brody was wide awake (hope he "grows" out of being wide awake in the middle of the night) and Madi was sound asleep. Got home around 6 am and crashed.Fast forward to noon. Babies were good when I called and checked on them. Ricky came home for his ortho appointment.Fast forward to 5:15 pm: Finally beat 290 traffic and get to NICU only to walk in and be told we have 10 minutes because another baby was transferred there for emergency surgery SO, we hang out until 7:45 pm.Tonight babies are doing good. Brody is awake and alert. Doing well with everything besides pooping. They may have to give him medication tomorrow to help him go. They started him on medication to help his digestive system "wake up". You can tell he is really ready to get off the vent and on C Pap. We hope he continues to do well so he can get off of it. He has another spinal tap tomorrow. Praying that goes as well as the first one but I know that is very painful for him even with the medication they give him :( Gracie is doing well. She was resting very well while we were there. They are venting the air off her belly every couple of hours which seems to help. If she continues to improve she will be off vent either tomorrow or Saturday. She is now 2 pounds and holding :) Madi is doing well. The doctor started her on medications for reflux today. Since being on the medication they have been able to see great improvement. They are also doing eye massages every 6 hours to help her tear ducts unclog and drain correctly. I was able to hold her for about 15 minutes today. Had a nurse that didn't know how to get her tubes right along with hand her to me so I was very worried the entire time and finally asked to just put her back. She settled in and went back to sleep :)I'm meeting with the main supervisor over the NICU tomorrow. We are having numerous issues with some things that are going on. They have put Gracie in another new bed. This one does not have a lid so she is out in the open. The problem with this is 1) the germs 2) she is sensitive to light and noise. They have put Madi right at the main door very high traffic. Problem with this is our baby is 3 weeks old and 2 pounds 4 oz (she lost weight) and does not need the germs! Also since they moved Gracie in a new bed we now can't have our primary nurse that was over Brody and Gracie. There are really great nurses however, there are nurses there for a pay check only and I'm not going to have them taking care of my children SO, I will be addressing that too. Nursing is the number 1 burn out so I realize those are not going to give a 100% but they will not take care of my babies!
I'm ending this post very THANKFUL for our children and the amazing doctors and nurses that love our babies and give them 100%. God is the reason our babies are here with us and doing so well. These little bumps in the road will pass and we probably won't remember all this stuff a year from now.
FIGHT BABIES GROW!!!
Please keep our family in your prayers.
Krista
