Drama Queen (and King)

Mckenna, our little drama queen, has had another up and down week, but is doing very well right now. Both kids were moved to the "continuing care" side of the NICU this week, which is great because it means that they are out of the "acute" intensive care unit. It's basically where babies go when they aren't in serious condition anymore, and where parents can hold the babies more regularly and breathe a little easier ourselves. Now each of them has their own room equipped with a futon, a recliner, a mini fridge, and a TV! It's like paradise compared to the craziness on the other side of the NICU, where 3-5 babies and parents cram into a big room that is full of nurses, doctors, and blaring monitors. The reason for the luxurious (using that term a bit liberally-- it's still a hospital) rooms is to encourage parents to stay there as much as possible as the duties shift from the nurses to the parents, and where fewer nurses and doctors are around. The first day in the new room, Mckenna decided that she wanted to give us another scare, and had a mini crash. She went up to 80% oxygen, and we couldn't really determine the reason. The doctor came in and did another x-ray, and found that her lungs looked a little cloudier than the one that was done four days earlier. He gave her some dieretics to drain her lungs and put her on her stomach, where she breathes more easily. She was really laboring to breathe, and her chest would expand a lot more than normal as she struggled with each breath. It sounded like she had a lot of mucus in her throat or stomach as well, because the breaths were really scratchy. We felt so badly for her, because she cried almost the whole night, and she hardly ever cries. She has a hoarse cry and it's not very audible still because she had the ventilator in for so long. We knew something was really wrong, but even the doctor didn't know why she was struggling so badly. They suctioned her nose and mouth, and turned her on her stomach, where she usually breathes a little better. We had a little hand-held oxygen machine that's attached to the wall, which we just held in front of her face for a couple hours until she seemed to improved a bit. She still has her nasal cannula oxygen, but sometimes needs additional support. She went down to 60% O2 as the new position and dieretic seemed to help.

Karisa stayed the night with her and often just put her hands on her, which helped calm her down and slow her anxious heart rate. We still aren't really supposed to hold her very much because her lungs are very fragile. The next day, Karisa noticed that Mckenna's stomach was unusually hard and asked the nurse for a stimulant to help her poop, which was a great discovery. It had been a couple days since the last one, and our little girl relieved herself quite impressively, going through three diapers!! It was the perfect remedy, because she returned to her normal oxygen support at around 30% after a few hours. She started breathing much easier, and is fine now. She has her eyes wide open like she usually does when she's feeling well. She has such big blue eyes-- we love to see them wide open, because it's the best indication (unless she's sleeping) of how she's feeling.

Connor is also doing pretty well. He's breastfeeding now about once or twice daily. He still has his feeding tube, because by breastfeeding we really mean breast-sipping. He needs to stop and go quite a bit. The stops are due to his brady episodes when his heart rate drops because of his lack of breathing, and mom needs to pull him off so he can recover and breathe normally. Multi-tasking isn't yet a strength of Connor's because sucking and breathing is too much to focus on at the same time for the little guy. His forehead turns white when his oxygen is low, and his heart rate drops from 150 to about 70-- the monitors start beeping and that's when we know to pull him off. At first when she pulls him off, he doesn't cry because he's practically passed out-- he just goes limp and closes his eyes until he can recover. We rub his back, head, or stomach to stimulate his breathing again. If it wasn't scary it would be pretty funny (and still sort-of is), because all it takes is about 30-60 seconds to recover, and as soon as he starts breathing again and feeling better, he gets mad because he doesn't have milk. Then he starts to suck and get more milk, which causes him to brady again and pass out, and mom quickly removes him to help him recover. As soon as his breathing resumes, he gets angry again and we let him feed until he turns white and we need to pull him off. The cycle of sucking, passing out, recovering, getting mad, and sucking again continues over and over until the dramatic feeding is complete. Mckenna actually breastfeeds a little better than Connor, which was a huge surprise! She still has nasal oxygen though, so it's not yet a fair comparison. Premies often struggle with this, we're told, and even a full term baby can have some difficulty sucking and breathing at the same time. I helped give Connor a bottle for my first time this week, with the nurse present, and he brady'd three times in five minutes. He would suck a little until his forehead turned white and we would need to pull the bottle out, sit him upright, and let him rest. After five minutes, the nurse asked me to put him back in his bed to help him rest and recover more completely, after he spent most of the time "resting and recovering" while I was feeding him. Such fragile babies!!

Connor currently weighs 4 pounds 5 ounces, and Mckenna weighs 4 pounds even. They are approximately one month and 5 days away from their original due date. Connor is without oxygen support completely, and Mckenna still has the nasal oxygen support. Connor also had his pulse sock (the oxygen is measured with a velcro strap doctors place on a baby's foot) removed completely yesterday, so the only way we can tell if his oxygen is low is from his skin color or when the heart-rate monitor starts beeping.