Poop, please

Shannon and I went to visit Weston during his 8:00 pm round last night. We typically don't go at that time because we want to be home for Caroline's bedtime. However, I requested that his night nurse that I talked to the other night be assigned to Weston last night so we could go meet him and decide whether we wanted him to be another one of Weston's primary nurses.

Not much had changed with Weston since my visit at noon yesterday. Weston was awake but quiet. Know how I know that? Because he opens both of his eyes now! He spent a lot of yesterday evening staring at his daddy. :-) Tonight, Shannon took his temperature, and I changed his diaper, wiped his face, and helped lift him to be weighed.

So, Weston has not pooped yet. Even though he is not being fed, he still has meconium (the black, sticky newborn poop) that needs to come out. More importantly, he needs to start eating. They tried feeding him just one cc of colostrum one day last week, but bile started coming out of his feeding tube, signifying that he really wasn't ready to eat yet. His digestive system just couldn't handle it.

Everything revolves around breathing. It takes oxygen to operate his digestive system. I understand that breathing more efficiently will allow more oxygen to go to his gut, helping him tolerate the eating. As a result of his metabolic acidosis over the weekend, he was tested for infection, specifically sepsis. Rather than wait three days for the blood culture results to come back, they started him on two antibiotics as a precautionary measure. I don't remember the names of either (although I might if you told me the names). One is standard, but the other is pretty strong. Antibiotics often slow down digestion. The blood culture results have come back negative (yippee!), so he'll be taken off the antibiotics. Hopefully, then, his digestion abilities will be enhanced.

The metabolic acidosis was a significant setback in Weston's growth. I guess he really should be eating by now, and thus gaining weight. He lost 10 more grams, putting his weight back down to 630 grams, or 1 lb 6 oz, his birth weight. His nurse explained that day to day weight gain/loss isn't that significant; they are looking more at the ten-day trend. So far, the ten-day trend is pretty good. But, IT'S TIME TO POOP, EAT, AND GROW!!! Please pray specifically for that. Yes. Pray for poop.

It is so interesting to watch Weston's team work. I had always thought that medical care is pretty uniform: if A happens, do X. Nothing is further from the truth; after all, everyone taking care of Weston is an individual and has his/her own approach. Yesterday afternoon, his daytime nurse, S (whom we really like and have selected as one of his primary nurses), called me and told me that the neonatologist had approved me trying kangaroo care last night. Kangaroo care means holding Weston skin to skin (I'll talk more about it after I actually do it). I had also talked to him earlier in the day about the incident over the weekend when I wasn't allowed to touch Weston. He eased my mind about that situation, explained that he would probably recommend limit the handling of Weston once Weston is eating and participating in kangaroo care (which he isn't doing now). Weston generally needs to limit his energy output to those things, and unnecessary handling between rounds can expend a lot of energy (calories), therefore not allowing him to grow like he needs to. However, S noted that I am always quiet with Weston when I handle him between rounds. I guess some parents wake their babies up, get them flailing around, etc., and that is not necessarily best for the babies. So I guess this proves that Shannon and I are the best parents in the world, right? S said he would explain our oh-so-gentle touches to the offending nurse and also told me that, as the parents, Shannon and I always have the choice to touch our son. See why we like him?

So, when I arrived last night eager to try kangaroo care, D, the night nurse said he had conferred with E, Weston's primary night nurse, and they had concluded that now might not be the best time to try it. Weston is still at risk for brain bleeds, and a lot of movement right now could increase that risk. Weston has really tiny blood vessels, and if he turns his head side to side too much, it could possibly cut off blood flow to his brain temporarily, causing a brain bleed. They felt that, although kangaroo care will be a crucial part of his care, the risks outweigh the benefits at this point. I was fine with that, and was very grateful that D had explained WHY he felt the way he felt, and decided to forgo trying to hold Weston last night. So, I learned that D is more conservative than S (I also learned that D went to Baylor University, my alma mater, so he officially awesome) and am grateful to have the mixed approach. Sometimes Weston will need a little coaxing, and he'll get it from S. Other times, we'll need to hang back a bit, and we'll get that approach from D.

We decided we liked D and asked him to be Weston's other primary night nurse. D works weekends, and E works during the week, so he's essentially all primaried up for nighttime now. All we need is one more primary daytime nurse. D said he took our request as a compliment, that his last primary assignment had been discharged the week before so he needed someone new, and that he had taken to Weston over the weekend, so he's excited to work with him. And we are excited to have him as part of Weston's team.

Caroline had a rough night the night before last; she was up from about 3:30 to 5:00 am throwing up. Poor baby. We had really wanted her to get together with her cousin Jude (my sister's son), but it just didn't happen. We're hoping for a couple of hours together for them tomorrow before Jude and family head up to Flagstaff for a couple of weeks. My mom also said she tried very hard to be brave last night, but that she was sad that we were not there to put her to bed. This tells me that the 8 pm rounds should be the exception, rather than the rule. I went in when we got home and sang a song to her, and she dropped right back off to sleep.

So, pray for POOP. EATING. GROWTH. Thanks!