Kinda Scary....But Good!

Looks like Reid might be coming home next week! As I've stated before, this is very exciting for us, but also very nerve wracking! We did find out that Reid will definitely be coming home with an apnea monitor. This is more of a precautionary measure and will monitor his heart rate. If his heart rate drops below 100 bpm (bradycardia), a loud alarm will sound. Hopefully we will never hear that alarm! For a definition of bradycardia and all that goes along with it, scroll to the bottom of this blog. Dr. Ahmed did look back at Reid's chart and he hasn't had a single bradycardia episode documented for 6 days! Originally the thought of bringing Reid home with a monitor was scary; now I think it would be twice as scary not to have one! I could just picture myself and Jimmy standing over Reid all night just to make sure he was breathing. Dr. Ahmed is doing everything he can to get Reid off of oxygen before he comes home. He has been on very little oxygen the last few days; he seems to need it most when he is feeding. If he does come home on oxygen, it will only be for a very short time. Speaking of feeding, our little man is taking almost all of his feeds on his own! The feeding tube is only used when he is just too tired to eat - the nurses say it's the lazy man's way of getting full! I gave Reid a bottle today and he ate all 40 cc's in about 30 minutes! He has made such progress in the last few weeks. He is now 4 pounds, 8 ounces - almost double his birth weight! ********************** A little info on bradycardia and apnea in preemies (copied from a University website):

What is apnea? Apnea is a pause in breathing that has one or more of the following characteristics: Lasts more than 15-20 seconds Is associated with the baby's color changing to pale, purplish, or blue Is associated with bradycardia or a slowing of the heart rate What is bradycardia? Bradycardia is a slowing of the heart rate, usually to less than 100 beats per minute for a premature baby. Bradycardia often follows apnea or periods of very shallow breathing. What is desaturation? A decrease in the percentage of oxygen found in the circulating blood supply. In premature infants a saturation below 85 is considered below normal. In most infants, oxygen is adjusted to keep the oxygen saturation 92-96%. **Shari's Note: this is where Jameson ran into major problems - his oxygen level never rose about 20%, even with the ventilator. Why do premature babies have apnea? Premature babies have immature respiratory centers in the brain that "forget" to tell the baby to breathe. Premature infants normally have bursts of big breaths followed by periods of shallow breathing or pauses. Apnea is most common when the baby is sleeping. Will apnea of prematurity go away? As your baby gets older, his/her breathing will become more regular. The time course is variable. Usually apnea of prematurity markedly improves or goes away by the time the baby nears his/her due date. Shari's Note: Reid's actual due date was supposed to be October 4th. Once apnea goes away, will it come back? No, if the apnea is a result of immaturity. Once a baby matures and the apnea resolves, it will not return. If a baby should have breathing pauses after apnea goes away, it is not apnea of prematurity. It is due to some other problem and needs to be discussed with your baby's physician. This is very uncommon.

Getting Closer to a Homecoming!!!

Reid just amazes all of us daily with his progress. He has jumped all the way up to 4 pounds, 5 ounces and is doing remarkably well. He was moved into an open air crib (no more enclosed isolette), and was moved into the 'big boy' nursery. I call it that because it is for the healthier and bigger babies who need less monitoring. His feeding tube was moved and now runs through his nose and down into his stomach. They've done this so that he can really practice eating on his own. It was hard for him to get a good suction with the tube in his mouth. His Brady episodes have all but stopped (not a single one documented in the last 24 hours!) and his oxygen levels are much much better. All great news!!!!

Dr. Ahmed thinks Reid might be ready to come home in about two weeks! We are very very excited!

Cameryn is doing better. She is on a TON of medicine right now. We had some blood work testing done on her earlier in the week to check for known allergies (food and environmental). Hopefully we can then at least try to figure out what may be triggering her asthma. We should get the results in another week or so. Wish us luck!

I'll update more later...

Nonna's In Town!

Jimmy's mom came in to town this past Sunday and is staying until Saturday. She was amazed at how much Reid has grown! Here are some pictures of her visit with Reid... As of last night Reid weighs 3 pounds, 14.5 ounces. The nurses are expecting him to be able to move into an open crib tonight! He currently stays in a covered little incubator (it helps maintain his body temp.) - look back at the post from his 1 month birthday to see what his covered crib looks like. Reid has really turned the corner the last few days. His breathing has improved a lot, his Brady episodes have all but stopped (he only had one episode recorded all day yesterday!) and he is so alert when he is awake. He also is a very calm baby - he rarely ever cries! What a good boy! Lastly, I promised to post the pic of Jimmy holding Reid...wouldn't you know I spilled a drink on it and all the ink ran on the picture. I am so upset b/c that was my absolute favorite picture! I am hoping the nurses haven't deleted it from their camera yet. If they still have it, I'll ask for a duplicate copy today.

Daddy Holds Reid!!!

Jimmy held Reid for the first time today! He has been very nervous up until now...all of the tubes, wires and alarms are very unnerving. The nurses took a pic of Reid with his daddy and I will scan and post it on Monday! Reid is doing great! His red blood cell count bounced back a bit today which is good news - it means he is starting to replenish his red blood cells on his own. Keep your fingers crossed! He was also moved down from 'high flow' oxygen to 'low flow'. This is definitely a step in the right direction! Still at 3 pounds 12 ounces, but that is o.k. - he is still gaining grams...just not enough in the last 2 days to equal another ounce. ************ Now for our update on Cameryn... Cameryn has been having fits with her asthma lately. We wound up in the emergency room with her Friday night and again Saturday afternoon. She had her very first x-ray, which she handled very well - despite the fact that it was well past her bedtime! The x-ray showed that she does in fact have the lungs of an asthmatic, but also ruled out pneumonia - thank goodness! We think she has some sort of environmental allergy that causes her to nose to run. The drainage then causes her to cough NON-STOP and that in turn triggers her asthma. So we've been keeping a close eye on her and giving her nebulizer treatments every 4 hours. Hopefully we can get past this latest flair up soon. I am going to ask her doctor for a referral to a allergy/asthma specialist...don't even know if they have those for toddlers!

5 Week Update

Can you believe that Reid was 5 weeks old yesterday??? He will be equivalent to 33 weeks gestation tomorrow. For those of you who aren't familiar with pregnancy lingo, that just means that if he were still in my belly, he wouldn't be due to make his official debut into the outside world for another 7 weeks! He is 3 pounds, 12 ounces...4 more ounces and we hit the 4 pound marker! I fed Reid from a bottle again yesterday. This was our second time practicing and he actually took 10 cc's (1/3 ounce). It took almost an hour for him to eat that amount, but he's getting better at it. Reid's red blood cell count was a little low again today. Dr. Ahmed is going to watch him for a day or two and then decide if another blood transfusion is in order. He wasn't concerned about the possibility of this happening, so I'm trying not to be concerned either. Whatever will make him feel better and help him grow... Until tomorrow!

Another Milestone...

Reid is up to 3 pounds, 9 ounces (just over 3 1/2 pounds)! He is finally starting to actually fit into his preemie sized clothes. He is doing so well! His whole appearance has really changed over the last week or so, and I think he's filling out more and more each day. His color is also more like a newborn now...nice and pink! Before he was always pale or bright red. Now he's just right! He really does look JUST like his daddy! Looks like Jimmy is going to have a little mini-me! Yesterday I was able to try to feed him with a bottle for the first time! His sucking reflex is pretty good now and he loves sucking on a pacifier. It's the combination of suck, swallow, breathe that he is having to learn now. It's a slow process, but we are practicing. He only managed to get about 2 cc's down from the bottle; the rest of his feeding was through the feeding tube. Just a little more practice and he'll have his tube taken out - yea! We are thinking that it will probably be another 4-6 weeks before Reid comes home. While we want him home with us, it's very scary to think about being fully responsible for him - with no help from the nurses! Maybe we'll have Dr. Tina (my sister-in-law) move in...just kidding! :-) Sort of.

Another Piece of Writing

Another piece of writing... ****************************** I've had so many good days in a row, but this morning I'm hanging on by my fingernails. It starts with something as simple as a business phone call or a run in with an old high school friend. These people fall into the category of 'acquaintance' - most of whom knew I was expecting twins, but don't know of my recent trials. The conversation starts pretty easily, but inevitably turns to the boys. How many times have I heard, "Oh, you've had the babies! How are they doing? Whose watching them right now?" And each time I have to swallow several times past the lump in my throat before responding with, "I guess you haven't heard..." Will it every get easier to tell the birth story of my babies? I'm honestly not sure. I always try to stay really upbeat and talk mostly of Reid's great progress, but I think the pain always shows in my eyes and in my voice. The conversations always end up the same - Me close to tears and whomever I'm talking to apologizing over and over and feeling guilty. It's an awkward moment for the both of us. I wish there were an easier way to handle this scenario...I just haven't found it yet. ************************** On a brighter note, I'm leaving out to visit Reid in about half an hour - that will brighten my day! He has a way of doing that for me...

Reid is One Month Old Today!!!

HAPPY ONE MONTH BIRTHDAY, REID! YEAH!!!!

Everything is Normal!

Reid's chest x-ray came back normal! There was no sign of any fluid retention and Reid's lungs look great! We also found out that Reid had a super heavy diaper after we left last night, so maybe he was just saving up all of his pee for one night diaper! The really great news about all of this is that Reid really is putting on great fatty weight. He is 3 pounds, 6 oz - the additive that was added for extra calories really is like giving him breast milk on steroids! Reid also had his first vision exam yesterday. It is very common for preemies to have some vision problems, so we weren't going to be too surprised if this was the case with our little guy. It is a tough exam for them to have as it is very invasive and causes the eyes to swell pretty badly. Anyway, we got the wonderful news that Reid's exam results were normal and that it doesn't appear that he has any eye problems. Yeah! Mimi and Grampy are visiting with Reid tonight at 6:00, so if there is any new news I'll let you know.

X-ray Results Tomorrow...

It seems like there is something new with Reid everyday. Most days it's great news. Some days it's scary, but o.k. news. Thank goodness we haven't yet had any bad news (everyone please knock on wood after you read that sentence!). The latest thing which falls into the "scary, but o.k. news" category is that there is some concern that he is retaining water. His diapers haven't been weighing as much as they should the last two days, which means he isn't peeing as much as would be expected. So, he is scheduled for an x-ray tomorrow morning. If the x-ray comes back showing that his lungs are cloudy (this is where the fluid would apparently collect), he will be started on a diuretic. This would in turn make him pee more and would clear up any fluid accumulation in his lungs. All of these things sound so serious and scary to me, but I'm am continually assured that these issues are not really a big deal in premature babies - they are apparently all very common. I hope the day never comes when Dr. Ahmed starts a sentence with "This is something to be concerned about..." - because then I know I really have to worry! So I guess we wait and see how the x-ray turns out.... Oh, Reid's weight was 3 pounds, 5 ounces today. But with the issue of retaining water, this weight probably isn't very accurate. We want "fatty weight", not "water weight"! I'll update after I learn more tomorrow.

Today's News...

I'll preface this post by saying that what I'm about to write isn't really a big deal at all - even though it sounds scary! Reid is getting another blood transfusion today. He had his first transfusion when he was about a week old. He has to have this done because his tiny little body can't replenish his red blood cells fast enough (eventually he will be able to) and therefore his oxygen levels have been dropping. This also causes his heart rate to drop. So, the new blood will help to elevate his red blood cells. This is not a traumatic experience for Reid at all and is apparently VERY common with premature babies. In fact, with Reid having been born at 27 weeks, 5 days, it wouldn't have been surprising for him to have had several transfusions at this point. But my little guy is a trooper and has been quite the little overachiever! :-) Now for his daily stats...he weighs 3 pounds 1 oz and is eating 28 cc's at each feeding - still every 3 hours. 2 more cc's and he will be up to a full ounce of milk per feeding!!! Yeah Reid!

New Pics of Reid

Here are the pics I promised from yesterday! What a cutie!

Hooray for Reid!

Reid weighs 3 pounds!!! Doesn't that sound so much better than 2? :-) Our little man is starting to put on some fat and is beginning to fill out. Natalie (Reid's nurse last night) took some adorable pics that I'll scan and post tomorrow - thanks Natalie! Reid even has his eyes wide open in one of the pics... I'm really enjoying holding Reid every day. He seems to know who I am and is very content when he's snuggled up on my chest. Sometimes he gets a little too comfy and his heart rate drops, but that is why he takes his daily caffeine medicine! Hopefully he grows out of the bradycardia episodes soon - they scare me! On another note, Cameryn's cough has come back (again), so it looks like it will be a little while longer before she gets to meet her baby brother.

Everything looks good...

Not too much to report...that's why I haven't updated for a few days. Reid is still on the nasal cannula's and is pretty much just breathing room air (21% oxygen) most of the day. He weighs 2 pounds, 14 oz -- 2 more ounces and he'll be a whopping 3 pounds! Oh, he has started sucking on a pacifier, so hopefully his sucking reflex is developing and he'll be able to try eating from a bottle soon! It will be nice when his feeding tube is removed... I'll keep everyone updated with any new news...