Westfall Web

So when we came in today and looked at Greyson he looked like he had been in a boxing match.  He had a bit of a bloody nose.  When I asked him about it all he said was, “yeah but wait till you see the other guy!”.  OK they don’t actually let them box in the NICU but Greyson did have a bit of a bloody nose.  Not sure why or what happened but he probably squirmed to much while laying on his stomach and irritated his nose.  This coupled with the fact that he has air blowing up his nose probably led to the bleeding.  We are not sure but the RT checked him out and said he looked OK once all the boogers were cleaned out.

Now last night I mentioned how Greyson seemed to be breathing hard after we put him back in his crib.  Well turns out he was as was evidenced by his poor midnight blood gas.  His c02 was 72, not good.  So at noon today he had another gas to see how he was doing.  It came back with a c02 of 73.  So the Dr. ordered a gas every 6 hours and wrote that if his c02 rose above 75 he would need to be put back on the ventilator.  Well I am VERY happy to report that at 6pm his c02 was down to 63, well below the troublesome 70 numbers.  So he is still on the cpap but did not spend any time today on the nasal canula.  We’ll see what his midnight numbers are.

Greyson also received a supository since he hadn’t pooped in a day.  He’ll get a few of these over the next day or so.  I held him for about 3 hours and then decided we should put him back and check his diaper as he was making a lot of noise and squirming a lot.  He had gone a litlte but not much so we began to change his diaper.  Well while doing this he went alot in three seperate episodes.  When the nurse was giving report to the oncoming nurse she said, “and when he was born he weighed 700 grams, and I think he just pooped 700 grams!”.  I don’t know I thought it was funny.

I’m sure you all realize this, but I was amazed when I realized that Greyson is almost 12 weeks old now, yet shouldn’t be born for almost 5 more weeks!  How crazy is that?

Not much new to report for today.  Greyson continues to hold his own.  They did reduce his feeds quite a bit in the hopes that it would help him breath better.  We’ll see how he does on the reduced volume, and how long the different Dr’s keep him at the low rate. 

 As you can see he was on the Nasal Canula again today.  We only left him on it for about 3 hours because he seemed to be working pretty hard.  We’ll just have to keep trying it out to see when he is ready for it full time.  This is primarily just when his lungs can handle the job of doing all the work on their own.  Right now he really needs the extra help of the cpap blowing the air in.

We talked to Sebastians parents and they told us we could post an update on him and include this picture of him.  Today he had a surgery to place a shunt in his head that will allow his brain bleed to drain.  This keeps the pressure from building up too much.  He is over 2 lbs now and we are celebrating that with them.  He is off the “jet vent” that he was on and is on the regular ventilator and will remain on it if his gasses continue to be stable.  They were having trouble keeping him shaking on the jet vent and it doesn’t work if it is not causing the baby to shake.  Overall he is doing OK but has many challenges to overcome.  He seems to be a fighter and we are thankful that God is working in his life.  His parents wanted me to convey their deepest grattitude to everyone who has been lifting Sebastian in prayer. 

What else do I need to say for today?  Greyson received his first bath today. When we came in Greyson’s nurse told us it was time to switch out his bedding, and that she was thinking about giving him a bath.  So that’s what we did.  Boy did he need it!  11 weeks without a bath can start to lead to one stinky kid!  There is only so much cleaning you can do with a wipe with water on it.  He cried a little when he first got put in the water but settled in really quick and we think he really liked it.  The blue hose you see in the picture is to give him “blow by” which is where they crank up extra oxygen and aim it right at his nose so the extra oxygen can blow by it allowing him to breath it in and keep his stats up.  He tolerated the whole thing really well, although it really seemed to wear him out.  He slept the whole rest of the time we were there! 

His gas was still OK last night.  His c02 is mid 60’s.  It could be a bit better but he is definately holding his own.  The plan right now is to try him on the Nasal Canula for a few hours tonight and see how he does.  I’ll let you know what happens. 

OK if you don’t like poop stories stop reading now!

So at 4pm Stacy and I were changing Greyson’s diaper.  When we got down to his diaper (he was wearing like 2 layers of clothing) Stacy said, “oh that’s not good.  Looks like he really went!”.  So we made the necessary modifications to our diaper changing plan and were proceeding nicely.  Stacy had him all cleaned up and we were almost ready to put the new diaper down and get him strapped into it when all of a sudden Stacy let out a little yell.  I looked up (I had been throwing something away) and realized Greyson had shot poop all over the place.  All over Stacy’s hand, the end of the bed, the trash can, the chair at the foot of his bed, the floor……………but not me ;-).  It was very unexpected as he already had a very full diaper.  I know my time is coming but so far Greyson has got Stacy twice while I remain potty free!

Okay let’s say something funny happens with your child and you forget to take a picture before you intervene in the situation.  Is it wrong to recreate the situation for a photo op?  Man I sure hope not!

When I came in today Greyson had a blanket over his crib that was draped down over him.  Upon closer inspection I realized it had fallen down onto his face.  That didn’t seem very pleasant so I started to pull back the blanket when I realized it was stuck.  Hmmmm…………stuck to what you ask?  Well apparently Greyson had started sucking on the edge of the blanket, probably got tired, and stopped.  This allowed his saliva to dry.  Now Greyson’s saliva is great at undoing glue, yet when it dries becomes its own very potent form of glue.  The blanket had dried to his lip and was stuck!  Being a concerned father I sprang into action.  I quickly grabbed a fish (medical term for a little green container of saline) and applied it to his lip, freeing my son from the death grip of the blanket.  Only then did it hit me, that was kind of funny.  I should have taken a picture of it!  So I took the blanket and put it back over his head and snapped a quick picture.  Ironically the picture wasn’t as funny as the actual event.  Before you think to ill of me let me say that Greyson’s response to the whole event was simply to lay there sleeping like nothing was happening.

Greyson had a good day.  His midnight gas came back with quite a bit of improvement.  He had dropped his c02 to 62 which is great.  It was good enough that right before his noon gas the RT (respitory therapist) grabbed his sheet and went and talked to the Dr.  She came back and said we could wait until midnight for his next gas, saving him at least one poke for the day.  Why only one poke?  Well awhile back Stacy and I signed the consent form for the first round of his immunizations.  They were going to give them to him but waited because they had started him on the steroids.  Well he’s been off the steroids long enough that today was the big day.  They did this after we were gone and we called in awhile ago to hear how it went.  He got upset (who wouldn’t it was five shots!).  His nurse tonight said that he thought Greyson got more upset by being held down than by the pain of the shots.  Either way he seems to have made it through everything OK.

As you can see the picture I am using today was not the recreation of the blanket incident.  This seemed a better picture.  Greyson was getting agitated by the cpap and trying to pull it off with his hands.  Unfortunately when he tried to pull on it he was scratching around his eyes so Stacy put the mittens she had made on him.  I think he likes them!

In about 45 minutes I’ll call and get his midnight gasses.  We are praying he is continuing to do well.  I would love to say that I will post an update with the results before morning, but I’ll probably get sucked into watching TV and won’t get it done.  TV is something I can do now that school is out.  Oh how great it feels to be on Christmas Vacation!!

Hope everyone is well,

When we arrived today we found Greyson wearing pants for the first time ever.  He is growing up so fast!  Stacy and I both held him today, he did really well.  Every day he seems to be getting stronger and doing better with his breathing.  Of course his blood gasses have not reflected that.  His noon gas had a c02 of 70.  This is too high.  We are praying his midnight gas holds steady or drops lower as he if he keeps going up he’ll have to be put back on the ventilator. 

Today we picked up Greyson’s crib and changing table.  Between my mom and sisters and Stacy’s parents I think we have all the essentials necessary to bring him home.  The only thing we are missing now is the little man himself. 

Well that’s about it for tonight. 

Oh, the correct answer for yesterday was 4.37617 pounds or 4 pounds 6.01881 ounces.  Thanks to everyone who played.  The irony is we got almost more phone calls asking for the answer than we did posts!  I’m not sure what the prize is yet……we’ll have to wait and see what we can come up with. 

Today Greyson got a pastoral visit (well I don’t count cause I’m his dad!) from the children’s pastor at our church.  She has been dying to see him and finally made it over.  It’s always fun showing him off!  We visited a friend in the ICN (intermediate care nursery), or simply upstairs as we like to refer to it.  This is where the babies go when they are doing really well and are on the nasal canulas.  They stay there until they are ready to come home.  It was fun to see what it is like up there, and to see Lane.  He is a baby that is basically the same age as Greyson gestationally, but was born about three weeks later (at 27 or 28 weeks we can’t remember exactly).  By staying in the womb an additional 3 or 4 weeks, Lane was quite a bit bigger than Greyson and obviously has moved up to the ICN before him.  The amazing thing was that we learned today that Greyson is actually bigger than Lane is now!  I think maybe Greyson has been sneaking some extra milk from one of the nurses, although I’m not sure which one. 

Speaking of nurses have I ever mentioned how amazing they are?  Greyson is surrounded by some of the best.  I’m not just saying that because I found out some of them may be reading this blog, they really are amazing.  As I think I’ve mentioned before they are extreemly patient with Greyson setting off all the alarms.  Well now that he is on cpap it is even worse.  The problem is his little nose is not big enough for the cpap mask.  So it slides off (or gets pulled off) when Greyson tugs against it.  This sets off a very piercing alarm.  This happens a lot.  Stacy and I do our best to reposition the mask while we are there but ultimately the nurses must be doing that all the time as it just doesn’t stay on that well.  The RT said she might put some stickers on Greyson’s head that have velcrow on them to help secure his cpap hat.  If they can keep it from moving all around it has a better chance of staying on his nose.  I’m always amazed at how kind they are when they come over to shut off an alarm that they have shut off 10 times already in the last half hour.

Well I’d tell you how much he weighs but you can clearly see it in the picture.  Maybe I should offer a prize to the first person who posts what it is in pounds and ounces.  The display is showing grams.  Anyone?

OK on to the best news.  At midnight Greyson’s blood co2 was 53!  Yes I said 53!  His noon gas was a bit higher at 57 but these are still very good numbers.  He continues to look good and does not seem to be laboring to hard to breathe.  He has been off the DEX for almost 48 hours so we are keeping our fingers crossed.  A couple more days should tell us whether or not he will have to go back on the vent. 

That’s it for now.

Today was a great day.  Last night we called in and got Greyson’s blood gas numbers.  His c02 had risen again to 74.  Not good.  Every gas since he went on the cpap has been higher, not a good trend at all.  Well today when I called and got his noon gas his co2 had gone down to 61!  We are so excited he is doing so well.  The real test (as if the last few days haven’t been a test, ha!) starts today as they have stopped the DEX.  He’s flying solo now.  No steroids to help him breath.

He was a bit angry at times today.  I think it is a combination of the cpap which irritates him and the fact that he’s been on steroids.  He could be experiencing a bit of “roid rage” as the Dr. talked about when he started the DEX.

When we first got there today he looked so good and was as happy as can be.  He was sucking on his fingers and seemed to be smiling.  He is much less labile (up and down on his oxygen saturation).  While this is true he is faced with a bit more of a challenge.  He turned 34 weeks gestational age today and so his alarms were raised.  He used to alarm if he was below 83 or above 93.  Now he has to stay above 87 and doesn’t alarm until 97 on the high side.  Usually the only reason he goes low is because his cpap mask has moved out of position (usually because he has “helped it”).

God has truly blessed us beyond all we could have asked for or imagined!