Westfall Web

Well today turned out to be a very big day for Greyson.  No he didn’t come off the vent, but he was moved to a crib!  Yep my boy is in a big boy bed now.  It was funny to watch him.  I got to hold him today and after holding him we put him in the crib.  He was looking all around like, “hey, something is very different about this!”.  As long as he does well in the crib this will be one of the three things he has to complete in order to come home.  That is holding his own body temperature in an open air crib.  So far it looks good.  He did have a pretty bad de-sat about an hour after being put in the crib, but that is not related.  It was so fun to be at his bedside and be able to look at him and talk to him without the plastic wall of the isolette in the way.  Of course being out in the open air he now has to wear more clothes, which continually cracks me up to see.  I don’t know why but I just can’t get over the look of him in these clothes that are so big on him.

Thanks to those who have been praying for Sebastian.  While I probably won’t be able to give much updates on him (he’s not my child and I can’t ask questions to anyone except his parents, which we don’t see all that often as we often come at different times) from what I gathered from his parents  things were a little better today.  Wednesday they will be having the funeral for Sebastians twin so that will definately be a difficult day for the family.

We so appreciate everyone’s prayers and know that God is doing miraculous things all the time.  We are amazed to watch God work in the midst of this situation.  We would appreciate it if you could include a little boy named Sebastian in your prayers.  He is in the isolette next to Greyson.  We don’t know everything but he is a twin who is the size Greyson used to be and is really struggling right now.  Unfortunately his twin did not survive.  We are praying that God will strengthen and comfort this family and work in miraculous ways.  We will not really be able to provide updates on him, but would appreciate everyone who will join with us in lifting this family up to the Lord during this incredibly difficult time.

While Greyson is far from being able to dress himself, he is well on his way in learning how to get out of them!  He was wearing this shirt when Stacy arrived to see him this morning, but after a little bit she found him as he is in the picture.  He was wiggly all morning and apparently wiggled out of his shirt.  She thought he was real cute today as he was very active and kicking his feet around.  Numbers wise he had a good day too.

It’s always something.  Well Greyson got to have his face tape changed again at noon because it was coming a little loose.  This is a bit suprising because he had his face tape changed at 8pm last night, and again around 11:30pm.  The later one was because he had in fact extubated himself and had to be reintubated and taped up.  After the trama of extubating himself his blood gas was not very great at midnight so they ran the numbers again at 6am.  They were still quite high so they raised his vent rate to 55 (up from 52).  This cancels the order to ween him by a rate of 2 everyday.  Well at noon they did another gas and it came back great.  So they turned his vent back down to 52 and at 6pm he was still doing good.  There are no more orders to change his vent settings so we will see what his numbers look like at midnight.  While we were there talking to the nurses about the extubation incident last night he decided to de-sat pretty bad which is never fun to watch.  We think he may have had a bronchial spasm but really don’t know.  After bagging him for a little bit he finally came back up.  (If that is not clear de-sats are when his oxygen saturation falls very low, he should not drop below 80 percent but in this case he was at 20).  After recovering we did his care and he did well the rest of the time we were there.

Well today there really wasn’t anything new.  His blood gas was better last night than it was the night before so we are celebrating that.  It was a very long day since we got up for Black Friday to go shopping a little.  Greyson went ahead and slept in like usual and felt it was pretty much the same as every other day.  He did play with the nurses a lot after his 4pm care time.  We were watching him and his oxygen level fell low.  It took a while for them to get him back on track even though he was laying on his side sleeping like nothing was going on.  Maybe he had too much turkey in his milk from yesterday who knows.

Since it was thanksgiving and Greyson had to spend it in the hospital, they decided to do arts and crafts with all the babies.  This is Greyson’s hand print that they turned into a turkey for us.  I think he had a little help but man did he do a great job! 

He was also very excited to meet his aunt Debbie and Uncle Ron for the firs time.  As we were talking about what we are thankful for, Greyson said he sure appreciates all the people who are praying for him.  His parents are very thankful as well!

Happy thanksgiving everyone

Well OK, they are still a little big, but he is getting closer!  Today was a fun day as Stacy got to hold him again.  He had a good gas last night so they will continue to ween him by a rate of 2 once a day until he is off the ventilator, or until there is a problem.  He is feeding well at 9ml an hour.

So after doing his care I was trying to calm him down while we were waiting for Stacy to get changed so she could hold him and I made him mad by grabbing his hand.  I did this simply because he was grabbing the vent tube and pulling on it which is a big no no for him.  So while he was holding my hand (OK maybe I should say while he was holding my index finger with his hand) he started pulling it towards his mouth.  I let him and pretty soon he was licking the end of my finger.  It was funny.  Sunday the nurse had Stacy put on a glove and put her finger in his mouth so he could start practicing sucking.  I tried it today and it was the funniest feeling.  First he just bit down on my finger, then once he opened his mouth and I started to pull out my finger he touched his tongue to my finger and started sucking. 

Stacy made rice crispy treats for all the nurses today so we were both a hit and in trouble.  We were a hit because they enjoyed them, but in trouble because the nurses said they will now eat to much sweets.  We are very blessed that he is in such a great place where he is cared for so well.

Happy thanksgiving everyone!

Well today I was the one to get to go see Greyson while Stacy stayed home.  She had made an appointment to get our furnace and ductwork cleaned and so she stayed home but said I could go.  I went at noon and found Greyson alert and ready to have his diaper changed.  The nurse told me I could get started while she answered a phone call.  So, there I was, alone and changing a diaper.  This might not have been a problem except for the fact that it is difficult for me to change his diaper through the portholes on his isolette.  Add to this the fact that he now has four wires that can get in the way and you start to see that this is a little challenging.  Well all of this was in play plus Greyson had made a LARGE poop as well!  So I’m trying to get him cleaned up and changed, which again is difficult under the best of circumstances, and Greyson decides he is not going to help out at all.  He would bend his legs when I needed them straight, and straighten them when I needed them bent.  It was quite a chore but I’m proud to say I finally “got er done”. 

At 4 he didn’t poop but was extremely squirmy while I changed him.  About a minute after changing him we were getting ready to weigh him when the nurse said, “do you want to change his diaper first, or wait until after we weigh him?”  WHAT?  I politely told her I had in fact just finished changing his diaper.  She smiled and pointed to his now very wet diaper and said, “Well looks like you might want to do that again!”  He had already completely soaked his new diaper!  Thankfully he did this after I got it on and not during the process as that creates all kinds of new problems!

They didn’t make any ventilator changes last night or this morning.  His midnight gas was pretty good but for some reason they decided to let him hang out while the Dr decided whether to ween the PIP (pressure) or the rate.  The nice thing was he decided Greyson didn’t need a noon gas since his midnight one was good and he would wait until after they made a change.  This kept Greyson from getting his foot pricked which he was very thankful for.  The Dr. came by this afternoon and told me he had decided to put Greyson on the “very slow ween program”.  They will turn his rate down by 2 once a day and see how he does.  This will mean he only has to have one gas a day, but also means it will be a couple weeks before he will be close to getting off the vent.  This rate can change if Greyson has great gasses through the process, so as always only time will tell.

We are praising God for his provision today.  He has blessed us through the gifts of so many people that it is hard to keep track of.  People have blessed us with food, cash gifts, and gift cards for food and gas.  This has helped us tremendously.  Today God blessed us through a complete stranger.  As I said Stacy had an appointment for our ductwork to be cleaned to prepare for Greyson’s homecoming.  Well when it came time to pay him, he told her “just put this magnet on your fridge and when Greyson comes home use the number on it to give me a call so I can come visit him, that’s payment enough”.  God is so amazing!

Well I went off to see Greyson a little earlier than I expected which meant I didn’t come home from work to get the camera.  So the picture of the day will have to be an old one.  I think this picture from Sunday is fitting.