Westfall Web

Greyson is now up to 2 pounds 2 ounces.  While I was watching him tonight he startled himself awake and then was looking around like, “hey what happened there?”.  He was really cute tonight for the 8PM care time.  His eyes were so wide open that it was amazing.  He was just looking all around.  He had somewhat of a worried look on his face, we are not sure why but he settled in after his care and looked very content when we left.  As you can see in this picture his features continue to change almost daily.  His face is getting fuller as he puts on some weight.  This is can be seen to a greater extent when his eyes are open. 

The nurse told us he had a MAJOR blow out with his diaper last night.  He continues to be a blessing to us and it seems he has charmed many of the nurses as well. 

That’s about all that’s new today.

Yep he did it today, Greyson is now 2 pounds 1 ounce!  When we went in to see him tonight there was a sign on on his food infuser that said “Mom and Dad, I broke two pounds today!  Greyson”.  While we think he had a little help with the note, it was a great milestone to celebrate. 

He is continuing on his feeding at 6 ml an hour and now has extra calories and protein mixed in to help him gain weight and grow.  So far it seems he is handling everything well.  His vent settings are much lower than when he was on this vent before and so far he seems to be doing well on it.  He still has his periods of ups and downs but this will just be part of the routine for a long time until he grows enough to grow out of it.  I didn’t get any real good pictures from tonight as it was dark in the room, so I’ll send this one from yesterday.  It makes us laugh.  Greyson definately has a personality and most of the time really shows that he is full of spunk.

A ring finger!

Well here is another pic of greyson dressed up.  Not really for Halloween, but just to look really cute.  Today Greyson was put back on the conventional vent (did I call it or what?  Man I should be in med school!).  So far he seems to be doing well.  He is running lower on his oxygen (about 25 percent) and his blood gasses have been pretty good.  On the other vent he was at about 40 percent oxygen.  He continues to be labile, which means he will be stating 100 percent on his oxygenation one minute and down to 60 percent the next.  This up and down can be scary but they say it is normal for preemies and we are learning to cope with it better.  Hoepfully he will continue to do well on this vent and we will be able to hold him again soon.

Other than being really cute and sticking his tongue out at us it was a pretty normal day.  It is amazing how quiet it is in there now that he is back on the conventional vent.  We had gotten used to the noise of the jet vent and forgot how loud it really was.  I think Greyson is much happier on this vent, hopefully his blood gasses will stay good so he can stay on it.

Check this great pic of Greyson out!  OK this is just to give you a perspective.  This ones of me (obviously).  Check the next e-mail for a pic of Greyson next to the same stuffed animal.  For those that don’t know this is the first present Greyson received.  I bought it for him right after I found out Stacy was pregnant.

Greyson continues to require extra oxygen and continues to go up and down on his stats.  They keep telling us this is normal and just a part of the developing Chronic Lung Disease.  Your lungs continue to grow until you are 8 Years Old so the hope is that he gets off the vent before the lungs get damaged to severly.  Then as they grow there is more good lung tissue than bad and they don’t have problems later.  We don’t care for this, but it is just a part of the premie process. 

Tomorrow is Halloween and Greyson has an interesting costume.  Make sure you check your e-mail for the pics.  He’s not trick or treating for candy this year as he can’t eat anything, but he’s dressing up just the same!

He was really well behaved today even though it took us a long time to do his care.  We weighed him and measured his length and head diameter.  The good news is he is really growing!  He actually is on the growth chart in every area now.  He is at the bottom but at least he is between the lines of normal.  We are proud of him since these lines represent normal growth in the womb, and he is having to work much harder than a normal baby to grow.  I forget the exact head number, but his length is now 13 3/4 inches!  That is 1& 1/4″ longer than when he was born! 

Ok that’s it for tonight.  Make sure you check the next e-mail to see a pic of Greyson (he is WAY better looking than his dad!)

Well really not much to report today.  Greyson’s blood gasses remained really good, although he had some periods where he desated pretty bad.  Not to the point of having to be hand bagged but not fun to watch.  I am really thinking he will not be on the jet vent that much longer, which of course is good and bad.  He only gained 5 grams today so he is still 1 pound 14 ounces.  He had to have his face tape changed again because he is drooling so much.  He did pretty well and actually it freed up his mouth as the tape they put on yesterday was quite restrictive. He also got his PIC line removed so right now he is free from any tubes coming from his arms.  This will probably only be for a day or two as he is close to needing another blood transfusion and will require an IV for a day or so.   Hopefully all in all  he will behave himself now.

He learned a new trick today and is now in trouble because of it.  He actually extubated himself (moved the vent tube enough out of his throat that it no longer worked).  This meant they had to remove that tube and put a new one in.  The nurses said it wasn’t bad and they got him all fixed up and told him how naughty he was and that he really needed to stop doing that!  The good news is they weened him a bit off the vent (changed a setting so he gets less ventilation) and when they checked his blood gas numbers they were great.  We dont’ know for sure but they may try to ween him a bit more sometime tonight because his numbers were definately good enough to warrent them trying.

He continues to pack on the weight coming in at 855 grams, or 1 pound 14 ounces.  At this rate he will hit 2 pounds in a couple more days!  We didn’t go see him today because of my work schedule, but will spend some make up quality time with him tomorrow.

Greyson is really starting to show strong signs of a personality.  He lets you know when he doesn’t like something!

How does it get to be so late so fast!?

Today was a great day for us.  Nothing that much out of the ordinary happened to report on, but for some reason everything just felt good.  Greyson continues to grow and is now 830 grams, or 1 pound 13 ounces.  He is taking all of his nutrition through his feeding tube now and will probably have his PIC line removed some time tomorrow.

His blood gas numbers looked really good today and while we were there he was not requiring much supplemental oxygen and was much more stable with his oxygen levels than he has been.

At 4PM when we first got there we discovered he had made a major poop in his diaper.  Stacy and I were working together to get it all cleaned up and he got to squirming around so much pretty soon he had poop all over his leg (up to his hip!) on his pulse oximator, on his bedding, a bit on his hand.  It was really something.  All this and keep in mind I pulled the full diaper with most of its contents out BEFORE any of this occured.  He was really moving all around.

After his care we went to dinner and while I was watching him before his 8PM care time he was getting very upset.  He started crying and was moving his head back and forth so I called one of the nurses over to reposition him.  I also mentioned that he had a LOT of slober.  She suctioned out his mouth and then as I watched him for a few more minutes I noticed he was licking the tape that holds his vent tube in place.  He was also pulling on it with his little hand a bit.  So when it came time to do his care I talked to his nurse and we had the RT come over and look at it.  Well he had slobbered so much and worked it that one side was coming off and had to be changed.  HE DID NOT LIKE THIS ONE BIT!!  Man was he crying.  Now that sounds bad, and we did feel bad for him, but this also meant that we got to see his full face!  That’s the pic I’m sending with this update.  I actually caught him when he wasn’t crying.  It’s a little blury but I think you’ll enjoy it as much as me.

Well that’s all for now, I really got to get to bed.  After being at a seminar on Thursday and Friday nights as well as all day today until we left to see Greyson, I’m beat!

Well Greyson weighed in at a whopping 800 grams today!  That is 1 pound 12 ounces if you need the conversion.  110 more grams and he will be 2 pounds!  To put that in perspective he gained more than that this last week, so in another week……………………well I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

They messed with his vent some today cause his blood gas was creeping up again and when they retested him he was being overventalated (numbers were to good).  So they made another change and things look better.  He is up to 4ml an hour of enhanced breast milk (they put extra stuff in it to give it more calories).  Tomorrow he will be at 4.5ml, which I said would be his top but they said today they would go up to 5ml an hour.  The also told us that as of tomorrow he will only be getting nutrition through his feeding tube, no more IV nutrition!  This is a big step and will lead to his PIC line coming out (the IV type line that is more permanent and is used to give him his IV and all his meds).  Starting tomorrow everything except blood transufsions should be administered through the feeding tube.  Again this is a huge step and we are certain he will love having the PIC line out of his arm.  Soon he will have both arms completely free to wave around!

He had some goobers behind his right ear today so we will keep an eye on that.  We heard it was looking better already by the time we left.

He continues to poop on his own (no suppositories needed for awhile now) which is great because they said these little guys can develop a need for them if they have to use them a lot, which they often do in babies this young.

It was a good day today and Greyson looked really good.  He is a bit anxious for his Aunts to come visit, but I think they are just as anxious to see him.  He says hi to you all

In case I haven’t sent this pic before,  I think it is one of the best.  I can never keep track of which ones I’ve sent.