Well actually Stacy made some arrangements to take some baby pictures of Greyson. We decided we wanted to try to get some without all the cords and tubes before he was no longer a little baby. After all, he is over 9 pounds now! Hard to believe he was a 24 (well 23 weeks and 6 days) micro preemie who was 1 pound 9 ounces.
Well the recap is pretty much the same. c02 was 72. Still about the same on his oxygen needs. His ph was down as well as his bicarb (don’t worry I’m not going to drag you through all those numbers, but they are a part of his gas that I am learning about) so I think that is somewhat positive. He saw the speech pathologist today, so before we left he was able to say simple things like “mom” and “dad”. Next week they will check in on him again and work on harder words like “Mississippi” and phrases like “I was really hoping someone would buy me a wii”.
OK just kidding. Actually the speech pathologist evaluated how he was doing and worked with us to give us some tips to help prepare him to eat. This is important because Greyson is over 4 months old and has had a lot of bad things to associate with his mouth. None of them were related to getting food. So we will be working with him to ensure he is having associating postive touch when it comes to his mouth and hopefully that will prepare him for when he has to use his mouth to feed himself.
He was quite a bit puffy today, so the edema problem is back. The Dr. put him on a very strong diruetic for 4 doses and it seemed to be helping him pee off the excess fluid. Hopefully this will help his numbers tonight.
**Warning–graphic story to follow**
OK so aside from getting a bath and the photo shoot (both of which I was gone for), Greyson slept most of the day today. Well at his final care time we had changed his diaper and taken his temperature and were getting him put back in his sling (thing that holds him up on the wedge that he has to be on for his reflux). His diaper was wet and he had a streak of poop on it. Anyway he started getting really agitated and then Stacy and I (mainly Stacy) noticed he had pulled his feeding tube out a little bit. So his nurse Ashlie (she’s commented on here before and said I could use her name!) came over to put it back. She had it almost in when he pulled the whole thing out. Then he was throwing a major fit. Screaming and thrashing around. I tried my best to get him to calm down but after several minutes nothing was working. Finally we put him down and checked his diaper. It was a major blow out! So Ashlie got the tube back in and we started in on the diaper change. As I’ve mentioned before Greyson is pretty stinky due to all the additives they put in his milk. Well while I was getting the wipe wet, Stacy opened up the diaper. The smell was so bad that Ashlie actually started to gag. After arching like she was going to spew a couple times she hurried over to the trash can where she continued to arch back. Her face was SO funny as it was obvious the smell was just way more than she was going to be able to handle. She never did vomit but it wasn’t long before she told went to help another baby and told us she’d be back later to check on us. It was bad so I don’t blame her! After we got him all cleaned up he was very calm until we put him back in his sling. Then the whole things started over again (without the pulling of the feeding tube). Yep, he’d gone again. Ashlie missed out on that one as she was still “helping” the other baby. I think she was just standing closer to an open door where she could get some oxygen! She’s a great sport and we were laughing about the whole thing before we left. Largely because Stacy and I were getting out of there and she had to stay and deal with anything that happened for two more hours. Come to think of it we were talking earlier in the night about doing something significant to “impress” Ashlie, wonder if making her sick qualifies?
Great Picture Stacy. I LOVE THIS. Hopefully we can get a copy of this one. He is sooooooooo cute. Maybe all of that stink and the stuff that makes it stink is what was cloggin up his little system. Maybe know all of his numbers will settle down into a nice low CO2 number!!! Next time Stacy decides to have a photo shoot. See if the nurses can take the picture of the whole family? Love to see Greyson when it is just Greyson though without all of his “stuff”. He looks very happy to be free from anything. This is a lot of fun. I hpe Ashlie was ok for the rest of the night.
Love,
Aunt Tam
Wow – lots has been happening! And do you mean to say that both of you got pulled over by the police? The blog enlarges the picture that goes with the text, so we’re missing the first part – but that was my sense. Ugh!
We are delighted with the picture of “just Greyson” as KJ calls it. He is an absolutely handsome young man.
We continue to pray for Greyson’s health and for your continued strength. You share with us that there are down times and I know there are, but I can only say that God loves you and as my mother used to say, never gives you more than you can handle. Then there’s the old addage – and I say this with humor, “Why does he love me so much?” I don’t know, but he surely does. We just keep praying and know that God will provide.
To you three, we pray for God’s healing touch on Greyson and, accordingly, a lightening of your load.
Little one, be well.
Judy
Yes Greyson did impress me. I am proud to say he is the only baby so far to make me gag like that! I was driving home last night and I got a whiff of a familiar stench- I wondered if Greyson had crawled into my pocket, then I came to realize it was a skunk! Stinky or not, I love my little buddy.