Westfall Web

Hmmmm……it could be the gas Greyson was releasing while we were trying to change his extremely messy diaper (once while my face was entirely to close to him!) but it is probably Greyson’s stomach rumbling.  Why would that be you ask?  Go ahead and ask…..I’ll wait…….OK his stomach could be rumbling because for the first time in his little life he may be experiencing hunger pains. 

So many of you figured out some of the numbers yesterday.  For those who weren’t sure here they are in “real world” language.  Greyson is now 5 lbs 13 ounces.  He is 17.3 inches long.  His head is 31.5 cm around (sorry I can’t remember the conversion on that one).  He is 87 days old.  Also yesterday his blood gas c02 was 65, although last night it had risen again to 72.

Oh, still wondering about the rumbling?  Well today they made a major change in Greyson’s schedule.  Until now he has had his care times every four hours and has been receiving continuous feedings.  This means they were pumping food into his stomach all the time.  Then every four hours we take his temperature, give him meds, change his diaper, and suction out his stomach to see how much food he had left.  Well today they changed his care time to every three hours and are feeding him all of his food for those three hours over the course of two hours.  This means he receives food for two hours then gets an hour break to digest it all.  The purpose of this is to begin to move him to receiving food as a normal child would.  They will continue this process until he receives all his food at one time (well over the course of a half an hour or so) and then works on digesting it until his next feeding.  This will alllow him to begin to get hungry and eventually get to the place where he cries to let us know he wants to be fed, just like a real baby.  Don’t be offended we recognize as much as anyone that he is in fact a real baby now, but sometimes we find ourselves talking that way.  So we’ll see how he does on this schedule.  If he keeps it up it will be nice for STacy and I as we stayed for two care times like usual, yet are home and it is not quite 8:30pm.  This is much better than the 10pm we usually get home by.

OK family, you win.  You have been saying how I have been mean by talking about Greyson’s growth and such without giving you detailed statistics so here you go.  Below are his statistics.

44, 31.5, 2295, 65, 7.42, 86.  Yes those are really his numbers.  Maybe for $10 I’ll even tell you which number goes with what!  ha!  I have to finance this child somehow you know.

Today was a good day for Greyson.  His blood gasses were better (see above) and he seemed less fussy than he has lately.  He was very alert and let us play with him for quite awhile both after his 4 and 8 care times.  Today while trying to get his outfit on Stacy and I had him so caught up that he finally just looked up at us like, “do you guys need some help?”  His RT (respitory therapist) said she was suprised at how well he took his treatments as he didn’t fuss or anything but just looked at her the whole time she was working with him. 

Just to clarify for those who are confused (I get that way too so don’t feel bad!).  Greyson turned 12 weeks old today.  Tomorrow he will be 36 weeks gestationally.  That means if he would have been born full term (which is 40 weeks) his due date would have been January 16th.  So that is the date we are thinking he might be able to come home by.  If not by the 16 he should be home within a couple weeks after that.

Today was a good play day for the Westfall clan.  Stacy and Greyson played such wonderful games as “I got your nose” and “bouncy feet” while Greyson and I played an exciting game of “touch your hands together and seperate them again”.  Hmmm….Maybe I should work on the name of that one.  After playing with us awhile Greyson returned to his all time favorite game of “drooling bubble blow”.  He certainly is a champ at that one!

Greyson continues on.  His c02 was up again last night to 72 but even with that they have decided to only do gasses once a day.  Greyson’s heels are eternally grateful but this leaves his parents having to wait till midnight each day to find out what his gas is doing.  He looked pretty good today and enjoyed having his mom hold him.  Today is Tuesday so he got weighed and they measured his length and head.  He is still growing and we were really proud of the growth in his length.  He has managed to get back onto the growth chart, even if it is at the very bottom of where he should be with his length. 

It is really fun to see Greyson in his own clothes.  Today Stacy and one of the nurses were talking about how fun it was to dress him up, it’s why dolls are so fun they said.  I’d have to disagree because I kind of like dressing Greyson yet find absolutely no appeal in playing with dolls.  Greyson and I are still learning how to get him in clothes, but we are getting better all the time.

As far as c02 numbers go, Greyson continues to walk the line.  At midnight his gas was 75.  At 6am it was 68.  At noon he remained at 68.  His Dr. today thought he would probably continue to bounce in the mid to high 60’s low 70’s until he grew new lung tissue.  He thought within two weeks we should definately be seeing improvement in his numbers.  So they will just watch him and as long as he doesn’t go any higher we will just have to be patient and wait for him to improve.  At this rate Greyson might be able to come home by his due date, but may have to stay a couple weeks past it before he is ready to come home.  Of course ultimately it will depend on how Greyson is doing, and there is no way to forcast that.

I don’t know if Stacy took any pictures today or not.  She hasn’t gotten home yet from church (we took two cars as she met me there after returning from Tacoma).  We had a Christmas party for the adults today that I was in charge of.  Stacy baked 7 four layer cakes for the party and helped me set up.  In addition she helped with decorations.  The party was a success but now I have the feeling I used to get when we would come home from a youth group party, wiped out! 

Stacy said Greyson was pretty agitated while she was there.  He has pooped some but still seems to have an upset stomach.  After she left they said that they had given him something to help relieve the gas and he was doing better.  In addition to this his c02 is back up to 72.  Ugh! 

Stacy told me that today Greyson was very alert and watched his toy for about 40 minutes.  She said he was really enjoying the sights and sounds that it made.  This is probably the longest he has kept his attention on it. 

Today was a busy day for Greyson.  He had a whole parade of visitors. Stacy’s college room mate Brenda came to visit and the Shaw family stopped by as well.  It was fun to show him off!  He really wasn’t very active or alert while we were there today, so no big stories.  The big updates are that he really needs to poop, and his noon blood gas was better with a c02 of 64.  One gas is not enough to really see what is happening since his trend has been so high, but it is a start.  Hopefully his midnight gas will follow suit and be the same or lower.

We’ll keep you posted!

Well we decided we should take all of Greyson’s preemie clothes to the hospital so he could wear them.  Seemed the right thing to do since he will probably outgrow them before he comes home.  So this is one of his very own outfits.  It fits him perfectly! 

Today Stacy held him for 4 hours then we did his care and I held him for 4 hours.  We were hoping this upright position might do two things.  1.  Help him poop.  (I know it seems like he is going all the time but really he hasn’t gone since the last story and he needs to be going all the time). 2.  Help him breath better and thus have a better gas.  Well neither worked.  He didn’t poop and his gas remains right around the 70 mark.  Right now the plan is to restart him on the steroids if it becomes necessary rather than put him back on the vent.  We are still hoping and praying it doesn’t come to that but he’s been hovering at the 70 mark for a couple days now and that is just to high.  If his noon gas isn’t better we may have to return to the steroids.  The good news is it will not be at the high dose he started out on.

Well it’s past 1:30am so it’s time to call it a morning. Night all.

Well Greyson’s midnight gas found itself with a c02 back in the low 70’s.  His 6am gas was 69.  We’ll see what his noon gas is but he really needs to get away from the 70’s as it is not good for his little body.  On a seperate note my mom and sister reminded me I haven’t given his weight in awhile.  He is now slightly over the 5 pound mark.  What?!  5 pounds?  When did that happen?  How did that happen?  What happened to 3 and 4? He has grown so much that he now fits perfectly in his preemie clothes (which we are now taking to the hospital to use before he outgrows them!)  All indications are that he will come home wearing normal newborn clothes.  Anyway please continue to pray for his little lungs as that seems to be the only area he is struggling in.  The Dr’s had some discussion of doing another short burst of DEX this morning when they rounded, but we are praying he can bring his numbers down on his own.