Today was a good day for Sam. But before I go into that, let me tell you about the last bit of last night. Ben got to the NICU before Sam's 9:30 check and feeding (they check his vitals and feed him apr. every 3 hours) and one of the things we do at these checks is to change his diaper. Since I had been changing his diaper all day, I asked Ben if he wanted to do this one. He eagerly declined (though he had already changed one diaper and then another today, making it 2 diapers).
Well, this diaper was a perfect diaper for the Daddy to change, because it was quite full. He got quite the poop out (and it is that stuff that full terms generally get out in one or two poops, if you've had kids, you know what I'm talking about). It was by far the biggest diaper all day! We were relieved that he was wearing the bigger size diaper because Samuel might have blown out his diaper otherwise!
This morning the doctor came in to tell me that Samuel's creatinine levels were a little high. The creatinine levels indicate how well the kidney is functioning. His kidneys are functioning pretty well we know by how wet or poopy his diapers are. However his levels were more akin to what they should be for an adult. That said, the medicine he was on can affect those levels. Now that he is off the medicine they did notice a decrease in the creatinine and we are expecting for those levels to continue to go down. If they don't Sam might have to get a renal scan to check the kidney for problems. So we are hoping and praying that the doctor is right that the medicine is what caused it and we will continue to see those levels go down!
All morning he was breathing great! In fact they kept turning the oxygen down until it was almost to the amount that we breathe in regular air. At noon our nurse for the day went and collected things to give Sam a bath, he had had a sponge bath last week, but this bath was with a little plastic tub. Preemies get bathed a little differently than full term babies (not that I would know as I never had a full term baby). What they do is they leave the baby wrapped in a blanket and then unwrap and rewrap as they wipe down different parts of his body.
Samuel did really good through the whole bath! During the bath I held up his arm with the peripheral IV so it wouldn't get wet. When they were done bathing him they wrapped him in a dry blanket to dry him off. We did this all in his incubator with the top up, that way he'd stay even warmer throughout the process.
This afternoon we had family rounds. Most of the goals from last week we either kept and want to do even more so or they were achieved and no longer need attention. Some goals for this week include: decreased creatinine levels, continued kangarooing with feedings, becoming stable enough to not need the CPAP, increased milk intake so he doesn't need the IV, Ben and I to continue helping contain Samuel during the different cares, and maybe a few more along those lines that I am not thinking of. Really Sam is doing great and there were no real negatives to discuss. :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment