February 24, 2009: 2 Weeks!

Cohen had quite the morning. I had just gotten to his room, said good morning to him and began to unpack my bag, when Cohen started de-sating. This is where his O2 levels reach the 80’s and the alarm goes off as the numbers continue to decrease. I went over to him, as I always do, to make sure his face wasn’t buried and his cannula was in his nose. Check, and check. Then, all of a sudden ALL of his stats crashed to zero: Respiration's and heart rate…I’ve never seen the nurses in his unit move so fast! They pushed me out of the way and began doing chest compressions and cranked up his oxygen. In less than a minute he was back to breathing. It was the scariest event we’ve had since his birth. The nurse said that this was fairly normal for preemies, and we are lucky that at 14 days old this is the first time his stats reached zero. Regardless of how “normal” it is, I wasn’t at all prepared for it.

He continues to have O2 issues. His oxygen was at 50% for most of the day, but at about 4:30 he was stabilized at 30%. The doctor still thinks it is related to reflux. Even though Cohen is on two meds for the reflux, he is still suffering. He sticks his tongue out like he is about to spit up and he makes a wincing face… throughout his feeds. He is up to 30cc/feeding so there is more volume in his tummy. He now eats in the “sitting” position. So instead of doing kangaroo time, I know hold him upright for an hour while the pump sends milk into his belly. Even with this, his gills started turning blue and his sats were still very low. The nutritionist will be contacted to see if thickening the milk would help with the reflux. His doctor is still considering the CPAP, but is going to give Cohen another day or two to see if any of the new ideas have an effect on him.

We moved rooms again! The baby we roomed with has a genetic condition that is not compatible with life, and his parents were taking him home to pass away. We moved to consolidate babies again, and also to give that family some privacy as they left. Very sad. But, our new room is fantastic and I told my favorite nurse that I wasn’t moving Cohen from this spot unless it was to take him home! We are in the room next to our first room, so it is in the back of the pod. We have the window area that is furthest from the door, and I get to actually look outside during the day! Cohen did well with the move, but when he got into his new room the natural light made him look extremely orange. His doctor was called and another liver screen and bilirubin level was ordered. I highly doubt it is his bilirubin because he stopped passing meconium days ago. His temperature was elevated at about 3pm, so he is currently naked to see if that brings down his temp. I am praying the elevated temperature was from the mounds of blankets and not due to a fever. I will be calling later tonight to check on him. The results of the liver screen should be back by morning.