Well, Dad got to kangaroo today!  There were a few little scares when Campbell got too relaxed and his breathing rate went down, but nothing of major concern and Mason got to hold him for a nice long time.  Mason has marginally more chest hair than Campbell.

Campbell is still eating well, but doesn’t always remember to breathe as well as we want.  The team at the NICU is keeping a close eye on it, and making sure he gets all the oxygen he needs, but it means we didn’t want to disturb him much today. So, no kangarooing, but still fun to see the little guy, and we had a nice visit where he was really awake.  Here’s hoping he doesn’t have to go back on any sort of machines.

He also really likes to sleep on his tummy and suck on his pacifier.  🙂

Well, this was awesome.  Meredith got to “kangaroo” with Campbell for the first time.  The docs and nurses really like for parents to hold the babies with skin-to-skin contact (called “kangarooing”) when the babies are strong enough to do it.  So, Meredith did that for the first time today with Campbell.  Campbell did great, and enjoyed snuggling up with mom!

Well, Campbell continues to do well.  He is eating more: 7 cc’s every 3 hours (about 2 ounces a day).  We got a short visit with him this afternoon after they changed his feeding schedule.  He’s still breathing without assistance, and we get to see more of his face.  And, Mom & Dad got to hold him again!

So, it was another good day for Campbell.  He lost another wire, which is always a great thing.  He also lost the sticker off of his face that held on the high-flow breathing machine.  Losing the stickers is a great sign because it means they are optimistic that he won’t have to go back to the machine.  He is also eating better and getting 8cc’s of milk every 4 hours (8 cc’s is about a 1/4 ounce).  It doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s a big improvement from where he was! On the “getting to feel like we have a kid” front, this was the first day that Mason got to hold Campbell.  (Mom got to hold him again too!).

Well, we haven’t been able to go to the hospital yet – Winter Storm Thor has thwarted our plans to come see Campbell today, and also to get Mason home from Virginia.  Hopefully, his newly rescheduled flight will actually get him home tonight.

 

We’re hoping to get up to the hospital later when Mason gets home, but for now I called in and got a good report.  They’ve stepped down the flow on his high-flow to 1L, which is great, and he continues to be on room air.  They’ve also upped his feedings, and he’s been taking 3ccs every 3 hours and tolerating them pretty well.  Yay.  Let’s hope they keep upping that food so we can put some meat on his bones!

Afternoon update:

Well, Gigi and I braved the snow and icy roads today to go see Campbell.  They took him off the high flow entirely this afternoon, and he’s breathing entirely on his own.  They’ve also changed his feeding schedule again – he’s back on a 4 hour schedule but they’ve upped his milk to 6 ccs every 4 hours, so that’s another positive sign.  Let’s hope he keeps breathing well on his own and taking more and more milk.

And, thankfully, Mason did get home tonight and we went to see Campbell on the way home from the airport.  He was awake and smiling and really fun.  Still doing well with his feedings and with his breathing.  :).  So nice to be able to see his whole cute, sweet face.

Today Gigi and I had a great visit with Campbell at 6:00 a.m.  We went early to get in a good visit before the winter storm comes this afternoon.  We got good news overnight.  They stepped down the pressure on the high flow machine to 2L (from 4L and then later 3L yesterday), and he’s been on room oxygen already, so those are positive developments that mean his lungs are working pretty well, all things considered.  And, he’s been digesting his food reasonably well, so they’re upping his feedings to 2ccs of milk every 3 hours instead of 1cc.  This is not enough to really “feed” him but really meant just to help stimulate his digestive system to get it working properly.  Hopefully we will soon see him getting to eat more and more milk!

And a further update from our noon visit with him.  He was sacked out after having physical therapy, but they are going to up his feedings to 3cc every three hours starting this afternoon.  Yay!  Let’s hope he can handle the extra milk!

Well, today was exciting.  We went to the hospital at 6 a.m. so Mason could see him before going to VA for a couple of days.  And, we happily discovered that they had taken him off the CPAP and stepped him down to the “high flow” machine.  This is less invasive and pushes less air, which we hope will make him eat better.  (The CPAP pushes extra air into the stomach and can make it harder to digest food).  This is a really great step because now we can actually see his whole precious face at one time, and he doesn’t have to wear the cap anymore.  Yay.

He did have an elevated bilirubin level today, which means that he had to go back on the phototherapy light and get a cool new pair of shades.  Pic below, but the color is distorted because of the phototherapy light.  He also got to sleep on his stomach for the first time today – previously he hasn’t been able to do that because of the CPAP and the ventilator.  He took to it immediately.  I knew there had to be something of his mom in there somewhere…

Today, Campbell continues to try to digest his food.  He’s had some stops and starts, but seems to be digesting at least every other feeding, so they’re going to keep him on that schedule for a while.

If you’re interested to see what the incubator looks like, here’s a pic with the blanket raised (they keep it down except when they are working with him or using the phototherapy lamp.

And here’s a couple of Campbell from today’s visit.

Well, Campbell started March off well.  We got good news about his heart and we are keeping our fingers crossed that he will start eating better.  They’ve changed feeding schedules to every three hours to try to get his stomach working correctly.  I’m guessing that nobody has explained to him how much mom and dad like food.

On the “new” front, he learned how to use a pacifier today (pic below), which is good because it means that he’s figured out how to breathe while using the pacifier at the same time.