Cassie's doctor is still not going to advance her feedings today because although she did well with her feedings at night, she did not do too well in the morning. Dr. Lauret did start talking about her coming home soon, which is great. He also wants to check with the neonatologists to see why she has hypertension (high blood pressure) and why she needs to be on the medication for that. When they did take her off of the medication she did not do well at all.
Elena is just cruising. Hopefully tomorrow she will go to straight cannula and start eating in the next few days. It is just amazing what a remarkable turnaround she has made.
It was neat last night because while Mom was visiting the girls one of our best friends, the Hollands, came in and had their baby girl. Erin was due 5 days after we were. We are so happy for them.
Cassie's feedings were advanced, but she is still not doing too great. Her blood pressure medication was discontinued because it was affecting her sodium level.
Elena is now doing longer sprints on the cannula. Tomorrow they will try a 24-hour trial on just cannula.
Cassie was advanced to ad-lib feedings, which means she can eat what she wants when she wants, but the day nurse said she was not doing too well. Mom went in at night and she ate well and a lot for Mom. So, we hope that they will continue to up her feedings. Her blood pressure was high for awhile, but it dropped and we are hoping it stays down.
Elena is doing her 24-hour trial. It will end at 7:00 tomorrow morning. She is doing great!! She is very sweet and very big...she now weighs 5 lbs, 6 oz.!!
Cassie did well on her feedings through the night and in the morning. Her blood pressure was also under control. So, Dr. Lauret wants to see what her BP does and they will also check a sodium level tomorrow. If she continues to do well on feedings, has her BP under control and her sodium is normal, we can bring her home on Friday!!
Elena is now on cannula. Her CO2 level was impressive!! They even took the CPAP machine away from her bedside!! They also took her TCM monitor away. The occupational therapist will do a swallow study on her as soon as possible to see if all is normal and then when we get the OK we can start feeding her a bottle. Hopefully that will be within the next few days.
Cassie: 5 lbs, 6 oz.
Elena: 5 lbs, 9 oz.
Home health came to see Andrew today. His oxygen saturation was good so we are still on for him to try a room air trial next week. His blood work came back showing that his sodium was high, which could be from his heart medication. Dr. Lauret will call us tomorrow to let us know what the plan is.
Cassie is now due to come home on Saturday. Her blood pressure has been good and so have her feedings. Her sodium came back normal but Dr. Lauret wants one more sodium level before he sends her home. So, that sodium level will be done Saturday morning. Pray for the best.
Elena is just cruising along. She started her feedings yesterday and did good. She gets to try 3 times a day and she has been doing really well. Hopefully she will get her feedings down and be able to be home in a week or two. It is really hard to believe we are actually going to get to have them home!
Cassie is all set to come home tomorrow. She has been doing really well on her feedings. The sodium level will be checked tomorrow morning and then we can take her home. Home health came today and brought her equipment. We can't wait to get her home.
Dr. Lauret told Dad today that he does not think it will be too much longer for Elena. She is not on any concerning meds and she is doing well on her feedings. He upped her to bottle feeding every other feeding. Her CO2 on her blood work came back as high today so they put the TCM back on her. What Mom noticed when she was there was that during a feeding her CO2 did go up, which is understandable considering the stress it is on her to breathe well while she is eating. Dr. Lauret was not too concerned.
Cassie is now home. We were afraid she might not get to because although her sodium was fine, her blood pressure was a little high. However, it was still in the acceptable range and Dr. Lauret just wants us to monitor her weekly. She is adjusting to home life and we hope she loves it here! She does love to eat, though...it is really neat.
Elena gave everyone a scare this morning because her blood gas showed that her CO2 was elevated. They put the TCM back on her and her CO2 stayed pretty low. They did another blood gas and that showed that her CO2 was low again, so they took the TCM off. Dr. Lauret was going to advance her to 2 out of 3 bottle feedings, but I want her to take her time and be ready, so we are going to probably advance her tomorrow as she did really well today. I am sure she misses sister. They are going to put her in a small bassinet tonight so she does not feel so empty in the big crib. If she continues to do well on her feedings, we should have her home in a week to ten days...just in time for her due date...May 10th.
E-mail us at dls52@email.byu.edu.
(c) Dane Seeley, 2000