Good Days and Bad Days

They warned us...  But we were so happy in our calm little bubble.

The Bad:
On Monday we got to experience the roller coaster that is the NICU experience.  It was not fun.

My mom and I got to the NICU around 1:30 and everything was fine.  The nurse had just finished her stats, diaper change, etc.  Dylan was on his stomach, but he didn't seem very comfortable and kept trying to turn himself.  Then either he or the nurse somehow knocked his ventilator out of place (the tube came out too far) and all hell broke loose.

The respiratory tech was already at the bedside, but as his pulse dropped and stayed low (50 bpm instead of 150), they called the doctor and my nurse started kind of freaking out (which I was not pleased to see).  This was a full emergency situation.

They pulled out all three of his tubes and managed his oxygen manually with a mask.

Once they had stabilized him, the doctor decided to try him on a nasal cannula since his tube was already out.

He made it about 4 hours then was put back on the ventilator.  It's really common to try the cannula and then go back to the ventilator.  And I'm glad we got to try the cannula, but I'm just frustrated by how the situation came about in the first place.

I was not comfortable with this particular nurse since the day before, but I hadn't said anything.  But after all of the drama which could or could not be her fault, i finally got up the courage to talk to the charge nurse and request that she not be assigned to Dylan in the future.  I also gave her a list of all of the nurses that we really like.

The doctor was happy with how he did on the cannula even though it didn't end up working.  Also...the emergency was caused by equipment, not by Dylan himself, which is also good.

And The Good:
When I showed up yesterday, Dylan was with my favorite nurse and she had a present for me.  She saved his last two diapers to show me because DYLAN POOPED!  A  LOT!  She was so excited to show me...it was cute.  They were full of sticky, tacky meconium that was nearly black.  This combined with his stomach X-Ray made the doctors decide that he gets to eat!!  Finally all of this breastmilk I've been pumping will be put to good use!

He was also on room air, 21% Oxygen.  That was such a relief after seeing his Oxygen at 70% while on the cannula (high Oxygen levels can cause problems with the retina).

Today his Oxygen is 25%, still good, and he got his first breast milk, just 1 ml right before I arrived.  He will continue to get 1 ml every 3 hours and they will see how he does.  If he does well, they'll keep increasing the amount.

I guess he pooped all night too.  I seriously cannot believe that all of this nasty stuff come from inside of him. I don't see how it fit!  He must feel so much better now.

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And so we learned the lesson of the NICU roller-coaster.  Our worst day so far was followed by one of his best.  And we lived to tell about it.