Two Weeks

I would be 27 1/2 weeks pregnant today.  We like to call Dylan 27 weeks now, but the doctors and nurses keep telling us that he'll always be a 25-weeker...forever.  Babies just don't grow as efficiently outside of the womb.

But Dylan is still doing well and I don't have any new issues to report this week, just some more information about the ones I mentioned last week.

Except - Dylan open half of his left eye!  Daddy saw it first.  This was very exciting...our first little milestone : )  Mike wants to call him Left Eye now, but I told him that name is already taken.

Mike and I had about a one hour conversation/lesson with our favorite doctor yesterday.  I almost felt like I should pay him afterwards.  He went from Dylan's head down to his bowels and talked about each system and how Dylan is doing.  I guess I'll just do the same for you.

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Brain: It's great news that Dylan's bleed did not progress since the first week is when most bleeding occurs.  The location of his bleed is also good.  Rather than bleeding into tissue and potentially killing cells, he bled into an empty space in the middle.  It will take a long time for the bleed to be broken up and reabsorbed, but  the odds of damage are pretty low.

Heart: Dylan still has the PDA (open valve) in his heart, but it doesn't seem to be causing major issues.  If his heart was really stressed, it would be large.  His is the right size.  His heart rate is also extremely stable.  He still may need surgery to close the valve, but the more time that passes, the smaller of an issue it will be because his heart will keep growing, but the valve will not.

Lungs: We had a doctor mention Chronic Lung Disease this week and that really scared us.  After asking lots of questions, we learned that all babies needing ventilation for an extended period of time will be classified as having Chronic Lung Disease and that basically all 25-weekers will be in this category.  BUT - It's not chronic as in FOREVER.  He could end up having asthma, or being prone to lung infection and he might come home on Oxygen for a few months, but he could also be fine.  We won't know for awhile.  What we do know now is that he ventilator setting are still pretty low (although higher than last week).

Bowels: Dylan is taking a new drug, Mucomyst, that works from the top-down to help get his bowels to move.  It's been working VERY SLOWLY though.  His belly is still distended, although better, but he just hasn't had big enough poos.  Every time we go to the hospital, that's the first thing we ask about.  For the last few days, they've just been "smears."  This issue must be resolved before he can start to eat.  He needs to eat (breast milk) sooner rather than later so he can receive my immunities and so his bowels become colonized with good bacteria.  But for now, we wait.

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The doctor also went over all of the ventilator settings which was helpful, although he veered into Physics for a bit and although Mike understood all of it, I had flashbacks to my difficulty with "Physics for Poets" (the easy physics) in college.

We are so pleased with the medical staff.  They share as much as we want and we are detail people so we like all of the information.

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My biggest issue has been learning how to deal with 8 pumping sessions each day while trying to work in hospital visits.  It's so much less fun when your baby is not even eating what you are producing. : (