Wyatt update for 8/4/2008

His nurse today, Sandra, positioned the chair so I was faced away from the monitor. I can face away from the monitor, but I can still hear the alarm and once that goes off it is impossible not to turn your head and look for it. I spend so much time looking at that f'in monitor, I don't spend enough time looking at Wyatt. Sandra promised they would move him over to another corner where the monitor is not so obnoxious, because clearly I am freaking out. (And I have to admit that I made Rus hold him earlier last night because I was became fearful he would die in my arms. Wyatt's monitor just kept going off and it was scaring the hell out of me.)

Sandra spent a lot of time going over how to hold him and what to do if the nasal canula leaks, which made me feel a lot better. She kept asking me what I would do if different situations happened and checked in on us frequently.

At rounds they said that his oxygen is better from 35-44% to 26-30%. His lungs look largely the same on x-ray, but they weren't that significant to begin with. They want to continue him on a less aggressive diuretic for now. They may repeat the x-ray at the end of the week. Dr. Jennis said maybe he is taking a little longer to improve then they would expect, but it isn't completely outside of the norm. I said I just needed to hear that he wasn't progressing abnormally and the NP said that he was not and they aren't worried about his progress. So, that made me feel better. For now anyway. And I managed not to burst in to tears, which is a big achievement in itself. They are going to up the calories in his feeds by increasing the fortification of my breast milk. (That will also have the secondary benefit that if he is refluxing, the thicker breast milk won't come up as easily.)

He was too sleepy to breastfeed this morning, so we will try later. I think we need to get there earlier in the morning. The NP asked if I was feeling too pressured to breastfeed and did I want to try bottle feeding in a week or so. I said I wasn't feeling to pressured, but that bottle feeding in a week sounded about right.

He was mostly just sleepy this morning, so I don't have much to report other than that he is still the sweetest little guy and I am just crazy about him.