a tiny bump in the road

Ok, so I don't know how far back to take you, but I'll start with Sarah leaving the hospital.

Sarah was discharged Monday and is making steady progress everyday. With the wonderful help we've had, she's fallen into a routine of making it down to see Luke everyday around lunch. I try to make it down every other night after dinner. The girls are blissfully oblivious to the whole situation. They know Luke is out of mom's tummy and that he's at the hospital, but are constantly distracted by all the spoiling attention they've been getting from family.

Luke started the week out fantastically. His breathing was great (on 1L of room level O2), had very few heart "spells", and was digesting formula well (up to 6 cc/feeding). He also showed his "spunk" that the nurses love to see. "Spunk" could be misconstrued as fussy, but for a preemie that crying and struggling while you do things like take their temp and change their diaper is a great sign of health. The nurses warned us that a preemie's progress is a bumpy road and to expect set backs.

Well, our first set back hit last night. Throughout the day, he started having more heart "spells", so they had to up the O2 level to 2.5L. He also quit digesting his food and they found a potential cause in a heart murmur (very common in babies his size). In the evening, his temp was pretty high and he was real lethargic... no spunk. They decided to take him off formula until he "stabilizes" and would run an echo the next day to check on the murmur, stomach and lungs.

Which brings us to today... I'd have to say Luke had a much better 2nd half of the day. His echoes came in good for his tummy and lungs. His murmur is moderate size so they're giving him drugs over the next day and half to try to get it to constrict. They'll do another echo tomorrow to see if the drugs are working. Otherwise, he's stabilizing since last night (temp is back to normal and his spunk is back a bit). They still have him on a high level of O2, but he's doing good with it so they may take that back down within the next day. But overall, he's doing good.



That's it... so I think I'll post all the lingo we've been learning some time this weekend. Then I'll be able to more accurately explain his condition.

For the ever-so-slightly technically challenged picture fanatics (grandmas), you can click on the pics to get the full size at which point you can save them and order/print them to your heart's delight.

peace.