Feeds start tomorrow

Today was kind of a crazy day.  He started out great, keeping his sats up at 25% oxygen–very close to room air.  Even when Aunt Bri and I held him, he did well; he kept his sats and temperature stable.  Then later tonight, I was kangarooing with him and he had 3 big desats, one time, his saturation when clear down to 47%.  I was freaking out.  I think the real problem was that his CPAP mask needed adjusted, because every time it happened, I flipped him on his back, messed with his mask, and he went right back up to 100%.  Still scary though.  After he went back to his isolette and got settled in, his sats stayed up, and he acted like he didn’t want me to leave.   He wouldn’t let get of my fingers.  I held his binky (it’s hard for him to keep it in his mouth because of the CPAP, his feeding tube, and he’s also just not that great at sucking on it yet) in place for him for a while and finally he fell asleep.  I hope he has a good night.

His nurse tonight really upset me.  I went to the hospital early enough to pump specifically so I could help with his 8:00 care.  I was finishing up in the pumping room and asked Bri to tell his nurse that I wanted to change his diaper, swab his mouth and wipe his eyes.  Those are all the parts of his care that I am able to do.  Also, at 8:00 every night, he gets his weight and the nurses usually ask me if I want to help with that (I hold him while they zero the scale, which is built into his bed).  His nurse went ahead and swabbed his mouth without saying anything about it, and then started changing his diaper.  When I asked if she minded if I did it, she said “oh, I’m just going to do it really quick so I can hurry up and get him weighed.”  I really should have said “well you know what lady, I don’t get to do that many!”  Then she got him weighed and he was 1558 grams–quite a jump from last night’s 1476 grams.  I’m not sure if it was accurate, but if it was, Eli is almost 3 lb 7 oz!  WOW!

Today was Eli’s last day of antibiotics, so tomorrow he will be starting feeds again.  His tube is already in place.  He hasn’t been pushing much up out of it, but the little bit that has been coming up has been the normal clear/white color!  Please pray that his intestines are healed and he will tolerate feedings and start pooping again (he hasn’t pooped since he stopped feeds) with no blood!