Alexander and Emily have had a big week. Both are doing well. Babies are born with PDA, which is a hole in the heart which closes on its own in full term babies. They gave Alex and Emily a drug to help close the PDA, but told us that it usually doesn’t work on preemies this young. On Wednesday, the doctor told us that they would need surguryto close their PDA, which would take place the following day. On Thursday however, the doctors never came to Jennifer’s room in the hospital so we finally went down to the ICN after she was finished with the resident, nurse, lactation consultant, etc. The doctor caught up with us and said that they took another ECH and saw no sign of the PDA, so it closed up overnight in both babies!
Alex was taken off of dopamine, which they are using to control their blood pressure, on Saturday and has been stable ever since. Emily is also being weaned off of the dopamine. Emily is on very low levels of NO and the oscillator is set to very low settings, so they are going to try to take her off the NO and put her on a regular ventilator. We found out that Emily has quite the temper. While her nurse was working with her last night, we could see her crying, though she can’t make any sound yet. While the nurse was adjusting her pulse ox sensor, Emily very deliberately smacked the nurse’s hand with hers. The nurse was surprised for a moment and said “She hit me!”. Alex wasn’t having such a great time being poked and prodded either. He was crying while the nurse was taking samples and Jennifer was trying to comfort him. While his Mommy was talking to him, she put her finger in his little hand, and he opened his eye for the first time! (We couldn’t see the other one from our angle; we assume it’s either open or close.) It was clear that he was trying really hard to open his eyes so that he could see his Mommy. When I tried this trick however, he took one look at Daddy, shut his eye really quick, and squeezed my finger for dear life! I guess I should have shaved yesterday . . .
Tony