The Blessings Amidst the Storms

God blessed us with a wonderfully peaceful Christmas. The boys have continued to go down on their pressure, rate & O2 requirements on the ventilators. Grant was able to be extubated on Christmas Eve a little after 3pm. What a blessing it was to walk in to their POD and see Grant breathing without a tube down his throat! He was having a bit of trouble keeping his CO2 levels down so 6 hours later, he was reintubated. Paul and I were so excited to know that Grant was able to be vent-free for 6 hours! What a blessing and an encouragement for us! I have enjoyed walking in to their POD each day and seeing that their settings were turned down a little more each time. I have started keeping a photo log of their vent settings both as a reminder and as an encouragement... Pressures at 3pm on Saturday for Grant at 25/5 with a rate of 20 and O2 at 28%. Pressures at 8pm on Sunday - 21/5 with a rate of 18 and O2 at 22%. Pressures at 3pm on Saturday for Bryce at 20/5 with a rate of 25. Pressures at 8pm on Sunday - 20/5 with a rate of 15 and O2 at 23%. I know that may not make any sense to most of you but you can see that those numbers have gone down - considerably in our eyes. What a praise. Its been a blessing to have a week full of improvement after 3 weeks full of frustrating set backs.

I went up today to visit the boys for their 3pm touch time and see how things were going. Bryce was still very low on his settings (they can't go much lower! :D). Its so nice to come in and here "there's not a lot new today" from his nurse. It means he's doing good. He's at 3 lbs 4 oz after losing the bulk of his fluid retention from previous weeks. He looks like a tiny newborn, pink and "filling out" rather than a very puffy and ruddy looking micro-preemie. His UAC line (see "NICU Terms" post) had stopped drawing but they were going to see if they could get it working again. He was awake off and on during his respiratory treatments and I so enjoyed looking at those sweet eyes trying their hardest to open and take a peek around. He is so precious.

Grant was very wide awake during my visit. When I'd talk to him, he'd respond by trying to look up and move his head towards the sound of my voice. I so greatly enjoy seeing my little man bright-eyed and responsive. Up until the end of this past week, I'd not seen him with his eyes open or seen any movement other than an occasional involuntary jerk or seizure movement. What a blessing to see him alert! As I was changing his diaper, his nurse talked to me about how he was doing. His UAC was also no longer drawing so they were going to see about replacing it. They'd drawn a tracheal aspirate culture when they'd reintubated him on Christmas Eve and it came back positive for Gram Negative - a type of bacteria. He is currently on an antibiotic for Gram Positive strep from his PICC line. They started him on a separate antibiotic for the Gram Negative. He has been on full feeds (solely breast milk) since Thursday (other than going NPO for a short time following extubation). This morning, they started noticing bowel loops - a sign of intestinal swelling. He also had higher residuals than the doctors would like. They lowered his calorie count and stopped fortifying my milk to see if that would help. He was able to continue full feeds through the afternoon. When we were doing his 9pm assessment, his nurse again noticed bowel loops. While I was changing his diaper, I noticed that his poop had a foul smell to it not typical for a baby solely on breast milk. Grant's nurse decided to check it and found a small amount of blood. He is now NPO and will have several x-rays to check for intestinal dilation. A culture of the stool was sent off to the lab. After a week of good news, this hit me a little hard. I know that the NICU stay is a roller coaster ride full of ups and downs but lets just say that knowing that doesn't make the bad news any easier to stomach.

The boys' nurses both needed to do a few things and I found myself for a short time alone with the boys. I stood next to Grant's isolate and just watched him breathe. I started talking to him and his eyes opened and he moved his head as if to look up at me. I opened the isolate door and placed my finger in his hand - he grabbed a hold of it. Nothing tugs at my heart more than such sweet responses from my boys. I just stood there staring at such tiny fingers wrapped around mine. I laid my head on his isolate and started to pray. I prayed that God would again hear my cries as He has done so many times and heal my precious baby boy; that the blood would not be a sign of a bad infection or NEC but that it would go away as quickly as it came. A nurse walked in at that moment (she has taken care of both boys often) to check on things as she had just heard the latest news on Grant. "Just another way for God to do another miracle on these boys!" was what she said to me. How true those words are. Both of our boys are testament to God's goodness. Grant's nurse asked me if I wanted them to pray with me. I told them that would be wonderful. So right there in their POD two NICU nurses prayed for Grant, for Paul & I. Their prayer meant so much to me. I cannot tell you how blessed we are to be surrounded by such an incredible group of Christian nurses. Even in the midst of all that is going on, God is pouring out His blessings on us. We have two beautiful baby boys that inspite being born 3 full months early, are thriving and will be 4 weeks old tomorrow. Though things are very stressful at times with the boys, we have some of the most incredible (EVER) nurses taking care of them. God has answered our prayers for these boys over an over again. Brain bleeds have stablized or reabsorbed, PDAs have closed without need of surgery. Vent settings that were only a week ago extremely high on both boys have dropped dramatically. Grant's newest challenge will soon be a wonderful answer to prayer, I am sure of it. No one said that there would never be trials on this earth but He did say that He would be with us each step of the way. How true and how evident that has been in our lives - especially in the past 4 weeks!