3 Weeks Old (Aug. 12, 2011)

On Friday Doctor Leung was considering changing Carter to a conventional ventilator if he could keep his oxygen rate below 40%. Carter continually had good outputs which was a positive step towards feeding, and made his parents happy, especially as Lauren cleaned several poopie diapers. Carter was being weaned down of the fentanyl by half and was still making progress. By late afternoon Dr. Leung had given the word, "it is time to start feeding Carter." He was able to get 1 ml. every 6 hours a small amount for this little guy but we needed to prime his tummy with so called trophic feedings.

Easton, on the other hand, has been stressing his parents, doctors and nurses. Easton had been up and down on his oxygen levels, at periods of 75% or greater. Easton had not pooped yet and was beginning to worry us as his tummy was still growing and concerning the surgeons. At care times we would be doing a poo dance and chant with the nurses as we all wanted to see make some progress to keep the surgeons away. Dr. Du Bois had come to the bedside and given him a contrast through his rectum to see if they could see what was going on. The contrast had gone in and x-rays had showed the contrast stopped between the small and large intestine, letting us assume that there was either a blockage (hopefully) or that there was scar tissue between the intestine or possibly it was just not opened due to him being so pre-mature.

Easton relaxing after "care time"

Later in the evening Easton was still fidgeting and just down right upset. Nurses were having a hard time keeping him content even with versed and fentanyl. Come to find out after listening to his lungs, Easton had diminishing lung sounds and his right lung was collapsing. For a short time the respiratory therapists had to take him off the ventilator and "bag him." Once there were able to get his lung re-inflated they put his right side up to try and keep the pressure off his lung. We knew things were getting worse for our little man and felt inspired to give him a blessing. After the blessing Lauren and I stayed until a little after midnight just to watch our boys and make sure they were relaxing.