Breathing is hard work

Easton is our little trooper. He has been on the oscillator for 10 days and has been hating every minute of it. Nurses were giving him morphine every 4 hours to try and relax him. I hated seeing my little boy all drugged up and so unhappy! It's so hard seeing your boys struggle because they are so little and fragile. They are not supposed to breathing on their own yet, I am the one that should be providing oxygen to them. I feel so bad that I couldn't stay pregnant long enough and now I have to watch them suffer to breath.  Easton got a chest ultrasound and it still showed very little movement of his diaphragm. We now have a pulmonologist and radiologist meeting with our doctors and us regularly to try and figure out what they can do for Eastons chronic lung disease. Sunday doctor Buxton discontinued Eastons morphine in hopes it might be inhibiting his lack of movement of his diaphragm. In another attempt to relieve pressure on his diaphragm they adjusted Eastons feeds to a 7 ml an hour, continuously. By Sunday night Eastons oscillator settings had been set to a new high.  It was so hard to watch my poor little baby shake so much just to breath. Heading home with heavy hearts that night Steven and I knelt in prayer asking for comfort and another small miracle for our little Easton. By Monday morning as we showed up for cares we received unexpected but exciting news, Dr. Buxton switched Easton from the oscillator to the conventional vent!! She felt that he was tired and fighting the oscillator and that the vent would be a good change. This morning Easton received another head ultrsound, and we were unofficially told by one of Easton's primary nurses (she will remain nameless) that the Radiologist reported Easton's third ventricle looked a little smaller and that the others were not increasing. Surgery will be postponed until he gets bigger and stronger.  (HALLELUJAH!) As of tonight he is doing great on the vent and requiring less oxygen then what he needed on the oscillator! This was a answers to prayers and I love seeing my little guy so happy!!

Easton and his big beautiful eyes after the morphine wore off.

* See my next post for more exciting news about Easton

Carter had some big changes over the past couple days. Saturday Dr. Buxton decided to give Carter 3 doses of Dexamethasone which is a steroid, and steroids are never a easy choice because of all the bad side effects. However Dr. Buxton felt that to get Carter off the ventilator and onto either Sipap or bubbling Cpap, he would need the extra boost from the steroid. Sunday morning Steven came straight from work, and we met Dr. Buxton, Dr. Ajibola, Karen from R.T., Rosie, one of Carter's primary nurses, and a slough of others excited to see the moment we have all been waiting for, Carter was to be ex tubated and start on Sipap!!!

Free at last, Free at last!!!

For the first time since July 22, we were able to see Carter without anything on his face and the tiny little cries we so longed to hear. Even though it was sad to hear our baby cry, we couldn't help but smile, his cries sounded like a baby lamb because of the inflammation and soreness of his chords. We found out the hard way that you cannot expect things to go smoothly when transferring a micro-preemie from a machine that does most of the breathing to a machine that only assists with breathing. We saw a very apnic baby several times Sunday. The Dr's were insistent on keeping those tubes from going back in Carter's mouth, and that night decided to try the bubbling Cpap to see if would be easier on him. Come to find out, things only got worse. Monday Lauren's parents and grandma came to see the progress and were rushed out after only a few minutes because Carter had a big huge episode (heart rate less than 30 and stopped breathing for a period of time) After being bagged for several minutes our little man was pink and breathing again. We came to the conclusion that Carter just hates being handled or that the large amount of food was making it difficult for him to breath. Dr's decided to put him on an a feeding time over a one and a half hour span. by Monday night it was decided that Carter needed the little extra support that the Sipap offered and was placed back on the machine for the second time in two days. As of today Carter did not have any big episodes, just a few small ones. We hope and pray that he will get stronger and better each day.

Carter on the Sipap.