Go, Go, GI System, Go!

I went to bed last night so worried about Joshua and the possibility of developing necrotizing enterocolitis.  You'd think I would have learned by now that it doesn't work for me to read up on medical things when I'm in mommy mode.  Blissful oblivion is a beautiful thing.  All I could think of were facts/statistics like a high rate of needing surgery...25% mortality rate...yikes!  He has survived so much up until now, that I had never even considered the thought of him not making it from here on out.  That freaked me out a bit. 

THANKFULLY, he was so much better this morning.  James took the morning shift, and he called me right away to tell me things had improved overnight.  The green bilious discharge from the stomach has resolved.  {Side note:  the liver dumps bile into the duodenum, which is past the stomach, so if bile is found in the stomach, it means the peristalsis, or movement, is going backwards instead of heading out the intestine}.  His abdomen is not as distended now.  He's passing more stool.  His xray showed a normal bowel gas pattern.  All great signs.  They are still watching him closely, but they restarted his "trophic feeds" of 1 ml every 4 hours, so it's a sign they feel he is ready to try to progress.  Whew!  Thanks for praying about this!

James spoke with the neonatologist during rounds this morning, and he sounded pretty optimistic about Joshua.  He said with some preemies, you have to take things week by week or day by day; other preemies' conditions can change hour by hour, or even minute by minute if things are really unstable.  Joshua is one in the "day by day" camp.  The doctor reminded us it's a good thing we only see the doctor twice a day during his routine rounds.  If he had to hover over Joshua all day long, that would be a bad sign.  Good point!

Last night Joshua was up to 2 lbs 2 oz or 970 grams, up 20 grams since the night before.  He's growing like a weed!  :) 

The bilirubin level rebounded a little this morning, so he's back under the lights.  That means I didn't get to hold him today.  :(  Bummer, also, because my sisters, Heidi and Greta, were both here today to see him, and they didn't get to see his eyes uncovered.  Next time.  Greta is a flight attendant, and she had a layover in Denver.  It was so fun to have her come visit!  Heidi and two of her kids, Lainie and Ryan, came for a few days to visit over their spring break.  It's so nice to have them here!  Jeremiah is having so much fun with them!  He has been living it up with cousins and grandparents over the past several weeks, so I have a feeling when they all leave, and the baby comes home, his world is going to drastically change.  Feel free to offer up advice on making that transition easier for him (but we have plenty of time to try to figure that out).   

Heidi, Me, and Greta with Joshua

 Joshua under the lights

 He looks a little smaller compared to my hands.

If you are a man, stop reading now.  I just want to brag to my mom friends that I am a pumping machine now!  Each session has had increased results, and I'm now up to 3 oz per pump, or about 90 ml.  I had such a hard time pumping with Jeremiah, so I was initially concerned how this was going to work, strictly pumping for so many weeks.  In church on Sunday, the sermon notes on the big screen up front said, "...ENGAGEMENT..." I had to read it three times before I figured out the word was engagement and not ENGORGEMENT!  You can tell where my mind was at that particular moment.  Hee hee.