| The NICU Experience | Aaron update 38 |
| Subject: Aaron update 38 Date: Sunday, January 12, 2003 1:34 PM From: Kevin Quick To: Aaron Update List Kathleen was able to hold Aaron twice yesterday (Saturday). I described the first time, when Aaron didn’t last too long without “desaturating,” in yesterday’s update. The second time, last night, she was able to hold him “kangaroo style,” meaning skin-to-skin, for about twenty minutes. Kathleen enjoyed this immensely. I hope to send a picture of Kathleen and Aaron “kangarooing” with tomorrow’s update. Today, we didn’t try holding Aaron, because the nurses thought that we had stressed him enough over the past two days; they thought it would be good to give him a rest. It’s probably just as well, too, because we had some tense moments this morning during Aaron’s lung treatment. After turning him over onto is back and removing the nasal CPAP (he’s on nasal CPAP now for awhile, since Aaron had apparently spit up into his mask last night; he’ll probably be going back and forth now between the nasal and mask CPAP), Aaron stopped breathing for a couple of minutes, and his heart rate went way down. We could tell that the respiratory therapist and the nurses were a little worried during this episode, and it was not too much fun for us to watch, especially as Aaron started turning blue. Fortunately, after a bit of “bagging” with the ambu-bag, Aaron was back to breathing on his own, and his heart rate came back to normal. We understand that from now (Aaron’s 31st gestational week) until Aaron’s 34th or 35th week, we should expect a lot of A’s and B’s. He should be over these by the time we bring him home. We sure hope he will be, anyway! We talked to 25-weeker James’ dad George for a little while this morning. James is apparently doing quite well. His first head ultrasound came back with a small questionable spot on it, but the second one came back perfect. He has “chronic lung disease” from being on the ventilator, but we know that he can grow out of this. He’s getting some steroids for his lungs, and he’s on two different antibiotics. It sounds to us as though James is doing well. I’m sure we’ll be keeping tabs on him, since we’ll be seeing him and his parents regularly for the next couple of months. James’ mother is up and walking around now, after several surgeries following her C-section to deliver James. OK, folks, now presenting...here we are...the Quick family! One of the nurses took this picture for us on Friday. Love, Kevin, Kathleen & Aaron |
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