Tuesday, February 4, 2020

Days 3 & 4 - Watching & Waiting

Good afternoon!  Sorry we didn't get a chance to post yesterday.  It was a busy day full of activity. 

Monday, February 3

To begin the morning, I was discharged from the hospital.  I took one last photo from my room to show Jude one day.



Upon my discharge, we immediately went to see Jude where he and Jesse got to spend some cuddle time together.  Small victory this morning:  Jude's oxygen was removed overnight and his sats are staying at a good level - yay Jude! Love this photo!


Every morning the CVICU team makes their rounds to discuss each patient. We are allowed to listen and ask questions and offer anything we may have to add to the conversation.  This is an extremely valuable time for us to learn about any updates on Jude and the care plans for the day.  Yesterday morning they had completed an echo and Jude and the duct is still showing as open.  He wasn't on any medicine or oxygen (and is currently still in that situation), and his sats are at good levels.  Since they wouldn't really know more until his ductus closes, they decided to postpone his presentation to the Cardiology/Cardiac Surgeon team in conference until Wednesday.  It was determined that Monday's goals would be to:

  1. Feed him on a bottle with breastmilk (they need to be able to monitor how much volume he intakes, so no direct breastfeeding yet, but that's our goal)
  2. See how he does with normal baby activities (eating, sleeping, bathing, etc.)
During the day, we took turns giving him bottles.  It did take him a little bit to catch on to the idea the first time, but he was rocking after the 2nd feeding.  This is awesome news!

We spent most of the day with Jude in his room, headed out for a dinner, then came back for nighttime bathing and feeding.  He did get his first water and soap bath (which he didn't love), but he settled right down to eat his bottle with Jesse.

Dad helping the nurse to take vitals and weigh Jude for the day
After he was ready for bed, we headed to the apartment for the evening to get well-rested for the next day.

Tuesday, February 4

Waking up and not having Jude with us was hard!  I've been tasked with making as much milk as possible for him to help make him as strong as possible - challenge accepted!  Admittedly, I feel a little like the milkmaid, but love knowing that I am helping him as much as I can.  

Getting from our apartment to the hospital takes about 15 minutes during the morning rush hour traffic.  We arrived to this cute little bundle:


He had a good night and ate his bottles well for the couple of feedings while we were gone.

They even made him this cute little sign for his bed:

In rounds this morning they determined he looked good and was eating well, so he could be taken off the TPN and lipids (supplements he was being given for nutrition before we were allowed to feed him). Yay for progress!  This means his nutrition will now come solely from me (no pressure).  Goals for today:
  1. Follow-up echo to see if the ductus has closed yet
  2. MRI scheduled for Wednesday (required before any procedures to monitor neurological activity)
  3. Jude to be discussed in conference on Wednesday
So far, we've spent the morning feeding him, skin-to-skin contact for Jude and I, and Jesse is holding him now (I think they may be both taking an afternoon nap 😴 😊 )

One cute photo before we went to lunch:
Wide awake ❤️ 


After lunch, Jesse got a chance to feed him:





Today will continue to be a waiting game and we won't really know what the future holds until the ductus closes.  There's no way to know how long that will take, so we are using the time to love him as much as possible and taking the victories while we have them.  Thank you for following along and for your support from away!

2 comments:

  1. Continuing to pray for all of you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Keeping up with your updates and praying for you, Jas, and baby Jude. God's got this!

    ReplyDelete