Showing Signs of Reflux

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 29, 2011 2:10 PM, PDT

7 weeks

Once again prayers and thoughts are coming through for Kai! He's having a better week. He's been gaining weight, 3 pounds 11 ounces, breathing better, and showing overall good signs of health!

Since he's been on the CPAP machine he has been doing really well. It was a rocky start because he was using a mask version of the CPAP and not only was it very uncomfortable looking on him, it wasn't always giving him a stable amount of oxygen so one of his nurses suggested to switch to the mask with the prongs going into is nostrils. The switch made a huge difference! His dsats have been less and he seems more relaxed and comfortable. 

Because he has been improving with this type of mask, they lowered his "PEEP" (amount of pressure forced through the CPAP) so he receives less help keeping his lungs open. 

Now that he's doing better on a lower PEEP and his oxygen rate is at "room air" 21%, they want to remove the CPAP completely tomorrow and see how he does! Super good news! If anything, he may need a little help using a nasal canula or nothing at all. 

If he continues to do well breathing on is own he can start "recreational nursing" to help him figure out how to breast feed. He needs to be able to "suck, swallow, breath" to move on. He'll also try feeding through a bottle as well and currently he is at 35mL of breast milk every 3 hours. He's been showing signs of reflux so he started some medication to help with it and this may or may not affect feeding from a bottle or nursing.

As long as he continues to gain weight and he is able to regulate his own temperature (which he is) he'll be out of his isolette bed and into a regular style bed (not a crib). 

He also gets his next head ultrasound tomorrow to check the bleed and his head circumference has been very stable so hopefully everything looks the same or has gotten better. He will also be getting an MRI in about 3 weeks. 

He's been getting weekly eye exams as well and as of now he has stage one ROP which is nothing to worry about at this time and is very common. 

Thank you everyone for your support and thoughts!