Regular Nasal Cannula

PICC Line in Loki's head:


Looking up at Daddie:


Two handsome men:


Loki went from two liter per minute high-low flow nasal cannula to two liter regular nasal cannula! Our little trooper!! Since he was extubated for the second time, he has been showing amazing saturation. He had two desats yesterday during the almost 11 hours I was there. Both when I was breastfeeding him, and it was only into the low 80s. This also was the case the day before. None of his up and down, up and down. he basically sats all day long within 90s. The only reason his monitor dings is typically when he gets a little tachipnic (fast breathing). I would nor recognize him by just looking at his saturation (yet another reason why it is important to look at his face rather than the monitor :-). So, needless to say, we are very, very proud. He possibly "just" turned that corner, being 37 weeks old now. But maybe, he was indeed collecting that fluid longer then we thought.

Although we have been luckier with our nurses, I guess they are cautious who they assign to Loki these days, I don't think we ever will really get used to being at Children's Hospital. We had a very sweet nurse during the day, and we had a nice nurse during the night, whom we had a few days ago. The atmosphere is very different though. Some of which has to do with the urgent situations and the level of sickness the children here are dealing with. This, combined with the physical layout, makes this hospital very, very depressing. There are constantly crying parents (I also cried for two days straight), and because all the rooms are open you can see the really sick babies. No fun, no fun. It makes it a nightmarish experience at times. I have not met one parent I somehow connected with, and I have no idea about whether there are any groups for parents or not. In general, information is not really given, unless very specifically asked. The culture is very different. When nurses walk past me in the hallways (which look remarkably industrial), they typically do not say hi or smile. This maybe because some of them know I have spoken out, but I doubt that the huge number of nurses all know who I am. I think the environment is just less conducive to being nice and warm. Finally, although the hospital is supportive of breastfeeding, none of the nurses help when I am struggling getting our little guy to work along. Only one of the two pumping rooms has water, luke warm, and there is no dish soap, or place to sterilize the pumping gear other then going to a different floor. There is very limited space to store milk, and the lactation consultant does not have a very warm, or even friendly, attitude.

We miss Alta Bates, all our nurses and other staff so very, very, very much. What a NICU paradise that is. And truly, NICU's are not paradise by any stretch. Oh well, we have a great Doctor and at least this is making us want to go home, really, really bad! At Alta Bates nervousness of being home alone with our little guy without the help started to take over. Here at Children's we just want to leave.

On a more positive note, Loki is battling his way through the situation. This little guy is so incredibly strong. It continues to be very, scary though. He has lost weight for the past few days due to loosing his excess fluids, but also because he has been on a much more restrictive diet. He is now up to full feeds (50 ml with the 24 calories human milk fortifier). In addition, he drank approximately 4 mls straight from the breast one time! He is quite the sucker, when he is awake!