Two weeks behind us now! Welcome to the start of week 3.

Trevor is a super star and is doing so well. He is a nurse’s favorite in the room because he has such a mellow, easy going personality and is just too adorable. He seems very curious and is looking around a lot. He is very active and squirmy too. But he seldom cries and when he does it is because they are giving him reason. (He still doesn’t like cold wet wipes) His umbilical cord nub is so close to falling off, and then I am eager to see what his reaction will be to getting a real little bath.
I got to attempt breastfeeding today for the first time. He got a good latch right away and seemed to do fairly well with it. He gets very comfortable when I am holding him and falls asleep too easily so doesn’t eat as well as he does for the nurses. Until he passed out, he seemed to keep a decent latch. He just needs more practice.

Brendan seriously needs to catch a break!! I feel so bad for this little guy and all of the hurdles he has been presented and I am so proud of him for doing so well through all of it. But it is about time things started to get a little easier for him. He does not deserve all of this.
Today on his xray, they discovered that he had NEC (Necrotizing Enterocolitis) – an inflammation in the bowel. Details here:

Necrotizing Enterocolitis

They believe that they caught it very early before serious damage was done. As described in the link, all of these things have been done:

– Milk feedings have been discontinued
– Nasogastric tube is suctioning his stomach to remove air and fluid
– IV fluids increased for better blood pressure and nutrition and they gave him some blood as well
– They started him on antibiotics again for infection
– He gets an abdominal x-ray every 6hrs to track the progression and/or healing.

This all may be due to the poor oxygen profusion to his body from his heart defect, the doctor did say that the gut was the last place to get O2 in the circulation path. We were there for his 3rd xray to be taken, and the doctor came in a short while later and showed us the films. The good news is that the latest xray showed no further deterioration or damages, so there is no rapid progression right now that would lead to emergency surgery. We will be calling in after 11PM to check on his next xray and see how he is managing.

The worst part is that they will not be able to do anything for his heart now until this has healed. The surgeon mentioned now doing his heart procedure some time early next week. The day nurse today did say he has been very stable today and did not need any sedation or pain meds. They re-taped his ventilator and now it is not pulling on his poor lip quite as bad as it was before. He was very alert and looking around again. I am just glad he has no idea what is happening.

We got to talk with his primary neonatologist today that has been on his case since I was admitted to the hospital. She took extra time to chat with us and I really like the way she explains things.

Pictures!

The new blue tube is the stomach suction. They got a much better tape on his ventilator now so his poor little face is not being pulled on so much.

X-ray time

At least the x-ray machine looks cute

Trevor is real close to being rid of that feeding tube!