Update on the Babies 2
Anthony, Christopher, and Daniel have spent the past few days in the neonatal intensive care unit. They are on a completely normal course for preemies at this age, so all this is nothing to be worried about.
Christopher is still doing the best. He hasn’t needed any kind of special attention, and today he moved from an isolette (the little plastic habitrail in ) into a real crib. Those isolettes are amazing little things that stay quiet in the bustle of a busy hospital room and keep a constant temperature. He is eating from a bottle, but hasn’t quite figured out how to get it ‘straight from the tap’ yet, if you know what I mean.
Anthony is still in an isolette, and is still on a little bit of oxygen (40%, with room air at 21%). He is eating well too, and has even gained back a little bit of weight. (Newborns lose a little bit of excess water weight before they start to gain their own weight).
Daniel has had a tough time – he wasn’t getting enough oxygen, even in a little tent, and he was wearing himself out by breathing so hard. To understand what is happening, a little bit of medical pseudo-knowledge is necessary.
In the womb, babies don’t need to breathe, but they ‘practice’ it anyway – taking breaths for a few minutes, then stopping, and so on. When a baby is born, the lungs expand when hit by air, thanks in part to a chemical called surfactin that the baby makes. Because Daniel was so young, he didn’t have his surfactin yet.
Because of this, they put Daniel on a ventilator and gave him some surfactin as a mist into his lungs. By that afternoon, he went from exhausted and unable to breathe (despite getting oxygen), to resting and well oxygenated on room air.
This afternoon they started weening him off the ventilator. It is currently set to give him 40 breaths a minute if he tries to rest, but when I saw him, he was breathing on his own at about 67 breaths a minute.
Lorna is still in the hospital as well; I’ll let her tell her stories on the blog when she gets home…
Even with the good news, they are still 7 weeks premature and have some fighting to do before they come home. The latest news is that Anthony and Christopher will be coming home before Daniel, but nobody will be coming home for at least 2-4 weeks.
It has been facinating seeing everything they are doing for them. I had learned a lot watching a bunch of baby shows on A&E and Discovery Health Channel (I had set my Tivo up to record anything with the word ‘triplet’ in it), but seeing it in person, when it is your own kids, is a much different experience. I never knew how cool those isolettes are – they have HEPA filtered air, they monitor the temperature of the baby and regulate the internal heat (so the baby doesn’t have to spend calories regulating its body temperature), and cut out most of the sound. They should make those adult-sized, with air conditioning, a flat-panel HDTV, and a place to plug in your iPod. You could revolutionize air travel by giving each passenger one of these and just stacking them inside of the body of an airplane. I bet you could fit even MORE people in stacked on top of each other – the airlines should love that.
Ok, that got of topic, but I don’t know where to edit it back. I’ll just leave it and let you laugh at my ramblings.
I’m so happy to hear you’re all doing well. Rob and Veronica and I are thinking about you ALL the time!
It’s good that you were well prepared for all the medical hijinks. When I was pregnant with V, I only watched a few of those baby delivery shows on the various Discovery-type channels. In general they just freaked me out and made me too paranoid! As it turns out, we were very lucky and everything was fine. Even when she went back to the hospital with her heart problem, she had to be on a ventilator for a while, but was already too big for the isolette. I saw a lot of them in action though, and you’re right – they’re amazing.
I think what impressed me the most though was the nurses, who were all wonderful. I really think a person must be some kind of saint to become a nurse!
Anyway, glad to hear it’s going pretty well and we’ll keep thinking of you. Get some rest!
Those boys are doing great David! Voice of experience: make sure Dad is getting enough nutrition during this stressful time. I found the chili dogs were effective in replacing depeted trace minerals and anti-oxidants. Also burritos.