May 8, 2011 - 64 Days Old

Sorry I haven't posted for a while. I am out of town so much that it is hard for me to find the time to post. A lot of people have told me that they miss reading new posts, and it has been nice to hear how many people actually follow this blog.

Aiden has been doing really well. He had been improving every day and we were really encouraged by the progress he had been making...until Saturday. The doctors had increased his feedings to 49 mL per 3 hours. They had stopped giving him IV nutrition, which had been hurting his liver, because he was getting enough nutrition through his regular feedings. They had started giving him steroids to help his lungs and they were able to wean him down on his ventilator settings. They had taken the "pick" line out of his head, his liver function was improving, and he was doing great. He seemed to be tolerating the feedings really well. And then, Saturday, his bowel blew up with air again. It was so big that they were afraid it would perforate, so they stopped his feedings and put another IV line in to give him nutrition and medication. I worried about him all day and headed back to Utah Valley as soon as I could. On my way back through, I stopped at the hospital. They had taken him out of the open warmer bed and put him in what they call a "monkey bar" crib. Aiden's nurse, Chris, updated me on everything that had gone on. She said that they could start feedings again as early as the next day (today) as long as his tummy started looking better. That encouraged me and made me feel better about things.

Saturday night, though, the nurse called and told us that the blood culture they sent to the lab the night before had come back positive for bacteria. They didn't know the exact bacteria he had, but they started giving him some antibiotics to get rid of it. We were really bummed to hear that he had an infection. We thought he was doing so well and now this. This NICU roller coaster never seems to hit any flat spots.

When we went to the hospital to visit him today, he looked good. His belly looked better on the x-ray today, so they restarted the feedings at half of what they had been giving him before. The steroids made him really jittery and he was squirming around like crazy, so they had him wrapped up pretty tightly so he wouldn't pull his breathing tube out again. Amaraa let me hold him since I am out of town so much. I love holding my little guy. I would have held him all day if they would have let me. He's getting to be a little chunk. He now weighs more than six and a half pounds. He's such a little cutie and he had his eyes open most of the time I was holding him.

So, we're taking things day by day. Hopefully this will just be a small hiccup in his progress and he will bounce back quickly and get back on the right track.