Mom comes home and Patrick continues to excite everyone

Patrick is now eating very well.  It's day four, and he continues to improve on many fronts.  This episode in our lives is as much becoming a medical student as it is trying to learn how to be a parent.  We are up every two hours to 'virtual-feed' Patrick, but at each visit to the hospital we learn a little more about how he is doing, and what progress actually means.


Mom in her typical spot holding hands.  This is my first attempt at an HDR shot in the NICU.  The lights around the isolette are so dim it's hard to distinguish anything, and inside are incredibly bright.  Christy said she would just die the day I bring a tripod into this place.

His Bilirubin scores (indicating jaundice) is still a little high so they have him under the lights. When they kept saying this term, I thought they were saying - Billy Rueben.  As if the test was named after a man.  So I remember the term like this: A Man named 'Billy' and a delicious corn beef sandwich, 'Rueben.'

Regardless, the score has come down from where it was originally so the pad you see in the picture above (that is actually fiber optic UV light) has now been removed.  He only has the lights on above his little house.


You can see just some of his entourage of equipment behind Patrick's bed.  There are IVs, feeding tubes, monitors for Heart Rate, Respiratory Rate, Oxygen Levels 

Patrick has continued to have a few little spells of apnea which is a really fancy way of telling us that he was a little too comfortable, and decided to stop breathing for a time.  All you do in this case is shake his little legs and rub his chest until it starts right back up again.  This is all typical of a preemie, and the episodes should subside as the days pass.


Dad at Bedside

We have started being able to see a difference in what his labored breathing versus his relaxed breathing looks like.  Eating wise, Patrick is doing very well.  In a previous picture you could see his eating tube (Gavage Tube)  Right now he is eating .6mL/hour.  This miniscule amount helps his digestive track get use to the idea of actually having a little food in there, and helps to further drop his Billy Rueben score.  


We don't have much more to report as the majority of the weekly testing is done Sunday night to be ready for Monday morning's report.  


Dad, absolutely wiped out after a long day at the hospital.

So now we start to establish some sort of routine at home and the hospital.  Despite the fact that we have been doing a version of the hospital runs now for over 6 weeks, I think that this round will be a little different.  We were there this morning immediately following the 6AM feeding, and stayed through 9:30.

Little Tiger is ridiculously strong and is doing fantastic.  She has been a rock star about all of this, and feels great.  She is now on just Motrin, four days after surgery.  We think that today might be a little bit of a catch up and resting to get ready for the crazy week(s) ahead.  Stay tuned...