Be the Reason Someone Smiles Today

Today was an information-packed day!  For the first time, Matthew & I participated in a "care round."  Each Thursday, the entire NICU team (neonatologist, nurse, nutritionist, social worker, physical therapist, pharmacist, to name a few) meet to talk about each child's current medical plan and next steps.  We joined the care round for the first time today and although there was no new information about his current condition, we learned some new vocabulary and talked a little bit about next steps (which was new!)

Highlights:

• He continues to do well with his breathing on the High Flow Nasal Cannula.
• He does NOT (Praise the Lord!) have a heart murmur.
• He receives (routine) vitamin D, caffeine, and iron supplements.
• He is on full feedings which are a combination of breast milk (mine and donor), Pregestimil, and human milk fortifier.
• He receives feedings (through a feeding tube) every hour and a half, allowing time to pull air out of his stomach following feedings (which greatly helps with those "de-sats.")  He can breathe better when the extra air bubbles aren't in his stomach pushing on his lungs.
• He's not on any antibiotics (infection is gone!).
• Wyatt loves being on his tummy and will continue to spend most of his time in the isolette this way, per physical therapy plan.
• He's a "feeder-grower".  He'll be in a bit of a holding pattern for a while - feed, sleep, GROW!  Before he can move on to any next steps, he just has to grow.
• That said, nipple feeding will be the next step for him, ideally at 33 or 34 weeks (3-4 weeks from now)!  Feeding is a HUGE stepping stone for preemies.  The suck, swallow, breathe sequence is very difficult for them.

Wyatt was down a little bit in weight today but nothing too discouraging - 10 grams.  Unfortunately, he had many de-sats today and some were more profound than usual.  The staff doesn't seem overly concerned yet so we'll keep an eye on it. The good news is, even when his numbers drop, he usually pops right back up.  

He also had a few (and first!) brady episodes where his heart rate dropped to an undesirably slow rate.  Like with the de-sats, he pops right back up usually but it's still a little scary to see those numbers go from the 140 range to...40! :(

It was tough to watch those numbers bounce all day so things got a whole lot sweeter when he flashed his FIRST SMILE this evening for both of us.  It's amazing how that just took every worry, stress, and bad moment of the day away.  We love you, Wyatt!