NICU- Day 6

We had a busy day yesterday. We had a NICU parenting class, had a care conference and Jack and Abby got to meet Grand-mommy and Grand-pa.

During the Care Conference you meet with the Dr on call, your social worker (each baby in the NICU has one) and your nurse practitioner. They tell you all the information on your little one and keep you up to date. Jack is doing great. He is 4lbs 7oz (though last night had gained a ounce- they weigh them at night) on room air and his bilirubin is at 10.2 and dropping. He is at his max feed of 45ml though still doing about half and half. He also passed his hearing test at the fasted possible rate!

Abby over all is doing okay. She is 2lbs 3oz and being smaller she does have increased risk. As I mentioned earlier, the head scan was good and showed no bleed. They will want to check it again before discharge. The echoCardiogram showed that the Aortic valve has only two instead of three leaflets (two fused together). She will require follow up the rest of her life, and could potentially as she gets older (much older, like my age or older) need a valve replacement. She is also having some Apnea and Bradycardia events. She has only had 5 (though she had another one during Kangaroo Care) and she might need a little caffeine if she has more. Her bilirubin is great and her feeding will increase from 5ml a day to 10 a day tomorrow. Her kidney labs have changed and they went ahead and consulted a specialist at the local Children Hospital in Missouri.  The labs relate to how well her kidneys are working and it is probably all the cystic one but checking everything. The specialist recommended that they check for calcium and blood in urine (to cover bases). Her output is still great so just a formality. They also want to check her sight (and Jack's too) at 4 weeks chronological age which will be around Halloween (they would have been 40 weeks Sept 27). They did ask us where we wanted her transferred to if they had to do something with that Kidney sooner rather than later and she will be sent to an area home to have it fixed.

Thank you for the continued prayers.