The roller coaster ride continues

Josh had an up and down day today.  He gained 20 grams overnight to 1590 grams, or 3 pounds 8 ounces!  He had a good night, with very few desaturations or A's and B's.  In the morning, the doctors decided to try to wean him completely off of his oxygen (he has been getting 50 ccs per minute of oxygen).  Well, Josh did not like this at all, with his oxygen saturation going down immediately, and not coming up very well.  They then decided to bump up his oxygen to 25 ccs per minute, and he seemed to be doing better.

The doctors said that they want to challenge Josh, and babies being on oxygen is one of the biggest things that keep them in the hospital.  The good thing about all of this is that when they first put Josh on the pedi-flow nasal cannula a few days ago, he could not handle being on 25 ccs per minute, which is why they put him on 50 ccs per minute.  It looks like he might be strong enough now to be able to handle 25 ccs per minute.  They will try to ween him down again in a few days.

The doctors also told us that they have pretty much decided that most of his apnea and bradicardia is from acid reflux, which they are finding out is a dominant genetic trait.  Mommy's Mother had it, Mommy has it, and it looks like Josh may have it too.  The good thing is that now that it has been diagnosed, Josh may be able to be given something for it when he gets a bit bigger, and will probably go home with reflux medication.

Josh did well with his breathing for most of the afternoon, but in late afternoon he started having more episodes of desaturation, with accompanying bradies.  He did this for about 20 to 30 minutes, before going back to good breathing.  We aren't really sure what the reason is for this, and hope and pray that Josh gets stronger so that he does this much less often (if at all).

UPDATE:  We just spoke to Josh's night nurse who said that she had increased his oxygen back to 50cc and he was doing much better.  He had not had a desaturation since she came on at 7pm.  Even though they had to go back up on his oxygen, we hope it means he will have a better night.

Prayer Requests:

• Josh handle his oxygen flow of 25 ccs per minute well, and that he can be weened off of that soon
• Josh continue to breath well, and not have any A's and B's, or decreased oxygen sats
• Josh not get sick or develop an infection while in the NICU
• Josh continue to gain weight consistently and be able to hold his body temperature so that he can come out of the isolette
• Mom's milk supply increase to match Josh's current and future needs

Praises:

• Josh is down to 25 ccs per minute of oxygen... only one step below completely breathing on his own!
• Josh is up to 3 pounds 8 ounces!
• Josh continues to do well on his feedings

 (Josh enjoying a good nap when Mom and Dad arrived today - look at that double chin)

 

 (Having my oxygen saturations go up and down so much is tiring)

 

 (Josh taking a peep at Mommy, Daddy and Grammie)

 

 (Sweet little guy taking another nap when we left - he puts himself in the funniest positions)