One Week Old

So yesterday Grayson was a week old! It’s hard to believe – the time seems to have flown by. 

He has been doing really well. He had a few off days this week. On Thursday he forgot to breathe for a bit, and kept having episodes, so the Paediatrician on call that night decided to put him on a ventilator for a bit to see if we could get things under control. They did a full work up of blood work and a lumbar puncture, to see if they could find out what was going on.  They also started him on some antibiotics. By Friday morning he was doing much better. They had administered some caffeine as they thought the culprit might be Apnea of prematurity. 

Just like Apnea in adults, you stop breathing for a bit, however the reason for this is that Gray’s brain hasn’t fully developed, so he forgets to breathe – literally. The caffeine keeps his mind alert and reminds him to breathe. Since Friday he hasn’t had an episode and has been doing really well.

Gray had quite a bit of jaundice, but the photo-therapy has been doing it’s job. He is still under the lights for a bit – his levels went up a bit today, but that’s not unexpected at all. Most preemies have jaundice because they’re body just isn’t ready to handle everything at once. 

Gray was feeding really well, but after his episode the doctors decided to back off the feeds and keep the IV nutrients going. Because of this I have a bit more freedom to leave the hospital. 

The staff here in Brampton have been amazing. They communicate really well with us, and making sure that we know everything they’re doing. The Paediatrician Dr Gupta is fantastic – he’s keeping a really good eye on things. He’s making sure that they’re not giving him too much medication. 

I am doing great after a pretty stressful delivery. I’m almost back to the usual me. Brian has gotten a hotel room about 15 minutes away, so I have been staying there the last few nights getting some good sleep. Once he’s feeding 100% on milk and up to nursing full time, I’ll be at the hospital nursing every 3 to 4 hours. So I’m taking this opportunity to get out and get some good sleep.

 

As Brian has said it feels a bit surreal since we’re not his primary caregivers right now. We get to leave, and we’re not having to get up at 3am with a screaming baby. Once we’re home it will sink it a lot more. 

We’re unsure how long we’ll be in Brampton, or if the blips he’s had this week mean that we’re not able to be transferred to GrandRiver. Hopefully in the next few days the doctors will be able to readjust the plan. 

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers. Feel free to email us anytime. We’re here. 

Blessings - love you lots, 

Jacqueline, Brian and Grayson.