Changes with Calen and the Blog!

Sorry it has been a few days and there is plenty to update you all on. The priority change at this point is that I discovered that I have a space limit on the blog, I did not know that, and I have exceeded my 1 GB of free storage space and therefore required to pay for more. I don't like the idea of paying for space on the blog so I moved it. The blog continues without any interruption to

www.calenclopp2.blogspot.com

Just click the link to go there or enter the new web address, the only difference is adding the 2 after his name.

All blog entries that were being feed to facebook should continue after I get the RSS feed redirected. Thanks. 

I Got Pooped On! Day 45!

2 lbs 6.5 ozs

We did it, we have gained 1 complete pound since birth. How exciting is that, celebrate the landmarks. He is still cruising right along. They did what I thought they would do and increased his breast milk feedings up to 20 cc every 3 hours. We are begin practice activities with Calen such as giving him a pacifier as much as possible so that he can start getting interested in drinking for himself. His feeding are going well and they are producing lots of poop. Yesterday while changing his diaper he pooped while I was cleaning him and it wasn't a big deal though it was just poor timing. Today he did it again, 2 times in a row, while trying to put a diaper on him. We are discovering that there is some connection between his bowel's moving and us lifting his legs up, yeah so it was pretty nasty, I never had that problem with Joey and twice with Calen already, the future is looking interesting. 

After being messed with for a sort while today Calen was wide awake once again trying to figure out what's going on. He did get a bit cold this was after we were messing in his isolett for a good long while because he popped on me a couple times. I had to get that gigantic diaper on him to which isn't easy. They had to put his skin probe back on (that would be the gold heart on his chest) he was hot this morning they said, so he had to get that back. He is still in clothes though, just not at this point because they were caught in the cross fire of his earlier event. 

Mom at hospital tomorrow, be back on Thursday. Goodnight!

Clothes! Day 44!

2 lbs 5.25 ounces

Goodevening everyone! We had a very nice time today with Calen. When we walked in and noticed that for the first time Calen was wearing clothes. It was so cute. He starting to maintain his temperature very well so they were able to take his skin probe off and just monitor the temperature of the isolett it's self, by doing that they get to start placing clothes on him. It was a treat, it was so cool to get to see him with something on. 

Mom held him today. She held him for just about 3 hours. We stopped right at 6 so he could get his assessment done and get his bath. He is growing well, really developing steadily. We are still sitting at 19 cc of breast milk every 3 hours, it is still being fortified with kilocalories and the all and all he is absorbing it well. I believe they will be increasing the breast milk intake again here soon, Holly is going to be taking some nutrients to help increase her breast milk productions, the stuff she is going to use the Nurse Practitioner said was fine to take and they said if it wasn't seeming to work that they would give her a prescription for Regalen which apparently stimulates breast milk production. Very interesting so hopefully something works, she is doing decent with the pumping but very soon Calen's intake will out do her output. 

He is starting to smile. We have noticed that he is starting to develop his reflexes. We have seen several reflex smiles out of him, he is also begin to root which is a positive sign he is preparing to be ready for breast feeding or bottle. We are hearing pretty mixed information about when he will actually start breast feeding so we are just waiting day by day until someone comes in and tells us we are starting. He still seems pretty small to start at this point. 

Those eyes of his! He is really at a point where when someone is messing with him or anything that he has those eye's open and looking around. They said that his weekly eye exams are going well with no changes to the Retinopathy of Prematurity but they think by this point in his development he can probably see shadows and areas of high contrast.We think that he can hear us and he can look towards sound.

We gave him a bath today. He got his entire body all washed up today. We changed his outfit and get him all snuggled in the day.

The Talking about Moving Again! Day 42!

2 lbs 4 ozs

Goodevening. I have a surprise post. I know I wasn't planning on it but I have some information to put out. 

IF YOU ORDERED T-SHIRTS AND WONDERING WHERE THEY ARE, WELL GOOD NEWS I HAVE THEM AND THEY ARE READY TO GO, I WILL PUT THEM IN THE MAIL ON MONDAY. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ORDERS.

No weight increases today but no loses either so that is awesome. I told by a fellow nurse that they though the weight loss was due to him losing his edema, and you know what I am pretty sure that is right. His swelling has been decreasing so there is a definite possibility. 

Holly went to the hospital early this morning so that she could go enjoy a wedding this evening. Since she was there early she was able to be there fore medical rounds. The doctor talked with her and told her the purposed plan. Starting tomorrow they plan to start Calen on vitamins, they will continue to increase his kilocalorie amount with fortified breast milk. 

The big news is they are planning to move Calen down to the first floor NICU because he is doing so well. This is awesome, this really gives us a good goal to seek and we are excited to move on with his growing. 

He is Really Awake! Day 41!

2 lbs 4 ozs 

We have been seeing some steady weight drop, anyone know why? We sure don't ecspecially since he has been started on that fortified breast milk. Either way he is still rockin away. They are giving him 19ml breast milk every 3 hours, he last feeding that we were there to see showed that he had ingested all of it with nothing left in his belly. The high flow o2 is still doing the trick for him, he still has a couple heart rate drops but he immediately recovers from them. Mom held him today and he was really awake on her. Moving his head all around and just keeping his eye's open a lot. Eventually he fell asleep and so did Holly and I, we both crashed, something finally woke me up, and I ate some food then woke Holly up just before 6 when the nurse came back in to put him back in the isolett. Almost guarantee no post for the weekend, I work, Holly is going to try to be at the hospital by 9am tomorrow. We have a busy weekend ahead so there just will not be time. See you on Monday. Goodnight. 

Moved! Day 40!

2 lbs 4 3/4 ozs

Weights been back and fourth last couple of days. He is still holding strong today. He does appear that he is having a few episodes of his heart rate dropping down but for the most part it seems to be positional more than anything. They move his o2 around from 21% to about 25% throughout the day but otherwise it is the same as yesterday. They moved our room, we are officially in 2056 now. He is up to like 19.8 ml of breast milk every 3 hours now, he seems to be tolerating the increased kcal well at this point. 

I decided that I would hold him today. I held him for about 2 hours. He was having some difficulty with his temperature at first but quickly improved when the put the hat on him. It was nice to hold him, the downside was the new room had a broken chair and I couldn't recline. It got pretty uncomfortable pretty fast but I dealt with it, hopefully tomorrow we will having a working chair. 

Back in his isolett after holding him. He let out a big yawn, he was moving a lot when he was on me, so he was probably tired and ready to get some good sleep. 

At this point, no news is good news. We are just hanging out at this point with no real changes and he is doing really well. Hopefully get some time with him tomorrow, unsure at this point I have had some schedule changes. Goodnight. 

Big Surprise! Day 39!

2lbs 5 3/4ozs

So much is happening so quickly and we are more than fortunate to having God and support from our family and friends to help us through all of this. Blood test today were all great. He remains as he was with no IV's or accessories in that department. He continues to be on breast milk through the oral gastric tube (OG) which he continues to tolerate, he is getting 17cc of milk every 3 hours. As of tonight's feed they are starting to fortify the breast milk with a supplement which will increase the kilocalorie(kcal) value of the milk. Normal breast milk is around 20kcal per milliliter of milk, they will start by enhancing it to about 22kcal per milliliter. They will continue to increase it until in about a week as long as he is tolerating to around 28kcal per milliliter. This is to supply a fuel source for him to breathe and grow as fast as he possibly can. I am banking that tomorrow he will be at 2.6lbs and if he is, then we will have officially made it to 1 pound up since birth. According to hospital calculations he is at 32 weeks. I really had no idea that they were considering him to be at this age but that is what they are saying and it is how they are treating him. 

Holly called me and told me when I get to the hospital that there was going to be a surprise and there was. Check out the above picture of Calen and note the new tube in his nose. This is a nasal cannula. He is getting absolutely no positive pressure assistance anymore. He is getting what they call hi flow 02 through this which equates to 3.5 liters of oxygen coming though a machine that mixes it with regular air to give him a 21% oxygen supply and the air is also moistened and warmed before coming to Calen. We do the same setup for adults but just to show you a comparison to size, the typical adult on high flow o2 system would use around 35-40 liters of 02 versus 3.5 liters to obtain the same 21% ratio, amazing the difference. This is so awesome, we found several things exciting about this. 1. He is tolerating it extremely well, he has been problem free all day on it. 2. This places us very close to being move down to the 1st floor NICU which is for less sick babies  and I am hoping the visiting rules are little different and Joey might get to see him, unsure on this though. 3. When we kiss him on the head, we don't have to kiss oxygen mask straps along with it. 

We didn't expect this at all. Holly and I figured he would stay on CPAP for a while before the transition, but here is the quick story on why he arrived to high flow o2. The machine he had in his room was a SiPAP which  was just operating in CPAP mode, well they needed the machine for another baby so they were going to put an actual CPAP machine in his room but the doctor this morning felt it would be better just to start him on high flow o2 and see how he handles it, so they did. So far so good so please pray that his little body can hold out and continue to breath on his own without any machine assistance. 

Holly held him for about 3 hours today. When they were putting him back and started his assessment he became really wide eyed. It was cute he kept his eyes open for sometime and was just moving his head all around. He is building a lot more strength, such as when he is laying on mom or in his isolett he can pick his head completely up off the surface and move it side to side, it is pretty impressive to watch him do it. He is so cute.

During the assessment with his eye's wide open. Nurse coming at him with a thermometer. 

Terrible picture but only to state a event. Tomorrow they are planning to move Calen from his room we have been in since birth and move him down the hall to room 2056. The neighbors babies are no longer there, they transfered the last one on his hall to children's hospital today. So since he has been all the way on the end of the hall they are moving him down closer to the other babies so that the nurse is in a more convenient area to take care of others. 

Holly had her doctors appointment today that was to decide whether or not she needed to remain on blood pressure medications and the answer is NO. Her blood pressure has stayed down in the 120's without medications so she is good to go without. 

Just to update you on Joey. The other night Holly had went in and started to run the bath water for him. We told him to get ready for a bath so he started to take off his clothes and apparently he was becoming to impatient for this as he decided to remove his shirt and shoes and then go ahead and get in the tube. Ahhh the joys of toddlers. 

I will be at the hospital Thursday and Friday so I should updating those days. 

Thanks and Goodnight.