Third Time's the Charm

Here is a recap of our week. We've had lots of big changes!


Monday: The doctors wanted to start refeeding the stool that comes out of Eli's ostomy bag and put it through the second part of his intestine. Eli was sent down to radiology for a test to make sure there were no strictures or perforations. It was a little scary because this was the first time that Eli would be leaving the NICU, even if it was just to go to a different floor of the hospital. Once Eli was down in radiology, contrast was inserted through his intestine. Then they took an X-Ray to see if the contrast made it through the length of his intestine. The nurse said she thought everything looked normal, but the official report would not be in until the next day.

Tuesday: The radiology report showed that all of the contrast went through the intestine and there were no strictures or perforations! That part of his intestine is just a little smaller than the rest, but that was expected since he really has never used his entire intestine efficiently. The refeeding process sounds a little strange. The nurses use a syringe to pull all of the stool out of the ostomy bag. A catheter is placed into the second opening. Then, the syringe is placed on a pump that slowly pushes the stool in.

Refeeding the stool on the pump.

Wednesday: Eli has increased his weight quite a bit (he's 4lbs 7oz now) and as a result has been able to monitor his temperature better. The doctors decided that he was ready to move out of the isolette and into a crib! They made the switch while I was holding him. He seems a lot smaller now that he's in such a big bed. Eli also had his first dirty diaper which was a good sign since they started refeeding.

Thursday: Every day Eli gets a chest X-Ray to see how his lungs are doing. The X-Ray showed that there was a little bit of haziness. When his happens it means he has too much fluid in his lungs. The doctors decided to give him a diuretic to help flush out the excess fluid. As a result, Eli lost a little bit of weight and also electrolytes. The doctors were thinking about putting him on CPAP since he was doing so well on the ventilator, but they decided to wait because they wanted to make sure he was gaining instead of losing.

Friday: Eli has maintained his weight, but ever since he has moved to the crib he has been a little on the cool side. If his temperature goes below a certain point, they will have to put him back in the isolette so he is not working too hard to stay warm. At this point, the ventilator settings were low. The doctors still wanted to wait to make sure that CPAP was going to be a success.

Saturday: Jason held Eli today since I hog him during the week :) Eli loves being held by Jason and his oxygen had to keep getting turned down! The doctor still didn't think he was quite ready to go off of the ventilator and wanted to wait and see what his blood gas was going to be in the morning.

Sunday: Jason and I called the NICU on the way to church to see how he was doing and the nurse said, "oh he's great, he's been on CPAP for about an hour now." Jason and I both look at each other like, what?? We thought we would have received a call before they extubated him, but I guess not! After church, we went up to the hospital to see how he was doing. He looked much more comfortable than the last CPAP attempt. The poor little guy had to have an eye exam too so his eyes were all puffy. I guess the only benefit of the eye exam, even though he hated it, was that Jason and I heard Eli cry! I cried too. It was the first time we had really heard him cry except for the little wimper he let out when he was first born.

His face looks chunkier than it really is.

Now he can actually suck on his pacifier.

We hope this time CPAP was a success and Eli won't have to be reintubated. We will keep you posted!