Life in the NICU - Week Four
April 23 - April 29, 2000

Arran didn't have a great night last night. He was apparently a little more disturbed by the attempt to draw spinal fluid than we initially thought. By early morning he settled himself and he ate at 9 AM. Today was a good day for him though. He ate 20 ml from a bottle but he did so by himself. By that I mean that I didn't have to stop him and remind him to breathe, he did so on his own. After about 20 ml he gets tired and needs to be fed the remaining amount via the feeding tube. Today we sat and snuggled a bunch and enjoyed each others company. Other than that he had relaxing day.

Today Arran had an elevated blood pressure for a little while. It dropped back into his normal range without the aid of any medicine so that little scare is over. He ended his antibiotic today. They may take the hep lock out of his arm tonight or tomorrow. He ate well today and he is digesting the food that they are giving him. The ENT doctor is going to evaluate him a little tomorrow and determine what actions that he will take if any. All in all things are going well. As soon as he can eat he can come home. This picture was taken this afternoon. What a cutie!

Today Arran was moved out of the general NICU room and in to his own private room. This was done in order to make room in the NICU room for other babies. He was the only baby in there stable enough to be moved so out he went. Arran may be having surgery tomorrow or thursday on his nose. They are planning on opening the right side of his nose so he can breathe better. We aren't sure when his surgery is going to be done because the doctor is "fitting him in" his schedule. He spent the day visiting and sleeping.

We got a message today from Arran's ENT doctor and he told us that contrary to the rumors that Arran will not be having surgery this week. He is eating much better and he is taking breaks to breathe on his own. So due to this improvement he may not need surgery for a while yet (age 2-3). He took his bottle today and ate all 50 ml and kept it down at 9am this morning. He will eat again with a bottle at 9 pm. Starting tomorrow he will eat 3 times a day with the bottle. There isn't much else to report, and according to the nurses that's a good thing.

Arran worked some more on his eating habits today.  He did very well at 9 and 12 o'clock this morning.  He lost a little weight from yesterday but nothing to worry about yet.  At 6 this evening he didn't do so well with his bottle but the nurse this evening is going to try agian at midnight.

Arran had a crazy day.  This morning he didn't want to bottle feed at all.  Then this afternoon I got him to eat almost his whole bottle and he did fine.  Then at 6 this evening he ate his whole bottle but spit up part of it.  We're not sure yet why he is having this trouble.  We're hoping though that he works this out on his own and soon.  We think that he will be able to go home when he gets this whole eating thing down.  Hopefully that will be soon.

I called down this morning and spoke with the night nurse before she left.  She told me that Arran had a pretty good night.  At midnight he spit up a little bit while he was going to the bathroom, she didn't seem too worried.  Then she fed him with a bottle agian at 6 this morning.  He didn't eat the whole bottle but he kept it down.  We will go and visit him today after the big move to the new house.

After moving all of the furniture into Arran's new house, we went down to check on the lad. He took his 6 PM feeding through the tube and his 9 PM was split between the tube and a bottle. He was doing very well with the bottle but another body function distracted him and then he fell asleep. He is still spitting up part of his meals but they are not too worried about it yet.