Look Tyler, A Ducky!

Rachel, meet your baby brother today.
She did amazing today. I was worried that the whole scene would be a little scary for her. Rachel saw me and was excited to hear she had to wash her hands in a huge sink with sudsy soap. Rachel was excited to see daddy and then realize he was holding something, Tyler. At first she didn't spend a lot of time looking at Tyler but she did hear a crying and said "Baby crying". Then she and I went to find lunch.

Daddy was able to hold Tyler a little more freely today. He graduated from a Cpap to a Hi-flow oxygen system. It is a lot easier to hold him. The tubing for Hi-flow is a lot more flexible and won't dislodge from working right. I can even offer Tyler lunch direct. He won't have enough skill to make that work yet, but it is a step closer.

It was great to see both of our children in the same room for the first time. It may not be our ideal situation, but it was still healing to have all of us right there. After lunch, Rachel was able to focus a little more on her new baby brother.



The family of Duckies lives on the front desk in the ICN. Rachel met one of Tyler's doctors by the desk and she went into doctor shy mode. It was great that this doctor was kind enough to get down on her level and try to make her feel more at ease. After a failed high five and hand shake, he asked her if she like duckies. That did the trick. She got to hold a ducky and decided that Tyler needed to see it.

















Cpap















Hi-flow

These two pictures are showing the greatest change to Tyler's respiratory needs. Yesterday he was on Cpap and required to wear a very tight hat to tie rather large hoses to his nose. There was also an adhesive nose guard to make a tight seal between the nose and the prongs. The nurses he has had over the past day or two have gotten tired of constantly putting the Cpap back into his nose. Quite often Tyler would pull the prongs out of his nose and put them into his mouth. They keep saying that if a baby is fighting against a respiratory system it could be a good sign that they are ready to advance to the next step. Today he advanced. The new rig is a small tubing similar to people who uses oxygen. There is a little bit of adhesive under his nose to keep the tubing in place and that is it. This is really the first time in over a week, I've seen Tyler's head. The Hi-flow system allows Tyler to do all the work breathing and provides a bit of oxygen when he needs it to keep his saturation levels up. He may need to go back onto Cpap if he gets tired or if he can't keep his blood gas levels in the acceptable range. Going back to Cpap will not be a set back, it just tells us Tyler isn't ready yet. If he doesn't go back, it becomes a great achievement.

The other big achievement this weekend was being weened completely off fentanyl, the sedative. We have been weening him off that for about a week now. Tyler does get rather tick off when we change his pants or move him, but calms down very quickly when we are done or hold him in a calming pose. Infants this young will calm down from normal over stimulation by holding their arms down to their chests and their legs bent into the fetal position. A position similar to being in the womb.

Tyler, Rachel, and their parents are doing rather well considering. We are all a little tired.