Things have been going pretty well the last few weeks, but we just got a call from the nurse practitioner telling us that something is wrong, though they don't know what yet. This is not the kind of phone call you want to get when things have been going so good.
His nurse started getting nervous this morning when I was doing skin-to-skin/kangaroo care. When holding the baby this way, babies typically do better with oxygen and breathing. Instead, John was breathing really rapidly and his saturation was pretty low. Usually his oxygen level is in the 20-30% level when I hold him, but this morning it was at around 50% because he just wouldn't take big breaths. I had to stroke his back and talk to him for the entire hour to get him to stay calm and try to breathe deeply. I thought he was just in a mood, and didn't want to be held. After he went back to his bed, he kept breathing rapidly, but his oxygen needs weren't as high (back to the 30% range).
After big John and I left for the day, the nurse was still nervous about his rapid breathing and noticed his belly was a little distended so she ordered some tests. Nothing too alarming is showing in his xrays, his belly is soft, and he is still passing stool so they don't think it's NEC yet. His red blood count is pretty low right now and they're deciding on another transfusion. They're still waiting for the white blood count results to come back which will indicate infection--if the levels are low they'll start him on antibiotics right away while we wait a few days for the full cultures to come back from the lab. In the meantime they're stopping his feedings to give his belly a rest, and will do more xrays in the morning. If he continues to have a hard time breathing, they'll have to put him back on CPAP.
I'm so frustrated to go through this all over again. This is what happened the week he was born, and it isn't any less scary now even though everything turned out ok the last time. I'm really worried about the breathing issue. Last time he was sick, he didn't really show any symptoms with his breathing. It breaks my heart that he may have to do CPAP again since he didn't do well with it before. It fills his belly with even more air, and makes it harder for him to eat. I also don't get to see his sweet little face when he has to wear that blasted mask, and it makes it scarier when they just look so sick.
Grrrrrr, I feel like things are going backward instead of forward!!!!!
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