A better day!

Today has been a much better day for Maksim! The intense chest percussion therapy and suctioning last night really helped. He ended up going through most of last night on vapotherm settings of 4L at 50% fio2, so he was able to come down from the 60%. I was so grateful and relieved for that. He has also been much less lethargic today, and his lungs have been sounding more clear. He hasn't coughed as much, but when he does, it is still extremely loose and requires quite a bit of suctioning.

His lungs seem to really like the vapotherm, and he is now down to 3L at 40% fio2. It provides pressure that eases the burden of breathing and opens his airways and alveoli. He had been maintaining his sats really well today, and the stickers that hold the oxygen tubing on his face were coming off, so I gave him a break from the oxygen to switch those out. I don't think he had coughed all morning, but within five minutes of not having that pressure from the vapotherm, he started coughing a lot and producing lots of sputum. I am grateful for the pressure of the vapotherm, but I do worry a little about how hard it will be to wean him from it. They will get more aggressive with weaning him tomorrow, so we'll just have to wait and see.

While awake today, Maks was keeping his sats up very well, but every time he fell asleep, they would drop way down into the eighties, and we would have to turn the oxygen up. I have been pleasantly surprised that he has been keeping his sats up all evening, and since he has been a sleep tonight, they have not had to adjust the oxygen up at all! I believe he is on the uphill, which hopefully means we can get out of here sometime this weekend! Now that he isn't so lethargic, he is starting to get frustrated with being confined to this tiny crib. He cannot sit up on his own yet, so he has to spend the day rolling back and forth from his belly to his back. I think he misses his jumperoo!

Since he lost 5 oz yesterday, I have been making the nurses super-concentrate his formula to 24 calorie instead of 22 calorie. Unfortunately, he lost another 2 oz today. He is so far behind anyway, I just hate to see him lose this much weight. A week ago, he weighed 14 lbs 15 oz, and today he was down to only 14 lbs 3 oz. He did have a good day of eating, though, so I am hopeful that he will have at least a slight gain tomorrow.

Tomorrow is Maksim's 11 month birthday! I just can't believe we are getting that close to a year. As excited as I am for his first birthday, I am also extremely nervous. The holiday season and all these hospitalizations have started to bring back a lot of the memories and anxieties from his birth. This time last year, we were preparing for Christmas and to move into our new house. We were not preparing to have a baby, and in no way were we ready! God and Maksim had different plans, however, and I just have to believe that his purpose is great and that he was sent to us to help him fulfill it! God just couldn't wait to get this little miracle to us!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad