More Charts!

At the request of my sister, here are a couple more charts!

Here is Aidan's Feed to Weight Ratio:


It appears that we have leveled off at 11 to 12 cc / kilogram. But it's probably more relevant to look at Calories per Day:


I do think he has doctors orders for 140 or so calories per kilogram...

Funny, if my math is correct, Aidan is only eating 165 calories per day. I guess a calorie goes a long way when you are only 3 pounds.

I ran a quick calculation. If the doctors had me eating 140 calories per kilogram, I would need to eat over 11,000 calories per day! Yikes. No wonder Aidan has trouble digesting all his feeds. I'd be ill if you made me eat that much.

Happy now Linda?

September 29, 2008: Day 29 (4 weeks old today, staph outbreak, and very first bath)

You are in for a treat. This is the best (and longest) blog posting ever, stocked with loads of pictures and videos. (thanks again Lee)

To celebrate Aidan's 4-week birthday, he got his very first bath today! But I'm getting ahead of myself.

First, we had Lee again tonight:



Note that the RT is in a gown. Aidan is now officially in quarantine, where staff must wear gloves to touch him or his equipment, and a gown is to be worn for handling him. 3 babies in our corner of the NICU all tested positive for staph bacteria. They'll probably never know exactly how this happened, or which baby had it first, or if there was more than one independent "ground zero". We've been told that the bacteria in Aidan's eyes and nose *did* respond to normal antibiotics, so he does *not* have MRSA.

Enough about negatives for today, because we did have a very fun visit tonight, one of our most enjoyable yet.

Last night Aidan surprised us all by making it to 3 pounds. I wasn't ready with the camera because we really weren't expecting it. Tonight, Lee and Aidan were kind enough to perform a reenactment of last night's momentous 3-pound weighing, and this time I was ready:



Please ignore that it took 3 tries to get 3 pounds exactly. Aidan kept wanting to weigh 2 lbs 15.9 oz.

Here is the official 3-pound photo:



OK, so Aidan didn't *gain* any weight tonight. But that's OK. Aidan has had several days in a row with big gains, plus he has been looking puffy from water retention. Denyse and I thought he actually looked a little less puffy today, which means he probably lost some of his water weight. (plus, Lee used a different scale tonight, and I don't know exactly how precise these scales are. A couple weeks ago, I asked what the error tolerance on the scales is, 1 gram, 5 grams 10 grams? I didn't get an answer, but I did get a strange look).

Before the bath, they performed Aidan's normal 10pm cares. Denyse cleaned out the infectious goo from Aidan's eyes and massaged his tear ducts:



You can see Aidan's CPAP-head in this video :( The CPAP hat, even though it is not really that tight, is elongating his head:



So I ran a Google search for "meaning of polish name stawicki" and the first item in the list is The Stawicki Surname from ancestry.com! It says the meaning of Stawicki is:

Polish: habitational name for someone from Stawik, the name of settlements in Kielce, Kraków, and Lublin voivodeships and of a place now in Ukraine.

So I guess there are multiple plaves called Stawik. From Wikipedia Stawik (pronounced stavik) is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Jeziorzany, within Lubartów County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland.


Click on picture to see it bigger.

Facinating. This may be where we came from. I never knew this, and we all owe it to Lee for asking us. The website also shows a book for sale on Amazon.com called THE STAWICKI NAME IN HISTORY for $29.95. I'll have to get that!

OK, enough with this digression, back to Aidan.

Here, Aidan is not too all happy after his normal RT care:



Next, Aidan needed his antibiotic eye drops (yes, Denyse is doing the drops):



Then, Aidan needs his CPAP back on. Lee was hoping that Aidan would be stable enough for a full bath, without the CPAP on, but he started de-saturating right at the start of cares, during a diaper change, so he decided that Aidan was not ready for a full, naked bath.



They keep promising us Aidan's cone-head will go away quickly after he is off the CPAP.

When all the normal cares were finally finished, Aidan is ready for his very first bath:





After his bath, Aidan needs to be fully dried so heat doesn't evaporate away with water:



Aidan doesn't know what to make of the whole experience:



After Aidan is clean and dry, he needs to lay under the heat lamp to get his body temperature back up to 36.6 degrees C:





Aidan is wiped out from the whole ordeal...





Tonight was a very fun night with Aidan. One of the few nights where it actually seemed like we had a baby of our own to care for and play with. We look forward to him growing and becoming more stable so we can have nights like this more often.

Is that enough pictures and videos for you, Grandma?

Aidan's Growth

OK, here's a real engineering nerdly thing to do. I plotted Aidan's growth for the first 4 weeks of his life (vertical is in grams):



Click on picture to make it bigger.

September 28, 2008: Day 28 (I survived, "positive" news, and 3 pounds)

First, the information I'm sure all of you have been waiting anxiously for...

I finished the 100 miles (103.1 to be precise) in 6 hours, 53 minutes of riding time (doesn't include time at the 3 pit stops). I ran out of gas at the 95 mile mark, and limped to the finish. I did really well the first 60 miles, averaging over 16 mph, but miles 65-75 were VERY hilly with about 1500 ft of elevation gain, and it wiped me out. OK, some riders out there who are half my age do fly by me going 23+ mph, and probably consider me to be slow, but this was a ride, not a race. I did get up to 39 mph on one of the long descents. By comparison, the Tour de France riders go over 65 mph descending the Alps, but they are crazy. It was a great day for riding, low 80s and sunny with very little wind. It was a chilly 46-degrees at the the 7:30am start, so I spent much of the day removing layers of clothing, sleeves, etc and then cramming them into my pouch.

What, not the information you were looking for?

Aidan's eye goo tested positive for staph infection, so they have started him on antibiotic eye drops, and have put up one of those STOP signs in front of him now. He also tested positive for staph from the nose sample. We've been told that staph bacteria is everywhere, and is on everyone's skin. The doctor is not worried about this yet, and says that they will be watching extra-closely for any change in Aidan.

At tonight's weighing, I was joking with nurse Lee that Aidan only needs 45-50 grams to make it to 3 pounds. He commented that this is probably a stretch. As a joke, he left all of the cables on the scale for the first weighing, and it came up 3 lbs 0.5 oz. We all laughed and he said he needs to re-do it without the cables. On second weighing, Aidan was 1360 grams, 3 lbs exactly!!! He gained 45 grams again. (OK, using the grams to pounds converter 1360 is actually 2.9982867657143353 pounds, but they round to the nearest tenth of an ounce).

It's Sunday, so they did a full body measurement today. He is now 37 3/4 cm long (14 7/8 inches) and his head is 26 cm around (10 1/4 inches). In the last week, Aidan has:

- Gained 240 grams (8.5 oz)
- Grew 7.5 mm (1/4 inch)
- His head grew 1.25 cm around (1/2 inch)

He had a good day with his oxygen levels, and was actually back to room air for a little while. We hope this trend continues so we can get back on the track of weaning him off of CPAP. We can't wait for him to be off of the "bubble machine".

September 27, 2008: Day 27 (Good day, but definitely not a great day)

First, the good. Aidan gained another 45 grams today, and is now 1315 grams (2 lbs 14.4 oz). He could actually break the 3 pound mark tomorrow if he gains at least 50 grams. OK, not likely, but I can dream can't I?

Now the bad. This morning at 6am, Aidan had is worst apnea spell yet, when his heart rate dipped to under 50 beats per minute, and the nurse took minor action to stimulate him. Aidan has now had 4 documented apnea spells. Still, I keep going back to Dr Keampf telling us that most premies have way more than this, and some have hundreds.

As for the eye infection next door, the NICU has decided to test all babies in the west NICU for staph. They took a nose swap from Aidan this afternoon. We may not have results for a couple days. Also, the day nurse took a sample of some "eye goo" from Aidan. We think (hope) it is the same yellow goo he has had before, and was already diagnosed as normal clogged tear ducts by Dr Mischel.

Tried a different holding position today.





We will *not* be doing this again. It did not go well and Aidan had a major oxygen desaturation while in this position. We think he was having trouble digesting, and trouble breathing while in this position. He is just too young and little to hold him in this traditional position which should be reserved for what we call "giant babies".

He needs to be more upright, like this. We changed to this and he got better.



View from our corner of the NICU. Pretty, huh?



OK, I'm not in a great mood after today.

You got to listen to this clip. Aidan has the hiccups real bad...



Off to bed. I'm riding 100 miles tomorrow in the Peach of a Century. Need to get up in 5 hours...

September 26, 2008: Day 26 (One more thing to worry about)

The baby right next to us, which is the baby who is always paired up with Aidan and shares a nurse every day with Aidan, has been placed in full quarantine.




Of course this concerns us. Apparently, the baby next door has developed a kind of staph infection in his eyes and is being treated with antibiotic eye drops. We expressed our concerns and asked about this, but because Aidan has already been potentially exposed, they can't move Aidan to another part of the NICU because if he does contract the infection, he could spread this to other babies. The nurses are generally very careful about washing and sanitizing every time they move from one baby to the next, but it does worry us that ever since we moved to the level 2 side of the NICU two weeks ago, Aidan has been paired with this baby and shared a nurse. We will talk to the doctor in the morning more about this.

Me right now:



Aidan drinks from a crazy straw:



It's the weekend, and you know what that means? Tom the Air Guy is back!



Aidan did finally have big poops today, so as expected, he didn't gain that much weight. He is now 1270 grams (2 lbs 12.8 oz). He gained 10 grams, which I am very happy about. After 3 days where he gained a total of 125 grams, and since he hadn't pooped for 14 hours at the time of last night's weighing, I was thinking it would be a victory if he gained anything.

Tucking Aidan in for the night:



More pictures:

September 25, 2008: Day 25 (Another day, another 40 grams)

Aidan again had a strong weight gain today of 40 more grams. This makes 3 days in a row with at least a 40 gram day. Although Aidan is really due for a big poop, so we don't expect a a very big gain tomorrow. Aidan is now 1260 grams (2 lbs 12.4 oz).

There isn't really that much more to say today. He is getting a little swollen in the feet and puffy in the face. Dr Schmidt says this is because he is starting to retain a little water. She is going to check his electrolyte levels to see if they should adjust his sodium. Last week he was low on sodium, so they have been adding a little salt to his food.

Dr Schmidt was very excited about Aidan's progress. She hadn't seen him since he was about 2 days old.

September 24, 2008: Day 24 (Another strong gain for Aidan)

Aidan continues to grow. Tonight he is 1215 grams (2 lbs 10.9 oz), up 45 more grams from yesterday. He is just short (0.1 oz) of a pound over his minimum weight from September 5th. This means he has gained a full pound in the last 19 days.

Dr Kaempf also increased Aidan's feedinghs to 15cc every 2 hours.

We had "Night Kristen" again tonight:



Aidan is free from all the tubes and cables--temporarily anyway:



Tonight's weighing:



More pictures from tonight:

September 23, 2008: Day 23 (Aidan passes 2 1/2 pounds)

Aidan continues to do better on the increased CPAP pressure. His oxygen levels are definitely more stable than they have been in over a week.

Aidan gained 40 grams today! He is now 1170 grams (2 lbs 9.2 oz)

Not much more to say, which is good.

September 22, 2008: Day 22 (3 weeks old today!)

At 5:10 this morning, Aidan officially turned 3 weeks old!

He is definitely doing better holding his oxygen levels with the higher CPAP setting of 5. Today and tonight, Aidan was more stable than he has been in over a week. This was very nice to see, and much less stressful while being with him in the NICU.

He gained another 10 grams tonight and is now 1130 grams (2 lbs 7.9 oz):



A tenth of an ounce short of 2 1/2 pounds!

Notice Aidan's slightly enlarged belly? This is a side effect of the increased CPAP pressure, bubbling air into his stomach.

Aidan wears his new frog sleeper from Grandma Smith. (We think it might be a little wide for him):



Aidan really likes his new swaddle blanket from Grandma Smith:

September 21, 2008: Day 21 (Aunt Linda, Part II and Grandma & Grandpa Smith visit)

Aidan had more visitors today as his Grandma and Grandpa Smith came up from Albany to spend the afternoon. His Aunt Linda also spent the morning at the NICU before she had to get going to the airport to catch a plane back to Chicago.

Dr Mischel increased Aidan's feeding from 13cc to 14cc every 2 hours.

At tonight's weighing, Aidan is now 1120 grams (2 lbs 7.5 oz). It's Sunday, so they also measured him. He is 37cm (14 5/8 inches), and his head is 24.75cm (9 3/4 inches) around. In the last week, he:

- Gained 5.5 oz (157 grams)
- Grew 3/8 of an inch
- His head grew 1/4 inch around

He is growing very well right now.

Aidan holds his own binky:



Tomorrow morning he turns 3 weeks old!

Climbing the wall of worry

One of the nurses yesterday said, "We never stop worrying." She meant that parents, nurses, and doctors, never stop worrying about all the little (and not so little) things that can go wrong.

Even though Aidan has been doing really well, we worry about:

- Heart Murmur: Dr Mischel yesterday said she did hear more of a murmur in Aidan's heart beat yesterday. Ever since day 4 or 5, the "swooshing" sound of a murmur has come and gone. A murmur could mean that Aidan has "Patent Ductus Arteriosus" (PDA):

www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/pda/pda_what.html

www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/uvahealth/peds_cardiac/pda.cfm

Often, PDA will correct itself, and nothing will need to be done. But if it doesn't Aidan could need a procedure where they would surgically close the duct in his heart. Many preemies have this problem, and need the surgery to correct it.

- Hernia: Dr Mischel also said yesterday she is pretty sure Aidan has a small hernia. She told us the same thing Dr Kaempf told us a week ago, that they don't do anything about this now, but sometime around when Aidan comes home, they will repair this.

- Swollen Nasal Cavities: Tom the RT last night mentioned that Aidan's nasal passages were swollen, and he did have slight bleeding from this. This is caused by the irritation of having his nose suctioned every 6 hours to keep it clear for breathing.

- Increased Oxygen Spells: Over the last week or so, Aidan's oxygen levels have become much less stable that they were in his first 10 days, and they have had to increase Aidan's supplemental oxygen to try to combat this. Some nurses tell us it is worrisome that he was doing better in the past, and that this is a downward trend in his overall state, so they try to look for a cause. But other nurses, and the doctors, don't say this, but say it is expected for a 31 weeker to have issues like this, and all of this is expected. My take, is that over the last 10 days, they have taken Aidan off of IV food, and have dramatically ramped up his milk that he needs to digest. His body is working *so* much harder now than it was 10 days ago. I also notice that many times, especially after he is fed, that his breathing becomes erratic. I think he is burping up food, so he is not breathing well because it burns.

- Apnea Spells: Two nights ago, at 4:20am and 4:30am, the nurse recorded that Aidan had heart spells down to 70 beats per minute, followed by a stop in breathing, and Aidan required stimulation to recover. Last night, she mentioned to me that because Aidan is having these problems now that he didn't have before, she was concerned that he could be developing sepsis.

- Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP): Premature babies can end up with abnormal growth of the blood vessels in the eye due to getting excessive supplemental oxygen, which can lead to retina problems.

www.nei.nih.gov/health/rop

This is why when Aidan is on extra oxygen, they try to keep his level between 80 and 95. Giving Aidan too much oxygen can hurt his eyes. At some point soon, they will give Aidan his first eye exam.

I do think that Aidan had a much better day yesterday, than he did 2 days ago. I think this is because they increased Aidan's CPAP pressure (from 4 to 5). This is going the wrong way from weaning him off the CPAP, but Aidan needs the increased pressure to help him keep his lungs open.

Hopefully, Aidan will again have a good day today. We'll find out soon, Denyse, Linda and I are about to head off to the NICU.

September 20, 2008: Day 20 (Aunt Linda visits!!)

It's 10:00pm and we are sitting here in the NICU along with Aidan's Aunt Linda. Aunt Linda told Aidan that his Aunt Kathy really wanted to come too, but she just couldn't come.

Aunt Linda flew from Chicago to visit and arrived just before 2pm:





We've had very nice visits with Aidan. Denyse held him for 90 minutes this afternoon, and tonight, the 3 of us had a lot of fun during the nightly CPAP changing. Aidan just had his nightly weighing and is now 1094 grams (2 lbs 6.6 oz) He gained 19 more grams.

"Tom the air guy was on duty tonight":





Tom prepares Aidan for his weighing:



Aidan waits on the scale while they re-make his bed:



Tom clears Aidan's airways. He was pretty stuffed up before Tom came to the rescue:



Then nurse Jennifer says to Linda, "Here hold him":



It was a very long day for Aunt Linda. Hey after all, "It's after midnight in Chicago":

Postings of Aidan's first couple days finished

Take another look at the postings from September 1-5. I finally finished uploading the videos and pictures from Aidan's first couple days.

It's amazing how much Aidan has changed and improved (and grown!) from those first couple days of his life!

September 19, 2008: Day 19 (Week 31)

Today Aidan's gestational age reaches 31 weeks.

In an attempt to better stabilize his oxygen levels, the doctor increased his CPAP pressure from 4 back to 5. The hope is that he will not continue to require so much supplemental oxygen. He did better on the new CPAP setting for Kristen, the day shift nurse from Chicago. This evening, Aidan again struggled a bit with his oxygen, until they turned him on his stomach, and then he did much better. I guess it is easier to breath when he is on his stomach. The problem is that he will only tolerate this for so long, and then he really fusses and wants to be turned over.

He gained another 15 grams to 1065 (2 lb 5.6 oz). We can definitely see that Aidan is bigger.

Yesterday, Aidan received a Guardian Angel Bear in the mail:





Did you send this Grandma?

September 18, 2008: Day 18 (Aidan acts his age)

Many of Aidan's first 17 days he did much better than you would expect, and was acting like he was older than he really is. Today, Aidan was starting to act his age. He had a fair amount of trouble keeping up his oxygen levels, and had several heart rate dips. Yesterday, he spent much of the day on room air, but today he needed 24 - 26% oxygen to keep from de-saturating. Right now as I write this, he is on 25% oxygen and is mostly stable in the mid 80s.

He did gain more weight today! I was very surprised since he gained a bunch yesterday, I was expecting him to be flat, or even lose a little today. He is now 1050 grams (2 lbs 5 oz). By the end of the weekend, he could be 2 1/2 pounds!

Here's me, right now:



At 11am, we had a CPAP malfunction that caused Aidan's oxygen level to crash again into the low 60s, and stay there for several minutes. The nurse finally removed the nose piece, and re-set it. Once this was done, Aidan quickly recovered.

Then after that, it happened again and the nurse finally called the RT back to remove, and re-set Aidan's CPAP. Once this was done, Aidan seemed to stabilize. It was getting late (after midnight). I waited a few minutes and Aidan was still doing well, so I went home. Such is life with a baby in the NICU.

THEN, when I got home, I discovered that we have water pipe leaking in the ceiling above the kitchen!!! We spent an hour trying to figure out where the water was coming from, and I finally had to cut a hole in the ceiling. (Yes, this is the ceiling we had redone just 2 years ago. Now it has a hole in it again)

It's 1:40am, I'm going to bed and hoping for a better day tomorrow. I'm going to go back and re-read yesterday's post so I can feel better...

Update: It's now 2:20am. While we were getting ready for bed, water started to spray out of the leaking pipe, and we needed to put some epoxy on it to hold for the night...

A Wonderful Visit

Every night at 10pm, we change Aidan's diaper and take his temperature. Then, the respiratory therapist removes his CPAP hat and all of his leads, and then the nurse weighs him. Afterwards, the RT suctions his airways, and clean his face before putting his CPAP back on. Finally, the nurse re-bundles him and then feeds him before he quickly goes back to sleep. These 10 minutes are very special and make up one of the few moments in the day where we actually get to see Aidan's face. Denyse and I make a point to be in the NICU every night at 10pm for this.

Sometimes, Aidan gets very upset during this like he'd really rather sleep, and fusses and cries through the whole ordeal, and then struggled to keep up his oxygen levels. Other times, he is very calm and happy, and can lay there for several minutes without CPAP.

Last night was special. Aidan was very, very calm, and very alert during the 10pm care time. He opened his eyes for several minutes, and we got to talk to him. It was almost like we got to play with our son for the first time. Even after the RT put his CPAP back on, it was like he didn't want to go back to sleep. He kept opening his eyes to look at us, and then would start to fall asleep before opening them again. This went on for another 15 minutes.





And to top off a great night, Aidan gained 46 grams and topped the 1000 gram mark. He is now 1025 grams (2 lbs 4.2 oz).

September 17, 2008: Day 17

Wow, 17 days in the NICU already. We figured out that we can have my laptop in the NICU, so I'm writing this blog from Aidan's bedside watching him do great at the moment on room air (no supplemental oxygen), and with his oxygen saturation level in the high 90s. I need to finish and publish this quickly before anything changes :)

The doctors and nurses keep saying Aidan is doing wonderfully, and I keep hearing from everyone that he is doing much better than you would expect for his gestational age (31 weeks on Friday), his size, and the fact that he was in a restricted growth environment and without fluid for 6 weeks before birth.

Even though I keep hearing that he is doing great, it's hard to watch when Aidan does have trouble. Since he is so small, it doesn't take much to disrupt his delecate body. Just 20 minutes ago right when we arrived, Aidan was positioned on his stomach, and he was starting to get very fussy. The nurse turned him over to his back. But, he had already got himself worked up. Whenever this happens, first Aidan's heart rate shoots up to 180-190 beats per minute, then in his anger, he forgets to breath deeply. In this condition, he burns through the oxygen in his blood very quickly so his blood oxygen starts to crash. When it falls below 80% a soft alarm goes off, and yellow lights on the monitor flash. The nurses prefer to wait and see if Aidan will pull himself out of trouble, and not overreact by cranking up his supplemental oxygen too high. But sometimes when Aidan is agitated enough, the oxygen continues to fall below 70%, then at 65% a loud alarm sounds and red lights flash on the monitor. At this level, Aidan starts to lose his color, first turning pale and then grayish. At this point, the nurses crank up Aidan's oxygen to 30-40% (room air is 21%), and then we all wait for him to recover. We've seen this happen 4-5 times in the last couple weeks, and it's not fun. It doesn't take much to trigger an oxygen crash. It's happened to Denyse and I while just taking too long to change Aidan's diaper.

The other type of spell Aidan sometimes has is with his heart rate. Out of nowhere, his heart rate suddenly slows from its normal 140-170 beats per minute, to below 100 beats per minute. Below 100, the loud alarm sounds and red lights flash. Then a nurse runs over to Aidan and we all wait for him to recover. So far, Aidan has recovered quickly every time without intervention. I asked Dr Kaempf about these a few days ago. He is not concerned and said that nearly all premies have these. Aidan has very few of these compared to most babies, and he is recovering quickly on his own. He said some babies have literally hundreds of these heart spells and require stimulation of some kind to recover.

Even though we know Aidan is doing really well, It's hard to watch when this it happens, I do look around the NICU and see many babies that are not doing as well as Aidan with many more alarms sounding, so I am very thankful he is doing so well.

Well, I'm done with the posting and Aidan is still on room air, his heart rate is 159, and his oxygen is 99%. Great job Aidan!

September 16, 2008: Day 16

Aidan gained 15 grams today and is now 985 grams (2 lbs 2.7 oz). He had a pretty good day and was on room air again for much of the day. Denyse held him for 2 hours again today.

They increased his fortifier to 27 calorie fortifier. I think they are just trying to get him to gain more weight. Unfortunately, if he's like me, he'll eat and eat, and not gain much weight :(

Overall, he's still doing very well. Aidan just needs to eat more, sleep more, poop more, and GROW!!!

September 15, 2008: 2 Weeks Old Today!

Aidan is now 2 weeks old!! Today he gained 10 grams and is now 2 lbs 2.2 oz This is really good considering he had 2 (yes 2) massive dirty diapers just before the weighing. He lost at least 30 grams in these diapers. (I considered posting pictures of these, but thought better of it).

Aidan had a really good evening, and had the most stable oxygen saturation numbers we've seen in days. You could see he was having some reflux (heartburn) from burping up food, but he was very stable, and was able to be on room air for much of the time. Denyse held him for a full 2 hours and he did great. Afterwards, and 10pm, the RT removed all his CPAP gear for the every-six-hours airway cleaning (think vacuuming the nose):



Aidan was being very good, and we had some real fun with pictures and video...

Nurse Kristin and Denyse dress Aidan while he has the hiccups:



Aidan sneezes:



and being very calm:



Our first photo of the 3 of us:

Prayer Requests

My Aunt Bertha Ann is making a prayer quilt with her church group for Aidan. She is asking that we send her a list of prayers for the quilt. If you have a prayer that you would like to add please email me at dstawicki@comcast.net.

Thanks To Everyone

We would like to send out a BIG "Thank You" to all of our friends and family who have been so supportive, generous, and helpful. We have received loads of flowers, baby gifts, well wishes and prayers. We also would like to mention that we have received a really wonderful gift, a Gymini deluxe baby gym. Unfortunately, the giver is a mystery because a packing slip was not included in the box. If you are our mystery giver, please let us know who you are.

September 14, 2008: Day 14

Aidan had his weekly size measurements today. He grew 1 cm and is now 14 1/4 inches long, and his head also grew 1 cm and he's back to 9 1/2 inches around. The CPAP hat is definitely causing Aidan to develop a little bit of a cone head. They promise us that this will go away later when he's off the CPAP.

In tonight's weighing, Aidan lost a little weight, and is now 2 lbs 2oz even. He lost 0.8 oz. The doctors say to expect this, and tell us to look at the week to week gain, and not to focus on daily changes. Aidan had 3 really strong gains in a row before today, plus, yesterday he hadn't had a dirty diaper in 12 hours before the weighing, and then had a massive dirty diaper right after the weighing. He probably lost an ounce in that diaper :)

The doctor also increased Aidan's feeding to 11cc every 2 hours. We've noticed that after Aidan is given his milk, his has a little difficulty keeping his oxygen levels up. Nurse Andrea explained to us that this is because he gets a little acid reflux and it is probably uncomfortable for Aidan to breathe deeply, so he takes shallow breaths. We've definitely noticed that Aidan has needed more supplemental oxygen now than he did 4-5 days ago. But he is being given double the milk now versus 5 days ago, so he needs to work much harder digesting food.

Grandpa Stawicki, Bev, and Monika came to visit Aidan today (sorry, bad lighting):





Nurse Andrea and Tom the Air Guy work on Aidan's CPAP:



Aidan at tonight's weighing (not too happy and waiving his arms around):

September 13, 2008: Day 13

This morning, we arrived to see Aidan doing really well, back on room air. The nurse said he had a really good night.

She also dressed Aidan for the very first time.




NOTE: The mouse is not huge, it's only 6 inches tall!

All of Aidan's IV feeding lines were removed, so he is getting all of his nutrition from milk now, and they have increased him to 10cc every 2 hours, and increased the fortifier to 24 calorie fortifier.

Denyse held Aidan for an hour and a half and he did pretty well. It was a good day visit with Aidan.

We returned to visit Aidan after dinner. They weighed him before we got there. He gained 40 more grams and is now 2 lbs 2.8 oz, up 1.2 ounces from yesterday. Right after we arrived, he made a *huge* mess in his diaper, so he probably lost a half an ounce :)

In recent days, we have been concerned that Aidan does not seem to be as stable with his oxygen saturation levels, and they tend to drop whenever he gets excited, or has problems with the CPAP. Tonight nurse Gwen made us realize that Aidan is now working *much* harder to digest food. He is now digesting way more food than just a couple days ago, and this takes a lot of energy, so I think it is expected that he should be more tired, and be a little more susceptible to minor oxygen spells. This evening, his oxygen saturation did dip into the 70s a couple times, and set off the alarm, once during a diaper change, and once when he was startled by a loud noise. But we're trying to not worry about this as much.

In total, day 13 for Aidan ws a very good day.

September 12, 2008: Day 12

Today we got a late start and arrived at the NICU around 11:45am. Dr Freitag was really busy with new admissions into the NICU, and didn't come by to see Aidan until the afternoon. I had to drive over to work and Denyse stayed with Aidan. When the doctor came by, he said Aidan's stomach did not look as distended as before and his internals sounded good.

Denyse saw Aidan have another heart rate dip (bradycardia) at 1:30pm. Denyse did not have time to hold him this afternoon, so she let him sleep.

Before she left, they told Denyse that Aidan was being moved from the level 3 side of the NICU, to the level 2 side to make room for new admissions. They told her that of all the level 3 babies, Aidan was the most stable so they decided to "graduate him" to level 2. This was exciting news!!! We don't think he was really ready for level 2 because he is still on CPAP, so we call it NICU level 2.5.

A little background on Oxygen Saturation levels. The oxygen saturation levels are supposed to be between 80 and 95 percent, and can be as high as 100 if the baby is not being given supplemental oxygen and is on room air. High oxygen saturation when the baby is on high concentrations of supplemental oxygen can actually be very harmful to the baby. When Aidan is calm and the CPAP is functioning correctly, his level is usually between 92 and 96. If the CPAP has a leak somewhere, like Aidan's mouth is open, or the air is leaking from Aidan's nose, it is not 100% effective and it will effect Aidan's saturation levels. When this happens, his saturation levels will very slowly start to decline.

This evening at the NICU did not go very well. We arrived about 8pm, and noticed Aidan's oxygen levels were a little low, around 85, and then watched them start to decline until they reached 80 just as the Respiratory Technician was ready to see Aidan. We watched the RT clean out his airways. One side was completely clogged, explaining his low saturation levels. Aidan was then weighed (he gained 0.8 oz so he is up to 2 lb 1.4 oz) Afterwards, they re-set his CPAP hat. During this, Aidan's oxygen levels fell into the 70s, and before they could give him extra oxygen, they fell to the low 60s before recovering. This is the second time we've seen a severe oxygen de-saturation, and it is frightening for us to see. We don't know how bad it really is for Aidan and we will ask the doctor tomorrow.

After the RT reset Aidan's CPAP, Denyse was planning to hold Aidan for a couple hours. Aidan did not tolerate this very well. He was calm, and slept but he was having problems maintaining his oxygen levels. They were hovering first around 88, then 85, and finally 82 after about an hour had passed. I was just about to tell the nurse that we should put Aidan back to bed, and he had another bradycardia event, followed by an oxygen de-saturation again down into the high 60s. The nurse gave him some supplemental oxygen, and he recovered.

We then watched Aidan for a while in bed, and were waiting for his oxygen levels to stabilize before leaving him for the night. They wouldn't. They slowly fell from 92 to 89 to 86 to 82. The RT happened to be doing his rounds and stopped by just at that point, and I noticed that the CPAP bubbles had stopped completely, meaning the CPAP seal was broken somewhere and it was not working. The RT fixed this, but not before Aidan de-SATed for the third time tonight, and needed supplemental oxygen again. Aidan's oxygen levels stabilized with 23% oxygen (room air is 21%), Denyse was exhausted and we decided to leave. The nurse set an upper saturation alarm at 96%, so she could lower Aidan to room air when he was ready.

For whatever reason, Aidan was more tired than usual and in a more delicate state tonight. We decided that we would not try to hold him in the evening anymore, or at least for a while until he is off CPAP.

Focusing on the positives, Aidan did follow his huge weight gain last night with another good gain tonight. We really don't like leaving Aidan when he is not 100% stable, but we just need to trust that he is at one of the best NICUs in the country and they will take care of him. Plus, Aidan is still doing well, and we are probably just fretting too much about him having perfect oxygen levels.

We did take a couple pictures of Aidan with some new teddy bears:

September 11, 2008: Day 11

This morning his bilirubin count was up a little to 5.4, but not enough to put him back under the blue light. He has now been off the light for 3 full days, and 4 of the last 5 days.

They increased his feedings to 7cc every 2 hours. The nurse told us he is now progressed up to the feeding level appropriate for his weight, and going forward, they will adjust it based on his weight gain.

Aidan slept most of today with his mouth open, but his oxygen saturation remained at 100. You can definitely see an improvement in this over the last 5 days. He is able to stay off the CPAP for a while before he starts to "de-SAT", and require extra oxygen.

Jenn & Michelle from work came by for a visit today



This afternoon he had what the nurses call a "transitional poop", that the meconium is finally coming to an end. It's really odd what you'll cheer for in situations like this.

At tonight's weighing, Aidan crossed the 2 lb mark!!! He gained over 50 grams and is now 2 lbs 0.6 oz.

When Aidan was born, because he lived for 6 weeks without fluid, his growth was restricted and he was in the 10th percentile for babies at 28 weeks. He was more typical in size of a baby at 26 weeks. Tomorrow marks week 30, and because newborns lose about 10 percent of their weight before starting to grow, he is still the size of a 26 - 27 week baby.

We are very excited that he is showing all the signs of digesting milk and of healthy growth. Right now, we are in a phase where we want everything to just continue to be stable.

How small is Aidan?

I've heard from many that the pictures don't convey how small Aidan actually is. Several people who have seen the blog, then seeing Aidan are very surprised how small he is.

Here is my wedding ring on me:




Last week, we took pictures of Aidan wearing my wedding ring as a bracelet. The ring is actually loose on his arm:





So I guess his arm is thinner than my ring finger, and about as long as my middle finger...