As far as we can tell, Jack continues to make great progress! He was taken off the bubble last night and placed on a high flow oxygen nasal tube. Allowing him to have a little more freedom, and it’s another step in the right direction. In addition to that, he’s been eating and pooping, showing that his digestive system is working well.
He was doing so well today, they let Karen hold him out of the isolet!
A few more new pictures were posted on Flickr.
Since last night, all Karen could talk about was what she wanted for her birthday, wishing to be able to get out of bed, get cleaned up, and go see Jack. Well, she got her birthday present!
Don’t worry, Jack’s just catching some rays to help his ruddy complexion and to look good for the ladies. Karen got to help with Jack’s care this afternoon. It’s funny what changing a diaper and taking a temperature can mean to you.
Jack’s intubation tube came out last night! He bypassed the mask and went straight to the nasal tube, and is doing great on the “bubble” as the nurses call it. I was able to be there while they were taking the intubation tube out and the nurse encouraged me to get a picture of him without anything on his face.
He continues to do very well, and just started feeding on breast milk tonight. All the nurses love him and he’s doing great. Karen is recovering nicely. She’s in a fair amount of pain, but is getting her self in and out of bed, taking a couple of steps around the room. We’ll try for a short walk around the halls tomorrow. Gotta run, K and I are going to head down for Jack’s 11 pm care.
I’ve been keeping folks up to date via email and phone calls, and now that Jack’s here, I’m having a hard time keeping up. So for a bit, I’ll try to collect here and distribute out from there.
Backing up a bit, Karen was having high blood pressures for a few weeks now, and was diagnosed with severe pre-eclampsia last Thursday. After going on and off magnesium a few times to keep her BP down, in addition to treating with BP meds, we made the decision to move toward delivery Tuesday morning. They induced Karen at around 10:00 AM, and her labor started progressing slowly. Everything was going pretty smoothly, however it was taking some time.
A little after 2:00 am on Wednesday, they decided that Jack had enough and it was time to head to the OR for a c-section. Karen was prepped, and Jack was born at 2:44 am weighing 2 lbs 8 oz and measuring 15 inches long! A good size for only being 30 weeks.
Since then, everything has been a blur. Karen is recovering well. She’ll be on the magnesium for until around 3 am Thursday. Her Blood Pressure is doing great now, and is resting comfortably. We hope to get her home sometime this weekend.
Jack on the other hand is going to stay here for a while. He’ll be in the NICU, likely until he would have been born near the end of September. He was intubated shortly after bring him down into NICU, but is doing great! They expect to take the breathing tube out tonight or tomorrow, and move him either to a nasal tube or c-pap to help him breathe a little easier, but only as much as he needs it. So far, that hasn’t been a lot. With the oxygen tube, the have him at around 40 %, and in normal air, we breathe around 21%, so he’s not needing much help.
I’ve taken some photos with the phone and posted them over at Flickr:
And here’s some video of the little kicker being fussy in the incubator: