Day 11 - The A's and B's of Prematurity

(I just had to put a picture of Jones on here!)

7.5.10

I have learned a lot about preemies in the past 11 days. The A's and B's of prematurity affect a lot of them...A is for apnea and B is for bradycardia. From what I understand, the baby becomes apneic, or stops breathing, and then drops their heart rate. Doctors say that most babies out grow this by 34-35 weeks although some require medications. Grayson was having just a couple episodes a day which he corrected himself without stimulation (which is really good). However, the nurse today told me that he had 13 yesterday! I was surprised to hear this because they seemed to have increased in the past week (he is 33 weeks today). The doctor said that they are trying to determine if the bradycardia is being caused by apnea or reflux...once they can figure that out, they can treat it, either with caffeine for the apnea, or prevacid (or something like that) for the reflux. While I was there today Grayson dropped his heart rate to 47 from 160's...I was scared to death but he did increase his heart beat after a little stimulation, thank goodness.

His bilirubin was 10.2 today. The doctor seems to think that the rebound bilirubin may have peaked and should begin to trend down now. He said that they will check another one in a few days.

We took a good nap and snuggled today. He looked so cute in a little brown and white stripped gown. He is just so tiny, I cant get over it. He makes his brother look HUGE! Speaking of Jones, Jai and I took him to Saluda Splash at Saluda Shoals and had a blast! He loved the water and the playground. He wore himself out and took a good nap on the way home. I am so blessed to have such great, amazing, cute boys (including my sweet husband!). I just had to put a picture of Jones on here from Saluda Shoals today. Jones loves to wear his sunglasses now. He use to hate them, but now he almost begs to put them on...too cute!

Tonight, the nurse told me that Grayson weighs 4 pounds and 7 ounces! He is up from 4 pounds and 4.7 ounces last night!!! The dr did tell me today not to look at the daily weight gain, rather look at the overall picture because preemie weights can easily be skewed if say, the baby just ate and hasn't pooped. But I'm excited about the day to day weight and probably always will be!

The nurse also told me tonight that they have Grayson sitting in a "bouncey seat" after he eats to help determine if his heart rate drops are caused by reflux or not. I can't imagine what a 33 week old baby looks like in a bouncey seat...