Do do dee de doo do (that's me humming the graduation march song)

Graduation-new bed!



We had been warned that we might have to say goodbye to the techno star trek bed. The nursery only has about five of those top of the line beds. When a preemie first gets to the nursery he is in an open bed until they are confident the baby won't need nurses or doctors diving in to do emergent care. The omni bed was the next step. It had a built in humidifier, and a whole lot of great features. Greydon got big enough that we knew when a little preemie came along needing an omnibed, Greydon was going to graduate to a not as cool bed.

It is still enclosed, but without the cool motorized lid, so we have to open the sides to do care and stuff.

It is a good sign, but we will greatly miss our little technological gem.

This morning his pressure had been raised on his c-pap because his chest film was pretty hazy. When we spoke with the doctor she kept saying how great he was doing because they started lowering him on his pressure again.... we were a little confused and asked for clarification.

Let me first go back a little and give some facts.

A chest film can look "hazy" for a few different reasons. Splotchy concentrated haziness usually implies infection, which he seems to be recovered from currently. All over haze can be fluid on the lungs, or it can be a sign that the lungs are not expanding as much as they should. The lungs might not be expanding because they are weak, or sick or pressed in by fluid.

...or the diaphragm might not be doing it's job filling them up.

They also talk about when looking at the films the shape of the diaphragm. They want it nice and curved, which = doing it's job.

The doctor explained this morning that the c-pap both fixes and causes the problem.

The c-pap is giving Greydon air. Excess air gets into his tummy and fills it up with gas. Gas not moving through a system is more than a minor concern and can cause big problems, which is why they constantly measure his tummy, look at his bowels, and give suppositories any time they see any gas build up.

As the tummy fills up with excess air, even caused by Greydon swallowing it, it gives the diaphragm less room to rise and lower, making it more difficult to take a deep breath, making him need the c-pap, which causes his tummy and bowels to fill up with some of the excess oxygen, giving the diaphragm less room, making it difficult to take a deep breath, making him need the c-pap, which causes the tummy to fill up with air, giving the diaphragm less room.....

yep, vicious cycle..

The doctor told us she was going to rush him off the c-pap quick, try to get him on the nasal cannula, which gets less extra air into his stomach and bowels, which will in turn give his diaphragm more room to do it's job. She told us her plans this morning, and planned to take a day or two to get him onto the nasal cannula.

When we got to the new bed......



no more elephant boy! I may have messed up on some of my attempts at the medical explanation, but the gist leans in the proper direction at least.

We loved, LOVED seeing his face so well again. We could've stood there all day. He is doing pretty good on it. Still "swinging" needing more and then less and then again more percent of oxygen, but well within the limits of what they can provide on the cannula. Two graduations in one day!

So there was some holding....




and then a little bathing... he really does love the spa. I couldn't help but chuckle all through his bath. He was so incredibly relaxed. I had to post a little video as well as one of the pics.

I am taking votes on the best caption for this look, I think we're in trouble....




After we got him all dried off we weighed him in his new bed.



He lost around 50 grams, which isn't good. We are praying it's a fluke and not a trend. He is already in the lower percentile of size for preemies his age and development. When he came out he wasn't, he was a great size for a 29 weeker, but he hasn't been growing as fast as he is supposed to grow, even his head should be a little bigger by now.

Kristen and I are baffled that we currently have the small kid on the block, not the reality we had expected. We figured we would be subscribing to Jenny Craig Jr. at some point! I'm sure he'll get more than plump soon enough, we just don't like the words "he lost weight" so much right now.



After that Bonnie......



...one of our favorites, who we had to fight to get re-assigned to us, they kept trying to steal her away. She gave them the ol' one two though and got reassigned as one of our primary nurses. Greydon very much appreciates her touch and style, as do we... anyway she used her magic and got him all bundled and happy.



It was more difficult tonight leaving. Not that it is ever easy of course, but we could've stayed all night long just staring at our little prepackaged ambassador of all that is joyous and happy. We had to eventually force ourselves out the door so he had some time to sleep and grow and all that jazz.

I have some funny, random things going on, or observations, and I keep thinking I will mention them some day when there is less to say about Greydon's progress.... I am amazed that that is never the case.

You know how you eventually run out of ways to say that work was fine today, or that what you did today kind of blanched into whatever you did yesterday or last week? Maybe I am the only one who feels that way, but with Greydon there is always new information. I'm not complaining, it's not always bad or stressful information, there's just always something new going on.

Someday when the post isn't already stretching to ridiculous lengths perhaps I will list reasons I love the thick lush toilet paper used in hospitals and high schools.... mmmm I bet you can hardly wait.