Ups and Downs

So this parenting thing isn't so easy.  I don't know what raising a healthy full-term baby is like, but parenting a micro-preemie who is on a ventilator because he can't breathe on his own and who needs round-the-clock care is EXHAUSTING. 

You can never get comfortable or complacent because reality will smack you in the face.  Like just now, the pulse ox (contraption that measures his heart rate and oxygen saturation of his blood) alarmed because he had secretions that needed to be suctioned.  But mom and dad forgot to put a suction catheter on the machine earlier.  Oops.  Momentary panic.  Nurse who just arrived ran up and located said catheter and crisis was averted. 

Or like this weekend, when Zachary had respiratory distress and ended up in the PICU, or Pediatric Intensive Care Unit for those of you whose lives don't revolve around doctors and hospitals, because of a staph infection and viral pneumonia.  The episode put him back on the ventilator full time, at least for a few more days.  And he's getting more oxygen and pressure support too.  We were lucky though because he was only there for about 72 hours. 

Got some good news.  Z-man weighs 12 pounds, 7 ounces now.  So he is gaining some weight.  And he got a "button" last week, so he doesn't have the long tube hanging from his stomach now, just a small snap that we can open and close when needed.  And next week, if all goes well, we may get one of our favorite nurses as our primary day nurse. 

So we've had some good days and some bad ones.  The roller coaster ride we thought was over because we left the NICU continues.  But we are at home and our boy is happy and headed toward healthy.  Just hope he gets there sooner rather than later.