7/17/06: Day 3 (Mon.) First Visit*

We drove up to UMC on Monday to see our little guy...not sure what we were in for. I was scared to go in, but everything was just fine. Evan is right on track for a preemie his age, sort of a "textbook" case so to speak. We got to talk to the doctor who was in the NICU at the time (Dr. Wispe)and he gave us a lot of reassuring information. He still thinks he won't be home until his expected due date, but he hopes that if he reacts very well to his treatment, he could be transferred back to the Sierra Vista Hospital to be taken care of there (but we're still talking a long ways down the road).

He has a nurse dedicated to taking care of him (well, there are more than one, but we met the one taking care of him during the day shift). The nurses are more than happy to get us educated on what all the monitors and tubes are for. We had a lot of information overload yesterday we're still trying to digest. But basically the steps are for him to come off the respirator later this week...then he'll go on the CPAP (to force pressured air into his lungs), and then just to the nasal cannula (with just continuous oxygen). We we're with him before and after lunch, and even in that time, they dropped his oxygen down from 28% to 26%, which is a good sign.

He is still a bit sedated since he was fussy Sunday night. They would rather have him sleep and let the respirator do the healing than him fighting it. His legs are looking so much better. They put a different IV line in his body so they don't have to draw blood samples from his feet. Funny, his blood is A+ just like both his mom and dad! He is under the "bili-light" to get the jaundice out of his system. The nurse told us we could be holding him if it wasn't for the bililight....they need to get his sytem cleared out first.

We did finally get his birth length...this kid is 41 cm which is about 16 1/4 inches long. If he would have been a full-term baby, we would have had some issues!! Even his nurse thought he was an older baby. So many things are going in his favor. His weight is still the same (which is to be expected).

So, we'll be going back up today...they are hoping to get him on a feeding line (through his nose directly into his stomach) in a day or so. Currently, he has a feeding line directly into his umbilical cord. They'll be able to start using breastmilk down that feeding tube, so hopefully that will give him a good jolt of nutrients.

I'll post more later! Thanks for all the supportive e-mails. It's hard to get back to everyone, but you pretty much know, no news is good news from us. We're managing well, so don't worry about us. Since we can't hold him yet, there's no rush for us to be there 24/7; so T's still doing some hours at work and we'll go up in the afternoon. I get to chill with the pups in the morning, which they like. I'm recovering really quickly from the surgery, ...the cankles have arrived people!!

P.S....The photo is a bit overexposed due to the bililight.



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Chronological age: 0 months 0 weeks 4 days
Gestastional age: 31 2/7 weeks
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UMC Charges (7/15): $11,187.90
UMC Charges (7/16): $8,541.50
UMC Charges (7/17): $6,414.05
Running total: $66,081.19
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