The Matthews Family

So here what we did the last few days...

As I said, we were admitted to the hospital because Porter had Jaundice and wasn't keeping the supplement formula down (and my milk hadn't come in yet).
Well, we knew we would have to stay the night for him to have photo therapy.
Brent and I were watching him in the isolette and we noticed that his breathing looked really weird. So we called the nurse in and she said that sometimes babies just breathe weird. Well, Brent suggested checking it out, just to be safe. So they hooked him up to the monitors, and sure enough, he wasn't breathing good. His SAT's kept dropping a lot lower than the Dr's felt comfortable with. So we went onto trying to figure out WHY he was doing this.

We did a chest x-ray, ruled out pneumonia, RSV and stuff like that.
The Dr. ordered an ultrasound for his head. Because of his vacuum delivery, they wanted to make sure there wasn't any bleeding on the brain. All looked good with that test.

He had to be put with oxygen, just breathe by, a tube placed by his face to help him get more air. That helped him keep his SATs up.

Our Dr. said she wanted to put Porter on caffeine. It helps to stimulate the brain and remind the baby to breathe. She also said we were very lucky that his jaundice got us to the hospital.

I am glad that we took him there for being yellow...if we would have waited, we would be taking him for being blue!

So we gave him the caffeine late...one of the nights (it is all a blur to me). He hated it and threw it all up. Gave him another dose with some breast milk, which he took just fine. A couple hours later, at about 1:00 a.m. he woke up acting so weird, crying, but just really off. But I guess that was due to caffeine. It makes the babies really irritable and uncomfortable for the first little while of being on it. After that he slept good...not me...how good can you really sleep with your baby all hooked up to monitors!

Then we tried a car seat study for the second time...he failed it previously. He didn't pass again. A car seat study is a test they usually give preemie babies before they can come home from the hospital. The baby has to stay in the car seat for 90 min. without dropping too low in his SATs. So they move onto the car bed study...it is like a car seat, only the baby lays flat to not obstruct the airway. So he passed that test so that is why we got to come home.

We were sent home with all kinds of goodies. He went home in a car bed. He still needs to have a billi-blanket to get rid of the little bit of jaundice he has left. We were also sent home with a SAT monitor as well as an apnea monitor. So needless to say, we won't be going anywhere for a while! Sure wish I would have gotten my Christmas shopping done!

So he still will have a dose of caffeine every night, for a couple weeks. Then we will see. At that point he may be taken off it, and monitored for a while longer to make sure he doesn't need it anymore.

As far as why he is doing this...we don't know. The pediatrician thinks that his body is just younger than what we think...who knows...I just hope he gets over it soon. It is hard to cuddle a baby with lots of wires attached!

(Porter in the billi-blanket)

And yes...we did spend Thanksgiving here at the hospital...actually our second year in a row. Last year we were with Brent's Mom. A tradition we do not want to keep up!

The girls made some pictures for Porter to look at while laying in his huge giant bed!

He is such a sweet little guy! I feel bad he has to go through all of this!

Lots more updates to come!!!