Kangaroo Time

Today was another good day for Brady. We went to see him in the late morning. They had removed some of the tubes on his right arm. They removed his catheter last night so Ali and I are now in the business of changing diapers. The diapers are just wet right now. They will start feeding him breast milk now in small doses (10 ml every 3 hours) through a tube in his mouth to get his stomach used to it.

His mouth is constantly foaming. The CPAP in his nose makes it hard for him to swallow, but it's fun to watch him blowing bubbles and making noises. He took a small step back with his breathing today. The nurses think it might be tied with the amount of fluid he still has in his body.

Most of his fluid is still being held in his face and his eyes are swollen shut. The nurse today said she saw him open his eyes twice when she was changing the wrappings on his head and face. His eyes were open for a few moments in the delivery room before he was sent to the NICU to filled with fluids to keep him alive and his eyes have been closed ever since. Ali and I are still waiting for the time when we can see his eyes again soon.

There are a few things that concern us. He sometimes has tremors with his arms and his feet. The nurses have told us that those sometimes go away with time, but it's not very fun to watch. The nurses are also a little concerned by the way he arches his back and postures his body. It could be something serious or could just be him pushing away from the CPAP tube. He received some more platelets today to help with blood clotting, so he's still working to get everything in his body back to normal.
I had the chance to hold him for the first time around noon with some Kangaroo Care time. He melted into my body and took a good nap. He was also constantly sucking on a pacifier, so it seems like he's getting ready to eat normally.

At the end of his Kangaroo time, he wasn't very happy at all. It was a joy to see him moving both arms, both legs and letting out a few weak cries. He is so strong that the nurses need to pin his arms down at times so he doesn't remove his tubes. Again, this is a great sign for us.

Ali and I are going to leave the hospital tonight for the first time since Tuesday and go out to eat somewhere in the area. We'll return later this evening for some Kangaroo time for Ali.
Tomorrow will be another big day for all of us. Brady will have an EEG test of his brain in the morning. We will meet with the neurologist in the afternoon. We'll hopefully get more information about the size and location of the brain damage and what we can expect for Brady's development in the future.

Ali and I will spend our last night at the hospital tonight and we'll be home at some point tomorrow. We're looking forward to sleeping in our bed (instead of Ali's hospital bed and Tyler's pull out chair). We're also looking forward to regaining some normalcy with Ava returning to school, Tyler returning to work, and Casey returning to being a mama's boy. There will be many trips to the hospital over the next few weeks as Brady continues to get healthy.

We continue to be amazed by this NICU unit. Brady is in a room with 5 other babies and most of them have changed over since Tuesday. Brady is still considered high risk because of his breathing assistance. Once he is breathing and eating, he will be moved to another room (or possibly back to the NICU at Ridges to be closer to us).

There is room for 46 babies and the entire unit is currently full. Our night nurse was telling us about a baby they just sent home last week. It was born at 24 weeks (the won't take any babies before 23 weeks). It was one pound at birth. It had been here since October, but went home very healthy.
We know it's going to be a long road for Brady, but we're hopeful for his healthy return home soon.

With love,

Tyler, Ali, Ava, Casey and Brady