Unpredictable Preemies

My hair is starting to get matted and tangled from from riding this roller coaster.

We had the previously reported morning phone call first thing yesterday morning that said he was doing amazing on the c-pap, flying like a world-class fighter pilot. 30 minutes later he started circling the drain and they intervened with the ventilator, albeit a different kind than he has previously had. No more Mr. Oscillator for him.

By the time we got up there in the afternoon he had stabilized after a rough day. He didn't look quite right to me and his numbers were all over the place. Nevertheless, they considered that relatively stable from where he had been all day. This is presumably from tiring out on the c-pap all night, the drama and trauma of reintubation, and then getting used to the ventilator again, but no one can be certain. Preemies just "do this" a lot. Reintubation on the ventilator can be rough on anyone, and he has now experienced 12 hours of life without it. I can imagine he's not very happy about having the tubes all the way back down into his lungs now that he knows something more comfortable. He has a bruise on his face that just made me groan in frustration and sympathy for him. He's just so fragile!

By the time I called at 10 pm last night he had deteriorated again and he has a phenomenal amount of mucus in his lungs. The doctors were hovering around him most of the day and evening "bewildered", which no mom wants to hear. Bewildered because his numbers were being completely contradictory. Crew has always been a little unpredictable that way. Not the first time in either hospital that we have heard that. Finally, they changed his ventilator again to something better suited to his age and size. So, after a fitful night of sleep, I called at the crack of dawn this morning and? AND?? He had a great night after switching over to the new ventilator. Fortunately that switch only involved the tubing outside of his bed, nothing disruptive to his already annoyed little body. He's stable and comfortable and peeking out of one eye when he's touched. Numbers have evened out and he's doing well.

We'll be spending a lot of time up at the hospital today. We're celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow with Justin's family that will all be in town for the weekend. We went to the store last night to get ingredients for the stuffing I'm making. Note to self and anyone else stupid enough to try to shop for Thanksgiving Dinner ingredients the night before Thanksgiving. DON'T DO IT. I'm trying to decide if I can substitute raisins for dried cranberries... Hmmm... That's a question for tomorrow. Today I think we'll enjoy hospital turkey and stuffing from the cafeteria, HA HA HA HA HA!