We got to the NICU today and the nurses were all gung-ho about Tobie holding Cole. Tobie thought otherwise, but since everyone was for it, she held him. He d-satted pretty hard about 15 minutes into it. We put him back into bed and got him stabilized. If we have learned one thing from the staff in the NICU, they like to move fast. We are going to start saying “NO” more often. If we don’t feel comfortable, we just aren’t going to do it anymore. So we have already decided we aren’t going to hold Cole for at least 2 days. The mask they have on him looks pretty uncomfortable. It’s a different mask than what Paige is wearing. Paige is on the rate, Cole is on the flow. Hmm, I think I have a new name for the blog, Rate and Flow. Anyways, Cole’s mask really digs into him. I’m not sure how good it is for him long term. I mean his body is still developing, having this mask on seems like it would affect his nose and ears since his cartilage is so soft. All the nurses have assured us that as long as they watch him and move things around every few hours, he should be fine. It’s kind of freaky to see the babies sometimes when they have been laying on one side of their head for a long time and their ear is folded. It stays folded unless you straighten it out. Any other moms out there want to chime in about this?
BTW, we have had less visitors in the past week. Are we losing readers because our babies are getting better? If so, I can talk to a nurse if that would help. I even got Cole to do a push up for each one of our readers.
“98, 99, 100. 100 push-ups. I love the roids”
Posted in: About
Eric and Tobie,
Sorry for nothign for so long, the triplets have beenkeeping me on my toes.
Anyways, about the CPAP mask. We were worried about all that stuff too but all their ears are fine as well as their noses. You would thinkit would leave some type of permanent mark but the babies are like Gumby, they just bounce right back into shape. We eventually talked the Drs. into using just the long prongs (which are painful to watch them put in) on the babies because we hated the mask so much. Of course, our babies did too. We had babies that liked to be able to touch their heads and the little hat made it so they couldn’t feel their heads. If the nurses will let you, keep one of the hats and masks for a souvenir. Noone will believe that they actually fit your babies!!!
Believe me, I will continue to read your blogs since it reminds me of what we jsut went through. I also want to offer as much support as possible form a mom who has been in the same situation. I think I have sais it before, we are in a unique group of people to have 24 week multiples (or as I like to say, miracles!!) If you ever want to meet in person, just let us know. We only live 10 minutes from the hospital.
I did want to chime in on the CPAP mask. Make sure the nurses or yourselves are closly monitoring the babies and adjusting the CPAP mask or canula tubing frequently. One of our boys did have skin-breakdown on his nasal septum and it is permanently scarred because of it. It doesnt take long for a preemies delicate skin to break down. Definitely keep an eye on it and dont assume the nurses will monitor it for you. Just my 2 cents….
Glad to see Paige and Cole are doing so well off the vent.
Stacy
Other than monitoring it, is there anything we can ask for to help stop future problems from developing?
I think the plan is to put Cole on the long prong CPAP eventually. Right now he is doing okay with the current setup so they do not want to mess too much with the settings.