Days 2-10

His first NICU bed slot. Bed #23

Truly the days have all kind of passed in a blur.  So much has happened, it is hard to keep it straight, even hours at a time.  Grandma Weaver and Grandpa Condie were both able to come up and visit Zachariah on day 3.  How grateful we are for their love and support.  And we make sure to take pictures too.  ; )

Grandma holding Zachariah

Grandpa holding Zachariah

 

Peeking at Dad with one eye open

Zachariah was scheduled to be extubated and have a bronchial scope done on Monday.  We were told he was on first at 7am, so to be there by 6:30am.  So we were up and there early Monday morning, only to be told that there was some kind of mess up, and he wasn't going in until around 4pm.  Needless to say, that didn't sit well with an emotionally and physically exhausted mama.  Thankfully the nurses and staff were very kind, and got us a room where we could go and rest and relax while we waited the day away.  Finally, about 4pm, we headed down to the OR floor.  We met with the doctor, the anesthesiologist, and they wheeled my sweet boy away.  I am sure that is a feeling I will NEVER get used to.  We went back up to our room to wait.  It was about 90 minutes later when the doctor came up to talk to us.  He said everything went well, they were able to take the tube out, the scope looked good, and now he had a nasal trumpet in, and seemed to be doing well with that.  Such a relief.  Now we give it a day or two to adjust, and see how he does without the nasal trumpet.

On the giraffe lights for his bilirubin

Hanging out under the lights for a couple days

After a few days under the lights, he was able to come off them.  He also was through with TPN and lipids and was able to have his IV pulled.  He was doing well with his O2 levels with the trumpet in as well.  So we were making all kinds of little forward progress steps.  They pulled the nasal trumpet for the first time on Wednesday, and he did well for a few hours, before they had to put it back in.  They tried again on Friday, and he did well for about 20 hours, but then had kind of a scary desat episode.  He would desat a little with moving around and position changes, but always recover on his own.  But Saturday morning had a couple big desats down into the 20s and his color wasn't good.  They finally got the nasal trumpet back in, and he did better then.  We knew that he probably wouldn't be able to do it on his own, but it is always scary when your baby isn't breathing well.

Just hanging out.  He is such a sweet boy!

With his nasal trumpet and a little high flow 02.

Cute little feet--soon to be casted.

Probably the best view to see how his chin and jaw are more recessed

 We met with the doctor both Friday night and Monday afternoon, and made the decision to do surgery on Tuesday.  We gave it a go with the nasal trumpet, and don't want him home in an unsafe manner where he is still having desat issues, so something more is what needs to be done.  So Tuesday is the first surgery day.  He will have a tongue lip adhesion, which we pray will be successful, and solve his airway issues, and allow him to be that much closer to coming home.