Happy Father's Day!

Cheryl and I have both had a brush or two with health scares, and who knows how much luck or divine intervention had to do with any of it?  By the same grace in the cosmos, Austin and Malia are still here too, and nothing humbles us more than that very fact.  

This has not been an easy week for Austin and Malia, unfortunately.  We posted about the suspected narrowing in Austin's rectum in our last post, but we were glad to see the doctors were confident enough to resume partial feedings on Thursday morning as his symptoms seemed to stabilize.  But sometime early Friday morning, he began having episodes of brady/de-sat, and fortunately the nurse had the wherewithal to notify the doctors of the sudden change.  Fearing the worst, the doctor ordered tests which revealed an acute infection, possibly related to his intestinal distention.  Appropriately, he was ordered off of his feedings, put back on the CPAP, and had begun antibiotics to stem the infection before it had become systemic.  

Some might call it mother's intuition; others might say it's some sort of ESP.  Cheryl was up all night with nightmares and discomfort, nearly at the same time that Austin was under duress.  The call from the doctor later on Friday morning, disturbing by its nature at any time of day, lent some explanation to her feelings of anxiety.  Though by the time we were notified things were heading in a better direction, it was a classic case of "can't get to the fucking hospital fast enough-itis."

It was a tough visit, seeing him back on his apparatuses.  He was lethargic, irritated, just not himself.  Poor guy.  I'm sure he'll never remember any of this, but this guy who has seen some tough days, just fought through his worst yet.

We managed to center ourselves and see the good in it all, in that Malia was seemingly doing fine despite all of the commotion.  She had a kangaroo session with daddy for about 1.5 hrs (shown below), which ended abruptly with a bad de-sat.  Apparently her acting-up didn't stop there, and by Friday night she was having more episodes, at least enough to have the doctors' attention, so they put her back on her CPAP and ordered tests just to rule out whether she was headed down the same road as her brother (because they're exposed to a lot of the same people, unfortunately).

I caught myself snoring several times during this session, but she didn't seem to mind!

By this morning, things were headed in a much, much better direction for Austin, and his nurses who know his usual characteristics remarked that he seems to be back to his ornery-self.  His day-nurse, who was his attending nurse the day that all of this went down, reflected back on the day it got really bad for him.  I guess it all sunk in when she told us of her son, who unfortunately suffered a broken wrist during her shift, asked if she could come home.  She explained to her son that her patient nearly died, to which he responded, "yeah, you should stay at work..."  The doctors also remarked how quickly they see these things turn in pre-term babies.  Their philosophy is to over-react rather than to under-react, so we're very glad that everyone involved did the right thing at the moment that Austin needed them to.

As for Miss Malia, she too was headed in a better direction as of now.  Although seemingly a bit bothered by the CPAP, she likely will not be on this regimen for much longer as long as infection is ruled out as a cause.  But it does raise some larger questions about whether her heart PDA is to blame for some of these really low de-sat episodes.  The doctor still felt that she is asymptomatic for any PDA-related complications, while they remain on close watch for any changes as such.  She too was taken off of her feedings until testing is completed, so let's hope that she'll be back on them soon so that she can take advantage of the opportunity to catch up on her brother.

So for Austin, he will remain on antibiotics for another 7-10 days, and he'll also remain off of his feedings in the interim time.  This means that they will have to redo his PICC line for IV fluids, and we're already seeing the signs he's pissed that he's not being fed because he's munching his binky voraciously.  Somehow, he's still growing and getting longer, which is always a welcomed change.

Austin and Malia came into the world on Mother's Day weekend, swirled in a mess of chaos and way too early for comfort.  By Father's Day weekend, they're still causing a ruckus in the NICU.  If "tough" was the family business, these kids are the heir apparent(s).

Our nurse was nice enough to put together my first Father's Day card. 

XOXO

And we would be remiss to not acknowledge the importance of our fathers on this father's day, way beyond the obvious fact of them bringing us into this world.  Austin and Malia exist because of our families' support and love, and they happen to have two of the best grandfathers in the world!