Coburn Kids

Caden’s feedings are going better, last night when I was there he had no residual so the continuous feedings is helping. He gets about 4 cc’s every hour. Caden’s oxygen levels are still up in the high 30′s and low 40′s. He’s very swollen right now, weighing in at 1650 grams (about 3 lb. 10 oz.). Last night his nurse tried to get another central IV in him because they removed the PICC line in that arm and he was leaking water from his puffy hand.

They are going to try to lower his nitric on monday to 5 ppm, and then it will be lowered by just 1 at a time until he’s weaned. His morphine has been lowered to .16 mg so that’s probably why he is finally able to digest his food now.

Had some good conversations with Caden’s nurses today. Caden, is still having issues with his feedings. They increased the feedings to 6 cc’s every 3 hours and then went back to 10 cc’s every 6 hours. Now they have him going 3.5 continuous feed every hour. So he is getting a lot more food. At 6pm he had 9cc’s residual, but at 10pm he only had 2, so that’s good news. Also his oxygen is up in the 40′s so they are watching him closely and if it shoots up more they’ll do his gases and see what happens.

Also he had his eye exam today, and so far no sign of ROP (retinopathy of prematurity)! But they will check every 2 weeks to keep an eye on it. They did not expect to see anything this early anyways. Also the Dr. was surprised to see how well the veins in his eyes were developing so thats a good sign too.

After talking to his nurse we received more detail information on his brain bleeding. It appears that it is only on his left side, and the blood clot appears to be deteriorating so that is also going really well. His weight was at 1530 g so only 10 g increase tonight, which doesn’t surprise us because of his recent weight gains.

Final update, I just got off the phone with his nurse, and his blood gas that they ran came back really well. Also while on the phone they checked his residuals and it’s only 3ml of partially digested milk, so his little tummy’s working.

On Monday we had a great time with the girls at a small fair we go to for my dad’s postal union every year. The girls had a blast on the blow-up rides, the park and eating hot dogs. On the left, you’ll see a picture of Gena and Adessa with a new friend they made. My parents then graciously took the kids so that Daniel and I could go up and visit Caden that night.

Caden’s oxygen has been okay, in the 30′s. He’s been as low as 24% but can’t seem to hold steady there. They also had to increase his vent’s amplitude to 22 tonight because of some blood gases that were off. The weaning of the morphine and hydrocortisone is going well and even his nitric has been lowered to 10 ppm. He’s tolerating everything very good. He’s still returning some residuals on his feedings. Anywhere from .5 cc to over 1/2 the feeding. His weight is still going up a lot. Last night he was at 1520 grams (about 3 lb. 5 oz.). We’ve been waiting to see if Adessa is fully over being sick to bring the girls up there. They are very anxious to see their baby brother again.

My mom and I went up to see Caden tonight and Daniel was up there earlier this morning as well. Caden’s oxygen has been in the 30′s all day, his blood gases came back a bit off tonight so they’ll adjust his ventilator a bit more. His feedings have only been going so-so. He’s on 6 cc’s every 6 hours and they are getting about 1/2 back as residuals. He has some distention last night in his belly by about 2cm, but his stomach is back to normal now. Of note is that Caden is up to 1450 grams (3 lb. 4 oz.). Whether this is good or bad we are not sure yet. You can usually expect a weight gain of about 15-20 grams a day and having a 200 gram (7 oz.) weight gain in only 3 days is definitely pointing to some edema (swelling).

Caden’s primary nurse, Jeanette, bought him a 1 month birthday present yesterday. A sweet wooden carved Angel of Miracles ornament.  We love his primary nurse, she gives us a lot Caden’s things such as his little blood pressure cuffs, lead lines, diapers, and she took some handprints for me.

Daniel and I were able to go to church with the girls today, the first time in over a month! Our ward had a special fast for Caden today and we can’t tell them enough how much we appreciate everything they have done for us. From bringing dinner’s over, to the phone calls, offers of help and to watch the girls. It’s wonderful to have such support from neighbors.

Yesterday I took Genevieve and Adessa up to Tracy Aviary (a bird sanctuary) with their Grandma and Grandpa Warner and their cousin Ethan. They had a blast. They feed some ducks and peacocks. Disappointingly they didn’t have a bird show that day, but they were able to feed the parrots. It’s a cool part of the place where you can feeds the birds fruit and they land all over you. I’ve done it before and sent Grandma and Grandpa in with Gena and Adessa while I stayed out with Ethan.

We were a bit concerned about Adessa going in since she’s afraid of birds, but she did fabulous. Before going in she told us she was going to be brave and she actually had 2 birds on her. One on each arm and she loved it. This was Genevieve’s 2nd time doing it and she was so excited all the way home talking about it.

Afterwards we had lunch at Liberty Park and watched the kids run around for a while. They had a blast!