NICU Night #68 - TIMMY POOPED!!!

Sunday, June 27, 2010

One of the very best nights in a long time!  I should have known it was going to be an amazing night when I got the parking space closest to the building.

Melissa had told me that another of Timmy's primaries was on Sunday night but she ended up not having Timmy, instead he had Nadine!!!  Such a nice surprise.  She hasn't had Timmy since before his surgery.  She isn't one of his primaries, but has been in the room taking care of the little girls on the other side for about a week and it was wonderful for us to finally get a turn.  After moving to the new unit, she was primarily assigned babies on the other side of the building, but I would see her fairly often on my way to the lactation room and kept her up to date on Timmy.  She knew he had had surgery and knows about the struggle with the vent.

She had some wonderful surprises for me.  First, she isn't a big fan of "snowing" kids.  She likes to make sure she's giving medication for a reason so she had only given Timmy one dose of morphine at his 8pm cares.  (I arrived at 10:00.)  He was looking very comfortable when I saw him, but he had not enjoyed being stretched for his weekly length measurement.  He is roughly 17 inches long, the same as he has been for the past 2 weeks, but she didn't want to stretch him out too hard because of his belly so she just pulled his legs down gently, took a quick measure and called it good.  At least he didn't shrink!  Head circumference was 33cm. 

Timmy was down 80g to 2620g - 5 lbs. 12.4 oz.  Which is a good sign!  He had had some hefty diapers earlier in the day, showing that he has learned how to pee out the extra fluid.  Go Timmy!  But even better than the copious amounts of urine - Timmy had pooped!  His first real poop!  Cassie saw some dark mucous during the day but didn't want to call it poop but what Nadine had seen and I saw later was very definitely poop!  Hooray!  Yes, Timmy is still NPO, but there is material remaining in his intestines from his days of feedings.  It has been 7w1d since Timmy's initial surgery and only getting to see poop coming out through his belly so finally being able to see it come out the normal way is nothing short of miraculous!

Timmy's incision is still red, but it doesn't look inflamed at all, just healing.  No seepage this time whatsoever.  It really looks like he should be able to heal and have everything working as it should.  Keeping our fingers crossed and praying things continue on the same road.

The final surprise was getting to hold Timmy.  Nadine asked me if I wanted to try.  Yes...and no.  I want him back in my arms very much but I don't want to cause him pain.  I put a pillow on my lap and she handed him to me surrounded by all his blankets - basically, she just lifted and placed. She took such care in making sure that everything was in line so that she wouldn't have to do any moving of lines, leads, tubes, etc. once she had him in her hands.  It was such a precious feeling to be able to cradle his head in my right hand again, just to watch him sleeping so peacefully.  Not a cry the entire time.  Nadine had the morphine on board already ready to go in case, but he didn't need any of it!

It doesn't get any sweeter than this little boy!