PT in the Morning
Hello to everyone.
Due to some scheduling issues, I was able to do Xavier's 8:00 AM cares and I was there to help with his PT. We had a new PT this morning. Her name is Juliet and she spends most of her time at Children's Hospital. Every so often a Children's Hospital doctor or nurse will rotate over to the NICU for a week or so. This is a way in which knowledge transfers from Children's back to the NICU. Juliet has written articles about PT for infants, both term and preemie, and she is published in NICUs around the country. Needless to say, I took full advantage of her time and asked her many questions as she led me in several new exercises for Xavier.
One of the things Juliet explained was how babies in general communicate with us and pointed out some things to look for to see how Xavier is feeling. She also explained the importance of the right kinds of touch at this stage. If babies, even term babies, do not get a proper balance of "good" touches, then they develop problems very early on because they begin to interpret all touch as painful. It is necessary to poke babies for blood, or shots or this or that, but the baby needs to learn there is positive touch as well.
Juliet (who believes even term parents need to meet with a physical therapist at least once so they can learn the basics) also explained how the techniques employed with babies uses their reflex responses to stimulate so much other physical development and simple motor skills. For example, one of the exercises involves sliding a finger down the top of his foot to the toes with enough pressure to push the foot down, then letting the finger slide off his toes. Xavier's foot should spring back, which it did the first few times. After number three, however, he stopped. Juliet explained that he and his body were focused on what was going on and deciding if it's positive touch or negative touch.
I told her about Xavier's first immersion bath and how it stressed him out. She smiled and said the next bath he gets will go better. His body has had time to process that experience and he will be ready for it the next time he experiences it.
One of the things Juliet told me about her job is that she is letting parents of preemies know it's OK to handle their baby. She asked me if I had seen parents of term babies bicycling the legs of their child. She then said this and similar actions most parents do naturally are good for the baby, even for preemies. She says these therapy sessions let parents know "they have permission to" interact with their preemie in the same way, and that it is good and healthy to do so.
Rebecca attended a NICU Mothers class. These classes are scheduled throughout the week. Rebecca has made a few of them while she was still in the hospital, but this was her first since she was discharged. Rebecca reflected on how her perceptions have changed over the last few years. She thought the woman leading the class had good ideas, but she needed to consider something greater than Human for most of her healing ideas to be effective.
Xavier had his blood draw early in the morning (probably about 2:00 AM) to test his liver and hematocrit level. I was not there when the lab results were available, but Rebecca was able to get the gist of them. The doctors were pleased with his hematocrit level, but his liver numbers (probably his bilirubin counts) are still low.
So, he is off the EPO (thank you, Jesus! That was not a fun injection to watch, much less endure, and little Xavier, trooper that he is, suffered ten of them). However, his twice-a-day Acticgall regimen will continue. He is still getting iron supplements and vitamin supplements twice a day, both oral doses.
He weighs 1330 grams (about 2 lb, 14.8 oz). He has been bumped up to 28 ml of 24 calorie milk per feeding. He took his bottle this morning and drained it, then laid on Daddy'd chest. Daddy learned a few lessons:
- Even :45 minutes after a baby stops feeding, they can still spit up, and spit up large quantities.
- Babies, when spitting up, do not have to move around, get fussy, or even be awake, or provide any sign gooey, partially digested, iron-rich, vitamin-saturated 1.5:1 breast milk to formula is returning to the mouth and then, with its fermented-sweet odor to drain all over a clean sleeper.
- Parents visiting their preemies in the NICU prior to going to work should carry an extra shirt with them in the car.
Always, thank you for your prayers.