11/11/09

November 11, 2009 by Jason.

Juliana is doing well today. When I spoke with her nurse Rachel over the phone, she had good news for us. First, she was able to be turned in her bed and weighed, which she tolerated pretty well. She is 780 grams today, which is about 1 lb. 11.5 oz. Turning a baby on an oscillator is a difficult task because the oscillator tube is not very flexible and requires a horizontal alignment. It involves turning the baby a complete 180 degrees and then turning her head from one side to the other and reattaching. During the turning time, she is off the machine for about 20-30 seconds, so her saturation level will go down a little bit during the procedure. Her oscillator settings have been turned down as she continues to do well. Her mean pressure has been dropped from 12.5 to 12, the oscillation level from 30 to 28, and the hertz from 16 to 15.

The real exciting news is that she is going to be fed today! They want to get her stomach working and so they are giving her 0.8 ml of breast milk over a 3 hour period to see how she does. She also gets a tiny glycerin suppository to make sure her bowels are moving well. 0.8 ml is a tiny amount, not even a full insulin syringe for comparison, but if she does well with it, they may consider continuous feeding soon.

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