Monday, August 6, 2007

08/06/07

Matthew is now nearly 22 hours old. It has been quite the day let me tell ya!

Matthew is doing well. We don't yet know when he'll get to come home. It's entirely up to him, how he responds to treatment and how he is doing. I've been told not to expect him home before his due date, September 24, 2007.

Matthew is a nice and healthy weight. Because I ruptures so early and he went without fluid for a while, he was unable to develop his lung tissue. In utero, the lungs fill with amnioitc fluid and swell the lungs so that they open and close with ease. It's compared to having a balloon that you blow up over and over and over again. The first time you blow it up, it can be really hard. But, after several times, it gets much easier and doesn't require much effort.

Matthew didn't get enough practice time. Because of that his lungs are immature and today he was diagnosed with lung disease. It is because of this that he has to be on a vent. He has received two treatments of surfectant (Thank you March of Dimes for creating such a wonderful drug) and seems to be doing much better with them. Surfectant helps his lungs to stay open.

Matthew started on the vent at 100% oxygen. For a while after that, he was on complete room air with the vent just helping him keep his lungs open. That was then adjusted to 30% oxygen to help Matthew breathe. Matthew had some blood work done that showed that he wasn't processing CO2 very well, so his oxygen was kept at 30%.

This evening Matthew had a better report. His second ultrasound on the lungs was clear. His blood gasses were much better and he is again on room air through the vent. The are trying to wean him off. Tomorrow he will have more bloodwork and another x-ray to evaluate what is going on. His lungs sound clear now and we're hoping they will stay that way so he can be weaned off of the vent as soon as possible.

Once the vent is out, Matthew can start eating. He is much too young to try and eat from a nipple artificial or not. Right now, I am pumping every 2 1/2 hours so that Matthew can have plenty of milk when he's able to eat. We're hoping that is very soon.

This evening, Kaitlyn was able to meet Matthew. She kept asking if he was sick. She told him she loved him and blew him kisses. She was so proud to meet her little brother even if it was all a bit confusing for her.

It has been a long day. Daddy ended up getting really sick, so we are hoping he'll feel better soon so he can see more of Matthew. Thank you so much to everyone who helped us get to this point. Those 9 weeks mean the world to Matthew and every day truly does matter! Thank you so much for your kind, thoughtful and encouraging words. We look forward to posting as soon as we can about Matthew coming home and all of his adventures to be!

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