Another day in CVICU

Another day passes and Caden is still in CVICU. It doesn't look like they are going to move him out of the unit all too soon. They will need to take the last line out of his chest before they will move him and they haven't done it yet. Dr. Reddy said he wanted Caden to have two peripheral IV's before they remove the one from the chest.

The OT worked with Caden again today and he is still having trouble gagging when anything is put in his mouth. She thinks it's going to take some time before he's ready for food by mouth. Also, the fact that his vocal cords still don't appear to be working is another concern. The biggest problem is the possibility of aspirating some of the fluids as they go down, or if he spits them up, it could get aspirated that way as well. He had a little bit of that today when he spit up and seemed to have trouble getting it all cleared from his mouth and throat. Based on all they are seeing, they are going to have an ENT come and evaluate Caden's vocal cords and see what they are doing, or not doing as it may be. And when the doctor examined him around lunchtime, he was a little raspy in the lungs so they took an x-ray. His lungs looked a little hazier than yesterday so they have some concerns about that.

One really nice thing is that the lactation consultant arranged for me to have one of the hospital breast pumps at Caden's bed. So, now I can pump by his bedside instead of having to leave him so often during the day in order to go pump. This is wonderful because it enables me to spend time with my baby while I pump. In the CVICU, there is room for me to do this. However, in the NICU that wasn't really an option. And, if Caden gets moved up to the third floor, I will be able to take the pump with me. But if he moves back to NICU, I won't. For now, it is really nice to be able to sit by his bed and pump.

The other thing they did Tuesday was weigh him – finally. I have been trying to get them to do that since they extubated him last Thursday. So, as of today, he weighed 6 lb, 9 oz. This is 2 ounces more than his birth weight, so that is good. I'm really surprised it was that much. I figured he would have dropped down into the 5 pound range. I guess the TPN and lipids at least helped him maintain his weight although going into surgery he weighed 6 lb, 11 oz so he's down a bit from a couple weeks ago. They are supposed to weigh him every day now so we will be able to track his weight gain.

Last night, Caden got moved to yet another room. This is his fourth home in the CVICU unit alone, not to count the two places he had in NICU. He's just moved around a lot.