Even Babies Hate Mondays

Okay, well, Sunday nights. Jenn and I went to visit Lewis after Nate went to bed last night. When we arrived, he was in the process of getting all kinds of uncomfy tests, up to and including a catheter and "lumbar puncture" (spinal tap). Before we got there, Lewis' temperature went up from normal (37 C) to 38.2 C (about 100.75). The change led the NICU staff to do a blood test (CBC) to check for potential signs of infection. Since his white cell count on the CBC was elevated, they were working on a full battery of tests. Most of these will take a couple of days to come back with conclusive results.

On the bright side, Lewis wasn't behaving any differently (he didn't appear to be sick). They put him back on antibiotics right away, and his fever immediately came down. This morning, he was active and awake and Jenn and I each got to hold him for a good long while. The preliminary results of x-rays and observation look positive (not likely to be pneumonia or meningitis) but Lewis will be even more closely watched than usual, until they can explain the blood count and fever.

Respiratory - still having problems with secretions, but overall respiratory strength continues to look a bit better. They are moving the nasal cannula down to 3 liters today (meaning that Lewis will do more of the work of breathing on his own)

Feeding - decreasing to 3 hour interval, still 30 Ml per feeding through the tube, they are pushing to get him off IV nutrition as soon as they can

Physical Therapy - Lewis had his first visit with a physical therapist (PT) today. She was pleased with the tone in his limbs. His 'trunk' (neck, shoulders, lower part of face) is still a little behind. The PT says that that is not unusual following the full body cooling, and that it may be exacerbated by the phenobarb. Lewis will be having PT 3x a week, for now.

The speech therapist is visiting with Lewis now, to evaluate him and work on sucking and other important baby skills. Oh, one more thing - apparently Lewis let out a pretty good war cry when they did the spinal tap. This is a great sign, since he doesn't cry and hasn't made much, if any noise, so far...