Kaleb is still in the NICU at Millers Children's Hospital at LB Memorial. He is still having respiratory distress. He is NOT however CRITICAL in ANY way! (The best news of all! Praise Jesus!) His turns for the worse are NOT a matter of life or death, but a matter of more days in the hospital. Kaleb is still receiving 4 liters of oxygen but is down from 100% oxygen to 50% oxygen. (For now. He keeps going back and forth between 100% and less) He's still having rapid breathing patterns with chest retractions, which basically means that he's having to work twice as hard for every breath. He is now starting to have a hard time under any sort of stress. (Which means touch essentially...) When he is touched, moved, or held he starts to stress, which puts him in more respiratory distress. So our contact with Kaleb right now is very minimal. He was given ADVAN (sp?) over the night to calm him, because apparently he became so agitated that he was unable to calm down and was in a lot of distress. He is still on IV fluids, and has not had any milk yet. (The hospital has my colostrum and milk stored for when the time comes.) We have not been given a time frame as to when Kaleb will be coming home since there are so many variables involved. His breathing must be completely unassisted and stable for a specific amount of time before they will introduce milk. Then, they must monitor his milk intake, and tolerance closely to see how well he does. Then and only then will they consider releasing him. However we don't know how long it will take for him to gain control of his breathing, and for it to become stable. The good news is that he IS breathing voluntarily and is not intubated. The other good news is that there are no signs of any type of infections, and his chest x-rays have been coming back clear. All in all he is doing well, is healthy, and the best news of all is that he is in the Lord's hands! Who better than THE GREAT HEALER?
Additional Update:
Richard and I went to the hospital this afternoon around 4:00. Kaleb was doing okay, no big upsets throughout the day really. However shortly after we got there his Jaundice results came back and per the doctor's orders Kaleb was started on light therapy. When we got to the hospital Kaleb was still receiving 4 liters of oxygen per minute but it was down to 40%. By the time we left it was back up to 65%. He wasn't too happy about the eye mask he had to wear for the light therapy. We were also finally given a name for what has been going on with Kaleb. It's called Respiratory Distress Syndrome. (aka RDS) It is most common with preemies, but apparently it can also affect full term babies. The short of it all is that his lungs were premature at birth (even though he was a full term baby....) There is no time frame for when they get better, and leave the hospital. However his symptoms all seem to fall in line with Moderate-Severe RDS... which usually means a longer recovery, which means a longer NICU stay. But who's to say he won't be better in a few days? It's all in the Lord's hands....
Pray that the LORD would guide the doctor's actions and decisions, and that the LORD's healing hand be upon Kaleb. That starting from birth, Kaleb will be a testament of GOD's power, healing, and love! That Richard and I would NOT lose focus, or take our eyes off of GOD during this hard emotional time, which is NOT easy, let me tell you!
Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support! Richard and I could definitely go this alone!
