Week 7

17/07/2009

1060g today and the nurses got a chocolate cake for Toby as this is a running tradition. He is still on the diuretics to help reduce his fluid, his feeds have also gone up to 6.5mls of mummy’s milk and his ventilator settings have gone down to 40bpm. He is coping with this well. Daddy and Aimee, Anthony and Larissa come down to see him today and were really happy with how Toby has grown.

18/07/2009

Today Toby is going along well. There are not many changes with his care as the doctors are happy with how he is going. But mummy did get a very long cuddle late in the evening, both mummy and Toby really enjoyed this.

19/07/2009

Toby had a new IV line put in this afternoon as his other one tissued; it was put into his left arm. His ventilator settings are at 35 and he is doing a really good job of breathing up over it at the moment. The doctors had a talk to mummy and they said that he will be on the ventilator for a few more days as they want to start the fortifier again and they do not want to put him on CPAP at the same time in case his belly blows up again.

20/07/2009

Today the doctors started to fortify Toby’s feeds as he had lost some weight, he went back to 930g. His ventilator settings were reduced to 30% he is still having 0.5mg of morphine and hour and this is keeping him nice and relaxed. Mummy gave him a nice bed bath today and a massage in the morning and Toby really enjoyed both.

21/07/2009

Toby’s little tummy became distended again this afternoon and they had to stop fortifying his feeds. It appears that he cannot tolerate even half fortified milk, so after a discussion with his nurses, he was given more milk instead, he went up to 7mls, an hour. He also had his morphine stopped so that he can start to breath up a bit more and hopefully come off the ventilator in a few days. Daddy had a big long skin to skin cuddle in the evening, both Toby and daddy really enjoyed.

22/07/2009

Milk up to 7 mls an hour and Toby is tolerating it well.  His little tummy had gone back to normal size and he is looking good. No real changes to his care today as we are just waiting to see if he gains weight and if he continues to feel better after stopping the fortifier. His weight is now 1040g.

23/07/2009

Toby’s tummy is looking much better and he is now having 7.5mls of mummy’s milk and it coping wonderfully with this. When his feed tube started to leak and was not noticed for a little while, Toby got quite hungry and was trying to eat everything, given his dummy he really had a good suck until his milk started to fill his tummy again. Mummy had a big kanga cuddle, and Toby really loved it, his sats stayed up high and he was enjoying practicing his faces. Smiling and surprised looks and a very sad looking face too. But he was soon to smile again. He was given a loading dose of caffeine to help him to breath on his own better as they are hoping to take him off the ventilator in the morning.