Rhythm and Fluids

Little Mattie-bear decided that peeing on me the other day wasn't enough; today when I was holding him, he spit up on me! (It was quite a good volume of half-digested milk -- yuck!) He was perfectly well-behaved for Mike, though. (And if there were a contest for stinkiest britches, Mattie would win. The nurse opened up his isolette and said, "It smells like an outhouse in there!" And she was right! Of course, none of that stops us from holding him as much as we can.)

James is doing pretty well, although he has been having some heart arrhythmias that they're keeping an eye on -- essentially, extra heartbeats or erratically timed beats that don't follow the normal rhythm of heartbeats, but it doesn't seem to affect his respiration or oxygen saturation, so this is different from typical preemie bradycardias (heart slowdowns). They know from his echocardiogram that nothing is wrong with his heart physically, so they think it might just be a temporary chemical imbalance throwing things off a little bit. His potassium is low, so they're giving him more of that and hoping it will solve the problem. Although we find it disturbing to see on the monitors, the doctors (including the cardiologist) don't seem to think it's anything dangerous.

He's also retaining a ton of fluids (due to the surgery), so it's possible that the fluid retention is contributing somehow. (To give you an idea of how much extra fluid there is, he gained more than 100 grams last night, when typical "real" weight gain is more like 20-30 grams.) His face and chin are so puffy that his little neck has disappeared! (And it actually got a little chafed from moisture getting trapped there -- poor baby!)

Otherwise, though, he seems to be recovering well. His color and respiration are good, and he's not showing other signs of distress. He was even awake for a while this evening, although they're still giving him fentenyl for pain control. Thanks so much to everyone for your prayers and good thoughts for him!!