All is well, but things are changing.

Yesterday, one of the doctors (Dr. Jesse) told me that days of calm stability are the days we should really embrace and enjoy. It makes sense. Growth isn’t going to happen in a day, but we have already learned that setbacks can.

Today, Lydia looked “tired.” She was struggling a bit to breathe (which means that her little tummy was clearly working and she was basically doing the reverse inch worm. Babies breath a lot with their stomachs and apparently moreso when they are struggling). They did a blood gas (where they test the gasses in her blood) and she had a lot of carbon dioxide build up. They did an x-ray and it looked like her feeding tube may not have been far enough down so some of her food may have gone into her lungs. They are doing a blood culture to see if she has any infection. The nurses readjusted her feeding tube and the respiratory therapist changed Lydia from a CPAP to a step slightly more supportive. The tubes that go into her nose are smaller and she doesn’t have the chin strap, so she is certainly more comfortable. They are doing another blood gas on her at 2:00 P.M. so we’ll see how much better she is doing. She looked much better by noon than she did this morning and she was certainly active, having kicked off her dandleroo (the thing that swaddles her).

Finn is doing well and the doctor talked to me about treating him with steroids. He is the furthest behind on breathing and the steroids can really help his lungs develop. This is something Brise and I have to sign a consent form for because there are some risks. 10-20 years ago, babies were often aggressively treated with steroids and in high doses because it works well to help lung development. However, over time, doctors realized that the steroid treatment had an unintended side effect of cognitive issues. Now, doctors use that DART protocol, which is a very very small dose of steroids. Dr. Hema gave me a policy statement by the American Acadamy of Pediatrics (available here) so I could read more about it. She highlighted the relevant parts but I’ll read the entire thing. What is important is that studies have shown that babies treated with the DART protocol have no statistically significant difference in development from babies not treated. Another side effect is that babies get “roid rage” where they become “more active.” The doctor pointed out that Finn is already pretty active (remember, he’s my baby B, which we had already decided was a daredevil like his father). The increased activity would end when the 10 day treatment was over and I’m not concerned about that. If we don’t treat him, he will likely improve regardless. However, it will probably take a lot longer. The longer he is intubated, the greater the risk of infection and complications from the breathing support. I am not sure what we will decide yet, but I imagine we will decide as soon as I have time to read the article, Brise’s mom has time to read the article, and one of my phone-a-friend doctors has time to talk it over with me.

Today is a great day for Aubrey and by that I mean it’s a boring stable day of hurrying up and waiting.