Monday, April 12, 2010

Growing, Growing, Growing


Guess what? Grady Charles is growing. He was 2 lbs 9.3 oz this weekend.
Today's picture is a little dark. When the babies needs to calm down, the nurses start turning the lights out. Don't worry, they have accent lighting so they can see the babies. Grady seems to like it when it is dark. He will calm down and relax when the lighting is low. If you look at the picture closely, you can see that he has his hand on his knee and his knee is bent. The glow on his arm is his blood pressure cuff. It was on his foot, in the beginning. But they have drawn blood from both feet and wrapped them up. So, the cuff was moved to his arm. In the dark, you can see how the light glows through his thin skin. Even though his face is scwunched up (yes that IS a word), he is truly relaxed. He loves to get his foot out of the binding the nurses use to swaddle him. They will wrap his lamb skin around both feet, clip it closed to keep him warm and within a few seconds Grady has one foot back out.
The doctor has increased Grady's feedings. He is now taking 21 mililiters. I don't know if some of you are aware of this, but Grady's stomach is the size of his fist. His fist is the size of a marble, maybe. So, they have to increase his feedings very slowly. They are going to increase his calories this time so that he will continue to gain weight. As you know, he will gain and loose, quickly.
Suzanna held him this weekend. Some of you already know, if Grady does not want to be held, he is not going to be held. His sats will drop, he will scare his Mommy and he will be put back in his incubator. So, when she gets to hold him, I like to let everyone know. As time goes on and Grady gets more used to being touched and held, this will get better. When he is off the respirator and breathing completely on his own, I think he will do better during holdings. The nurse tells us that his respirator is positional. This means that it takes two people to move him so that his tubing is not moved out of place.
So far, he seems to enjoy Mommy holding him. There have only been a few times that he did not cooperate when she was holding him. Anything can cause this. He may have a bad day, it could be too noisey for him, too many tests. He could just be cranky, who knows. He is a Kidd, you know.
We are still waiting for the siblings to get to go into the NICU. I hope we have a picture of my two grandchildren, soon. I would love to share that with all of you.
Thank you for all your prayers. We are truly blessed to have all of you as friends and family.
Talk soon,
JoJo

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