gas

So....today was a little scary. I didn't mention this yesterday but it is important now. Aaron and Elliott are in a room that can only have 3 babies. When they were first moved to the first floor their roommate was Diego. Yesterday Diego was fine during rounds just before 2pm. I fed and diapered Elliott and Aaron and everything was fine until about 2:30. Diego started crying and was just very upset. The nurse made a phone call and then sat down. She wasn't as cheerful and she was a few minutes before. I heard her say something about Diego's tummy being hard. That is bad. There is a break from 3-3:45 and at that time parents have to leave the NICU. When I came back at 4pm, Diego had been moved back to the 4th floor. The nurse told me that he was very sick. She said that much of his intestines had died and he would be undergoing surgery to remove the dead parts. This really freaked me out because it happened so fast!!! Preemies tummies are not ready to eat so they have troubles like this sometimes. Its called NEC, I can't remember what that stands for but it's some kind of bacteria that kills the intestines. This is why it take a while for the babies to start being fed and then they are moved to more food slowly. So...this morning we received a phone call from St. Francis. It was the attending doctor. He told me that Elliott threw up his entire 5:30AM feeding so they next two feeding were going to be held. He said that Elliott had an x-ray done on his tummy and his "loops" were dilated but it was gas. I hung up the phone and told Andrew and then I started to freak out. I called back and talked to the nurse. She said that they were just holding his feedings to give his tummy a rest. She said that he had been fussier then usual in the morning but he wasn't being moved or given an IV or anything like that. It was just as a precaution. I felt a little better but was still pretty worried considering how fast things progressed with Diego. When we got to the hospital Elliott was sucking on his "yumyum" (this is what we are calling binkys because Katie told us to =) so hard I thought he was going to suck the whole thing down in throat!!! He was very hungry. The nurse said that he had been passing gas. She called someone who said that he could eat. I gave him his bottle around noon. He took it so fast...he was so very hungry. He took two more feedings from me as well and things seemed back to normal. Later I heard that Diego had died last night. When they opened him up all of his intestines had died. They closed him up and told his parents there was nothing they could do. I thought that was very sad but knew Elliott was doing better and he just needed to fart a lot. Elliott was given an enema and he pooped. that should have helped as well. I fed Elliott at 8:30 and he was just not that interested in eating. He was squirmy and irritable. I started getting nervous...thinking about little Diego. Elliott's temp was also low. His bottle had 35mL in it and he needed to take 32. He only took 26. He ALWAYS takes all of it. The nurse said she was sure he was fine and it looked like he was trying hard to poop. She checked him over and again thought he was fine. He kept arching his back when I was holding him and acted like it hurt him when I bent him over to burp him. I texted Andrew and told him I was really scared but probably over reacting. I ended up holding Elliott for a long time. He farted a lot and it seemed to make him feel better. Andrew came to the hospital and picked me up and we went home. I still feel very uneasy about all this. We just called the hospital and Elliott took 30 of his 11:30 feeding. His nurse said his bowel sounds were good and it looked like he was still working to get lots of poop out. Aaron is doing super. Actually Aaron has some minor issues. He has a mild form of hypospadia and hydrocele. He has to see the urologist in February. Both boys are to see the eye doctor the Friday after Christmas. Just keep praying for the boys. They are growing but they are still so small...I can't help the guilt feelings that I have for not keeping them in long enough. Also, they would be able to digest breast milk better than formula. I feel guilty for not being able to make enough milk...now that I am way super freaked out...I can't even make enough in a day for one feeding for one baby. It's okay to pray for my boobs too =) Thanks so much for reading and praying!!! Sorry that there aren't any new pictures on snapfish today. We will have lots tomorrow probably..Santa is coming and the babies will look like elves!!!
Jen