The electric toothbrush, our friend

After a rough end to his first week of life, Colin has stabilized and is working on gaining ground again. Yesterday morning he was still having some problems breathing and clearing out the CO2, thanks to his collapsed lung. To help clear out the fluid that was building up, Colin’s nurse gave him a special chest massage — with an electric toothbrush. Its vibrations were breaking up the secretions in his lung, which allowed the nurse to suction out more “gunk” so he could breath better.

This appears to have worked, because last night they were able to lower the levels on his ventilator again, and his heart and respiration rates were back down to normal levels. The nurse said his chest x-ray last night looked a little better. He also has gained back at least most of the weight he had lost (his weight has been a bit like a yo yo, going up and down); last night Colin tipped the scales at 1 pound 10 ounces.

I’m hoping he continues to gain weight now — despite the fact that we’ve had to stop his feedings — because I believe he needs to be over 2 pounds before we’re allowed to hold him.

Veronica continues to do quite well, and is up to getting 15 ml of breast milk at every feeding. These are still going into her tummy through a tube — she won’t be able to try sucking for another couple of weeks — but she continues to digest the food well, and is putting on weight.

Both John and I were able to spend a lot of time holding Veronica yesterday, which was wonderful. We also were each able to “feed” her (hold the tube with the milk up over her head). And, during my second visit last night, I was finally able to kangaroo with her, holding her skin to skin against my chest for about 2 hours. I was a very happy puddle of sweat when I finally put her back in the incubator to go visit Colin.

So we are hoping this week that Colin’s lung continues to improve (with or without more help from the toothbrush), and that he continues to put on weight. Now that we have been able to hold Veronica more consistently, we both are really looking forward to having the same experience with Colin.