Evelyn's rough day

Today was a tough one for little Evelyn. First of all, preemies get several blood draws, for labs and such. Evelyn's blood counts came back last night showing she was a little low in red blood cells. That's not unexpected, but the doctors decided to give her a unit of blood this afternoon. That seemed to perk her up a bit.

Evelyn's nurse also found a heart murmur yesterday. Tests showed that the murmur is being caused by a flap in her heart that has not closed yet. This flap normally closes at birth once the lungs first get used. In Evelyn's case, as in the case for many preemies, the flap doesn't close right away. This is something that the doctors expected, so not too large a cause for concern. The only problems that it causes right now is that Evelyn's lungs get a little too much blood circulation. This can make it harder for her to get the oxygen she should be getting in her lungs, and she has to have more oxygen supplied by her CPAP machine.

The doctors started treatment for this today, so we should know in a few days how it is going. Unfortunately, she can't eat while she is getting the treatment, so she is going to be a few days behind on her feedings.

The good news is that by the time we left today she was slowly getting less and less oxygen from her CPAP machine. The goal is to be at 21 percent, which is room air. She was down to 25 by the time we left. She had been higher earlier in the day.

Jessica is doing ok. The doctors are going to keep a close eye on her to see if she shows any signs of having the same murmur. So far tests haven't shown anything. She's getting a little more than room air through her CPAP today as well. When we were there for her afternoon assessment, she was wide awake. She even gave a few giggles when Cynthia was tickling her feet.

Both girls are in the same room now, which is good and bad. The good is that we don't have to go up and down the halls of the ICN to see them. The bad news is that they like to make their alarms go off at the same time!! That's not good for Dad's blood pressure.

All in all both girls are still doing well. This past Sunday would have been 28 weeks gestation, and both girls are where they should be at this point.