Doctor Mommy

You would all have been very proud of the mama Ali this week. Jordan has spent a lot of time maturing this week. The mama Ali has matured also. Feeding for Jordan of course burns a lot of calories for such a little baby. It would be easier if he was 7 pounds, but he’s only 4.5 pounds. As a result, he usually desats when he feeds, using up the oxygen in his blood. The nurse usually increases the flow in order to compensate. After the feeds, the nurse usually slowly turns the flow back down as he recovers and rests. I say usually because the mama Ali has started doing it now. Jordan has too much oxygen, she turns the oxygen down. Too little, and she turned it up a little bit. She hasn’t been doing this much – maybe 4 times this week, but she was doing it and new she was doing it. In fact, she looks around and asks me if there are any nurses around before she does it. Yesterday after feeding the baby he was sleeping on my chest. Of course the oxygen was too high as he fell asleep and the alarm went off. It was loud enough that it could have woken up a normal kid (the only thing that wakes up Jordan is a doctor’s exam). The mama Ali got up, looked around, silenced the alarm, and turned the oxygen down. This is the same woman that won’t let me take the tags off of the mattress. The nurses typically don’t mind her doing this in part because they have no idea that she’s doing this. In fact, they would probably put here in NICU prison if they caught her. I know one thing though. Just like you don’t get between a mama bear and her cub, I don’t get between a mama Ali and her baby.

As I mentioned above, it is possible for his oxygen to be too high. This is because too much oxygen for too long can make the ROP worse. Luckily, the doctor said that his ROP has not changed – not better, but not worse. He is also swinging on his sats again. I think there are two main reasons for this. First of all, he takes half his food by bottle. It takes a lot out of the little guy. Also, now that he’s a big kid they are making him spend more time on his back. Not a whole lot, just more than usual. He hates that. He can turn his head and move his limbs, but he isn’t turning over until 2008.

I want you to try an exercise with me. Imagine you work in a cubicle in a large room full of cubicles. There are people in every cubicle. Some are typing on the computer. Others are talking to each other. There are phones going off every 30 seconds. Imagine all of that background noise. Now try to take a nap. Now you have the idea of what the NICU sounds like. Not loud, but not quiet. Jordan has been in this environment exclusively for 88 days now. Even in his isolette, he has never experienced silence. Go back to that cubicle and turn off the fluorescent light directly above you. Do not turn off the fluorescent light in the hallway behind you. You now have an idea of Jordan’s version of darkness. He is going to have trouble redefining the terms silence and darkness when he comes home. It may well be too dark and quiet.