A's and B's

Jack and Ella had another good day today, I'll let Kristy talk about her experiences with Kangaroo Care, but they were both stable. Jack is now on the CPAP full-time and his oxygen level is below 30. 21% is room air. Ella now rotates 6 hours on the tube and 6 hours on the CPAP. She's usually about 21%. We love the calm, boring days...

However, since Jack and Ella are now both off the ventilators and breathing on their own, we have a new set of stressors. The docs call these A's and B's. A's are apnea, which means that the baby has stopped breathing. B's are bradycardia, which is a reduction in heartbeats. Oftentimes, the A's will lead to the B's. What usually happens is their respiratory rate falls below 20 / minute, then the heartbeat falls quickly from 150 or so to as low as 50 within a few seconds. Then their oxygen level drops from 95 or so to the 60's. During this time, the alarms go off rapidly and the nurse checks on them.

It is incredibly terrorizing, especially since they were delivered because of similar outbreaks with Jack. Fortunately, they usually recover quickly on their own, within 10 seconds. Also, the staff has a multitude of tools to assist, if needed, including an apparatus that will breathe for them. The docs say that we will soon sit through them, but that doesn't seem possible today... Also, they should grow out of these by around week 35. We can't wait.