The Murray Brothers: transfusion

Walked to Hudson's bedside this morning and right away I'm like what is wrong with him. Double checked to make sure I was looking at the right baby...I swear he is storing all his food in his cheeks! The reason I had to do the double take was he had a iv in his left arm, which wasn't there yesterday. I kept looking all around and there was no sign of why he had an iv. His nurse got back from break and came to chat with me and was telling me he was going to get a transfusion this afternoon.

Reasons for the blood transfusion:

his labs this morning showed he was a little low in his count
will help with his o2's being so inconsistent
will help him chunk up
overall get him ready for surgery (still a ways off)

The doctor said if we weren't preparing him for surgery, I wouldn't have ordered the transfusion. This will give him the extra boost he needs! At this age, the bone marrow is still not up to full production with producing enough red blood cells, thus the transfusion.

They discontinued his caffeine because he wasn't having significant brady's and again with his age he should be outgrowing them. They will continue to monitor and make adjustments if necessary.

Poor Hudson...today he learned a few new faces...or finally decided to try them out on his Mommy. The quivering I'm going to cry face and the I'm mad face. Both are absolutely adorable:) Haha, I wonder when he gives me the mad face in 16 years if I'll think it's adorable? He tried out his new faces on me during our noon care time. Which, he needed his leaky bag replaced. So with that his rock star nurse was like, he needs a bath! Let's strip him down, bathe him and then put a new bag on him. So today Hudson got his first bath in a lil tub in his bed. He LOVED it! However he hated be dressed! He screamed!!! The nurse picked him up and he stopped...NICU is creating a monster! After care time and during the time he got his transfusion he sat there and made faces at me. He quits making faces as soon as he can see the camera though.

Hudson weight wise is ready for a crib...but he's not keeping his temperature up...so until he can keep it up consistently he will remain in his isolette with the sides up. And speaking of Hudson's weight...yesterday he was 1920 grams (4lbs 4oz) and today he is 2040 (4.5 lbs!) 2 more pounds and we are on our way to surgery!

Tomorrow Hudson has another big day...chest xray and eye appointment checking on ROP. The doctor said she was holding off on making any respiratory changes until after his eye exam. Chest xray is just for monitoring purposes.

Hudson and I did have a little bit of snuggle time before his transfusion, he enjoyed it today! He smelled so good:) One of the social workers stopped by and took pictures of us, they were going to make a scrap book page for us. It was the sweetest page. One of the sayings that the person made on his page was "you are my sunshine"...

Overall, great day!