2 Weeks, 6 Days (GA: 30 Weeks)

We heard a women's voice in our home at about midnight last night.  Our phone ringers were off or out of earshot and the voice was from our answering machine.  It was Diane from the NICU telling us that it was "not an emergency" but they had made some changes with Zeke and we could just call back when we woke up in the morning.  I consider a phone call at midnight, being such a rare occurence, a definite emergency.  So we called back right away and put it on speaker phone.  We were put on hold to the most unbelievable music.  It was quite with a couple discordant strings, interspersed by what sounded like gunshots.  Yes, gunshots!  Sometimes the lone shot; sometimes the rapid succession of many gunshots as though the composer were in a genuine shoot out at the time of composition.  Nanette believes the hold music was malfunctioning, but based on the other odd hold music we have been subjected to, I hold that it was intentional.  It is comical to us now, but at the time I thought we had entered the twilight zone:  My wife and I were awake at midnight listening to the sound of gunshots as we waited to hear about a non-emergency situation from the ICU my premature twins are in.  We were on hold for several minutes.

Finally, we were talking to Diane.  Zeke was having more trouble breathing and had had several As & Bs---apnea and bradycardia (dip in the heart rate below 100, it is normally about 160-170).  His tummy was distended and his bowels were not moving.  All of these are symptoms of an infection in a premie.  Diane told us that they took blood to do a blood culture and had put him back on CPAP to help him breath.  They put IVs in, started antibiotics, and stopped his feeds .  They also put a larger tube into his stomach so they can draw out any excess fluids.  Today they took samples of urine and spinal fluid to check for infections.  His spinal fluid showed a slightly increased white blood cell count, which can be an indicator of meningitis.

Gabe had another head ultrasound today to monitor the CSF in his ventricles, and although they could not tell us the official results, they did say his ventricles were further enlarged and they asked for consent to get him a CT scan tomorrow at Primary Children's.

Nanette continues to improve.