Hospital House

I knew baby stuff would take over our house...but who knew it wouldn't be limited to play pens and bouncy chairs?

This kiddo comes with all kinds of fancy machinery...

1.) The pulse oximeter measures both Isaiah's oxygen saturation and his heart rate.
It connects to him with a little sensor that (usually) sticks to one of his feet.  We want his oxygen to be between 92-96%.  Often times when he's awake, he's an overachiever and hits 100%.  We usually turn the oxygen down when he's that high.  Today I've left it because it lowers when he's sleeping and today is my first full day alone with Isaiah; I'm not wanting to rock the boat . (It's better to be 100% than anything below 90. Anything below 90 gives mommy a heart attack.)  We like his heart rate to be between 90-170ish.  If it's between 90-130, he's asleep or on his way to it.  130-160 is when he's awake and alert.  170-above means he's hurting or upset.

2.) The Trilogy is quite the fancy machine. Isaiah had a few visitors from the respiratory team visiting him when this came so that they could check it out.  Isaiah basically uses it as a C-PAP (but it's capable of a ton more).  It gives him a constant pressure to keep his airways open and help his CO2 levels stay in a safe range.  Usually when people use c-paps they have a mask.  Instead, Isaiah is using a special nasal cannula called a Ram Cannula (that green tube that goes in his nose) to push the pressure through without being so invasive.

3) The feed machine is just that.  We attach a bag of either breastmilk or formula to it and we attach the bag to Isaiah's feeding tube (the yellow tube that goes in one of his nostrils).  It goes right in to his belly.  Because of the pressure the Trilogy offers, Isaiah can't take a bottle.  It's just not safe.

4) The heater/humidifier is attached to the Trilogy.  It warms the air going in to his body through the blue tube that you see going in to his pack and play.  The tube has a wire that runs through it which is what warms the air.  This makes it so his nose doesn't dry out.

Besides all of that, he has an oxygen concentrator and a tank of pure oxygen.  The concentrator is great; it takes room air and makes it oxygen for him! (So wonderful...no constantly changing tanks.)  The tank is there for emergencies (like if the electricity goes out.)  There is a bag hanging from the tank that is there in case we ever have to resuscitate Isaiah.  Hopefully it'll just forever be a decoration in this home...

Plus you see that one thing by the Pack and Play...that's a Diaper Champ. It keeps Isaiah's diapers from stinking up the place. (Ya know, one of the more typical baby items.)

Isaiah also comes with tons of accessories.  Accessories that I had to organize into one area to save my sanity.  (I wish I could have brought one of those fancy NICU carts home with us.)

He has accessories like feeding bags, medical tapes, medications, a suction machine and its suckers, extra tubes, and cotton rolls to splint him if he's fractured.

There's now also a weighing station. It's important for us to keep tabs on Isaiah's weight.  Instead of constantly running to the pediatrician we just bought a scale on Amazon.  We'll take his weight every other day and average it out each week.  We want him to gain no more than 10 grams a day (non-OI kiddos usually gain about 30 grams per day).

So as you can see, our living/dining rooms have become our own little Isaiah Hospital.  It's definitely taking some adjusting and tweeking; we're hoping as Isaiah gets older that he'll need less and less of all this.

When I have a free moment, I'll share how we get around town.  For now, I leave you with the reason this is all worth it....