PICU - Day 8

We arrived at the PICU last Sunday afternoon, and this Sunday afternoon we moved out to the Pediatric Inpatient unit. Other than the move, today was pretty quiet. Garrett's schedule was to eat, fill his diaper, sleep, and then repeat the process. I guess that's a fairly normal day for a baby.

He sure sleeps a lot, though. When we brought Jonathan home from the hospital, it seemed like he'd only take 20-minute naps here and there. Garrett just sleeps and sleeps and sleeps. I wonder if it's because his heart is still working overtime and wearing him out. He seems to be generally good-natured when he is awake, though.

He's also fussing longer when he's hungry, which I'm glad to see. Yesterday, when he would wake up hungry, he'd let out one cry, root around a little, and then just quit. I was concerned that he just didn't trust people to meet his needs anymore and wasn't going to keep trying. Of course, I don't think that thought process would be happening at a conscious level. They don't even understand cause and effect until ... I don't remember how many months ... but who knows what primal responses they might have to the type of trauma Garrett's experienced.

In my college psychology class, I remember learning about an experiment in which dogs were confined to a part of a room where they were electrocuted through the floor. They didn't have any way to escape the shocks, and eventually just cowered in a corner and endured it. The next part of the experiment was to then provide them with a way out, but the dogs didn't take it. They seemed to have accepted that they'd have to put up with the shocks, and didn't take any steps to remedy the problem once a solution was available.

Thank goodness that despite the amount of pain Garrett's been through already, he hasn't just accepted that that's the way life is -- at least not when it comes to him being hungry. (I've read that similar ordeals in preemies can actually change the way the brain develops, so I'm not worrying over nothing. And I read that before Garrett was even conceived, so I'm not out looking for things to worry about either.) Hopefully, with good attentiveness and responsiveness from Mom and Dad, he'll grow up with a healthy sense of security and belief that the world is a generally safe place.

But, back to today ... Garrett's UVC line (the one through his umbilical cord) came out this morning, and his arterial line (the one they drew blood from for lab work) was taken out early in the afternoon. All that's left are monitors for his heart rate, respiration and blood oxygen level, and the feeding tube. The doctors in the PICU thought we could pull the feeding tube (it hasn't been used in over a day anyway), but the Pediatric Inpatient folks wanted to be more conservative and leave it in just in case they might need it. He'll look so much healthier once that's out too.

Tomorrow should be a lot like today -- just feeding him and waiting around. They'll draw more blood for labs either tomorrow night or Tuesday morning, and if the results look good, we might get to go home before Thanksgiving! We'll see.