The Barton Family Blog

Like the couch? It's the lovely couch in our hospital room where we ended up 4 days after being released from our 10 day-stint there!  Tuesday night (July 19) Brock was acting a little off.  Initially he was screaming and not even attempting to latch on to nurse.  He would scream and scream and scream before finally passing out, only to repeat the scenario an hour or two later. As the evening wore on, he seemed lethargic, difficult to wake up and even when we loaded him in his car seat, he didn't wake up.  We ended up in the ER around 11 pm.  They checked his blood sugar and it was below 31.  They immediately began to give him glucose orally while they attempted an IV.  After 3 attempts (2 in the hand and one on the head), they decided to check his sugar again. He had a bunch of glucose orally, plus he had nursed.  Around 12:30 pm, his blood sugar was 84!  We're not sure exactly what happened.... the pediatrician was a little skeptica...

I finally had to resort to stealing photos off of johnny's phone since my camera is STILL out of commission... They're unedited, obviously, I didn't even crop them.... but they still show my sweet little baby boy!

Mackenzie Rice of Lily Bird Photography took some beautiful photos of my sweet little man on the day of his birth. She & her mama put together a video montage of those photos.   One true media won't allow me to link the video here... they want an upgrade fee or a shorter video... so here's the link.   www.onetruemedia.com Click "login" Username: elizabeth.rice08@gmail.com Password: 123456 HUGE thanks to Kenzie for her sweet work on not only the photos but also this montage! She is a jewel!! If you EVER need a photographer, she is just getting her photography business off the ground and loves referrals! She does weddings, babies, kids, families etc! Here's here photography blog:   www.lilybirdphotography.blogspot.com You will NOT be disappointed if you use her!

I wish I could post pictures, but alas, my camera is in a funk and won't upload. I think it has to do with the 5 minute birth video Naomi took during my c-section - I think it's freezing my camera from uploading. Will work on that soon! I just wanted to say THANK YOU to all who prayed for us while we spent our long 10 days in the hospital. We are so very glad to be home and so grateful that Brock regulated on his own - w/o any more concerns, tests, possible transfers, etc. More pictures coming soon...

4pm blood sugar 66 - Turned off the IV!!!!!!!!!!!! He's free! We can walk around the room freely and we might even be able to take him to my room now:-) :-)) :-D 5pm blood sugar 84!

It's noon, Thursday.  Not much to add from yesterday's post. Here's our plan for the next few days... Brock's IV is 10% glucose. Like I said yesterday, they can't go much lower than 4ml/hr because it can have problems making it thru the IV.  At 4am Brock's blood sugar was 59.  They dropped his IV to 4.0ml/hr.  At 7am Brock nursed vigorously for 20 minutes. His best length of time nursing yet.  At 10 am his blood sugar was 69. The pediatrician came in and decided to drop his IV to 5% glucose, and up his Ml/hr to 5.  Basically if you do the math it equals out to dropping his IV another 1.5 ML, but it avoids the possibility of the IV clotting.   Brock nursed FABULOUSLY again at 10. Just much more awake and vigorous. The plan for the rest of the day is to watch his sugar, and after 2-3 more feedings, TURN THE IV OFF!!!!! and then monitor his sugars for the next day or two.  The Ped. said we might even be able to go home tomorrow PM!! ...

We want Brock's blood sugar to stay about 50.  If it drops below 45 we will be running a series of tests (I explained in yesterday's post) 1am: blood sugar - 58 4am: blood sugar - 63! dropped to 8.5 ml/hr 10am: blood sugar measured 43. My heart sank. Here comes all the labs and test. My sweet sweet nurse Jenny saw the look on my face.  She said, let's check it again.... 5 seconds later, same heal, blood sugar -50!  The little machine they use to check his sugar is not 100% accurate. Only labs are. So often times you can get a variation, up to a 10 difference.  I was just so glad we didn't have to go down the lab/catheter road! 4pm -74!! Woo hoo! 10pm - 64 (: dropped IV fluids to 5.5  The nurse informed us that we couldn't go much lower than 4.0 because they risk the IV clotting... We had no idea that we were that close to be OFF the IV. We were just so so so thrilled. The Pediatrician who has been managing Brock's plan would be back on tomorrow ...