Posted Mar 29, 2007 8:58am

Day 46
2 pounds 9 ounces

Ryan had a pretty good day yesterday. He maintained his usual Wednesday tradition and received blood. The IV was started in his head which is always terrible to see, but it is actually one of the better places for a baby. (I went ahead and posted one of the pictures because you know he, being a little boy, will one day think it is really cool.) He had a nurse that he has never had before, and she said he kept her running all day long. However, I talked to the RT and she said he had been having a good day. His oxygen saturation dipped down into the 70s quite a lot, but he would self-recover very quickly. They teased that he only knew 2 numbers--100 or 70. He was either at 100% O2 saturation or 70%, and he didn't take his time getting to either number. He did great with Kangarooing. The nurse teasingly asked if I would stay all day. Of course I would oblige.

I talked to the doctor about the brain hemorrhage. He explained that the bleed is a grade 1. There are tiny blood vessels around the ventricles in the brain, and they are very thin in neonates. They can bleed easily. If the blood stays outside the ventricle the hemorrhage is a grade 1, grade 2 if if enters the ventricle, grade 3 if it fills the ventricle, and grade 4 if it exceeds the capacity of the ventricle. He explained that it isn't until grade 3 or 4 that they become concerned and grade 4 is when pressure is put on brain tissue causing neurological problems. We are extremely grateful that Ryan's possible brain bleed is only a grade 1. I was really disappointed when I saw the report had shown a possible brain bleed. I realize that it is pretty common in neonates, but we had gone so long without having one, and I was really excited that we were blessed to avoid this "normal" occurence. I was really disappointed that something we thought we no longer had to be concerned about suddenly became a concern for us and especially for Ryan. I guess I'm still a little upset about it all, but I am extremely grateful, too.