Update 4

Saturday February 20th-We talked to a different doctor today about all of his heart and blood pressure issues. We got a better idea about a few things. He did not believe it would be years that he would be on oxygen, mostly months. The longest he said he has seen a baby on oxygen for this issue is a year. His guess was 3-6 months on medication and oxygen. We also found out the flap on the top heart of his heart has still not closed. The Pediatric Cardiologist from Primary's will be down this week to look at him.
Sunday February 21st- The moved him to a bigger bed because he was outgrowing the one they put newborns in. He looks like he is in a prison, but does look like he has a lot more room. His weight is 8lbs 12 oz, and his length is 22 inches. They have had to increase his oxygen for his feedings quite a bit because of the hypertension.
Monday February 22nd-Found out a little more about his hypertension. On the echo that they did two weeks ago when they first noticed the hypertension they noted it as mild to moderate. However when they did the echo last week it was not better and had gone up to moderate to severe. The hypertension will affect his eating, it just will be a lot harder sometimes and may make the feeding process take longer. The doctor said she hopes we will start to notice a big change though, he is now 37 weeks and that is usually when they start to catch onto everything.
The doctor called us Monday evening, they had talked in their weekly NICU doctor's meeting and had called the cardiologist. They had decided it would be in his best interest to go ahead and start him on the medication for his hypertension every 6 hours. They also are increasing his oxygen so his stats stay above 95.
Tuesday February 23rd- He was really stuffy when I went in this morning for his feeding, it made his feeding a lot harder. He was struggling with the eating and just seemed to be cranky. The doctor said she wanted to have the respiratory therapist suction out his nose and lungs to see if that would help. His oxygen is up to 100% and he is still struggling with breathing. Not a good day.
Wednesday Febrary 24th-He was not quite as stuff today and they did not have to have the respiratory therapist come in to suction him. He had a better feeding this morning. They also decided to lower his calories (they were putting a fortifier in his milk to increase his calories, but not the amount of milk he was getting). He was gaining so well they felt like he didn't need the extra calories. They are also hoping this will help him wake up for his feedings because he will be hungry.
Thursday Febarury 25th-We talked to the pediatric cardiologist today and it is good news! His case is not as severe as we thought! On a scale of 1-10 she said his case is about a 1-2. She believes that the blood pressure issues are actually being caused by the flap on his heart still being open. The flap being open is causing extra moisture in his heart and his lungs. She switched him to a different kind of medication. They are putting him on a type of lasiks, it basically will help extract the extra moisture, especially out of his lungs. She believes that he will only be on medication and oxygen from about 2-6 months. Very good news! They are going to do another echo on Tuesday to see how the medication is doing. They also started giving him one bottle a night, he got 50 mL (His feeding is 60 mL).
Friday February 26th-Not much changed, they started him on the other medication today and said we should hopefully start to see a difference in the next couple of days. His feedings were okay today, but not super great.
Saturday February 27th-He had a good feeding in the morning and a fabulous feeding at night. He actually got 64 from his night feeding! His normal feeding is 60! I was so happy and about had a heart attack. It was so nice to see good numbers and it gives me hope that he is getting on the right track to come home. He seemed a lot happier today. I think the other medication they had him on did not really agree with him. He was so stuffy and so cranky when he was on it. He seems so much happier now.

If you want to read about his heart/blood pressure issues here is a link:

Blood pressure: http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/898437-overview

Heart Flap: http://www.answers.com/topic/patent-ductus-arteriosus