NICU

NICU - Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. That's not quite where we envisioned David would be at birth +12 hours. Transitions can't keep a baby longer than 6 hours. Either they get better (transition) or they have to go to NICU. His breathing still isn't better. After drawing some blood, doing a chest x-ray, and being checked out by a neonatologist , it seems that David has a mild case of Respiratory Distress Syndrome (RDS). (Grandmoms, I've given that link for informational purposes only. Remember, he has a MILD case. When this article describes "severe" cases, that does not apply to David...he's not a severe case.) :)

The good news is that all of his major vitals still look great and the x-ray didn't show anything more than a little bit of amniotic fluid in his lungs. To help him improve, they've put him on CPAP (Continuous Positive Air Pressure). That's what you see running to his nose in the picture above. All the medical staff we've talked to seem to think that this is a very mild case of a very common condition (it's so mild that the CPAP isn't even providing supplemental oxygen--just oxygen at a constant pressure).

We should get the preliminary blood tests results in the morning. Once again, though we'd love him to be near us, if David needs this kind of treatment, we're deeply grateful to be in one of the best baby hospitals in the country. These folks are wonderful!