Backwards: Another infection and back on the ventilator

Up until Saturday, the rest of Adam's week went well.  He went onto fortified breast milk and we had a couple more cuddles with him.  On Chris' birthday, the Neonatal Unit staff were very kind and got Chris a "super Dad" card with a photo of Adam in it.  Adam also was moved from the intensive care area of the nursery to an intermediate room between intensive care and high dependency care.  The sisters of the unit were discussing the very likely chance that he would soon be moved from UCLH to our local hospital, the Whittington, who were as able to cope with his more stable requirements as UCLH, who were very pushed for beds.

Adam's growth chart up to 33+3 weeks, as obsessionally annotated by mum!

Unfortunately, as per the title of this post, on Saturday morning we received a call from the hospital.  Adam's blood oxygen saturations had dropped in the night.  They had moved him back onto the stronger breathing support that he had been on just before coming off the ventilator, but it was unable to maintain his blood oxygen levels, so in the morning they had to reintubate him.  At this point, it was unclear whether he had simply become tired out by the effort of breathing by himself, whether he had inhaled some milk or whether he had become ill with an infection.  Today, however, the levels of infection markers in his blood rocketed, and cultures grown from his blood were found to contain staphylococcus bacteria.  He's on antibiotics to try and treat the infection, but we don't know whether it is being brought under control or not, how ill he might get, or how long this might go on for.  We'll just have to wait and see.  I know that this sort of thing is par for the course for premature babies - going forward then backwards happens - but these sort of infections can be really nasty, so I'm scared.  It's so hard too seeing him sedated again, so he doesn't pull his breathing tube out.  Luckily, he is still tolerating feeds well, so he is getting nutrition and we just have to hope he can use that to fight this off and get back on that forward trajectory soon.

Adam back on ventilator, aged 33+3 weeks or 40 days