Spells (no, Rebekah's not a witch)

by Grant

    We've learned a whole lot about this business of multiples (any number of babies greater than one, which is called a singleton). The whole mo-mo thing (which I probably mentioned before) is about 1% of all twins. But, when you look at preemies in general, the majority of them are multiples. We've all heard about people with triplets and quads and the like, but the fact is, without an excellent health care system these babies would never survive. And until C-sections, the mother most likely would have died as well. Multiples, whether mo-mo or not, greatly increase the chances of premature birth. And so when you look at this experience, it has been ongoing since September (when we first found out). It's been a long road. I guess that at least we knew (intellectually at least) what was ahead. So, it's with that great prologue I get to the point of this blog--spells.

    As I've mentioned previously, babies that are premature do not have fully developed brains. This means that occasionally, they stop breathing (or slow down). If not caught in time, this could lead to oxygen deprivation of the brain (brain damage). Thankfully, those cool gadgets that cost thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) are there to prevent this purpose. Below is an example of a De-Sat (desaturation) of oxygen. You can see how the oxygen level dropped rapidly and came back up, only to fall rapidly again. The number 98 is very good, but it's cause for concern when it dips below 85. At the lowest point it was almost down to 60 which is as low as I've ever seen it. You can also note a corresponding decrease in her heart rate (on the top). 160 is about average for a baby. When this spell begain, the nurse first waited to see if Serenity would recover on her own (she didn't), then the nurse rubbed Serenity's back. When her stats didn't improve, the nurse tried blowing oxygen in her face, followed by a large increase of oxygen delivered via Serenity's nasal cannula. I don't know how long this spell took, but it seemed like an eternity. Normally, the alarms in the room are pretty mild sounding, but as her vitals continued to drop the monitors started shrieking like a banshee. Thankfully, this pic is from earlier in the week (or possibly late last week) so they both have improved a lot.