Kyle Nephi...making progress...

His name is officially Kyle Nephi Hermansen. Here's an update on how he's doing...

On Thursday night the doctors pinpointed the cause for his belabored breathing & lack of sufficient oxygen. He has a mild case of pulmonary hypertension. Hypertension refers to high blood pressure. Pulmonary means "of the lungs." So basically, the arteries/vessels/tubes (whatever they are) that run near (or through) the lungs are partially "clamped down" or constricted (i.e. high blood pressure). As a result, the blood cells are having a hard time getting fully "oxygenated" (picking up oxygen from the lungs).

It's a pretty common complication at birth, and the doctors are experienced at treating it. Gratefully, once the blood pressure goes down, he should perk right up and start doing really well right away, and there are no long-term residual effects from this little hiccup. Every baby has to transition from mom breathing for him to breathing on his own... our little "wimpy white boy" is just taking his time about making that transition (I say "wimpy white boy" because a lot of the doctors and nurses often joke about white male babies being the "wimpiest" of all babies - they call it "wimpy white boy syndrome"). But once he makes the transition, he'll be good to go.

The most common cause of pulmonary hypertension is some sort of infection. Although Kyle's blood labs come back totally clean, the doctors thought it wise to start him on an antibiotic anyway, just as a precaution. The antibiotic is administered by IV, and it's a 7-day treatment, so regardless of when the pulmonary hypertension is resolved & he starts breathing easier & gets enough oxygen on his own, he'll be in the NICU until next Tuesday at the earliest.

This morning the doctors took him off the C-PAP again, and he's holding his own a lot better this time. So it looks like he'll get to keep it off this time. Tonight, Jess and I can probably hold him for a few minutes, which we're really excited about (we've only got to hold him for just a couple minutes each right after he was born). He has a nasal capula in the C-PAP's place, which provides him with a little extra oxygen. Hopefully it can go too in the next day or two, and then he'll be all on his own.