Phones That Go "Ring" in the Night

Nobody ever wants to receive a 2:00am phone call about their kids, but I always assumed I would have until at least the teen years to look forward to such things.  So, you can imagine my panic when the phone rang last night at 1:30 in the morning and I saw on my phone that it was Texas Children's.  It was our resident calling to tell me that Kinley had had a major A and B episode that lasted quite longer than her normal ones and that they wanted to go ahead and do a blood transfusion.  Luckily, we had talked about this during rounds on Monday and Tuesday, so we had prepared ourselves for this possibility and knew most of the details about the procedure.  Here is how our week has unfolded so far: 

On Monday, Kinley had some labs run that showed that she was anemic.  This is very common in preemies.  The good news was that her body was trying to make up for it by producing more red blood cells, so the doctor wanted to give her a chance to make more on her own.  On Tuesday during rounds, they noted that she had not gained any weight so they decided if on Wednesday (today) she was still not gaining as much weight as they liked, then they would do a blood transfusion at that time.  But of course, Kinley had other plans and told us that she needed one sooner.  After they called us, they gave her some blood early in the morning from about 3:00am to 5:00am and so far she is doing well.  Her color has already improved and she looks more pink.  She also has not had any major A and B episodes. 

At this time, they are checking her hemoglobin and hematocrit to see if she will need more blood.  They are also giving her a diuretic to help her get rid of some of the extra fluid she now has from the extra blood volume.   More than likely, her body was just working too hard to keep up with everything and hopefully the red blood cells will allow her to rest a little bit.  We are praying that she will have a much easier time after today. 

Cooper is still doing great and continuing to get bigger.  He is still eating well and pretty content most of the time.  He had another Occupational Therapy assessment and the therapist said he looked awesome!  We are so happy that we do not have anything more to report on him and pray that he will stay on this path!