Monday, January 10, 2011

This is the Way We Wash Our Hair

They've been doing daily ultrasounds of Brigham's brain to monitor for any signs of internal bleeding. While he's on the ECMO machine, his blood is heparinized (they add a blood thinner to it) to help avoid any clots developing in the machinery. This increases his chances for getting a brain bleed. Because he's full-term, his chances are lower than they would be if he were a premie, but it's better to be safe than sorry.

The point of that story is to point out that every time they do the ultrasound they have to put gooey gel on his head (in his hair). His poor beautiful hair gets gooped down... :( So because I'm apparently super prideful about appearances, I've been giving Brigham daily hair-washings.

Warm water and a washcloth to get rid of the gooey gel

A little combing to get the spikes going
And voila! Cute golden spikey hair-do!
You'll also notice that he looks a lot "chubbier" than the pictures from a few days ago... He's gotten pretty swollen in his face, upper body and hands. His urine output has been down a little the past couple days and he's just retaining a lot of fluids. Poor kid is pretty puffy, but it should go down soon.
Before I was combing his hair I was holding his hand for a minute and he was actually responding a little to my touch. He started to wiggle his fingers and squeeze mine for a second. It was great!

7 comments:

Jessica Rodgers said...

I love how you take such pride in his highlighted hair! Thanks for keeping us up to date! I want to come visit again this week!

Anonymous said...

I seriously don't blame you for washing his hair! It's amazing hair!!! My kids will never have hair like that when they're born, because Thomas and I were baldies.

I love your updates, and Brigham is just such a gorgeous little thing!

Laura Cook said...

Well I'm totally jealous of all that hair! I tell Ty randomly about ten times a day that I can't believe all the hair he has! I was proud of all lilys hair (and compared to crystal its still a lot lol) but brigham puts her hair to shame! I love how the tips came pre highlighted and everything! So you keep washing and taking care of that hair of his!

Coleen said...

That's great that he gets a daily shampoo and "comb out". I'm sure he loves it. That's not prideful, that's just a mommmy having fun with her baby son and fixing him up, just like you did with Carrie right after she was born, she had a bow in her hair mega fast!! I love it.

Karissa said...

His hair looked rockin'! What a cute guy! Thanks for keeping everyone updated- I'm anxiously waiting (as I'm sure everyone is) for the post when you write "it's all done and he's perfect." I know it will be a while, but I'm hanging on every word until then...

The Griffin Family said...

Hey there! I wanted to just encourage you! You guys are doing great...ECMO is overwhelming. Look forward to this...when they give Brigham Lasiks so get rid of all that fluid, it's like popping a water balloon. From morning to evening, you can see their little face again! If he opens his eyes at all, bring him a toy mobile to look at! :) You rock! Praying for you.

Liana said...

Whenever we get on your blog, Ethan see's the pic of Brigham at the top and says "baby!" and gets so excited. So I always say "ya, it's baby Brigham!" :) Keep taking care of that beautiful hair... glad he doesn't have to have a head full of goop all the time.