Day 68 - Moving Day

Hi Folks -

We're writing this from Texas Children's Hospital (TCH). Zachary took a ride in an ambulance today. He went from one hospital to another, which was about a mile. Small in mileage, but a big journey. He did really, really well. He stayed awake and smiled at the nurse, nurse practitioner and the respiratory tech who were in the back of the ambulance with him. Mommy got to ride up front with the driver and Daddy followed behind in our car.

TCH is HUGE! There are over 160 NICU beds! Everyone has been really nice and we have never met so many doctors in one day. His heart catheterization is scheduled for tomorrow morning, early. We met two of the doctors, one nurse practitioner and one nurse that will be in the cath lab with him while he has the procedure done. We'll meet the rest tomorrow. It should be a four hour procedure.

Thankfully we are going to be able to stay here overnight in the Ronald McDonald House. What a wonderful volunteer organization. We get our room key at seven tonight and can come and go as needed. We'll be at Zachary's bedside early to spend lots of time comforting him before the procedure.

Please pray that the procedure goes well and that there isn't any major complications and that he doesn't need any other procedures. We appreciate your prayers.

Love to all!

Days 66 and 67 - Cardiac Update

Just a quick update to let you know that Zachary is scheduled to have his cardiac catheterization on Thursday. On Wednesday he'll be transfered to Texas Children's Hospital and he'll have the procedure on Thursday. Then he'll be monitored for a couple of days and then they will transfer him back to Women's Hospital. Today he is getting a blood transfusion as he is currently anemic and they want him to be in top form for his procedure.

Please continue to pray for our sweet boy, who now weighs FIVE pounds, 2.2 ounces. Thank you!

Love to all!

Days 63, 64 and 65 - Pictures and Videos!

Our big boy is now 4 pounds, 13.1 ounces! He is drinking three bottles a day, 45 mls at a time. That means he's now drinking 12 ounces a day! What a big boy!

Tomorrow he is scheduled for an echo cardigram of his heart. Depending on the results is the determination of when to schedule of the cardiac catheterization. We're praying for no change in the echo, so the cardiac catheterization can be put off for another couple of weeks. We'll be sure to keep you updated.

And here's what you have all been waiting for, more pictures!!

Pictures

A sweet kiss from Daddy.

Lisenting to Mommy


Yum, a thumb!


Ah, holding both Mommy and Daddy's fingers!


Such a sweet smile!


Peek a boo!



Concentrating on that thumb!


Mommy, Zachary and Dr. Gee, one of the neonatologists taking good care of Zachary!


Family Photo!


Zachary loves, loves, loves holding our fingers!


Bonding with Mommy.


Wide awake in the baby condo.


Chatting with Daddy.


The new "oooooooh" face.

Sleeping comfortably in Mommy's arms.

Yum, time for milk!

Exploring Mommy's face.

Wide awake and looking at Mommy.


Now it's time to see our big boy in action!

Videos

Sucking that thumb!

Loving that milk!

That's about that's going on with us. As always, thanks so much for all the comments, prayers and love you guys are sending our way. Our big boy is thriving on it! Love to all!

Days 61 and 62 - Test Results

Hi folks!

Just a few quick updates on our big boy, who turned two months old yesterday!

He now gets two bottles a day, one at eight a.m. and one at eight p.m. He's done really well with his last two bottles, finishing one in fourteen minutes and the other one in ten. He's very good at burping too. It's quite easy to burp him, sometimes all we have to do is sit him up! He's quite amazing!

He's up to 40 mls of mommy's milk per feeding (which is every three hours or eight times in a twenty-four hour period)!

The preliminary results of his upper GI came back as expected, he has reflux, but no obstructions or abnormalities. They are adding an additional medicine to tighten the muscle that is loose, which is allowing the milk to go back up his esophagus. He'll continue on his other reflux medications. He did very well for us upper GI. He was awake and didn't cry. He just looked around at everything. It was done in the radiology department at Women's Hospital, it was his first real view of life outside the NICU. He had a nurse and a respiratory tech with him keeping him company as well as the radiology folks. When he went back up to the NICU, he went to sleep. What a good boy! We're so proud.

He will have another echo cardiogram on Monday. If there is any change in his pulmonary stenosis, he'll have the cardiac catheterization next week. Otherwise they'll wait a bit and just monitor him watching him for changes.

He now weighs four pounds, 6.2 ounces. He gains every day, which is a good thing.

In other news, Mommy and Daddy went back to work full time this week. We sure miss him while we're working. Daddy finished the nursery except for some finishing touches. We'll post pictures soon.

Love to all!

Days 58, 59 and 60 - A Time for Tests

Look at our sweet boy, last week he found his thumb! And look at that grin!
What a cutie!

It’s been a busy, busy week for Zachary. Today he had some good news, his chest x-ray looked “fabulous” and his kidneys looked good. FYI, this is the first time we were ever told that his chest x-ray was “fabulous.” He also had some not-so-good news today, he now has ROP in both eyes, but they are both at stage two, which is mild. They still expect that the ROP will resolve itself without the need for the pediatric ophthalmologist having to do anything.

We also learned today that Zachary is going to go on a trip in the next week or two. He is going to take a ride in an ambulance to Texas Children’s Hospital for a few days and check out their NICU. While he is there, they are going to fix his pulmonary stenosis by doing a cardiac catherization. We’ll let you know the exact date when we find out. Texas Children’s is a wonderful hospital that does 1500 – 2000 of these cardiac catherizations a year, which is usually the most in the country with only Boston Children’s Hospital occasionally having more. After he recovers, he’ll come back to Women’s Hospital and give a full report on life in the Texas Children’s NICU.

On Wednesday, Zachary gets his vaccinations and immunizations. They give them to him in two sets, three at midnight and the rest at noon. Then he gets a rest. Thursday he is going to have an upper GI to see why he holds milk in his throat. He has been having some trouble with his bottle feeding. He does not want to finish it in twenty minutes and/or he spits up. His doctors just want to make sure everything is okay.

Please keep our sweet boy in your prayers while he goes through all these procedures. It’s a lot for our amazing boy to go through at once.

Thank you and love to all!

Day 57

Just another happy Saturday spent with our amazing son. Zachary spent quite a bit of the day being held by both Mommy and Daddy and all three of us loved it. We met some of the other parents today of babies in Level II NICU and they all seem nice and they all seem stunned by Zachary's journey thus far. We never fail to break out the pictures to show how big he is and how far he has come. We are so proud!

Tonight we had dinner with Brinson's folks, it's our Saturday night ritual during shift change. Since we are forced to leave the NICU, it's nice to pass the time with good people. Brinson is getting bigger and bigger and is enjoying being held by her own mommy and daddy. We're so pleased and miss seeing her as we did when we were in Level III NICU.

Love to all!

Days 55 and 56

Our big boy now weighs four pounds! Can you believe it? We're so proud of him. He is doing really well in Level II NICU. Yeay Zachary! He has had one bottle every day this week and has finished each bottle in twenty minutes (which is the amount of time allotted). He's so amazing!

As a reward for being in Level II, the doctors are now allowing us to hold him whenever we'd like, providing his temperature is fine. We are so excited! Granny Marie was excited about the news too and she rushed right over to the hospital to hold him. We imagine that Grandma Marla will spend most of her next trip holding him too. Only a few more weeks until Grandpa Ted and Grandma Lynne come to down to meet him. There are so many family and friends anxious to meet our special big boy. Due to him being a preemie, we were told not to plan a big coming home party, but instead have a couple people over at a time. I think we need to buy stock in Purell hand sanitizer too the way the NICU doctors were talking.

Zachary is now 8 weeks old and is 35 weeks (corrected). We can't believe how quickly the last eight weeks have flown by and we couldn't be more proud of him!

Have a wonderful and safe weekend. Love to all!

Days 53 and 54

Hello folks!

Well this morning Mommy and Daddy got a wake up call at 6:45 a.m. saying that Zachary has been physically moved to NICU Level II. What a great way to start the day! So we got up, got ready and went to visit our big boy.

When we got there, we were escorted to Nursery B and found our boy snoozing. We noticed that today, for the first time, he was wearing clothes! He had a preemie t-shirt on that the hospital supplied. Boy was it big on him and it was sized for a preemie too! He now weighs 3 pounds, 13.4 ounces! Mommy held him for almost an hour and then the nurse asked if she wanted to feed him his daily bottle. Boy did she! He was sleepy and we had to wake him up a bit in order for him to suck the bottle, but he finished 32 mls in 20 minutes! That's our big boy!

On Wednesday afternoons we got to a support/education meeting for NICU parents. Today's topic was by one of Zachary's doctors about medical issues and prevention of same once we leave the NICU. It was very informative and it was great to see some of our friends. Stephen will continue to go to these meetings once Kim goes back to work (except there is one Wednesday a month where the meeting is at night, Kim will go to that one too).

That's about all that's new with us. Love to all!

Day 52 - Graduation to NICU Level II

Today is a HUGE milestone in little Zachary's life. Today he graduated from NICU Level III to NICU Level II (a.k.a. the "step down unit")! Yeay Zachary!!! NICU II focuses on getting him ready to go home, i.e. maintaining his body temperature and learning how to drink a bottle. Today he drank his first bottle and once he got the hang of it, he did really well, he drank 35 mls which is over an ounce! He now drinks 32 mls every three hours which equals just over eight and a half ounces a day! We thought you all would like to see some comparison pictures.

Here's Zachary on the day he was born...

and here he is yesterday!

Look how his feet hang over the snuggly now!

Here he is on the day he was born (next to Stephen's hand)... and here he was yesterday (next to Stephen's hand)!

He's now 3 pounds, 10.4 ounces (over 3 and 1/2 pounds) and 16 and 3/4 inches long. Remember when he was born he was one pound, 14.5 ounces and 13 and 3/8 inches long, that seems so long ago, but it was only seven weeks and two days ago!

Last night he was really alert when Mommy was holding him.

Daddy had his hand up high and Zachary was watching Daddy's hand intently. We even got a little video of it.

Here are some pictures (and even a video!) of Zachary's first attempt at drinking from a bottle. We were so proud of how well he did!

Here's the bottle before...

Here he is drinking his milk.

Here's the nurse teaching Zachary how to suck on the bottle.

He even finished with a big burp, before going to sleep.

We couldn't believe he drank the whole thing!

We want to thank everyone who left comments for us, please keep them coming! We love them and so will Zachary when he is older! We are so fortunate to have so many people loving us and praying for us. We hope you have enjoyed sharing a little bit of Zachary's big day, the day he graduated to NICU Level II!

Love to all!

Day 51 - Pictures!!

Zachary is sleeping right now so I'm letting Stephen do the same while I update the blog with pictures!!

Mommy loves holding Zachary.

Zachary loves holding Mommy too.

Granny got to hold Zachary while Stephen was home recuperating from being sick.

It sure looks like he is trying to smile!

Enjoying not having the CPAP! Look, you can see his nose!

Getting his assessment by his nurse, Sara. If you click on the picture, you'll notice that she's holding his hand while she assesses him. Our Zachary is quite the flirt with his nurses.

Getting his first feel of a stuffed animal. Sara is rubbing the bunny that Brinson's folks got him over his hand. He's not so sure about the new sensation.

Big Yawn!

Sound asleep and holding Daddy's finger.

Nice and comfy!

We hope you enjoyed the pictures. Love to all!

Day 51 - Video time

Our little boy is doing great this morning. Is oxygen is down to 40% and he is still doing great with his breathing (only having short periods of rapid breathing). Yeay Zachary!

Here's a video we took of him last night. He's such a happy baby!

Love to all!

Day 50 - Good News!!

We are so proud of our big boy. He is now seven weeks old and is 34 weeks (corrected). Only six weeks left until the day he was supposed to be born (and hopefully will be able to come home!).

He's doing so well on the nasal cannula this time. He still has some rapid breathing from time to time, but he also has periods where his breathing is normal. His doctors put him on Lasiks today to help with the fluid collection and he seems to be doing so well. They even began to wean his oxygen down this evening! He went from 100% oxygen flowing into the cannula to 75% when we left this evening. Yeay Zachary!

In other related news, Stephen finished painting and sponge painting Zachary's room. It looks great and we think Zachary will enjoy it. Next weekend we are going to work on putting up the border and then Stephen will be putting his furniture together so we can put everything away for use when he gets home.

Oh, and as predicted, Zachary has learned to pull out his feeding tube. His nurse Kaitlin told us that she went to feed him on Thursday night and he had the tube pulled out and was holding the end of it for her. She was not impressed but had a sense of humor about it.

We now spend even more time holding Zachary's hand, it's better that he holds our fingers than his feeding tube! Our little boy is quite amazing in his abilities. He can find and play with the tape on his face, he can turn his head from one side to the other, he can roll from his side to his back and he can pull out his feeding tube. His hands are always moving, even in his sleep! What a great baby!

We hope everyone is having a great weekend. Love to all!

P.S. Please remember to leave comments for Zachary (we will be saving this blog for him to read when he gets older). Thank you!

Days 48 and 49

Hooray! Zachary is off the CPAP again! They put him on the nasal cannula this morning. Mommy and Daddy are so proud of him. So far so good! Please pray that little Zachary does well on the nasal cannula and doesn't have to go back to the CPAP. The doctors say that if he has to go back on the CPAP, they will run some tests and check to make sure his airway is clear. If he stays on the nasal cannula he may graduate to the Level II NICU as early as next week. Whoo hoo!

As for Mommy and Daddy, Kim's allergies are getting better, but Stephen has been sick and has had to stay home and not visit Zachary. He's doing better and has been on antibiotics for 48 hours so he plans to visit our little one tonight.

Zachary now weighs 3 pounds, 8.2 ounces and measures 16 and 3/8 inches. He is getting 28 mls of Mommy's milk over a 45 minute period, every three hours. He's doing so well.

That's about all that's new. We hope that all of you have a wonderful weekend.

Love to all!

Day 47 - Picture Time!!

Hold my hand Mommy!

I like holding Daddy's finger too!
So that's what I'm going to look like when I get older.
Thank you Daddy .... I needed that.
Holding Mommy's fingers makes me feel safe.
Me and Granny Marie

Granny got to hold me for the first time.
Fast asleep with out that heavy CPAP hanging off my nose.
Wow ... without the CPAP on ... I can get comfy.
Can you turn off the lights please? ... I'm trying to sleep in here.
Me and Grandma Marla

Grandma Marla's first time to hold me. All wrapped up in Daddy's arms.
Family Photo Time !
That feels good Mommy!
Reaching out for Daddy's finger.