A Great Week at Home

Hi folks!

Sorry it's been so long since we blogged, but it's been a great week. Zachary is now six pounds, 11.1 ounces! He is starting to grow out of his preemie clothes and the newborn size aren't quite so big on him. Everything went well at the pediatrician's office and we found out from the opthamologist that his ROP is almost gone. Whoo hoo! He has another appointment in a couple of weeks and his opthamologist is confident that the ROP will be gone by then.

In other news, we found a house! The house isn't built yet so we won't be moving for awhile, but it will be so nice to have more room! For those of you in Houston, it's near Beltway 8 and Highway 3 (near 45). It will cut about a half hour off Kim's commute each way. We are really excited about it! We spent today picking out counter tops, tile, cabinets and other options. It's three bedrooms, two bath with a study. If you want to look, here's a link, the model we chose is the Samuel III. It's so nice!

On Wednesday, Zachary went to Granny Marie and Grandpa David's house for a few hours while Mommy, Daddy and Grandma Marla looked at houses. Granny and Grandpa loved taking care of Zachary. He really is a great baby, not very fussy and oh so lovable! Today Granny and Grandpa came by to visit him, while Daddy and Grandma Marla dealt with paperwork for the new house.

Tomorrow Brinson's family is coming to visit. Brinson has had a rough week and she has another rough week ahead of her. Please remember her in your prayers. In other NICU news, little James is getting ready to have a fourth eye surgery, Noah is doing well and Aubrey is getting ready to go home! We remember these babies and their families in our daily prayers.

That's about all of our news. Here are some pictures we took this week.

Aunt Betty, Cousin Ashton and Cousin April

finally met Zachary!

(Uncle John did too, but he's camera shy!)

Ashton was very exited about meeting his cousin!

Seriously, this is how we find him asleep in his crib.

Zachary relaxing before his first doctor's appointment.

Zachary's pediatrician, Dr. Gray.

For those of you that are wondering, we checked with Dr. Gray and she says that it is fine for others to hold Zachary, but we make everyone who walks into our house use Purell and use it frequently. We have a bottle in every room of the house. We also are doing our best (as are our guests) to make sure everyone is healthy if they are coming over. We only want what is best for our sweet boy!

Love to all!!

P.S. Please remember to leave comments, we're sure that Zachary will love to read what you wrote when he is older. Thanks!

Life at Home

Hi Folks!

The three of us (and Grandma Marla) are adjusting to life at home. Zachary has discovered that it's fun to stay awake at two a.m. and make noises until someone comes to hold him. He knows that he rules our household. It's true, he does. He is awake more of the time than he was in the NICU. He seems to like his new surroundings.

With Dr. Gray's approval we have changed his feeding schedule from eight times a day (like he had in the NICU) to six times a day. Zachary seems to like it more. He eats on the sixes, twos and tens. He has been drinking 75 mls at each feeding. He is nursing once a day although today we are going to try him nursing twice a day (on the tens).

Tomorrow he goes to see Dr. Gray and also to his opthamologist to check on his ROP. We are hoping for an improvement. He'll see the same opthamologist that he saw in the NICU. On Wednesday he is going to Granny Marie's for a few hours while Mommy and Daddy look at houses closer to downtown and the med center. Mommy doesn't want to commute if she doesn't have to. Plus once Zachary came we immediately outgrew the duplex that we love so much. We are looking in the Willowbend/Meyerland area (which is off 610 and Post Oak to those of you that are local).

Tonight Zachary will get a bath (so he looks nice for his appointments tomorrow). He gets a bath every two or three days. He isn't big enough for a big boy bath yet so we put him in a small tub (that we got from the hospital) and give him a sponge bath. It worked well the other night when we did it.

The heart/lung monitor isn't going off as much these days, thank goodness! It doesn't always detect when Zachary breaths shallow and that is the bulk of the alarms. It went off three times last night and three times today. Not too bad...much better than the first night when it off like thirteen times.

Grandma Marla is such a blessing. She has been so helpful with Zachary, making sure that Mommy and Daddy are well rested, and has she been cooking! It's so nice to not be eating out all of the time. Thanks Grandma Marla!

We are enjoying having our sweet baby boy at home. It is so nice to be at home after months in the hospital and at Granny Marie's (while Zachary was in the NICU). We miss our friends in the NICU, the parents, the babies, the nurses, doctors, respiratory techs, and the others that make that hospital so excellent. We keep all the babies in the NICU in our prayers, but say special prayers Brinson, Noah, Aubrey and James. We know those babies and their parents so well. Prayers go out to Brinson's folks and Grandma, they are all sick and are unable to see Brinson until they are feeling better. That's rough - get well soon Zaldivar family!

On this Memorial Day we give thanks and say prayers to all the soldiers that protect our country. Love to all!

Picture Time!

As promised, here are some of the pictures from Zachary's departure from The Women's Hosptial of Texas and his arrival and first few days at home. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Smiling in his going home outfit.

Nurse Alex wheeling Zachary out of the hospital.

Kim and Lisa modeling the t-shirts
that Lisa made for the kids. They are too cute!!
Thanks Lisa, we can't wait for play dates with Brinson!

Almost outside the hospital!

Zachary's ready to go home (and sound asleep!)

Zachary looking tiny in his car seat.
Zachary slept through his big departure
and the whole way home.

Resting at home.
Thanks to Great-Aunt Jeanette
for the homemade blanket!

Snuggle time with Mommy!

Aunt JJ and Uncle Mike
came over right away to see Zachary.
They've been waiting a long time to meet him!

Who is more tired - Mommy or Zachary?

Zachary thought his play mat
was a great place to take a nap!
Thanks Kate for the play mat!

Snuggle time with Daddy!

Grandma Marla is town to visit.
She's staying to help Mommy and Daddy
and to love all over Zachary!
We really appreciate her help.

Our friend Rose was so eager to hold Zachary.
He was so comfy when she held him,
he caught up on his zzzzz's.
She and Donnie (pictured below)
kept passing him back and forth
because they both wanted to hold him.

Here's Donnie holding Zachary - he was a natural!

Enjoying his bouncer (but not bouncing).
Thanks to Rose and Donnie for the Bouncer!

We hope you enjoyed the pictures of Zachary's homecoming and first few days at home. We sure love having him here. Love to all!

Picture from us leaving the hospital

Here's a picture of us when we were about to leave the hospital yesterday. Lisa (Brinson's Mommy) and her mom were kind enough to see us off. Lisa is also in the picture. She's such a sweetheart and we will be friends with Ned and Lisa for the rest of our lives (plus our kids will be getting married in twenty five years or so). Ha ha! Look at the grins on all of our faces! Thanks to Nurse Alex for taking this great picture.

More pictures to come, but we thought you might enjoy this one! Love to all!

Home Sweet Home

It has been so wonderful being home with our sweet boy! Zachary slept much better last night than we did. He is a very noisy sleeper (he takes after his dad!) He had quite a few episodes of sleep apnea (where he stopped breathing for twenty seconds) and we thanked God for the NICU doctors for sending him home with a heart and lung monitor. When the monitor went off, we just said his name and rubbed his head and he started breathing again. We had him in a bassinet in our room but tonight we may see how he does sleeping in his crib. He may prefer it.

We already had to call Dr. Gray as Zachary decided that there was too much going on and he was taking a break from eating. Dr. Gray says that is completely normal and since we spoke to her Zachary is back on track and eating 50 mls a feeding (at least).

We have had lots and lots of cuddle time. It's been so nice taking care of him. He broke both of us both in and peed while we were trying to change his diaper. He went through many outfits yesterday. What can we say, he's a boy!

Thanks so much to each of you for remembering us in your thoughts, prayers, love and, of course, comments. It has really meant so much that all of you are so interested in our sweet baby and our family journeys.

In the next day or two we'll post some homecoming pictures. Love to all!

Day 88 - Homecoming Day!

We're home! We just fed Zachary and are now snuggling on the couch. We are loving this! Love to all!

Day 88 - Homecoming Day!

We're on our way home...with Zachary! Yay! Love to all!

Day 88 - Homecoming Day!

The doctor has approved for Zachary to go home today. Now it's time for all of the paperwork! Love to all!

Day 87 - Update

Well, unfortunately we won't be able to "room in" with Zachary tonight. There must be a full moon or something because EVERYONE seemed to have their baby yesterday or today and there are no rooms left for us to "room in." Oh well, at least this will not prevent us from bringing him home tomorrow. We plan on spending lots of time with him tonight and being up there early tomorrow and staying with him until we get to bring him home!!

Please keep saying those prayers! Love to all!

Days 84 - 87: It's almost time to bring him home!

Hi folks!

First let us set your minds at ease, we have every intention of keeping up the blog and pictures once Zachary comes home. It may not be as frequently, but keep checking!

Now onto the real news! Yes, they are still telling us that he'll be coming home tomorrow. We are soooo excited! We moved out of Stephen's mom's house this morning as we will be "rooming in" at the hospital tonight. We will be staying with Zachary in a hospital room and taking care of him all by ourselves, but the nurses will only be down the hall if we need them. We are very, very excited about this. We have been looking forward to taking over his care for so long!

On Sunday we got trained in infant CPR and also what to do if he starts choking. Yesterday we were trained on his portable oxygen and his heart/breathing monitor. Zachary has had his sleep study, car seat study (both of which reflect that he needs to be on continuous oxygen) and he also had an ultrasound of his kidneys (which looked fine). Tonight he will have his developmental exam and then we'll get to take him to our hospital room for our family bonding time.

His pediatrician, Dr. Gray, has been coming to see him over the past few days and Zachary has already given her a big smile. She's familiar with him and all that he has been through. We'll be talking to her later this week and seeing her next week. She's going to be helping us with coordinating his other appointments (with the cardiologist, pulmonolist and opthamologist) and checking him herself and making sure he's doing just fine.

Zachary is nursing once a day and is drinking eight bottles a day, containing at least 55 mls at each feeding. He now weighs 6 pounds, 3.1 ounces and measures 18 and 1/8 inches. Remember when he was born (almost three months ago) he weighed 1 pound, 14.5 ounces and measured 13 and 3/8 inches. His three month birthday is Friday and his actual due date is Saturday.

That's about all that is going on. We'll be sure to take lots of pictures of the "rooming in" and of his homecoming. Thanks so much to everyone, all of your prayers, comments, thoughts, love and care have brought us to this moment. We appreciate all of you.

Love to all!

Days 81 - 83 - Preparing to Go Home

Hi folks!

This week we have been working towards Zachary's homecoming. He now weighs six pounds, one ounce and is drinking eight bottles a day, as much milk as he wants, with a minimum of 50 mls per feeding. He is also nursing once each day. The NG tube that they used to give him food has been removed so all he has is the nasal cannula and the monitor leads. What a vast improvement from all the tubes and wires hooked to him when he was born.

We really need to say thanks to the NICU nurses, both in levels III and II. Over the last week in NICU II Alex, Glenda and Melissa have really been piling on the TLC for Zachary. We appreciate it so much, especially since we can't be with Zachary 24/7 while he is in the NICU.

Zachary got his circumcision yesterday (the poor, poor boy), we are signed up for CPR on Sunday evening and he has a sleep study, a car seat study and a developmental exam before he can go home. These will be done before Wednesday, which is the day they hope (and we pray) that we will be able to take him home. We have already had the car seat inspected and his nursery done. All we need is our sweet boy at home to make his room just perfect.

That's about all our news - pretty exciting stuff! Love to all!

Day 80 - Pictures and a Video

Due to popular demand, here's some pictures of our amazing boy!

Zachary looking at Daddy.

Snuggled up while on the ventilator.

Chow time!

A visit from Grandma Lynne and Grandpa Ted

Looking at Grandma Lynne
Cuddling with Daddy.
Thanks to Cousin Susan for making me my new hat!

Zachary in his big boy crib wearing his first pair of pants!

Snuggle time with Mommy.

If you aren't going to hold my hands, I guess I'll have to do it myself!

A really big smile!! We love it!

A cute video of our boy, he was smiling both before and after the video.


Now that we've done what you wanted, it's your turn...post your comments please!!

Love to all!

Day 80 - Update!

We love the fact that we jinxed ourselves when we blogged this morning. After we wrote the blog this morning, Dr. Thompson called and gave us status on Zachary. In this conversation she mentioned the big words "GOING HOME!!!" She said it may be as early as next week. Oh we are so elated, we can't even try to contain it! It all depends on how well Zachary drinks his bottles and how quickly we can increase him to eight bottles a day with him completing all of them, the sleep study and the circumcision will be done before he leaves. He will probably come home on oxygen (via the nasal cannula) and will have to be fed at least four bottles a day (with additives for extra calories and calcium) and can be breast fed the rest. He'll have to continue taking his medications for reflux at home too. Tonight his pediatrician, Dr. Gray, will come by to look at him and to review his book, ooops, we mean his chart. :)

What a great, wonderful, exciting day!

Love to all!

Days 77 - 80 - Doing good

Hi Folks -

Zachary is doing great. On Mother's Day Kim got to try nursing. He did well, but only got 2 mls. When she nursed him yesterday, he got 32 mls. We think he has the hang of it now! Kim had a really nice first Mother's Day. She spent a lot of time with Zachary, plus we had a BBQ with Granny, Grandpa Ted, Grandma Lynne and Stephen's brother John, his wife Betty, and their kids, April and Ashton. It was a lot of fun.

He seems to have developed a rash. The Harris County infectious disease doctors came by and declared it not infectious yesterday, but weren't able to identify exactly what it is. I could just be "newborn rash" which is common and goes away on its own.

Over the weekend Zachary has been increased to six bottles a day. So far this is a very daunting task to him and he hasn't been able to finish many of his bottles. Occupational Therapy is going to give him a bottle today and make sure he still has the hang of what needs to be done. They may decide to do a swallow test, where they take him to radiology and give him barium and take x-rays of him swallowing. He seems to have a lot of milk in his throat and we are unsure if it is from him not swallowing or if it is from his reflux.

We've been instructed to take our Infant CPR class that is required for us to take before we get to take him home. Although no one has said anything to us yet, we are hoping he gets to go home late next week. He has a few hurdles ahead, he has to finish eight bottles a day, have a sleep study performed to check his oxygenation while sleeping, plus his circumcision. Considering how far he has come, that really isn't too much left for him!

We are really hoping to have a chance to post some pictures tonight, last night we were so tired, we fell asleep before we had a chance.

Hope all of you are doing well!

Love to all!

Day 76 - Moving on Up (Again)!

Yes folks, it's true.!

Our sweet boy has graduated to Level II!! He was moved up this afternoon and Melissa, one of our primary nurses up in Level II was getting him settled in and comfy. Melissa made sure all of our primary nurses that we had before the cardiac cath were back on our list. We are so happy with Melissa, Alex, Anessa and Glenda...they are such great nurses and really love on our sweet boy.

Zachary has done so well with his bottle feeds today that they have increased the number of bottles he gets to five bottles a day. Remember, the golden number is eight! He has to be able to drink eight bottles before he can come home. He drank his 2:00 p.m. bottle (containing 50 mls) in only ten minutes!!

Grandpa Ted and Grandma Lynne come into town this weekend to meet their amazing Grandson. We're sure they will be just as enamoured of him as we are.

This weekend is Mother's Day and we want to give a shout out to Granny Marie, Grandma Marla and Grandma Lynne...we love you so much! Kim is really looking forward to her very first Mother's Day and spending lots and lots of time with Zachary that day.

That's about all that is new with us...it's been a great week, full of Zachary's wonderful progress.

To all the mothers...have a Happy Mother's Day!

Love to all!

Day 75 - Tons of Great News!!

We have tons of great news for you guys today.

Here goes...

1. We can hold Zachary again, starting tonight!
2. We are going to start the bottle feeds again, starting tonight.
3. He is now taking the steroids once a day.
4. He is now eating 50 mls of Mommy's milk.
5. He's wearing clothes again.
6. He may get promoted to Level II status (again) tomorrow.
7. He's not in a baby condo, he's out in the open and may get to stay that way!
8. He's still doing well breathing on the nasal cannula.

Isn't this all such great news? Thanks for all of the prayers! Love to all!

Day 74 - Off the Ventilator!

That's right folks!

The broncoscopy went well. His airway still has a little swelling so he will remain on the steroids for another day, but the big news is he is off the ventilator and back on the nasal cannula!! Whoo hooo!!

Love to all!!

Day 73 - New Pictures

Hi Folks!

Tomorrow Zachary will meet with the Neonatal ENT and get his bronchoscopy. We are praying that his airway is no longer swollen and he has no other issues and can get off the ventilator! We'll be sure to keep you posted.

Today Zachary had another eye exam which showed no change in his ROP. We take this as a good sign since that means that the ROP has not gotten worse even though he has grown.

Speaking of growing, Zachary now measures between 17 and 1/8 and 17 and 1/4 inches long. Remember when he was born, he measured 13 and 3/8 inches? He sure has gotten big. His current weight is 5 pounds, 5.0 ounces. He has not yet been weighed tonight yet so it may be more!

Due to popular demand, here's some more pictures of our amazing boy and the events of last week.

Look at that face, isn't he adorable?

With all the bells and whistles, we called this THE LIMO!

Zachary in his LIMO about to go for a ride to TCH


He loved the ride to TCH, he kept smiling away at everyone!


Loving life in the NICU at TCH, pre-cardiac cath.
This is Zachary's own pose, too cute!


Back in NICU III at TCH, nasally intubated - the poor little guy.


Back at Women's Hospital, orally intubated, looking much more comfy.

Like the socks? Soooo cute and tiny!

We hope you enjoyed the pictures. Love to all!!!

Day 72 - Still on the Ventilator

Hi Folks!

Today we got some good news on the bleeding in Zachary's brain, one side has no bleeding at all and the other side has been downgraded from a grade three bleed to a grade two bleed! This is great news! The bleeding is resolving. Can I get a "whoo hoo"??

In other news, Zachary remains on the ventilator. The machine is breathing 20 breaths per minute for him and he is breathing on his own quite a bit as well. His oxygen is set from 25% to 36%, which is good. Remember, room air is 21% oxygen. He will remain on steriods (twice a day) and on the ventilator until Wednesday or Thursday when a neonatal ENT doctor comes to examine him. On that day Zachary will get a bronchioscopy where the ENT doctor will look at Zachary's lungs with a camera, most likely the camera will go in via the vent tube. When Zachary will come back off the ventilator is dependent on what the ENT doctor sees. We're praying for no more swelling of his airway and no other anomalies.

Zachary spent the day catching up on his zzzz's. He isn't in pain and just gets uncomfortable with the vent tube down his throat when he starts moving around too much or when he tries to raise or turn his head. Mommy spent lots of time with him today soothing him. Daddy loved all over Zachary both before and after work and Granny Marie and Grandpa David also came to visit today.

That's about all that is going on with us. Thanks again for all the prayers, comments and love. Love to all!!

Day 71 - Update

Hi Folks,

Well they tried to extubate Zachary today. He was working really hard to breathe so after three and a half hours, they intubated him again. His airway is swollen from the nasal ventilator they used at Texas Childrens, so they are giving him four doses of steriods to help reduce the swelling. An ENT doctor will look at Zachary on Tuesday or Wednesday to see if his airway is better, before they try to extubate him again.

That's about all that is going on with us. We are spending lots of time with Zachary, just keeping him calm while he is intubated.

We hope all is well with all of you. Love to all!

Day 71 - Waiting to be Extubated

Hi Folks!

It's been a rough weekend for Zachary. They tried to extubate Zachary yesterday (take him off the ventilator), but unfortunately he didn't handle it well and they had to quickly re-intubate him. Last night they had to give him a dose of morphine to help him relax. He hates the ventilator (we don't blame him) and tries to extubate himself and when he gets mad, he locks his body up so he can't get any oxygen. When he locks up, the nurses have to give him oxygen in other methods. They would prefer he works with the vent, not against it, hence the morphine.

They might try to extubate him again today, this time putting him back on the dreaded CPAP instead of the nasal cannula. Anything will be better than the ventilator. Thankfully he is breathing a lot on his own, with only minimal assistance from the ventilator. He should do well on the CPAP and then, hopefully, he'll go back to the nasal cannula.

Other than that, it's been a quiet weekend. We are really happy he is back at Women's Hospital. Now that we are back in Level III NICU, we got to see Brinson and she is such a cutie!! She's getting bigger and was wide awake when we peeked in at her. Ned and Lisa (Brinson's folks) took a peek at Zachary and were surprised by how big he is! Lisa said he looks like a linebacker! Ha ha!

We have met so many nice folks in the NICU and our prayer list every night is long and heartfelt. We pray for specifically for Zachary and Brinson, Aubrey, James, Noah, Lydia, and Morgan and also for all the other babies that are in NICU as a whole. We know so many prayers are being said for Zachary and we appreciate all of them. Our little boy has so much fight in him, it's just so amazing how tough he is! Between the prayers, our positive thinking and Zachary's strong will, he'll get through this rough patch and get back to where he was, quickly!

Thanks again for reading and commenting on the blog, and for praying for and loving us. We truly appreciate it!

Love to all!

P.S. Here are two of our favorite pictures that we posted last week.

Zachary is still sleeping and on the vent, trying to recover from the busy week he's had. He's doing well. Love to all!

Yea! Zachary is starting to wake up! He's still on the vent, but is taking some breaths on his own too. Love to all!

Well today we were transported back to Women's Hospital. Zachary is still sleepy, but is doing well. Love to all!

Zachary is doing well. He's still sleeping and letting the vent breathe for him. All looks good though. Love to all!

The surgery went well and Zachary did great! Thanks for all the love and prayers. Love to all!