May 27, 2011 - 83 Days Old

It has been another good week for us this week. Aiden has continued to do well off of the ventilator and they have been weaning his settings on the cannula all week. He is now on a flow rate of 4 liters and around 25% oxygen. Once they can get him down to 2 liters, they will let him start trying to nurse. The doctors had him down to 3 liters once this week, but he was working really hard, so they turned him back up to 4.

Aiden in his blessing outfit

On Sunday, we were able to give Aiden his name and a blessing. We apologize that we couldn't invite more of our close friends and family members, but they only allow us to have a small number of people in the NICU and they stretched the rules for us as it was. Amaraa's mom didn't even go in, so it was basically my parents, my brother and his wife, and our bishop. Anyway, the blessing went well. We dressed Aiden in the outfit Skylar was blessed in that was given to us by Amaraa's American mom and dad, Jani and Oren Randall. It was much to big for Aiden, but we didn't know they would let us dress him in a blessing outfit until Saturday night at about 9:00 PM, so by then it was too late to find one that would fit. Skylar's outfit worked, though. We wrapped Aiden in a beautiful white baby blanket that Amaraa's good friend, Debbie Prichard, knitted for Skylar, and it looked great. He was so cute. He was awake the entire time and was quiet and peaceful as we have him the blessing. Aiden will probably be in the hospital for at least another month, so we were glad Bishop Price gave us special permission to bless him in the hospital. It was a great experience.

Pouring our foundation walls

I went to Price for most of this week. We had a basement finishing job to complete and then we were able to work on our own projects. We got our basement walls poured and we started laying out the footings for another home. We had subcontractors form and pour our basement walls and just as they started pouring the concrete, it started raining really hard. They stuck with it and it turned out fine, but I felt bad for them out there. I tarred the foundation and we worked on getting the window wells in so I can backfill. Anyway, the project's moving along.

I came back from Price yesterday because we had an infant CPR class last night. It was a pretty basic class, and since both Amaraa and I are CPR certified already, it was just a review. It was nice to be able to review, though. The NICU requires that all preemie parents take the class and they recommend it for other family members, too. I was able to hold Aiden for a while. He looked so good and he was wide awake. He was a little bit fussy, but I sang to him a little and he quieted right down. It wasn't long before he fell asleep.

Today, I cut the lawn and did a little bit of yard work. We went to see Aiden in the afternoon and he was still doing well. Amaraa and the kids are sick, so we didn't stay long. Dr. Cheatham called me this afternoon and said that they were going to leave him on 4 liters for the day today, but that they would probably try to wean him to 3 tomorrow.

Skylar and Jasmine's birthday dinner

Tomorrow is the kids' birthdays. Jasmine will turn 2 and Skylar turns 6. Skylar wanted to have a party with his friends, but because he is sick, we didn't want to infect the world. We might do one next week or something. Anyway, they are both really excited. We took them out to dinner tonight and the waiters sang to them and gave them dessert. They thought that was really cool. I still can't believe they were born on the same day, four years apart. Aiden's due date was May 18th, so he would have been close, too.

Well, it's late and I can hardly keep my eyes open, so I had better get to bed. More tomorrow.