June 25, 2011 - 112 Days Old

Getting Big!

It has been a long time since I last posted. I am out of town most of each week and I only post when I'm at home. Whenever I'm at home, we rush around trying to get things that I need to do done before I have to go out of town again. As a result, I usually only get about half a blog post written and then I run out of time. Today, I have promised myself that I won't leave my computer until the blog post is written and posted. Sorry to all of you loyal followers out there, for not posting more often. 

Aiden has been doing really well, but he had reached a bit of a plateau recently, and the doctor hadn't been able to decrease his oxygen settings. He wasn't feeling well for part of last week and his belly was filling up with air again, so they ran a few tests, all of which came back normal. The doctor ordered the respiratory therapist to start breathing treatments with a medication similar to albuterol. We have prescriptions for albuterol for our other two kids, so it really wasn't a surprise that Aiden, too, might need something like that. They also asked an Ear, Nose and Throat Specialist (ENT) to come in and evaluate him. The breathing treatments helped immensely. He was much calmer and didn't seem to be struggling to breathe as much as he had been. He had been bobbing his head with every breath before, and with the treatments, that seemed to be much better as well.
 

Jasmine at the parade

Aiden's feedings are going really well. They moved him to two-a-day feedings and that went so well that two days later, they moved him to three-a-days. The day after that, the doctor called and told Amaraa that they wanted to start four-a-days. That means that Amaraa is at the hospital for most of the day, even if the fourth feeding is done with a bottle. They don't like her to do back-to-back feedings, but that has been unavoidable for her. Aiden's getting to be a real chunk. Today, he weighed in at 9.5 lbs.! He's getting about 77 mL every time he nurses, which means that they don't have to supplement the feedings through the GI tube on the feedings Amaraa is there for. We get the impression they are prepping him to come home soon. He will be four months old on July 4th. Maybe we'll have him home by then, who knows? That would be cool, but I'm a nervous wreck. They won't come out and say they are getting him ready to come home, but it seems like they may be.

Work is progressing on our house. This week, we put on floor joists, subfloor, and started building walls on the main level. This stage of the building process is always fun because it seems to move so quickly. It's fun to see it coming together. It's hard being away from my family, but it's only for a while.

Skylar walked in the Lehi Round-Up Rodeo this morning. It was a lot of fun. Jasmine and I went and watched. Sky wore basketball clothes and carried a rubber chicken.

Hard to see the color here, but it's Dark Cherry Pearl (Burgundy)

Last week, we traded in our Subaru Outback for a 2011 Honda Pilot. We had to get a bigger vehicle before bringing Aiden home. When we would all go someplace together, Amaraa's mom had to lean in while someone shut the door from the outside. There's no way we could have fit Skylar's booster, Jasmine's car seat and another car seat for Aiden in the back seat. And even if we could have, there would be no room for Amaraa's mom. Now we have enough room for everyone and some to spare. We love our new car.

Well, that's about all the news I have for now. I'll try to write more often from now on.

June 7, 2011 - 94 Days Old

Yesterday, we had a bit of a setback with Aiden. They did a blood-gas test and the results were not good. The doctor decided to increase Aiden's cannula flow rate to 8 - the maximum it can be on the high-flow cannula. We were pretty disappointed, but at least he's getting what he needs.

I left for Price this evening. Skylar came with me this time. It was nice to have some company on the drive. He's a good travel buddy.

Today, I was pretty worried about Aiden. Just before lunch, I got an opportunity to call Amaraa to see what she had heard. When I called, she was at the hospital. I had not expected to hear good news and had prepared for the worst. Imagine my surprise when I heard not only good news, but great news. Amaraa said, "Guess what?" "What?", I said. "I'm nursing Aiden right now", she said. I couldn't believe it! We had been told that Aiden couldn't try nursing until he was at a flow rate of 2. He had been doing better this morning, so the doctor turned him down to 5. When Amaraa got there, he asked her if she would like to try nursing Aiden and she said yes. He turned the flow rate down to 4 and let her try. At first, Aiden didn't really know what to do, but he sucked a few times and before long, he got the hang of it. We were pretty excited about that. The suck-swallow-breathe process is instinctive to newborns, but if they aren't able to do it for a while, they can forget, and it can sometimes take a long time for them to re-learn how to do it.

Here's to hoping for another great day tomorrow.

June 5, 2011 - 92 Days Old

This week has been a busy one. I was out of town for most of the week, so I didn't have time to post to the blog. Things have been going really well with Aiden this week. He is still making good progress. He was struggling with the lower flow rate on his cannula, so they increased it to 5 liters again and held him there all week last week. Yesterday, they turned him down to 4 liters again and so far he is doing well with that. The doctors don't plan on decreasing it any more for a while. That means that he won't be able to start trying to nurse for a while, but that's OK. The worst thing for him would be to push him too quickly and have him relapse because he isn't ready to be pushed that hard.

When I came back from Price on Friday night, I stopped by the hospital. Aiden's nurse, Becky, was holding Aiden and doing exercises with him to help him increase his neck, arm and leg strength. When I got there, she gave him to me and let me do the exercises with him. It was so fun. Now that he is a little older, he is able to interact with us a lot more. I had a great time. After the exercises, I bathed him and got him ready for bed.

Yesterday was Aiden's three-month birthday. There are three long-termers in the NICU now, and Aiden is the oldest. Every time he turns another month older, the nurses make a scrapbook page for him with his picture on it, wishing him a happy birthday. When we were over there today, they brought in his 3-month birthday scrapbook page. They moved him into a room within the NICU a couple of weeks ago, so when we are there, we can close the door and have some privacy. It is so nice and much quieter than when he was in the main area. He was in a room for about a week prior to his big setback, but while he was so sick, he had to be out in the main NICU area. We feel so blessed that he is doing so well now.

Wednesday was my birthday, but since I was in Price on Wednesday, we decided to wait until Saturday to celebrate. We visited Aiden in the morning and in the afternoon, we took the kids up to Mt. Timpanogos Park up Provo Canyon and played around. We played frisbee and catch, wrestled a little bit, and played tag. Later, we went to The Happy Sumo to eat. I had such a great time and it was an awesome birthday.