July 17, 2011 - 134 Days Old

Today has been a pretty good day. I sang in my ward's Sacrament Meeting this morning, so Amaraa didn't go to the hospital at 6:30 AM as she usually does. We all got ready and went to church. My parents came up to hear me sing, so they met us there. We have lived in that ward for six and a half years and we can probably count on one hand the times we have made it to church on time. But we did today! I felt like my song went really well and Kandice Gardner played the piano beautifully.

The doctors decided to pull Aiden's feeding tube out today. One fewer tube...yay! Now, he either nurses or gets a bottle. He is doing well with both now, so he doesn't need that feeding tube anymore. The only disadvantage is that he has to take his medicines by mouth now, and he doesn't like the taste of them. He has a little baby swing in his room. He loves swinging back and forth, watching his mobile and listening to the music it plays. He is still receiving breathing treatments several times a day. The treatments calm him down and help him to breathe much better.

We will be so glad when Aiden comes home. Amaraa spends most of every day at the hospital. It wears her out and she doesn't get to see Skylar and Jasmine as much as she would like. A couple of weeks ago, Amaraa had to do three "12-hour requests" where she had to be at the hospital for three twelve hour periods and feed Aiden whenever he indicated that he was hungry. They are going to have her do a "24-hour request" soon, too (maybe more than one). The "requests" are long marathon sessions where she just has to stay by Aiden's bedside all day. Before Aiden comes home, we both have to go and stay overnight at the hospital with him to get used to all of the monitors and administering all of his medications and treatments, etc. That's called "rooming in". We are lucky to have Amaraa's mom with us to help out with the kids, but it is still hard for Amaraa to have to be away from home so much. Either Amaraa or Aiden or both have been in the hospital for almost seven months now. Sky and Jazzy miss their mom and dad. It has been a long ordeal and we won't be too sad to have everyone home at last.

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.