April 7, 2011 - 34 Days Old

It has been a while since I posted, so I'll give a quick update on what has been happening. Sunday was another nice day of General Conference. It was nice to be able to spend time at home with my family and listen to the words of our church leadership. Following the afternoon session, Amaraa and I went to the hospital to visit Aiden. His lungs were still looking good and his tummy was a little better than it was on Saturday. Not much had changed, but positive steps, even small ones, are always welcome.



Happy 1-month birthday, Aiden!

Aiden turned one month old on Monday!  It's exciting that he has a little more time under his belt, but it's still frustrating that we still don't know what is causing his bowel problems. The good news is that they took the Anderson tube (the tube going down into his belly that they used to suction out the gas) out in the morning and put a smaller tube into his stomach that they will use for feedings when he is ready for that. It is encouraging that they removed the Anderson tube because it is an indication that the doctors and nurses feel like he has made a significant improvement. My parents came up to visit and we all spent an hour or so with Aiden.

On Tuesday, I wasn't able to visit Aiden until fairly late in the evening. Not much had changed with him. He had had a pretty quiet day. They did start some small feedings in the afternoon. They were planning on watching him closely to see how his bowel responded.I spent about a half hour with him and then headed home.

Yesterday was Amaraa's birthday. We spent most of the day going to doctor's appointments, but we did manage to go out to dinner as a family to celebrate. We had to go to the hospital so the doctor could test Amaraa's blood thickness. She has to do that weekly while she is taking the coumadin (blood thinner) to treat the blood clot she had in her ovary. Following that appointment, we went to the NICU to visit Aiden. His bowel still looked OK after the first feedings. His lungs were about the same as they have been the past few days -- still a bit cloudy, but no big collapsed areas. We spent a couple of hours with him and then went to our second doctor's appointment of the day -- the follow-up appointment with our OB/GYN. He said she was doing really well and didn't need to come in for another appointment until it's time for her annual exam. We have a follow-up appointment with her surgeon on the 13th and then she will be done. After our appointment, we went shopping for Amaraa's birthday gift. Yes, I know it sounds tacky, but I didn't forget to get her a gift. On the contrary, because I was getting her a new phone, I asked her days earlier if she trusted me or if she wanted to go shopping with me. I'm not a shlub. Well, maybe I am, but not in that way. It took forever, but when we finally got done, we went to pick up the kids and Amaraa's mom, and then went out to eat together. We had a fun time.



On sedation, it's rare to catch him with his eyes open.

Today, I went to see Aiden after my morning class. His lungs were still looking about the same, but his tummy had started to fill up with air again. The doctor was there doing his rounds when I got there, and he talked to me about his plans. They are going to keep looking at the x-rays and watch them closely. If it continues to fill up with air, they are going to stop his feedings and do a contrast enema. When they do a contrast enema, they inject contrast dye into his bowel. This allows them to see the structure of the bowel better and they will be able to see if there are any blockages, twists or other structural problems. We are obviously hoping that he will be able to get rid of the air on his own and they won't have to do the contrast enema, but if that's what it takes to get him better, we're OK with it. He was sleeping on his tummy this morning. The nurse said he is much happier on his tummy. He has fewer swings with his oxygen saturation and pressure levels, and he sleeps very peacefully. He looked so cute sleeping there. I can't wait until they can get these problems sorted out and get him better so we can bring him home. Initially, they tell you to expect that the baby will be in the NICU until his original due date (May 18th), but with all of these problems, he will probably be there longer than that. Getting Aiden healthy is all that matters, but we can't wait to have him home with us. No matter how many hours you are able to spend in the NICU, it never seems like enough.

April 2, 2011 - 29 Days Old

Today, Aiden is showing some signs of improvement. His lungs are still looking good. The x-rays of his lungs are still pretty cloudy with infiltrates, but there are no major collapsed areas as there were before. They have been turning down the support levels on the breathing machine and he seems to be tolerating the reduced help pretty well. His tummy looks a little better, too. There's still a lot of air in there, but his belly girth measurements have been slowly decreasing for the past two days. That's encouraging. They turned off the suction through the Anderson tube, the tube running down into his bowel trying to drain off the excess air. It is now only draining by gravity. When they have tried that before, his tummy immediately blew up again, but it seems to be working OK so far this time. I went out of town for work yesterday and visited Aiden tonight as I was on my way home. I got there just after the nurses bathed him. I was able to lift him up as they changed his linens and took his weight. He has been very swollen and puffy over the past few days from all of the fluids they have been giving him, but some of that swelling is coming down. I don't know if they gave him lasix or if he is just getting rid of it on his own, but his weight was 2092 grams on Thursday, 2085 yesterday, and 1992 (4.5 lbs.) tonight. I never thought I would be happy that my preemie was losing weight, but in Aiden's case, that's a good thing right now.

Today was the start of April General Conference. The morning session this morning was just what we needed. Every talk seemed to have been written just for us. Elder Kent Richards, Elder Quentin Cook, and President Henry Eyring gave talks that were particularly timely and meaningful to me. Elder Richards, a retired surgeon, spoke about pain and shared the story of a 13 year-old girl and an experience she had following a serious surgery. His words were very comforting to both Amaraa and I. As Elder Cook spoke about the women of the church and President Eyring spoke about service and caring for those in need, I couldn't help but think of all of the wonderful Relief Society sisters in our ward that have been so thoughtful and kind to us throughout the past several months. One of many examples of this happened on Friday as I was getting ready to go out of town. I checked the mail and found an envelope with Amaraa's name on it. Inside was a card from a sister in our ward. She shared a favorite scripture and wrote words of comfort and encouragement. Amaraa had been having a particularly difficult time emotionally and the card was just what she needed. This sister knew that Aiden had been struggling, but did not know that Amaraa was having such a hard time. She was simply prompted by the Spirit and she listened to that prompting. I can't begin to express how grateful I am to her and all of the other people who have been so supportive and thoughtful. We feel so blessed to have the friends and the family that we have.