Update on Justin

Nate and I were able to spend about an hour or so with Justin before we left last night. He seemed to be doing well. He is down on room air, so no supplemental oxygen, but he is still on the high flow. So the cannula in his nose is still delivering air at a positive force they are just not having to add additional oxygen to that flow. As far as I know there have been no more spells of apnea so that is really good news. He got a couple of feedings in his tube yesterday and seemed to do really well after the feeds. I think he likes having some food in his tummy! Nate and I both got to hold him during his feeding last night and we had him sucking on his paci at the same time. Hopefully he will start to make the connection of being close to mommy, sucking, and getting a full tummy. If he does that should make breastfeeding somewhat easier to accomplish.

He has to be off the high flow cannula completely before he can attempt any oral feedings. If needed he can still be on a small amount of oxygen, just not the high flow. I know it sounds confusing, its a little easier if you can see him and the equipment to understand how it works. I am really hoping that he can make it home by this weekend. To do that he would need to be off the high flow oxygen by tomorrow. He then will have to show that he can eat by mouth with no respiratory distress for a full 24 hrs. The little guy has a lot of work to do in the next couple days so he can come home with us!

I made it through last night ok. It was probably one of the most difficult nights of my life. I'm just thankful that I do have a baby who will be coming home soon. I really feel for the women who had to do what I did, being wheeled out to the car with empty arms, come home and face the crib, and empty carseat, and put away the baby clothes that you had packed for the hospital but didn't get to use. And especially those women who lost the baby and don't get to count down the days until the baby is released from the hospital. I just keeping reminding myself that this is not the worst thing that could happen. We have been blessed, and will continue to be blessed. God has a plan for Justin, and I can't wait to raise him to help his discover and fulfill whatever that plan may be. Thank you all for your prayers!

Not Much Change

Justin is doing about the same today. He is still on the high flow oxygen and respiratory rate is still in the 70's to 90's range. He is still working hard to breathe and had one short episode of apnea this morning. The chest x-ray looks about the same as yesterday. His 24 hr blood culture was negative and we are waiting to get the final reading at 48 hrs. They are going to begin doing tube feedings today, so maybe he will get to see how it feels to have some food it that tummy! We are no where near being able to start bottle/breast feedings, so I guess that will just come with time.

I will be going home tonight. I will be discharged around 8 and then go spend some time with Justin before I go home. This will be difficult night for me, hopefully I will be able to sleep and not think about the fact that I had to leave him at the hospital. I am praying he will be home by this weekend. I'll update later.

A small setback . . . .

Justin had a small setback this afternoon. After seeming to do well on room air this morning when we went back to see him around 4pm he was back up to 30% oxygen and his respiratory rate was back in the 70's to 80's, sometimes as high as 100's. I could see that he was working much harder to breath and he was very easily "stressed". Even Nate and I just talking while standing beside him would send his respiratory rate higher. We were only able to touch his hands, not rubbing his tummy or head like we had been able to do earlier. We decided to bring the kids in to meet their new baby brother. They were only able to see him for about 3 minutes each, but I got some pics of them with Justin. Because of the setbacks I will not get to hold him tonight as I had hoped. The nurse also told me that I should be planning on him not getting to come home when I do.

A few hours later . . .


I just got back from the NICU, and I got to hold Justin!! The nurse was getting ready to weigh him (he weighed 5 lb 14 oz) and then let me hold him for about an hour. I was so excited and he really seemed to enjoy it as well. During the time I was holding him the nurse was able to get him back down to almost room air again. His respiratory rate was still high, up to the 90's at times, but he just seemed more relaxed and happy to be with Mommy. I think it really helped him to calm down. I think I will be able to sleep better tonight since I got to spend some time with him. They still don't think he will be coming home until later this week, but at least I got something positive out of the day!!


I will update in the morning with how he does through the night. Thanks for the prayers, they are working!





Look at my new baby brother!!



Jessi loves her new baby!

Justin is here!! He needs some extra prayers. . .

Justin Timothy arrived at 11:46 pm on Sept. 14, 2008. He weighed 6 lb 2 oz and is 18 inches long. The delivery was quick and easy, only about 4 pushes and he came out screaming! He did well for about the first 1 1/2 hrs. When I got to hold him for about 5 minutes I could tell he was grunting a lot when breathing. He was also very gaggy and he had no interest in trying to eat. After his bath the nurse was concerned with his breathing and color, he had become very pale and dusky and was also very lethargic. They checked his pulse ox (measures the oxygen saturation in his blood) and it was only 46%. It should be about 90%. The atmosphere of the room changed very quickly as they got him on oxygen and loaded him up to go to the NICU. Nate followed and said they were very good and fast. One of the NICU nurses met them in the hallway on the way to start getting history and report on him on the rest of the walk to the NICU. Once there he had about 3 people working on him and was stabilized quickly. He is being treated for pneumonia based on his chest X-ray, although they can't confirm for sure that it is pneumonia. He has been weaned down to room air today but is still on positive flow to help him out a little. I was able to see him this morning around 9 for the first time since he was born. We are not able to hold him yet because his respiratory rate and O2 sats are still to unstable. He has a feeding tube in that he will have to be feed through before we can attempt breastfeeding. It was good to see him this morning, but very frustrating to not be able to pick him up and hold him. Hope this makes sense, I am going on no sleep! I will continue to update the blog so check here for the latest news. I am praying that I will get to hold him tonight. Pray that he gets well enough to be able to go home with me. I don't think I can handle leaving him here alone . . . .

So sweet!!

Pics from this morning . . .

It's Time!!!!!

Well, after a few days of some kind of weird "stomach pain" I woke this morning to definite contractions. A little embarrassing that it's my fourth baby and I still wasn't sure if it was labor or not! We got to the hospital around 1 and in a triage room by 2pm. I was contracting about every 2-3 minutes and it didn't take long before I was really feeling them. Had my water broken around 5 and got the epidural around 8:30. Right now I am feeling pretty good (obviously) and just hanging out until Justin arrives. We are hoping for before midnight, but not sure, he only has an hour and a half left to make that deadline. I will update with pictures in the morning! Send some prayers our way that he won't have any breathing issues, I am 36 wks and 1 day.

Thank God for epidurals!!

First Soccer Game of the Season

This past Saturday was the first soccer game of the season. Jonathan is still on the wildcat team with Coach Jeff. He is now on the U7 league and this is a lot more like "real" soccer. They have a goalie, some kind of circle on the center of the field that has some rules, and if the ball goes out the kids have to throw it back in. As you can tell I really have no idea how the game of soccer works, I just like to watch Jonathan and Micah play. Anyway, we had no idea they were going into big time soccer now and we were not prepared, therefore did not prepare the boys. Because of rain, Labor Day and the coach being sick they only got in one practice before the first game. But, the kids did great! Jonathan needs to build up his confidence again but he overall had a good first game. Here are a few pics of the game.







I didn't post any pics of Micah. I figured Krista would want to do that so she couldn't say I stole one of the things she could blog about. She is such a blog slacker.

The Baby has dropped and I'm Nesting!! Let the countdown begin. . .

I will be officially 35 wks on Saturday!! I am happy to say that I am "tube" free and most likely will stay that way for the remainder of the pregnancy. I had an appt with urologist yesterday and he said that the hydronephrosis has not worsened. The kidney, although still backed up, does not appear to be under too much stress and is showing no signs of any damage. He said keep doing what I am doing, which is basically using pain meds to control pain and staying on my left side as much as possible to help keep pressure off the kidney. I sleep all night on my left side and try to have at least 2 hrs in the middle of the day to lay on my left side. I can definitely tell that I have an increase in nausea if I don't spend enough time off my feet and on my side, the nausea is a symptom of the kidney getting to backed up.

I have an appt with the midwife (the one who delivered all 3 of my other kids) on Friday. We may go ahead and schedule an amnio for late next week or Monday the 15th just so we have it if we need it. If things are staying like they are I may cancel the amnio and just wait to at least 37 wks to deliver, since 37 wks is considered full term. Either way, the end is in sight!!

I can tell that Justin has dropped, less heartburn but more trips to the bathroom with that big head on my bladder. I have been nesting for the last couple of weeks and finally have everything ready. The crib, pack and play, bassinet are all set up. Clothes are washed and put away, and the hospital bag is mostly packed. We bought a new car seat and stroller this past weekend and as soon as that is put together we will have everything we need. Now we just wait for Justin to make his appearance!!