27 Jan 07

Weekend Visit
We are back in town now...and we had a great visit! Thanks to David Carriker for watching the Nance Zoo! Tommy looks a lot more filled out then he did last weekend. He is up to just shy of 3 pounds 6 ounces!

His hand is getting a lot better--now they think that the last time they flushed the IV line, the vein may have ruptured and put the sailine solution into his hand instead of into the vein. It is still a bit red, but the swelling went way down, and it should be completely normal soon.

Tommy now weighs just over 1500 grams, so he will start bottle feeding this comming week--perhaps as soon as tomorrow. It will be very gradual like everything else has been. But, that is very exciting for us.

In the last couple of days, he has had lots of episodes where his breathing rate drops and causes his oxygen level to go down. They still say that this is fairly normal, but he had gone almost a week with only a few, so we were a little bummed about that. They increased his caffiene intake today to help combat that. Now he is up to one cup of coffee in the morning and one in the afternoon--hee hee.

Everyone I know has been asking for more pictures...so here they come!!


Tommy with his IV for the blood transfusion


One happy momma. Tommy's one month old!


The nurses made this one month old certificate, and they all signed it. Tricia LOVED that!


Tommy wide awake. You can see the nurse sucking the remaining milk from his stomach. Also, you can see his left hand is elevated to help the swelling.


Proud Dad--once I saw Tricia's picture like this, I had to have one too!


This one was taken today--Tommy with his cool clothes on!



The kids and mom went to build-a-bear in the mall and spent some of their extra money from Christmas while I visited Tommy. I am bummed that I missed their fun, but only getting to see Tommy a couple days per week stinks!

26 Jan 07

Tommy Update
The kids and I are headed back up to OKC right after school. But I wanted to make sure to keep everyone in the know about the most recent updates! We will be back by 4pm or 5pm on Saturday.

Tommy now weighs 3 pounds 3.9 ounces!!! He is doing just great. He'll probably start bottle feeding here in the next 7-10 days, so that is exciting. He already sucks on his pacifier every once in a while, so hopefully, he'll do well. He is up to 25ml's per feeding which equates to a total intake of about 6.7 ounces per day!!

His brain ultrasound came back with slight improvements--there are two ventricles in the back of the brain through which the blood drains. One ventricle has stayed the same, but the other seems to be draining better. The Dr.s still are not too concerned about anything at this point. They tell me that as long as things don't get any worse, we'll be okay.

One very minor negative note to add, though--The nurses showed Tricia that Tommy's hand was all swollen today--the Dr. thinks that the "board" that stabilized his arm when he had the blood transfusion IV (they left the IV in for a couple of days in case he needed more blood) was taped too tightly. They took an X-ray of his hand to make sure that no damage was done to his joints. I guess when a baby that small has swelling, it can actually pull apart the joints of his fingers. But, the X-ray showed all was well. They'll watch the swelling in the next 24 hours to make sure it goes back down. Tricia said they thought it would be back to normal by tonight. While I wasn't too happy about the fact that this could have been caused by one of the nurses, I am glad they took the X-ray and found no damage. Everyone makes mistakes, so if that is the worse mistake someone makes, I'll be a happy guy!

Tricia also told me today that she found Tommy's hat--the one Grandma Emerson (her mom) gave him. It got put into the hospital's wash and was lost for about 2 weeks. But, the nurse took her back where they have all the clean linen, and she found it mixed in with all the other hats that they had. To me, a guy, this is not a great and wonderful moment, but Tricia is very sentimental about that kind of stuff, so she was bouncing off the ceiling when she told me! So, I'm glad she was able to find it.

That is about it for now! Thanks for all you do and all the prayers! We truly enjoyed our meals this week--like we do every week! It is so great to have a nice warm meal to eat without having to make it yourself! We are so blessed to have you all as partners in this really tough time for our family. But we are all doing well, and a large part of that comes from your prayers and incredible generosity.

My thanks goes out to each and every one of you!

24 Jan PM

Tricia is safely back in OKC now...and probably is holding Tommy as I type this. I am not positive on his weight, but I know they increased his feedings to 22ml's. They also told Tricia when she called today that his red blood cell count was slightly low, so they gave him about 21cc's of additional blood. At first, we were pretty alarmed about that news, but we remembered that the Dr. told us that is was highly likely that sometime during his stay, Tommy would need some extra blood. The nurses said that we shouldn't worry about this at all and that premature babies often require additional blood. Of course, I also did some research online and found that in the first two months of life, premature babies often require blood transfusions because of anemia (low red blood cell count). I guess that they don't actually begin producing their own blood until after a few weeks from being born. So, again, we are just hoping that this is like they say--no big deal and expected.

I'll get some better updates in the morning after Tricia gets to talk to the Dr. face-to-face.

The kids are doing well again--the bedtime routine tonight was back to normal, and Kaitlyn has pretty much fully recovered from her fevers and sickness. I can't say for sure that having Tricia home helped that part, but it definately didn't hurt any!!

That's about all the news I have for now. Here are a couple of recent pictures!

Tommy hanging out

When he is on his tummy, Tommy likes to scoot himself to the very top of his bed. The bed itself is on an incline....you can see that he has sucessfully gone about as far up as possible!

When we got home Saturday, there was about an inch of nice wet snow--perfect for making a snowman! We used almost all of the snow in the front yard to make a snowman and a small snow fort! But, alas, the 40 degree weather the next day made poor frosty and the fort melt back into a pile of water. It was fun while it lasted!

23 Jan 07

Lots of changes
Okay, Tricia came home today...I recalled her home as Kaitlyn was starting to get sick, and Kimberlyn and Robby have had terrible problems getting to sleep, and the only thing I could figure was that they were really missing her. So, she is home for the night, and we are going to try to keep this schedule such that she'll come come Tues night and we'll head up Friday night--to help spread out the visits.

Tommy got his IV line taken out, and they jumped his feedings to 22ml's every 3 hours or just about 6 ounces of total intake. He is up to 1376 grams which is still just over 3 pounds. So this all means that he'll (hopefully) never have another IV line stuck in him again!!! That is great news.

But, rather than chat here, I'm going to take some time to visit with Tricia!!

22 Jan PM

Tommy
Tricia says Tommy is still doing great. He is up to 19ml's per feeding which amounts to just over 5 ounces of breastmilk per day. Once he gets to (and tolerates)20 ml's, the Dr. told Tricia that they will remove the IV line. They also started him on vitamins today--it just goes into his feeding tube. That will replace the specialized cocktail of nutrients that he got through his IV.

Tricia has sounded pretty tired each time I talked to her today, so keep her strength in your prayers. Kaitlyn did not feel well this morning, so she stayed home from school--which meant I couldn't go into work. So, I got several loads of laundry done and the dishes taken care of. I actually managed to clean up the kitchen so it doesn't look quite so messy.

That is about it for now. My goal is to be in bed by 9pm! So, we are starting bedtime routines early tonight!!

20 Jan 07

Exciting News!
Wow--what a GREAT VISIT for all of us this weekend!!!
Tommy was moved again to what they call the "satellite" portion of his care-it is down the hall from the NICU and is where they put babies that are doing very well. He still has the same around-the-clock care, but it is kind of like an upgrade in his status. Praise God!! He actually got moved Thursday night when we got into town. Tricia went up there while the kids and I had fun in the pool. At first, she was freaked out that something bad was going on, but they told her that this was a good move and not to worry at all.

Tommy now weighs a whopping 1369 grams (about 3 pounds even--3.018 to be exact). He is up to 17 ml's per feeding which equates to about 4.5 ounces per day.

They even had him dressed in the clothes Grandma gave us too!!! Of course, we left the cameras at the house in our rush to get out of Altus before the weather rolled in! AHHHHH.

But, the very best part happened at 1130 today. And, if you don't think this is a "God thing" then you are CRAZY! The kids got to see Tommy through a window. Okay, so that does not sound like the best part to many of you, but I can assure you that IT IS! Like I have said before, the kids have been dying to see their baby brother. And, this "satellite" place has windows all over, so I asked the nurse if the kids might be able to look and see Tommy (the windows all have blinds over them). They let the kids into the first room which has windows without blinds, and the nurse held up Tommy for them all to see. When Kaitlyn was saying her prayers tonight, she prayed (like she always does) for Mommy and Tommy and then, at the very end of the prayer, she thanked God for letting her see Tommy. We talked about that for a little while. I asked her if she thought it was interesting that the very night that we got into OKC, Tommy was moved into that new room--and that they let her come into part of that room to see Tommy. I reminded her (and myself, for that matter) that God knows our wants and our needs, and that He decided that it was time for her to get to see Tommy because He knew just how important it was to her. Some might argue that it was a coincidence, but I know better. God was looking out for our kids, and if there is one thing in this whole world parents of all aged kids can remember, it should be that God loves our children even more than we do. How awesome is that?

Tommy's IV fluids are also dramatically decreasing, so we really think he should be completely off them very soon. And, the episodes when his oxygen saturation rates drop and/or is breathing rate drops are down to almost zero.

So, from the sounds of it, Tommy is doing just great! And that is just what I needed after having a really tough week. I am finding that juggling work and home as a "single parent" right now is VERY hard. I have only a few minutes each day for myself, and by Friday, I was completely wiped out. I just felt like I was at my maximum level of emotional and physical level of stress. Luckily, someone at work noticed that, (my previous boss--Lt Col Carriker), so his wife decided that she would pick up Kimberlyn for me from mother's day out and also take the big kids into her house after they get home from school on those days when Kimberlyn goes to school as well. What I really need is to get out and do some running and exercise, as I find that physical activity is the best way for me to get rid of all of my stress that is built up inside. I am confident that if I can get to the gym a few times per week, I'll be able to handle all of this extra stress right now!

But, I'll tell you that everything that happened this weekend so far has really pumped me up, and I'm so excited that the kids got to see Tommy!

Thats it for now...

17 Jan PM

Quick Update
Nothing much new to post today. Tricia verified that it was indeed Cystic Fibrosis that Tommy's showed a "potential positive" for--but the Dr. is still relatively certain that this is false because he does not have any other complications.

He went up to 15ml's per feeding and he gained about 6 grams. The accuracy of the weight (down to the gram) is pretty questionable as they have him in a diaper and still hooked up to all the machinery when they weight him. So, when they try to lift the wires and tubes so that they don't count in his weight, I don't think they can get a truly accurate measurement, but as long as he is not going backwards, I'm happy!

I forgot to mention that Tricia had an OB appointment yesterday as well. Her blood pressure was actually on the low side (something like 108/55), so they took her off of one of the two blood pressure meds she has been on. Her left eye is still giving her fits, but she has an optometery appt in a couple of weeks. I think her prescription probably changed through all of this--and I understand that to be a common occurence--so hopefully, a new set of contacts for that eye will fix her up!

That is about it for now. We are very thankful for all of you prayers and support!