Tricia called and said Tommy took almost all of his bottle for her, and that the Dr. increased his bottle feedings to three out of the eight per day! They are also decreasing the temperature in his isolette as he is getting too hot when they bundle him up in there. Good news!
He is up to 3 pounds, 11.75 ounces. Again, one he hits 4 pounds, he moves into a regular type bed.
That is about it for now!
Weekend Visit
We had another great visit with Tommy. The kids got to peer through the window again while I held him. I also got to feed him his bottle on Friday night. That was a lot harder than I had expected. I had the nurse finish up as we wasn't taking much from me. I guess, he is right at the age where normal babies begin learning the coordination required to suck, swallow and breathe. He took about 10ml's from me, and then another 10 or so from the nurse (they gave him the rest through his tube). There are a lot of tricks to help him. I learned a lot from the nurses and think I'll be able to do a better job next time. This morning's bottle feeding went really well. I let them feed him while I watched. He drank all of his bottle (about 32mls) in 15 minutes. He is still doing really well. I put my ring on his hand again and was absolutely amazed (see picture below). I couldn't get it over his knuckles this time. I didn't realize he had grown that much.
He is pretty much regulating his own body temperature now. As long as he is bundled up in a blanket, he stays plenty warm, so I just held him and rocked him.
So, like I said before, we are pretty much just waiting for him to fully take his feedings. He is at 3 pounds, 10.5 ounces as of last night. Once he gets to about 4 pounds, he'll be taken out of the incubator and put into an open type crib that you might see at a normal nursery. Praise God that there are absolutely no health concerns at this point, and he just has to continue to thrive and grow, and we'll have him home in no time!
Of course, I took some more pictures...here they are!
Ring Pictures
This was taken on 1 Jan--notice ring here
This was taken this morning. I swear it's the same ring!!
Tommy took his whole feeding from his bottle last night!! Yikes! He is up to about an ounce per feeding, and he took it in about 15 minutes. We are heading up to OKC today after the kids get home from school. Tommy is up to 3 pounds 10 ounces and is about 16 inches long now. I had a dream last night that they said we could take him home today. Not so much, but it was a nice dream!! But there is some light at the end of the tunnel--they said that all they are waiting on is for him to begin taking all of his feedings from the bottle. Now, he is just taking two per day. So, I'd guess we have another 3 weeks before we get to take him home!!
Here are some pictures (finally)!
Good morning,
I thought I'd do an update myself. Larry plans to upload pictures at lunchtime today.
BIG NEWS
Yesterday morning (just before I headed to Altus) Tommy got to take his first bottle! He did so well after the nurse burped him, she let me feed him too. Normally they feed the first bottle and mom/dad can try the next one. He will take a bottle every 12 hours. Once he finishes the whole bottle, they'll increase his bottle feedings. Tommy weighs 1576 grams (3 lbs 7 ozs) and has taken two more bottles. He continues to take more at each feeding, so this is wonderful progress.
His hand looks almost totally healed after being on the antibiotics.
My eyes
On my way home yesterday I had to stop in Lawton for a check up on my eyes...I was so excited after his bottle...on the way to Lawton I was thinking of what I'd say on the blog and how I'd say it...Larry normally updates it but with my excitement I didn't want to wait.
Well...that fire burned out fast...my eyes have improved from a month ago in the hospital, but during the exam part where they try and find the 'right' prescription to 'fix' your eyes...they were unable to improve my left eye. I didn't even consider this an option...in my fairytale world it was not an option. That just made my stomach sink...I sincerely thought at this appointment they'd just update my prescription and send me on my way. Instead I have to follow up in 3 months...just before we move to Germany! To top it off, the doc and her tech (that saw me) have terrible bedside manners...I'd never "choose" to go back. I learned the difference of an optometrist and an opthamologist...never even crossed my mind. When I asked if I could be followed by an optometrist, she replied "can I answer that in 3 months"? Not the warm cozy feeling of 'everything will be just fine' that I planned on receiving!
Only a quick one this morning...
Turns out that Tricia's "motherly instincts" were right about Tommy's hand...it was infected. They started Tommy on some oral antibiotics last night, so we should see a quick turn-around by tonight. They did a white blood cell test on him, and it came back indicating that he was fighting an infection.
Also, the good news for today is that he should start bottle feeding! The Dr. said that as long as he hadn't lost any weight yesterday, they were going to start the slow process of switching him from the tube to the bottle. They were a little concerned that the extra calories he uses for bottle feeding might take away from fighting the infection, but we'll see...I am excited to see how it goes, as Tricia tells me that he always roots around when she is holding him.
Got to get Kimberlyn to school and then myself to work!
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!
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!
