February 7, 2007

Okay, I'm home today and will head back to OKC this afternoon. Hopefully, Larry will upload pics later tonight.

I just wanted to update you. Tommy weighs 1814 grams (4 lbs) and will move to an open baby bed today! I pray he holds his temp well today so he can stay in this open bed...I'm pretty confident he will do great!

He had some bloodwork come back a little low this morning. He needs another blood transfusion. Please pray that this IV/transfusion goes smoothly with no complications like the last one.

Tommy is doing well with the bottle! The doctor said he can now take two out of every three feedings with the bottle! We're pretty much waiting on him to take all 8 feedings by bottle, then he should come home. Maybe less than 2 weeks??? We're more than ready for this day to come!!

4 Feb

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!

3 Feb

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!!

2 Feb 07

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)!

January 31, 2007, Wednesday

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!

29 Jan 07

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!

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!