Noah 4 lb

Noah is doing really well. He was 4 lb. on Sunday. He is bottle feeding really well now, it took a couple days for him to get the hang of it. He gets half of his feeds by bottle and the other half through his tube. Once he gets all of his feedings by bottle they will finish the last details of his treatment and send him home... It won't be long!

His big brother Collin is having a rough week, he came down with scarlet fever on Sunday morning. His temp. came back down to normal this morning. I breathed a big sigh of relief. I have decided its best to stay away from Noah for a day or two just to be safe. Collin is feeling much better this evening and has gotten his appetite back.

The construction crew start putting in our new windows and doors on Monday, everything seems to be happening all at once and my head is starting to spin. It generally takes them 10 to 12 days to finish the project. I will be staying at Michael's mothers during the construction, its possible Noah will be there too....

Noah 3lb. 12 oz.

I have to appologize for being naughty and not posting this week. We are spending our spare moments cleaning closets and getting the house ready to bring Noah home. We have a construction crew coming the first of April to put in new windows and things (Special thanks to the airport) and we want to paint the living area before they get here. We have our fingers crossed that they will be done before Noah comes home, if not the tiny man and I will stay with Michael's parents for a few days.

Noah is trying his best to grow and he is now off the breathing machine. This is the middle of day 5 for him on just a nasal canula. He has done very well so far and we are hopeful that he will not have to go back to either of the breathing machine methods. He has grown well this week and is 3 lbs. 12 oz. more accurately he is 1712 grams. He was crib weight at 1600 grams so if he continues to breath well he will be in a crib by the end of the week. The issolette he is in currently is due to be changed on Wednesday (every two weeks), I am guessing he may get a regular crib then.

Mondays are blood draw days, this means they test all the babies in NICU to make sure they have enough cells. Noah's were down a little so he got his third transfussion today. It was given like the last one, half in the am and the other half 12 hour later. I think the renewed energy will do him good as he gets to the point where breathing completely on his own might start to get tiring for him.

We finally have some photos of his cute little face without so many tubes in the way. These were taken on Sunday. He is wearing clothes now, his own from home! :)

Happy ST. Patrick's Day....

Jennifer

Noah at 3lbs. 5 oz.

This has been possibly the longest week of my life. Last Friday our tiny guy was taken off the vent and put back on the c-pap, he did wonderful for several hours and after an excellent blood gas his doctor decided to put him on the nasal cannula. He did very well on this until about 3:30 am Saturday morning when he crashed so hard he scared his nurses a little bit. They had him back on the vent and doing well (after some serious effort) when they called Michael and I at 4:20 am. We obviously immediately ran up to the hospital. Noah had a very bad mucus plug that seems to be the main cause of his event. He just couldn't breath through it. He is a tough little man and was right as rain by Saturday evening when we got back up there for the second time that day. Sunday night he was all eyes for us and was constantly turning to look for mommies voice. Today his doctor put him back on the c-pap and he is doing just fine (except for not liking the way it feels and trying to wiggle out of it). His doctor said he would give him 48 hours (I wouldn't be supprised if he doesn't wait that long) before another attempt at the nasal cannula. His afternoon and evening blood gases were great. I took a few photos after I gave him his bath and had him snuggied back in bed today.

3 lbs. 1 oz.

Noah is growing fine. He has been maintaining his temperature at room temp for almost 4 days now. He went back on C-pap this morning. We have our fingers crossed that he is done with the ventilator. He had an infection that may have been the cause of his need to go back on it last week, but thanks to some great antibiotics he is feeling much better now. Mommy cannot wait until he starts eating from a bottle, he has to breath on his own first though. His feeds are now 13ml an hour with a schedule of 2 hours on and 1 hour off.

Jennifer

2 Lbs. 11 oz.

Life has been a bit odd around here lately, not that I expected anything to feel normal when Noah made his appearance so early. I just never expected how little I would get done in a day. The cold I have had this week has slowed my down some and taken quite a bit of the time I spend with Noah away from me. I won't lie, leaving him at the hospital every day is difficult, it is even more so when I don't get to hang out there with him for more than 45 minutes.

Noah has had yet another interesting week and I feel bad for not keeping the Blog updated. He pulled his vent tube out of his lungs twice early on Thursday and his doctor decided to let him have his way. He put the C-pap back on him in its place. Noah did well for a couple days but pooped out late on Saturday. His color was also a bit pale so this morning Dr. Desai ran a CBC. Noah was a little anemic so he has now gotten his second blood transfusion, this one was in two doses. Dr. Desai also decided to put the vent tube back into Noah's lungs. The C-pap was drying out his sinuses really bad and he was getting pretty tired. Hopefully our strong little man will leave it in this time.

Michael and I took a required infant CPR class this afternoon. It was very informative. I had a CPR class in high school but it didn't have infant CPR. The class is only required for parents of preemies. The state should make it a requirement for all parents.

The last tidbit I have for tonight is diaper news. Noah went up one size. It seems he was overfilling his "teeny, tiny, extra small preemie" diapers. Now he is wearing "small preemie" diapers.

Jennifer

taken Saturday Feb. 23, 2008