Xmas pics and update

Here's some pics from over the christmas weekend. The top one is a polaroid of him inside a little santa hat. He's up to 2 lbs 6 oz, and is gaining "meat and bone" weight every day now. He looks good and you can't see his ribs like the first photos of him. The nurse hinted that he might get his breathing tube removed in a week, which would be great. We are regularly getting to hold him now, and he handles it very well. Yesterday he turned 6 weeks old, which would put Heather's pregnancy stage at 31 weeks. At 34 weeks, the brain develops the sucking mechanism (sucking and remembering to breathe at the same time) so at that point they will start trying to use a rubber nipple.

Daddy's first time

Cole is doing very well. So well that we have been able to hold three days in a row. Saturday, Sunday and today was the first time that Jim was able to hold him. It was a wonderful sight to see. The nurses encouraged Jim to talk to Cole and when he wasn't saying anything, I realized that Jim getting a little emotional looking down at it son. It was very sweet. 40 days ago this honor of holding him seemed so far away, soon we may get to hold him twice day.

Cole is 2.4lbs and 14 3/4 inches long. He is becoming more alert everyday. The nurse said that she held up a white card with black stars and he starred at it for 10 minutes. They are still working on bringing his ventilator settings down, but his feedings are up to 7.5ccs every hour.

Love
Heather

Christmas Kangaroo

Today was the first day of Kangaroo care. That's when the baby is rested on the mother's chest. It is supposed to be very calming and good for the baby. They slipped Cole up under Heather's shirt, and sure enough, his heart rate decreased and his breathing was easier. Heather got to hold him like that for about 30 minutes. Studies have shown that the mother's body temp will rise to match her baby. Cole seemed to enjoy it.

Feedings are up to 7.3 cc per hour, and the last IV was taken out of his arm. So he just has his breathing tube and feeding tube. He is currently 2lbs 5oz.

Quick post. Tomorrow he'll be 5 weeks old. He's grown a little less than an inch to 14.5 inches, and he's a few grams over 2 lbs.

Two Pounds

Quick update. Cole is now officially two pounds. Ventilator settings are being slowly dropped as he does more breathing on his own. He'll finish his antibiotics in a couple days so we hope to see one of the two IV's out soon. Today he gets thorough testing on his eyes.

Coletrain

Heather's mom, Bobalee, made this "Cole-train" out of candy for the ICU nurses. Very clever. Cole is doing well. The doctor feels that they have the infection under control. He's back on milk and they are increasing his feedings every 12 hours. We expect them to remove the nutrition IV for the first time next week. Ventilator settings are being constantly reduced, which means he's breathing more on his own. I know we've been lax on getting some updated pics of him uploaded, but we will fix that soon.

steps forward, step back

Lots to report. Heather got to hold him again yesterday morning. His breathing has improved tremendously in a week, and he tolerated being held for 5 minutes. With them increasing his feedings (currently at 4.5 cc per hr), he's increased to 1 lb 14 oz. He's visibly looking bigger than the original photos. I can't believe that tomorrow will be his 4 week birthday. Now for the step back. After his feedings they sometimes suction his stomach to see if he's processing all the milk. Recently the little bit of milk came back pink-ish. Meaning that there was a little blood in the stomach. A blood test revealed that his blood platelete count was very low, indicating some sort of infection. So they've stopped all milk feedings as of this morning and started him on antibiotics. Hopefully this will pass by the end of the week and they can start him back on the milk. He was handling the milk very well so we hope he can get back to that quickly. That's all for now. Everything else is good. More pics to come soon. I'm hoping to get a good one of mom holding him.

First time holding him

We got a surprise today. The doctor said that heather could briefly hold the baby. After a flurry of nurses moved wires, machines and hoses around, they lifted him into her arms as she sat in a chair. His system didn't handle it very well and his oxygen saturation dropped low. So they had to put him back in the incubator after a couple minutes. We didn't have our camera today, but we have some polaroids that the nurses took. Next time we'll get some pictures to upload.

Calories

Here's an updated pic from a couple days ago. He's currently getting 20 calories per day through his feedings. They are starting him on a powdered supplement in his milk to add 2 more calories. Think about that next time you have your 650 calorie BigMac.

3 weeks old today

From Heather: Cole is doing well. They have upped his feedings to 3.2cc's every hour for 3 hours with one hour off in between. They are hoping to remove one of his IV's, the one that provided his nutrients in a couple of days, probably early next week. Once they remove that he will be getting all his calories from my milk. He is really starting to chunk up. I did ask the doctor today when we would be able to hold him and he said that won't happen until he stops getting so mad when the nurses touch him, change his diaper, give him medicine, or flip him over. He just get so mad that his sats go down. I was there when the nurse gave him a shot this morning, and it was cute, but sad, because you could see he was letting out a cry, but since they have a tube down his mouth there was no sound.

Weight Gain

With the increase in feedings, Cole is back up to his birth weight of 1lb 12oz. He's doing great, but he's become very sensitive to being handled. Everytime the nurses go in to change a diaper, take blood, or whatever, his vital signs drop. Frankly, I don't blame him. Nobody likes to be poked and prodded, especially when they're sleeping.
Heather and I have had very good luck in touching him, resting our hands on him and talking to him. This morning, we spoke to him and Heather touched him through the incubator and he did fine. But when Heather pulled her hands away his vital signs dropped. He does eventually recover, but it's very touching to see a little parental bond developing.

His friend

Our friends Eric and Michelle brought their 5 yr old, Treyton, to the hospital to see Cole. While peering through the glass, Treyton asked me this:

Treyton: Jim, when Cole was born did he know who Heather was?

Jim: No.

Treyton: Why not?

Jim: Because little babies don't really know anyone when they are first born.

Treyton: You mean he doesn't know who Santa is?

Jim: No.

Treyton: He doesn't know what frogs are?

Jim: No. But maybe you can teach him those things.

In the end, Treyton said he was sure he and Cole would be good friends.

No more sunglasses

The doctor has discontinued the photo-therapy for the jaundice, so with the lights off Cole doesn't have to wear his eye mask. When Heather and I were there this morning, he woke up and moved his eyes to us and really looked at us for the first time. Very cool.

1 lb, 10 oz

Cole's weight is slowly rising, no doubt in part to being given more milk. We're very pleased with that and the doctors continue to increase the amounts. A culture taken from his lungs show a bacteria that indicates an infection. In a way it's bad and good. The good is that this may be what's been giving him the respiratory problems. And they've started him on a new antibiotic to combat it. We hope that he can knock this out soon.
I wanted to clarify on my previous post since we got a few concerned calls. The respiratory disorder is something that he will definately outgrow. It will take longer for him to come off the respirator than we had hoped for, but. So please don't be over-concerned.
Pumping milk every two hours, I'm sure Heather knows what a cow feels like. But our freezer is filling up with little milk vials, that we periodically transport to the hospital for storage. Nothing else to report. New pictures to come soon. Thank you for all your calls, cards and support.

First Setback

We had our first minor setback. Cole's respiratory development is not progressing as fast as the rest of him. He has all the symptoms of Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia (BPD). BPD occurs with newborns who need help breathing. Their tiny lungs can be damaged by the ventilator. Plus the extra oxygen pumped in inhibits the developing lungs from healing themselves properly. What this means is that Cole will need the ventilator longer than we thought, probably from a few weeks to possibly months. The good news is that most babies can slowly be weened off and breathing on their own by the time they go home.

Hand Print

This is a card the nurses did for the preemies for Thanksgiving. That's his actual handprint next to my thumb.

Thanksgiving Feast

We weren't the only one's to have a full belly on Thanksgiving. The doctor started Cole on breast milk, given through a tube into the stomach. A 1/2 cc of milk every 6 hours. Two days later that was increased to every 4 hours. He's handling it well, so they are cutting back on some of the feeding through IV. His breathing is a little better as well. He's back to a standard ventilator, with the extra oxygen decreased. He's back up to 1 lb 9 oz, so almost back to his birth weight.

Birthday: 1 week old

Today Cole turns one week old. So far, everything is going well. One of his belly button IV's was removed today. You'll notice that a temporary IV was added to his hand this week. The doctor says that this weekend they would like to start trying to feed him actual breast milk. It will be a gradual process of one drop, wait two hours, one more drop, wait two hours... until his stomach can handle more.

Daily Routine

We've settled into a routine of going to see Cole after breakfast and again after dinner. We're envious of the other parents that have had their babies in there for much longer who are able to hold and feed them from a bottle. But it's also comforting to see the successes and know that we'll be at that point soon. We are limited to staring through the glass incubator like kids in a candy store. Sometimes we can reach in and put our hands on him. The nurses say that the human touch is very comforting to babies. No other real news to report. Everything is stable. He's off the blood pressure medication, and he's pooping and peeing on his own.

Diapers

When we went to visit this morning, Heather got to change his diapers. Afterwards you couldn't wipe the smile off her face. The nurses say he's gained back some weight from the initial drop off. He's 1lb 7oz.

Heather comes home

Saturday: We get to break Heather out of the hospital. It's very emotional because we feel like we are saying goodbye to Cole, even though we live only a few minutes away. Everything is going well with him. It's more of a no-news-is-good-news. The nurses promise they will fatten him up for us. He's sustained on a "yellow IV" through the belly button that provides nutrients. The doctor hopes to move him from the respirator to a nose hose in about 7 days. This would be significant progress toward breathing on his own. In addition they will give him a coffee extract to stimulate the part of the brain that controls breathing. I wonder if he'll grow up to be a Starbucks addict now.

Mom's first look

Thursday 11/17: Heather gets to see Cole for the first time. She got a quick look in the delivery room while on her back, but this time I wheel her down to see him in the incubator.
It's very touching to see her with him for the first time.

Baby status

The neonatal doctor came back to us after a couple hours and gave us a status. Cole's lungs weren't fully developed so they have him on a respirator to help him breathe. His blood count is low so they gave him a blood transfusion. There was significant bruising, so he is high risk for yellow jaundice. To combat that they cover his eyes and put special lights on him to break up the jaundice in the skin. From an initial 100% O2 mix, they dropped it to 60%, then 30% (Humans breathe 21% normally). But other than that, he's doing well. Weight: 1 pound, 12 ounces.

Wednesday (D-Day)

Wednesday I arrived early with breakfast for Heather. I ran into Michelle Wood in the lobby and we came up together. Everything was going great. They had upped Heather's Magnesium dose again that night to counter-act the contractions, but she was in good spirits. Dr. Tio came by and heather asked if she could get up to go to the bathroom (Realize that she had been flat on her back since Monday morning). The doctor said she would examine her first. Results, Heather was fully dilated, and the baby was ready to come out.
Things started moving quickly. She was moved to the delivery room, and I got scrubs (gown, booties, mask, hair net). We were both trying to keep it together as best as possible but we were both really scared. They broke her water and prepared for a natural birth. However, as soon as the water broke, the baby flipped over into a breach birth. So the table and everyone moved into the adjacent O.R.
Heather got an epidural (I didn't watch that), and was laid on her back with both arms outstretched. I did watch the C-section, and it was fascinating. Heather really didn't feel much, but it was unbelievable how they could take organs out of her, set them on her stomach, and later put them back.
At first I saw a foot, then they brought the whole body out. I bent down and whispered to Heather "It's a boy". The baby was passed to the NeoNatal ICU team that went to work on the baby. Meanwhile Heather's doctors were sewing her up. I asked of the object sitting on her stomach "Is that the placentia?" And they said "No this is her uterus. We have to put that back inside her". To which Heather, laid out behind a curtain said "They have to put something back inside me?!"

Tuesday

Lots of visitors, including family and friends. Lots of calls and flowers. Everytime someone close to us came to visit, it was emotional. The fear of the unknown was the worst part. But the contractions subsided. Monday night they upped her Magnesium dose because the contractions increased. Thankfully Heather barely felt them. We began to believe that we would be in this tiny labor room for a long time. I left Heather at 11pm Tuesday night to go home.

At the hospital the doctor checked her and found she was dialated 3 centimeters and her water bag was bulging out of her cervix. We were told that she would not be leaving the hospital until she gave birth. So, would she be there for 3 more months? We were supposed to hope so. But the drugs they put her on to subdue the contractions made her very groggy and hot. And so sensitive to light that I brought her sunglasses to wear in the dark. I was thinking "Three months of this? We'll go crazy."
Besides the emotional meltdown from the news we received, Monday was pretty mellow.

How it started

So by popular demand, here's updated info on how our world got turned upside down and we turned into parents much sooner than we planned.

Heather's due date was February 24th. Everything was on track for that. Vacations were planned around that, our kitchen being remodeled, Heather's last day at work, etc. She was at 25 weeks, and Saturday afternoon we went to California City to camp with our friends. Early Sunday morning Heather had sharp contraction pains. We attributed them to Braxton-Hicks, or false labor contractions. She had been to see her doctor just a few days before and all was well. The pains subsided by breakfast time.
Monday morning I woke up and asked her how she was feeling. She said she was "alright" but she had pains again and would talk to her doctor. I left early and went to work. When I got there, I checked my email and there was an email from Heather saying that she was told to go to the hospital as a precaution and her doctor would meet her there. I left work knowing this would be a huge waste of time for false labor again.