Where does time go???

Wow, I can't believe June is almost gone! What a month this has been! We are so happy to all be home as a family. I am LOVING being a stay-at-home-mom (for a little while). There are so many funny things that happen during the day when you are at home with a newborn and a two year old. Check out the pictures of Bella. One day she decided to walk around with Thomas's bib on and her hat. She wouldn't take them off and wore them all afternoon (even when we had visitors to see Thomas). Another day, she walked out of my bedroom wearing my boots that she had dug out of our closet. She was so proud of the boots and wore them around for a little bit until I convinced her that she couldn't wear them out of the house (we were going to the store). Our little man is growing like a weed. We took him to the doctor on Wednesday and he weighed 7 lbs. 6 oz. I can't wait to post more...I have a feeling it is going to be a fun summer!

Thomas is HOME!

Well, we brought Thomas home yesterday. It was such an exciting day! Isabella was excited to meet and spend time with her baby brother. She is such a wonderful helper. She likes helping burp him, feed him, and even change his diaper. It has been so much fun having him home today. Everything is looking good with him. We took him for his first check-up at the doctor today. Everything sounded and looked normal. We go back next week for one more check and then hopefully we will get on the normal check-up schedule. The only follow-up that we have from this is we will have to take him to a pediatric cardiologist at 6 months. This will be where they check the hole that is in his heart chambers. They assure us that this is something that will clear up hopefully by then if not, it should clear up by the time he is three. So, everything is looking good for our little man. Thanks for all the prayer and support. This has been a tough two weeks but we made it through and we are all home together! :)

New Pictures

Another Great Day!

This looks easy so I figured I would give it a try instead of Jamie this time. We have had even more amazing days with Thomas! Yesterday they removed the nasal canter from his nose, so he has been breathing room air on his own and is not having any trouble at all with it. His feeding tube has also been moved from his mouth to his nose. They did this because today, for the first time, Jamie was able to nurse Thomas. He ate for almost 45 minutes, and he really did great. They told us today that as long as he continues to eat with no problems, he will be able to come home in another four days or so...sweet! The Lord has truly blessed us these last ten days, and it is so amazing to see how things have come full circle with our little man. Thanks for the prayers, as they are without a doubt the reason he has healed so quickly. There have been many days that the doctor has told us that Thomas has healed quicker than he should have, or that he has moved off of this machine sooner than he should have, and it is totally because of what the Lord has done. Thanks so much, and we will continue to keep you all updated as much as we can. Just a few more days..!!!

Back in LEXINGTON!!

Thomas made a safe trip back to Lexington Special Care. We visited him tonight and he was doing great. We are hoping to get him free of everything tomorrow (no more IV and no more nose canter). After that, we just have have to wait on his respitory rate to slow a little more so we can work on feeding. He had slowed down more today so hopefully feeding is just around the corner. He is enjoying his tube feedings and has moved up to eating 40 cc. They keep increasing his food amount every couple of feedings.

One Week!

Well today we celebrated Thomas's one week birthday! He has hung in and been a tough little guy for a full week and is really doing great. He didn't get transferred today because the NICU was too busy. He is scheduled to get transferred early tomorrow morning. His oxygen pressure has been reduced down to 1.5 and so they will most likely remove his nose canter in the morning once he is settled at Lexington. His respitory rates have also begun to calm down. He was breathing at a rate of 60 at 8 tonight. Once he gets below 60 we are told that they will begin bottle feeding him. His tube feedings have tripled in amount since yesterday! My little man can eat! He is supposed to be feed a full ounce at midnight tonight. He is eating almost as fast as I can pump! :) So...all we have is good news to report. I will update tomorrow about how the transfer to Lexington went!

Not too much to report today. Things are looking good and he is starting to get the hang of breathing on his own. His respitory rates are down and that is what we need to happen in order to start feeding him with a bottle. I got to hold him today for about an hour. While I was holding him, he opened his eyes and looked at me. He kept staring at both me and Shaun. So, we felt like he recognized who we were. We also got to help tube feed him and change a poopy diaper. The talk is that he may get to moved back to Lexington tomorrow. Richaland has had a lot of new arrivals and since he is doing so much better they want to move him back. Lexington is a level 2 nursery and since he no longer requires as much care, he can go back there. This would also be good for us. The 40 min. drive to Richland is beginning to take a toll on us. I can't imagine how some parents do it for months. We are having to wait on all his test results tomorrow to make sure he is good to go before they transfer him. Shaun and I were a little hesitant on the transfer but they insist that he is doing fine and that he will mainly be there in order to work on feeding. Apparently feeding for babies with respitory problems can be a problem. So...I guess it is a wait and see thing. Just say a little prayer that if he does move back to lexington, that he will handle the transport okay. Transport was what was so scary for us last time so we are a little scared of that. They assure us that he will be fine!

Another GOOD day!

Well, we had another good day! Last night, they took Thomas's ventilator tube out. He is doing great and now breathing on his own. Today they removed his chest tube. He also was able to eat for the first time today (he is being tube feed first). And, if that is not enough, we got to HOLD him for the first time today! :) That was really exciting for us. It was a complete surprise and probably the best feeling in the world. He is doing really good and making huge leaps of progress in short amounts of time. The nurses tell us that it is a miracle that he is doing so well so fast. We know that it is everyone's prayers that are making these amazing things happen. We are hoping that his respitory rate will slow down a bit. He is breathing on his own but he sometimes "forgets" to breath and takes lots of breaths to catch up. Once he can figure this out and his respitory rate slows down, they will begin feeding him with a bottle and letting me nurse him. Of course we can't wait for that to happen because after that, the next step is home.

Exciting Day!

Well what a good day! We went to visit Thomas this morning and found that he is close to being off of his ventilator. He is also close to being able to have his chest tube removed. We are very happy about this news. All of the tests they have done today have come back with good reports. So, it looks like our little man is on his way to making a full recovery. I was so excited today because I got to change his diaper. Who would have ever thought that one would be so excited to change a diaper. It was the best feeling in the world to finally be able to do something to take care of my little guy.
We have just so overwhelmed with the prayers and support of others. We have had so many people praying for us, offering support to us, and going out of thier way to show their concern. WOW! Thanks to everyone for everything. The prayers truly are working and we are just so blessed to have so many people around who love us. We will keep updating and hope to have more pictures to share soon. Keep praying that we will continue to get good news! We are hoping that he will be able to handle having the different supports taken away and not have to go back on anything once things are removed!

I forgot to mention that they are going to do another echocardiogram in the morning to check to make sure his pulmanary artery has opened up. If this has happened, they will be able to unhook him from the nitrogen oxcide that he is taking. We are praying for good news!

GOD IS GOOD!

Wow! What a difference 24 hours and lots of prayer can make. Our little man is finally beginning to show some improvement. Last night, he was showing us how tough he was by trying to breath on his own with the ventilator. We got the results we were waiting on this morning. They did a chest x-ray around 6AM this morning and it looks like his pneumothorax (the tear in his lung that causes air pockets in his chest cavity) has healed. So this is great news. The next step is to work down the ventilator oxygen rate and hopefully get that out (he has to show that he can breath 21% oxygen which is room air and right now, he is breathing at 25%). After that, they will be able to remove his chest tube.
So, we are now waiting to see how it goes today as they cut down the oxygen level. When we left, he was beginning to respond to sound and touch. I touch his little leg for the first time and he opened his eyes and looked at me. That was the first time, he's really responded to us. It looks like they have finally found the combination of things that he needs in order to get better. Thanks so much for all of the prayer and support. It truly is working. Keep praying for our little man to keep improving. GOD IS SO GOOD! :)

Update #2

Well...what a day! Whew! We started out really rough this morning. Our little man tried to scare us twice today but pulled through both times. He was transferred to Richland NICU around 8:30 this morning. He was check in and stabilized. He had to be intabated but is now able to rest and just let his body recover. He was given a shot of surfactin (to help his lungs produce surfactin that was lost due to burst air pockets in his lungs). He was also given nitro oxcide to help his pulminary artery open back up (the artery that runs from your heart to your lung). It was beginning to close due to the stress he was under with not being able to breath. PRAISE GOD he was given these two things because all of a sudden, he has made a lot of progress. His oxygen levels have been dropped from 100% to 30% (normal room air is 21%) so he is almost able to breath at normal air level. He looks SO much better. While he has a good ways to go, it is good to finally hear some good news! He seems to be doing a little bit better so we will just take each hour one step at a time.
Thanks for all of the prayers. They are working! :) Keep praying for our little man. He is proving that he is a strong little boy.
We are heading back to Richland later on tonight so I hope to have more pictures to share.

Thomas Update

Well, our little man arrived into the world Tuesday night around 7:15. He came out screaming like a little champ but then started having some problems breathing. One lung collapsed and he had an air leak in each lung. He has been under and oxygen helmet for over a day now and one lung has repaired itself. The other lung is still not wanting to cooperate so....they just inserted a chest tube so that they can suck the air out of his lungs and not make him work so hard to breath. We are praying that this will work. He is tiring out and just not making too much improvement. Please keep praying that our little man will keep being tough! I will keep posting updates as we know more.