FAREWELL AND GOOD NIGHT

Dear Friends and Family,

It is November 29th and I am still not supposed to have seen the world for another 16 days. However, I decided I was ready 2 months ago. I want to thank everyone for following the blog and keeping track of my daily updates. Some were good and some could have been better, but we made it through. I am a growing boy and doing better and better everyday. I never beep on my monitor and I am doing better with bottling. Other than that, I sleep and poop. What a life! Oh, and I LOVE to snuggle. It will be a while before too many people can snuggle with me though...I am still very fragile and can't afford to get sick. I really don't want to go back to the hospital. Please email my mom (megehrman@gmail.com) if you would like some new pics and updates.

Again, thanks again to EVERYONE who has followed my blog and watched me grow from a little peanut into a big boy! Someday I will read this and really learn about all my fans, and you have never even met me yet!

Love to all and good night (hopefully I won't keep Mommy and Daddy up all night),
Justin

WE SURVIVED...BARELY!

Just kidding. I am sure last night was like most first nights home with a new baby. We were up most of the night feeding and changing and everything else that comes with a newborn. It was all worth it and it was SO nice to finally have all of us together. 

Today we went to the doctor's office to get a baseline weight for Justin. He is 6 lbs 3.5 ounces. Every scale is different so they wanted us to weigh him on his doctor's scale so when we go back for his immunizations on Monday they can make sure he is gaining weight. He is 18 inches long as well. We also had a home care nurse come to our house this afternoon for his RSV shot. I felt terrible and he cried for a minute but did just fine. He has to have one a month until April. This is to help protect him from getting a cold which can be a lot harder on preemies than anyone else. Other than that, he has been sleeping and eating today...and so have we! 

JUST THE THREE OF US...6 if you include the pets!

WE'RE HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!! All of us!!

Check out the pictures and Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Don't worry, I will still post some stuff in the next couple days...I am sure everyone will be wondering how the first night will go! :)

CHECK, CHECK, CHECK

So far so good on things! Today has been an extremely busy and long day (especially for mom)! I stayed the night at the hospital and was up feeding Justin at midnight and 4:30am. He normally gets a feeding at 3am but literally has never woken up for that (which is FINE with me!) but he did wake up a little later. We started our day at 8am doing monitor training and infant CPR. The monitor is pretty easy and extremely LOUD! We certainly won't be sleeping through any alarms. We learned the basics of CPR and will hopefully never ever have to use it. Jason knew everything already because he is certified for work and is experiened but it was good to learn and refresh. After our class the monitor guy came down and fitted Justin for his monitor and equipment. Next, we had the nutritionist talk to us about what he will go home with and the fact that we should bottle him at least twice per day and fortify those bottles with Similac Neosure. Then we had to quickly feed Justin and take him up for his car seat evaluation. They did about 30 minutes of car seat safety training with us in the beginning and then plopped Justin in his seat. He was to sit there for one hour and not dip below 80%. There are alot of reasons they might dip below...pooping, grunting, etc. Or, of course, if they just desat on their own and simply aren't ready for car seat yet. They don't care what he is doing, he still can't dip below. So, he sat there for 56 minutes (4 minutes away from passing), had a HUGE poop, and failed. We got him out, I fed him a little snack, changed his diaper, and the lady let him try again. But, he had to do the full hour all over...poor dude! Anyway, he passed!!! Phew! The other thing we are working on is his blood pressure. It has been a little wacky lately and they want to make sure to address that before he goes home. He had a kidney ultrasound after his car seat eval. Apparently if there is a major blood pressure issue they can figure it out by that ultrasound. No problems there though. The nurses will take his blood pressure throughout the night and see what they find. Sometimes even the wrong size cuff can make it higher than it should be. The doctor has ordered labs for the morning and we will make a decision tomorrow about discharge. If there are more labs that need to be taken for the blood pressure issue, tomorrow might not be the home free day. And that is fine, we certainly want to get everything taken care of before he comes home. Either way, it should be in the next few days...we hope.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. We have the best family and friends and are so thankful to have everyone in our lives!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

AD LIB

Ok, today we have TONS of news. I got to the hospital around noon to feed Justin and the doctor was rounding when I was feeding him. He said he would come back. I told him that Justin was wondering when he was going to let him go home. Dr. Maynard said that he takes bribes. What kind of bribes? Milk chocolate. I said that can be arranged.

So, after Justin was rounded on, Dr. Maynard spun around in his chair and said that he was making an EXECUTIVE DECISION!! Take the NG (feeding) tube out, feed him ad lib (whenever he wants, the amount he wants), discharge on Thursday. HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO US!!!! However, he has alot to prove in the next couple days. He needs to be able to eat...he can't go longer than 4 hours, he has to pass his car seat evaluation tomorrow, get his immunizations tomorrow, we have to do monitor training (nothing to do with Justin), all while keeping his O2 sats up. So far so good. I have been at the hospital since his 3pm feeding and plan to stay the night. They have little hotel rooms for parents to stay in so I will stay so I can do his feedings throughout the night. Jason has been at SWAT training all day and will stay at home for the dog tonight. Tomorrow night, we will get one LAST night's sleep and then it's all over from there (sleep wise of course)...we absolutely can't wait to have him all to ourselves!!!!!

Sometimes the immunizations set them back a little so we will have to see how Justin reacts to his shots. If we have to wait an extra day or two it won't be the end of the world. We will just see how things go over the next 24 hours and hopefully we will be home free!

Oh, by the way, Dr. Maynard got a WHOLE box of milk chocolate when I came back for the 3pm feeding. :)

LET'S TRY AGAIN

Today is the first day that Justin didn't get his caffeine dose. He should be ok and grown out of his spells by now. At least we are doing one thing at a time this time around. He is up to 6 lbs 2 ounces now. It is so fun because he is a lot more awake now that he has been in the past. I went today at noon to feed him, he stayed awake the whole time, and for about an hour afterwards. I unhooked him from all of his monitors and we went for a walk down the hallway, visited the doctor, looked outside, and so much more. He loves exploring and checking out new things and is so alert and awake throughout it all. After about two hours of being awake he usually passes out for a while but that's ok. As of tonight (sorry for the late post by the way), he has eaten two bottles in a row and LOVES to bottle his pear juice (most of the time they put it in his tube). He drank the milk nice and slow but once he got the pear juice it was only a matter of seconds before that was gone! It's like a sweetie times 10! YUM!

ONE AT A TIME

As we are working on getting things checked off the list, we checked another off today. It was the last day for caffeine and we'll see how this goes...again. But, this time we are only doing one medication at a time. I am hoping it goes better this time because we are taking it away one at a time. He is doing well on his feedings but is still sometimes too tired to eat. He slept through his noon feeding but has taken all the others. Today he is 6 lbs exactly still. A few grams more but not quite 6 lbs 1 ounce yet. Everything has heeled from his circ on Friday and he doesn't seem uncomfortable anymore. Yesterday he was 8 weeks old! Hopefully he continues to eat this week, we have the training and car seat evaluation on Wednesday, and that's all before he gets to go home. It's a new doc tomorrow so we'll see what he has to say about timing.

A 6 POUNDER

Yes, today we hit 6 pounds!!! And, all Justin is doing these days is eating and growing. We really don't have any new news. He has been doing great at almost all of his feedings but every once in a while he will just sleep right through one! Yesterday was a hard and busy day for him so I am sure he is catching up from that. He went for his first walk today with his nurse. He was wide awake so she took him for a little walk around the unit. How fun to not be connected to any machines and to see new things! Dr. Mary is thinking about taking him off his caffeine tomorrow. We will give it another try and this time just take away only one medication at a time. I am sure he will do just fine. 

ONE DOWN...A FEW MORE TO GO

Today we checked one more item off our list of things to do. It wasn't the most exciting thing...but, it's done. Justin had his circumcision today and did very well. Didn't even cry! I thought I might though...just kidding. They gave him some Tylenol before the procedure, numbed the area of course, and had him suck on sweeties (sugar water on a pacifier-it blocks the pain for babies). The doctor said it went great. He didn't quite make it to 6 lbs today but we are so close!

Next week we will be really busy. Of course we have Thanksgiving...and boy do we have a lot to be thankful for! But, he will also be checking more items off his list in order to come home. As always, on the top of the list is to keep eating, more and more each day. And today they scheduled his car seat evaluation and also a home monitor and infant CPR education session for us. That will all be happening next Wednesday. We have to be trained on the monitor that he will be coming home with and what to do if it goes off. He will only have to be on the monitor when we aren't watching him which is nice. I will be ready to get rid of all the cords and wires! More pictures to come later tonight :) 

ZONE 3

Justin had his eye exam this morning and everything went great. Both of his eyes are in Zone 3 which is the closest to mature you can get but not quite fully mature yet. It makes sense though, because he still shouldn't even be born for another month. So, I am thinking that by then his eyes will be totally mature. They will check again in three weeks but saw no ROP or anything problems today. Don't worry, we should be out of there before three weeks from now. We will probably just have to bring him back. He is 5 lbs 15.5 ounces today and doing great. I thought he would be WAY too tired for any feedings on his own today after his eye exam but he was up for most of them...at least when I was there! Dr. Mary decided to do his circ tomorrow (as long as they aren't too busy in the unit) and I am sure that will really stress and tire him out. Hopefully he does ok. After that, he should be in the clear for a while as far as procedures. Phew!

That's all for today!

TWO IN A ROW

Things are going well today, nothing really new. Justin gained 5 grams today. I am guessing we won't have any large weight gains anytime soon because he burns more calories eating now. We didn't change any of his orders today although he did get some drops for one of his eyes. He has a clogged tear duct (not a big deal AT ALL) and it just makes his eye water more than it should. So, we got him some drops and Dr. Mary taught me how to massage around his eye to get the duct to open up. The big news for the day is that he did two full feedings in a row. We have been doing every other but today he did a full feeding for me at noon and then he bottle for the nurse at 3. Then, by the time I got there tonight he was so tired he didn't even think about waking up for his 6pm cares or feeding. Oh well. That would have been three feedings in a row...kind of a lot to ask at this point. I'm not quite sure how the feedings will go tomorrow. He might be pretty tired from his eye exam but we'll see! Keep your fingers crossed for fully mature eyes tomorrow!!

A DAY OF NOTHING IS BETTER THAN SOMETHING

I have learned that days with NO news are great days. No news is good news when you are a preemie in the hospital. I literally have nothing to blog about today. He is the same weight as yesterday, his O2 sats are still consistently around 100%, and everything is in working order. There were no changes by the doc either. On the agenda for this week: eye exam on Thursday (hopefully the last one), circumcision on Saturday (yikes!), and I think he will be getting his vaccinations sometime soon. That might be next week though. And, he still has to remember to breathe and eat on top of all of that. It's a lot of work for a little guy but I am sure he will do great! Oh yeah, and we got all cleaned up today with another bath. Of course he had to poop in the tub this time. Fun stuff!  :)

100%

Justin is having a great day and had a great night last night. Since he got his nasal cannula off he has been at 100% O2 sats for almost the whole time. He bounces around a little, as we all do, but can keep it up around 100% most of the time. He is 5 lbs 12 ounces today and 17 3/4 inches long. The doctor told me today that she expects him home in the next two weeks for sure. Could be a few days from now...could be 2 weeks or more. But, that is what she is anticipating. Literally, all he needs to do is eat every meal. He still gets pretty tuckered out so we are continuing feeding him every other in his tube, but I am thinking pretty soon he will take more and more on his own. That's all for today. No changes for him and no new orders from the doc. 

BACK TO BEFORE

Today we are finally back to where we were before all the shinanigans this week. Actually, even better. Justin got his cannula off today and has been doing great without it. They changed his feedings to "bottle as tolerated" meaning if he seems awake during cares and wants to eat, they will bottle him (as long as I am not there). But, if he is too tired they will just let him rest. He did take quite a few bottles today so by the time we got there for his 6pm feeding he was awake but seemed really tired. So, we did a half-feeding and "NG'd" the rest (in his tube). The doc said he is doing great and the lasix is really helping him! He gained 5 grams today and seems to not have to work so hard to breathe. Tomorrow we will get a new rounding doctor although she isn't really new to us. We had her last week and really like her. I am sure she will be impressed by Justin's progress even though we had a minor set back. 

PACING

Justin is doing so well with his bottles! He has been awake enough to get one every other feeding and the nurse said he does great at pacing himself. He takes a few drinks and then sits and breathes for a bit and then drinks again. This is a new trick that he is just learning so by the end of his feeding he is a bit tired. That is why we will stick to every other for now. His weight was down 50 grams today which is what we expected. He needed to lose some of that water weight and he finally did. Jason gave him his first bottle at the noon feeding and they both did great. It was the first time Jason has ever given him (or any other baby for that matter) a bottle and he said it was a lot more work than he thought it would be. And, it is! But, he enjoyed it and I am sure he will bottle him again any chance he gets. The pear juice he has been on is finally in his system and has him up and running. In fact, we went through 4 diapers at the noon cares, but that's ok. You know you are a mom when you get excited about poop. :) The doctor stopped by while we were there and said that Justin will be back off his cannula tomorrow. He just wanted to give him one extra day just in case. He has been in room air since yesterday so by tomorrow he will be more than ready. What a relief to have everything back on track and headed in the right direction. It makes for a very happy mom and dad! 

BACK ON TRACK

Phew! Today we are back on track! Justin is back to room air and is doing great. The doctor is pleased with how quickly he turned things around and is confident that he made the right moves to get him back on the meds that he needed. He was also a bit curious about the decisions that were made by the nurse practitioner. But, that is neither here nor there at this point and all that matters is that Justin is getting what he needs. He took his full bottle this morning at 9am and did a full feeding for me at 6pm. He also got a bath today so he is nice and clean and fluffy (his hair gets fluffy when it's clean). He is up to 5 lbs 12 ounces today. He got 2 doses of lasix in the 24 hour period today to get him back on track so his weight might be down a bit tomorrow, but we'll see.

This weekend Jason and I are going to put Justin's car seat together. They want us to bring it to the hospital so they can be ready for his car seat evaluation. We're getting closer and closer everyday :)

Justin is finally big enough that Grandmas and Grandpas can hold him and rock with him. See pics. We are excited for Grandma Sharon to get rid of her cold and feel better so she can snuggle with him too!!

A LITTLE BACKWARDS

Today has been a long day. A couple days ago, Justin got a new rounding nurse practitioner that made some odd decisions for him. Since then, we have switched back to the doctors by our request but things have gone a little haywire. He is back on his cannula and needing a little bit of air (which is fine). But, so many things were changed all at once, it is hard to tell what exactly he still needs and what he has grown out of. I spoke with the doctor today and he decided to put him back on everything he was on a few days ago and we will gradually stop things as he grows out of them. A much better idea!!!

So, a minor set back but he should be back on track by tomorrow. It's just frustrating and makes for a long day when you are trying to get things put back together. So, I am hoping that when I show up tomorrow he is doing much better and we are headed in the right direction. 

Other than that, nothing new. 5 lbs 11 ounces today!

A FULL BOTTLE

Last night, Justin got another bottle at midnight to work on his one bottle per day. He ate the WHOLE thing!! He was pretty tired this morning when I got there. This eating thing is hard work...it's much easier to just all of a sudden have a full tummy and not have to work for it! But, he is ready to eat at every feeding and sucks the air if he is not getting a bottle. So, we switched the order today to give him a bottle at every feeding that he is awake and I am not there. If he is really sleepy during one of the feeding times, that's fine, they will just let him sleep and give the milk through his feeding tube. We met with the lady in charge of discharges and she talked about all the things that still need to take place before he goes home. He will have a car seat evaluation in the next couple weeks to make sure he doesn't drop his O2 levels while sitting in his seat. I am supposed to bring his car seat in one of these days so we have it ready for the evaluation. He will have to sit in it for one hour with monitors on and not drop below 80%. And, of course, we have to be on full feedings at every meal before he can go home. He is doing great as his caffeine wears off although his O2 levels are a little crazy as he is getting used to it.  No worries though, the doctor is confident that he won't need to go home with oxygen. 

Justin has grown out of almost all of his preemie clothes (only a few outfits still fit) and is into the newborn stuff. The newborn outfits are way too big for him but that's ok. They will last for a little while at least.

NO MORE COFFEE... JUST KIDDING

I forgot to mention yesterday that they stopped Justin's caffeine doses. We will see if he was ready for that. Only time will tell. He seems to be doing just fine but the caffeine in his system doesn't wear off for about a week. If he starts having spells or dropping his O2 levels, he will be back on the caffeine. It's really not a big deal to be back on it, but he has to be off caffeine for 2 weeks before he goes home in order to not have to be monitored at home. That wouldn't be the end of the world either, but it would be nice to have no monitors once we come home. We would only have to monitor him when we aren't watching him like at night or when he rides in his car seat. So far so good though. He had a hearing test last night and the nurse said he passed that with flying colors! And, he is still doing well with bottle and breast feeding. They want to get full feedings established with breast feeding before they do more than one bottle a day. He is still eating about half and then needing the other half in his feeding tube. But, he is only 35 weeks today and they don't expect the eating thing to really click until 36+ weeks. Even full term babies sometimes have a hard time with it. He is doing very well though and moving right along! 

ALL CLEANED UP

5 lbs 6.5 ounces today and 17.5 inches long. Getting bigger by the minute. I had a preemie onesie at the hospital to put on him today and it just barely fits. Some of them still do but the one he has on today will probably only get worn once. :)

Not a whole lot new today. Justin had a bath and got all cleaned up because he hasn't had one in about a week. It's not like babies really get dirty so you don't want to bathe them too much and dry out their skin. We are still working on feedings and he is going to have his bottle this evening at the 6pm feeding. He is finally completely off his cannula and we took the stickers off this morning. He has nothing left on his face except for his feeding tube. I never thought this day would actually come! So, over the next couple weeks all we have to do is get him eating every meal on his own and then he will come home!!! We just can't wait for the day we actually can bring him home and spend every second of the day with him. No more back and forth! 

Check out the new pictures. My dad took some GREAT ones today!

IT'S BOTTLE TIME

Justin is still going without his cannula on. They will keep it on hand just in case but we should be done with it! They are going to take the stickers off his face tonight that keep the cannula on. They can always put the stickers back on if need be but hopefully we won't even need it! He also got a bottle for the first time today at noon. The doctor said that normally babies eat about 1 tsp or just a few sips the first time they try a bottle. Not Justin, he ate half of his feeding from the bottle! 20 mls from the bottle and then they gave him the rest in his feeding tube because he got tired. They will continue to give him one bottle per day and add more as he gets better with it! Plus, we will still work on breast feeding as well. Apparently preemies are better switching back and forth than full term babies. He is 5 lbs 5 ounces today and his favorite nurse from the NICU came to visit! She was so impressed that he had his cannula off and thought he looked great! 

NO MORE O2

Well, today is a great day! Justin got his nasal cannula taken off today and is actually doing better than when he had it on. He was on such a low flow that I think he is breathing better without the stuff up his nose. He gained one ounce today and is up to 5 lbs 4 ounces. He is getting so big and long that he is out growing some of his preemie clothes already. I didn't think that day would ever come! We will donate some of his stuff to the NICU tomorrow. I also didn't think that he would ever stop having apnea spells because we got so used to them but he hasn't had a spell in about a week! Everything is going so well, now he just has to complete his final and most challenging task...eating on his own. The doctor ordered one bottle today. So, I will feed him every time I go during the day/evening and the nurses will add one bottle (of breast milk) at one of the feedings that I am not there. He might not do much eating right away but you have to start somewhere, right? 

Check out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eN8Fftm0290

PEAR JUICE

Nothing new today except for pear juice. Justin is doing great, needing the smallest amount of O2 possible, and eating like a champ. He is still getting his food in his feeding tube but he does better and better everyday on his own. He will get a bottle in the next couple days so we will see how he does with that. They also started him on 5 mls of pear juice, once in the morning and once in the evening. He seems to work so hard to poop and apparently the pear juice will help get things moving. That's all for today. Nothing exciting. Happy Friday!!!

BRIGHT EYES

We had a lot going on today in ICC. It was Justin's second eye exam this morning. He really didn't like it although I don't think anyone really would. They said his eyes are still immature but getting better and moving in the right direction. They describe the maturity in zones. Zone 1 is really immature, zone 2 is where he should be at this point (somewhere in the middle), zone 3 is the next step and then his eyes are considered mature after he passes zone 3. One of his eyes is zone 2 and one is zone 3. I guess it is pretty common to have one eye develop differently than the other. So, his eyes are maturing the way (if not better) than expected and they will check again in 2 weeks. And, no signs of ROP...that's the best part! Also, they are going to start weening him off his nasal cannula. They wanted to try it today but decided not to because of his eye exam. The exams are really hard on babies and they really tire them out! We will wait until tomorrow to work on getting his cannula off. But, he is still sitting at room air if not a little above. Other than that, he looks great and is doing well!

BATH TIME!

Justin got a bath today for the first time in a real tub. Before now, he has been too small and we just bathed him in a small basin. He got to use the real baby tub today and was rather cranky during the washing. Once he got warm water poured on him he thought that was pretty nice but until then, he wasn't having it! So, he is nice and clean and his hair gets fluffy after a bath. 

The doc didn't say much today other than he looks great. The lasix seems to really be helping with his water retention and he is still gaining weight, but for sure the correct way. He is 5 lbs 2 ounces today. I decided to bring some of his own preemie clothes to the hospital because at this rate, he will have grown out of them by the time he gets to come home! They are much cuter than what the hospital has! They turned his flow down to an eighth of a liter and that is as far down as it goes before they take it off completely. They will keep him on this for a while now until he is down to room air almost all the time. He seems to be tolerating it just fine and is still only around 26% O2....and room air when he is on his tummy. Other than that, nothing new. I tried to get a good bath picture today but wasn't successful. Maybe next time!

FIVE

Guess who hit a new milestone today?!?!? Justin is 5 lbs 1 ounce!!! He's huge (to us at least). He's had a great day. They did an EKG on him to check him heart and everything looks great. There is a valve in our hearts that closes usually a couple days after we are born but preemies need medicine to close it. Sometimes the medicine doesn't work so they were just checking to make sure it was taken care of. Everything looked good. He is getting his lasix once a day for the time being because he is still retaining a little extra water. It's not to the point where it sounds like it is in his lungs but they also don't want it to get to that point either. He will grow out of that soon too. His flow was turned down to a quarter-liter today and he is not requiring any more O2 then before. He is doing great and they will continue to ween him down and then wait for him to get to room air. At that point they will be able to take him off his cannula. His feeding practice is going well and he did his best ever today. We will practice more tomorrow, probably twice. Justin is also getting a bath tomorrow morning. Jason has the day off so we will head down before his noon feeding and help with that! 

ALMOST 34 WEEKS

I was thinking today...I could still be in the hospital from when I was admitted on September 16th. They told me that I would either deliver at 34 weeks or whenever he came. Well, tomorrow would have been 34 weeks and Justin's due date if he didn't decide to come early. It probably would have been easier on him if he stayed inside but he has done great and he kept his mom out of the loony bin by coming early and getting me out of the hospital...just kidding, of course. I would have stayed as long as I could to keep him growing inside the "right" way but he was ready for the world!

He is doing great today. He gained 10 grams (less than an ounce) which is probably a good thing. He has been gaining so much weight this week that they needed him to slow down a bit. The lasix (thanks for the correct spelling, Terry) helped quite a bit. Today they reduced his flow to half a liter and he has been doing just fine on his O2 needs. They expect that he might need a little more since he is on less flow but so far he is just needing 25-30% which is normal for him. He hasn't had any spells in a while which could mean he is starting to grow out of them. Yay! 34 weeks is kind of the time frame when things start really coming together for these little guys. He should start getting more interested in eating on his own so we will continue to practice with that.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN A DAY LATE

Yesterday was my first day I haven't blogged since Justin was born. Everything is fine, there was just a lot going on yesterday so I didn't have a chance to blog.

Justin is doing so well! He is up to 4 lbs 13 ounces but is looking a little puffy today. He might be retaining a little water but that is normal for preemies and they will give him some lasics (sp?) to get rid of the extra water. They did an X-Ray to make sure he didn't have any fluid in his lungs and everything came back clear. They also took an X-Ray of his tummy because it was looking full but nothing to worry about there. Sometimes the air from the high-flow makes his tummy full. He has been on room air today and is doing well with it. They will take him off high-flow at some time today and put him on a regular cannula. He should just need a little flow as they ween off the air and O2. Other than that, nothing new.