One step closer to home

Well, it has been awhile since my last entry, but there is not too much to update everyone on. He did have a minor setback last week with some more fluid so his weight has been bouncing around. He was 3 lbs 14 ozs and I was so sure that he would hit 4 pounds over the weekend, but they ended up giving him lasix Thursday and he lost 5 ounces!!!! He dropped all the way to 3lbs 9 ozs and then climbed to 3.13 and dropped to 3.11 and is now 3.12. Hopefully, he will get this under control and start gaining steadily again.

They tested his eyes again (every Monday) and he has jumped now to Stage 2/Zone 2 for ROP (Retinopathy of Prematurity) so they are monitoring this more closely. Stages 3, 4 and 5 are serious and often require surgery. Some babies can hit Stage 2 and then level off and never need the surgery so we are hopeful, but if not this is a very minor side effect of being so immature.

They are starting to wean Jacob off his oxygen and because of all the fluid he has had they have put him on chronic diuretics. This will hopefully help him wean off the oxygen and still help him get rid of all the excess fluid! We received our "congratulations on graduating the NICU" package last week which means they are getting him ready to be transferred to Plymouth! This is great news and one more step towards home!

I will post some new pictures soon. He changes so much and so often that I doubt most of you will even believe it is him when you see the new pics!

Attempting to nurse

Last night we hit another milestone, breastfeeding!!! Jacob passed out after about 30-40 minutes, but he would take 5-6 long sucks and then rest for 5 minutes or so.

We tried again for one of his feedings today and this time he made it almost an entire hour and he was sucking most of the time. He took some short pauses in between, but did a lot better than he did last night. The nurses are impressed with how well he is doing with it.

He is now 3 lbs 13 ozs and should hit 4 pounds by the end of this weekend! Stay tuned for that announcement!

That is all for today!

Baby Shower

Well, Jacob is now back on nasal cannula! He sounds like he has a bit of a cold which I hope he fights off because a common cold can be very serious for babies as small as he is. I'm sure he will do anything in his power to fight it off because he certainly hates the nurses coming near him with that nasal aspirator!

He is 12 grams away from 3 lbs 9 oz so he is just 3 and a half pounds today and growing leaps and bounds every day!

Yesterday was my baby shower (I should have been 33 weeks pregnant!) and it turned out to be a beautiful day! Jacob is very loved and so many people turned out and showed up with very generous gifts for which we are extremely grateful. He has everything he will need and then some! I want to publically thank my Aunt Pam (Jacob's GREAT Aunt....I'm sure she hates hearing that!!) and my BFF Kelly for hosting my shower. I can tell a lot of hard work went into it and I appreciate everything they did!

Hopefully, Jacob is on nasal cannula for good now! I will have more updates later this week! Hopefully we will be posting a 4 pound update soon!

Collapsed air sacs

Well, it turns out Jacob did not have an infection after all! His poor little air sacs in his lungs collapsed again. :(

It all makes sense to us now because he sounded almost like he was wheezing when we were there Sunday and that would be why. They pulled him off nasal cannula around 7 PM on Sunday night and he was instantly better. The nurses were pretty impressed that he made it a whole week without having to go back on CPAP so we will just call that his warm up. They are hoping that in a week or so they can try weaning him off again (hopefully for good!).

In the meantime, they have stopped his antibiotics since he doesn't have an infection and they are still feeding him with no problems. He was up to 3 lb 2 oz as of last night! Until next time....

Back on CPAP....

Jacob had a pretty rough day today. They think he has an infection and because of this he was having more spells than usual. He made it until 7 o'clock tonight (5 hours away from being off CPAP for one week) and had to go back on CPAP. The infection is draining him of all the energy he has and making it harder for him to breathe on his own. They started him on a round of antibiotics late this afternoon so hopefully once the meds kick in and maybe a week back on CPAP he'll catch up with where he was. They have decided to continue with his feeds unless he gets any worse so hopefully this will not effect his growth.

Other than that there isn't much news to report, but we will keep you updated on Jacob's condition. Hopefully, he can kick this thing and be back on track shortly.

THREE POUNDS!!!!!!

Drumroll please......

Jacob weighed 3 lbs 1 oz as of last night! He has finally hit our next goal of 3 pounds!!! There is, of course, some not so good news to go along with this. He has fluid in his lungs again . They did a chest x-ray this morning and he looked "a little puffy" so they gave him more lasix this morning to help him try and pee out the excess. We are still pretty happy because he has been gaining an ounce a day for the past 4 or 5 days which is what he should be doing, so last night he should have been 2 lb 15 oz so he would have been right on track to hit 3 lbs tonight either way. I am also sad to report that his weight gain has all gone to is face so my little Mr. Magoo is no more. He now has a perfectly round, chubby, little baby face. Check out the three new pictures for proof!

Jacob also had a procedure yesterday to examine his kidneys which have looked a little swollen. They were concerned he might have reflux of his kidneys. This is when urine backs up from the valves back into the kidneys which can then cause them to look swollen on the ultrasound. If this was the case he would require surgery to repair the valves. If he did not have reflux they said they will just monitor him and have him come in for a follow-up in about 6 months. Fortuately, he does NOT have reflux .

Jacob is my hero! He is working so hard to beat all the odds and I am so proud. He has a long road ahead of him, but with God's help I think he'll do just fine.

Thank you again for all the cards, comments, e-mails, etc. Ian and I appreciate every single one of them! Stay tuned for another update later this week.

Our next goal: Moving to Jordan Hospital in Plymouth!!

Another renal ultrasound

As of last night, Jacob weighed 2 lb 13 oz!! He has been gaining an ounce a day the past few days which is exactly what he should be doing so all is well in that department!

He is having another ultrasound of his kidneys done tomorrow. They are still seeing a few issues with his right kidney and want to look into that some more so we should have more info on that by Friday.

That is all for today! More to come soon!

Nasal Cannula!!

Today we walked into the NICU and went right to Jacob's isolette to check in on him as we do every day. As we are standing there staring at him his nurse Linda walks in and goes, "Surprise!". Instinctively, we start looking around trying to figure out what the surprise is. He is off CPAP and on nasal cannula!!! We were staring right at him and didn't even notice!!! Last night around midnight they noticed his nose was breaking down a little bit from the CPAP and decided to give him a break for a few minutes and put him on nasal cannula and he did so well with it they just left it in!

He also had his blood work done today and his thyroid and his electrolytes came back normal, but his liver enzymes were a little off so they have to keep an eye on that, but other than that he looks good.

He also had an eye exam today and as expected he doesn't have ROP, but it is still too early to tell so as they told us a few days ago the consensus is that his eyes are still "immature".

They have finally leveled out his electrolytes and we are hoping to see his weight gain start picking up. He is 2 lb 11 oz as of last night so hopefully he will continue gaining at an appropriate rate.

That is all the news for today, but it is great news! More to come later this week.

Mr. Magoo

Jacob had his renal ultrasound today (technically yesterday at this point!) and the results came back great! They said everything appears normal and is functioning properly so that is good news. They chalked his high direct hyperbilirubin levels up to starting his feeds late and have decided to give him the meds just in case. Since they were there and had an ultrasound machine they decided to look for his gallbladder (don't ask me why!) and he has one so YAY! They seemed pretty happy about that so I don't know if some babies born this early are missing their gallbladders or what, but if they are happy, I am happy. They did take a look at his kidneys as well and said one is showing signs of immaturity, but that is not a surprise. He is still technically a 30 week "fetus" he is just now cooking in his "womb with a view" as the nurses like to call it. He will obviously grow a lot slower this way. :)

In other news, he is having his eyes tested on Monday. This is the first of what will probably be many exams so stay tuned for updates regarding this. During these exams they are looking to make sure his blood vessels are growing properly. She said the first exam will probably once again only show "immaturity" which tells us nothing, but they will continue testing his eyes until he leaves.

Check out the new pic of Jacob and the pic of his twin (the two pics are side by side). I think there is a striking resemblance between the two. I have started to call him my little Mr Magoo. ;)

More to come. Very tired....must go to sleep. Goodnight!

Renal Ultrasound

Today the NP came in to let us know they are going to give Jacob a renal ultrasound. His bloodwork from this week and last week showed increased levels of Direct Bilirubin which is different from the bilirubin Jacob had when he was born that caused his jaundice. Direct Bilirubin is caused by the TPN that was administered through his IV (the fluids he received until he was ready to digest breastmilk). TPN, over time, can damage the liver. Roughly a third of newborns on TPN for more than a few weeks develop some liver complications, but the good news is that damage from TPN is almost always reversible. Once Jacob came off the TPN, his liver slowly started to recover, moving the bilirubin better into the intestines, from which it is excreted. The doctors may prescribe a medication to speed the process along which is why they are doing the ultrasound first. Once they are certain that this is what they are dealing with they will probably get started on the meds. Fortunately, the NP informed us that his levels have not increased from last week to this week so that is a good sign.

They are also concerned about his weight gain. The average weight gain now should be between 20-30 grams a day. The hospital looks at this weight gain over a week (from Monday to Monday) and his gain last week was 54 grams total. He is moving up (or on some days staying the same) so at least he is not losing weight, but they would like him to pack on the pounds a bit quicker than he has been. They have added more calories to his breastmilk to achieve this, so hopefully that will do the trick. He is still 2 lbs 9 oz, but 2 lbs and 9 oz is anywhere from 1,162 grams to 1,191 grams so as you can see he can still gain weight, but stay the same as far as lbs and oz goes.

I was able to hold Jacob today cradle style (check out the pic) and that was nice because I was able to look at him while I was holding him. Unfortunately, the nurse swaddled him with his arms outside the blanket so Ian and I had to fight him off of that CPAP mask which he was trying to yank off with all his strength.

That is all for today! Hopefully I will have the results of his renal ultrasound tomorrow and can post an update!