We have video!

First video of Chase from my new phone.

Missed him

Since yesterday I've been feeling pretty lousy. A bunch of illnesses have been going around at work, and normally I don't get sick, but I think the crazy schedule might have taken its toll. If Jas was awake right now, he'd interject with "I told you this was going to happen". This particularly stinks because it means I can't go visit Chase:( I don't want to chance passing anything to him, so yesterday morning I called to let the nurses know I wouldn't be coming in for my daily visits. Besides the day he was born, this is the first time I haven't visited him at least 2 times a day.

The only bright side is that the nurses and Jas can continue to feed him from a bottle, and since they have so much milk there he could have his own fridge, I don't have to worry about them running out. One other thing that helps is that we got new phones with awesome video capabilities. Jas still isn't too sure what he thinks after converting from the iPhone, but now that we figured out the issue we were having with text messaging, I think its growing on him.

We took a few videos the other day and Jas took one of Chase yesterday so I could see him. This definitely helped. That and a little wonton soup:) As soon as I figure out how to get the videos off the phones or he does it for me(expecting that I'll remember all the steps) we'll be in business to upload them.

Updates from the past few days...he never actually made it down to 1.5 L on the nasal cannula. After they wrote the orders he began having issues desatting again and needed to go from 2.0 back up to 2.5 on roughly room air. Yesterday they moved him back down to 2.0 L but increased the O2 just a touch. So far this seems to be the right combination. Time and his growing on a daily basis are what he needs to work on this issue right now. They also did another echocardiogram the other day, but since they send them to Hopkins to be read we still have heard the results yet. No change on meds, feedings are going pretty well (he just has to learn not to gulp) and he gained another 10 grams!

Not sure if I'm going to be able to see him today:( I'm super leery about taking any meds, so I'm going to call my doc this morning. This goes without saying, but I need to catch up on rest. I have no idea how Jas gets up at 3:30 am everyday.

A Little Longer Than Expected

Bath time again! The nurse gave us some tips for washing Chase's hair. This is his favorite part of getting a bath.

What are you doing to me?

This isn't so bad

That's the spot

All clean!

Time for bed

Since I'm back at work now I don't get to participate in daily rounds with Chase's team. One of the nurse practitioners came in while I was feeding him this morning to cover a bunch of info. First of all, he'll be 8 wks old this weekend-time flies right??, and even though he is a preemie he's due for some vaccinations. Ironically our nurse yesterday is also a researcher on pediatric vaccinations, my favorite topic:) Take a wild guess what our conversation was about... so Chase will be receiving his first course of vaccinations when he hits 60 days old(which is right around the corner)!

We also starting discussing criteria for discharge this morning. Since he still has a bit of progress to make it looks like it will be at least another 3 wks or so before we get an actual date. Even though he surprises us on a daily basis we still have a ways to go. Today they wrote orders for the flow to be decreased to 1.5L and he will now be fed when "awake and ready" by breast or bottle!

Chase will need to continue to wean off oxygen and/or the diuretics before he can come home. He most likely will still need to continue on some course of the diuretics, but that is better than lugging around oxygen. Also, since he continues to have a wonderful sounding murmur they are going to have the cardiologist take a look at him to see if she thinks he has PPS(Peripheral Pulmonary Stenosis) Ultimately in newborns, especially preemies babies blood vessels surrounding the heart are small. With PPS as they branch farther from the heart the vessels get even smaller therefore you would be able to hear turbulence from the blood flow. In Chase's case the murmur sounds just as loud no matter where you place the stethoscope. As babies grow, generally so do the vessels so hopefully no treatment will be required!

The usual updates- His chest x-ray today looked no worse than in the past and all his blood work came back normal. Oh, and he officially is over 4 lbs now. 4lbs 2.2oz to be exact:) Keep growing little one!!

Days 51 and 52!

Big Yawn!

Not my first smile, but one of the first ones photographed

MomMom and PopPop with their little peanut

Yesterday my parents and Aunt Lee and Uncle Keith visited. Chase now has his first Ocean City, NJ gear! Thanks guys:) After lunch PopPop Hutch finally got to hold Chase. I wish I had a phone that took video(soon Jas will be converting from the iPhone and I'll be getting with the times and finally getting a smartphone), but my dad was whistling a tune and Chase loved it!

During rounds they always start by stating how many days old Chase is, and usually it doesn't always register since I'm waiting to get the updates. Today while "washing up"(for those of you who've visited you know its a process) I was talking with one of the other parents and telling him about the length of Chase's stay thus far. The past 7 wks have flown by, and despite everything it still hasn't fully hit us that we have a baby yet. That being said, we can't wait to bring the little man home.

Chase is officially over 4 lbs! He has been on the diuretics for a few days so he is no longer retaining fluid. When he nurses well he no longer requires a supplement, and he is also receiving 4 p.o. feedings per day. They decreased the flow to 2.5 liters with the cannula and he has been successful on just about room air!

Hopefully in a few more weeks our updates and pics will be from home, fingers crossed:)

Renovation Update

Chase's nursery color

A work in progress

Half way done

According to Jas we are 85% done(not counting the bathroom)! The flooring upstairs is not exactly cooperating, but it was free so we're trying to make it work:) Our last job up there will be trim and molding, then we can move the furniture that is occupying his room back upstairs.

We also got the nursery painted today, despite two days of rolling power outages. Of course it was during probably the hottest weekend in Baltimore so far! We realized that the hardwood under the carpet in the nursery is actually in pretty good shape, so we may just take out the carpet and put in an area rug. This is wonderful, since after doing a lot of research on new wall-to-wall carpet and chemicals, the little guy's lungs don't need any extra toxins.

Over 4lbs-well sort of!

First bottle from Daddy

One of Mommy's morning photos(from her really old phone)

Chase's weight today was 1880 grams or 4lbs. 2 0z. This is just temporary however, since he was off the diuretics he has gained over 4 oz is two days. Even though he continues to eat very well, and is still getting a half supplement we'd like the weight gain to be not because of fluid retention. His little cheeks(both top and bottom) and his hands and feet were quite puffy today, but since they restarted the diuretics we hope to see him back to normal tomorrow.

He had an upper GI and abdomen x-ray today to make sure the reflex wasn't being caused by any anatomy issues. I was surprised when I got the the hospital this afternoon to find out that instead of putting the barium in his tube, they fed it to him in a bottle. He is too little to realize how terrible it tastes! All the results for today's orders came back normal, so he'll continue on the Zantac for the reflux even though we aren't quite sure if its having an effect. The nurses are giving mixed reports so they are just going to continue giving it to him and monitor his progress.

One more thing-you can see in the pic above that his feeding tube was moved to his nose. Since he is getting three p.o.(oral) feedings per day, its easier having it there than instead of his mouth.

Happy Moms!

Zonked out with a full belly

MomMom H

MomMom K

Yesterday our moms came down for their weekly visit. Even though grandparents can visit at any time without the parents, we wanted to be there when they got to hold Chase for the first time. Jas is in a training all week, so I was there to take pics. Since Jas doesn't get out of his class until late, and it was pouring out he got to only visit Chase for a few minutes right at shift change:( We did get to go out to dinner with our moms before they headed back to NJ, and we ended up heading over to Clementine for Taco Tuesday-it was fantastic!

The only change from yesterday was that they stopped the diuretics for a little bit, because it ended up impacting his sodium and potassium levels. Today his potassium was up to an acceptable level, but his sodium is still a little low. They will wait until his levels are back up with the supplements before resuming the two diuretics. He also gained weight! He is now 3 lbs. 12 oz!!! He continues to need lower levels of oxygen and is having very few bradys. There hasn't been any discussion about a possible discharge date, but he continues to make progress on a daily basis. I think I mentioned in a previous post that they will sometimes send babies home on oxygen if they are relatively asymptomatic otherwise.

Busy, Busy

Getting my hair dried

Finally we have somewhere to put all of his stuff. Although its not in its final location, at least its put together.

Littlest Flyers Fan!

We've been going nonstop for the past 6wks(can you believe its been that long already?), and I must say we are doing pretty well juggling everything. Shockingly when I went for my postpartum appt. today my blood pressure was normal!

The NICU staff were so busy today that they didn't do rounds until after 3pm today. Luckily I had stopped in before my doctor's appt. The plan had been to try to get in his feeding before I had to head downstairs(their office is at the hospital), but I had two meetings and it took a while for me to find a parking spot in the garage. Anyway, Chase is now receiving three full feedings from me. Even yesterday on a Sunday this was exhausting. I know I'll be feeding him a lot more when he comes home, but driving back and forth to the hospital and trying to get things done between cares isn't the easiest feat to pull off. It was nice to talk to the staff today about the fact that he can receive his third feed from the bottle if I'm not available. Since he hasn't gained any weight in the past two days he also will continue to get a supplemental feed-either half or full depending on how he nurses.

Finally!

Time to put the floor in! Painting Chase's room soon, and putting his dresser together so we can store all the cute clothes we've received as gifts!

Still to do...

Upstairs-floor(keep your fingers crossed), molding and other trim, carpet on the steps and in the cubbies, bathroom(TBD)

Downstairs-ummm, just about everything in his room. Actually we are just painting and putting in new carpet. That shouldn't take too long, right? Remember when we said we'd do the kitchen ourselves before he came too? Gotta love old houses:)

6 weeks old=34 weeks

When people ask how old Chase is we often give two responses-how many days or weeks since he was born 6wks. or 44 days, but also we give his gestational age which is will be 34 wks. tomorrow. Once August 29th comes around we can also start calculating his corrected age, since he may not be reaching milestones like a 3 mo. old at that point since he was so premature. Confused yet?

Rounds today didn't go as well as expected since he's been having some temperature issues. Twice last night his temp dropped. The second time they but him under the warmer and he maintained his temperature afterwards. His blood work is coming back fine, but they are concerned that the bacteria from his eye infection(he's still on the medicine) could have spread. He still is also having reflux issues and his lungs still don't look great on the chest x-ray. They've needed to increase his O2 a little and someone today even mentioned CPAP again:( So they are trying to pinpoint what exactly is going on. He was switched to a new set of diuretics yesterday, but they decided on another dose of Lasix and started him on Zantac to see if that would help the reflux-which could be the reason behind his need for increased oxygen. Too many variables!

The respiratory therapist came in while the team was meeting for rounds and saw that the heater on this oxygen had been turned down. This hopefully is what was causing his temperature drop. When the heat is turned up, the tube that connects to his cannula collects condensation and when the tube is moved, or when he moves he sometimes gets water up his nose! Turning down the heat prevents the condensation from forming, but it also may have impacted his body temp. We are keeping our fingers crossed that this solves the issue, because we don't want the little one to have to go through more tests!

T.G.I.F

It's been a long week. Jas had a training til 6pm every night, and it was my first full week back to work. Chase had a great week however, and there aren't too many changes to report. He continues to gain about an ounce a day and his feedings are going really well. Although coordinating sucking, swallowing, and breathing still is a little bit of an issue at times, he continues to improve on a daily basis!

Moving Up

This morning will be the first time I get to nurse Chase fully for the first time. He's been doing well with feedings the past few days, so the doc said he's ready to graduate to the next step! He'll keep his feeding tube until he is able to take all of his feedings from me or the bottle- a step that would put him close to discharge! We are still waiting on the blood culture to make sure the infection from his eye didn't spread anywhere, but otherwise all is status quo!

Woohoo! 3 1/2 lbs!

Our second family photo-you can definitely see him this time!

Daddy is always trying to get me to stick my tongue out

Like my hat?

All shiny

Chase continues to gain about an ounce a day, which is wonderful! Newborn clothes here we come:) Only a few changes from rounds-they discontinued caffeine and he is on antibiotics for an eye infection. Considering the issues Jas and I have had over the years with our eyes, we aren't surprised! Actually clogged tear ducts(which he doesn't have) and bacterial infections in babies eyes isn't uncommon, and since he'd been waking up with goopy eyes we expected the diagnosis. As you can see one of the nurses took another family pic for us yesterday. I wish we weren't all sweaty after a long day, but it still turned out pretty cute! You can actually see him in this one:)

A full pound!

Chase is officially 1lb. over his birth weight! My mom comes down pretty regularly(must be nice to have the summer off), but it had been 2 wks since my dad saw him. He was happy to see how big the little one had gotten. They also got to see their "little" girl in action during cares for Peanut. He got in his usual screaming while I took his temperature, changed his diaper, and got him undressed to be weighed. I forgot to take my camera out until the end of their visit, so I have to remember to make a point next time to get a pic of MomMom and PopPop visiting!

Chase's crib is now tilted up a little because he continues to have issues with reflux. Since they propped him up late this afternoon he seems to be doing much better!

BTW, sorry for the car pictures in the album. Apparently when Jason loaded them to the public file they automatically were added to the blog as well:)

New Digs!

Got one hand free!

Just wanted to share some pics of Chase in his new digs. He is really happy with his new setup. Only a few updates from rounds-he is now going to receive lasix every other day, and he is having a little bit of an issue with reflux(he needed to be changed a few times this afternoon) Otherwise the docs continue to be happy with his progress. Our favorite respiratory therapist stopped by while we were visiting tonight. Since Chase is doing so much better we barely get to see him now. This stinks because he is such a cool guy and we've enjoyed getting to know him, but it also means we are one step closer to coming home.

Renovation update...The plan was to finally get upstairs painted today, but we had a little setback this morning. Apparently when DIRECTV came out a few weeks ago and adjusted our dish, they completely moved it and not only did they not fill the previous holes, but didn't seal the new screws. Wanna know how we figured that out? While finally getting some much needed rain, we had a little leak in our newly finished ceiling! Jas got on the roof in the pouring down rain with a bucket of tar and braved the weather and bees to patch things. Needless to say, the day did not go as smoothly as we thought.

Surprise for Mommy!

Notice anything different?

So we've been waiting patiently for the day they would move Chase to a crib. We knew it could be any day now since he'd been maintaining his body temperature while on the lowest setting in the isolette.

Jas had off today so I got the usual rounds update from him. Chase now weighs

3 lbs. 3 oz. and he is going to continue to get lasix every other day since his chest x-ray is still pretty hazy. I asked if he'd heard anything about the little man being moved to a crib and he said he'd try to find out. He sent me a message saying there was no decision yet.

Much to my surprise when I walked into his room I saw that he had already been moved out of the isolette and Jas and the nurse decided to surprise me! The NICU has several actual cribs, but they are all being used currently so for now he gets this little open air bed. It may look familiar to many of you moms because they use them in the nursery and for transporting the babies for visits in the postpartum rooms. When I was recuperating I wished Chase was in one of the little "cribs" and that he could come visit me. It took a little time, but now he's finally in one!

Sound asleep after my dinner

Visit from the OT

You're leaving me like this?

It's hard for Mommy to head to work in the morning when he is wide awake and so alert!

Today I met with the OT during her first consult with Chase. He is where he should be for a 32- weeker! Since he prefers to sleep with his head turned to the right he does have some muscle tightness. Since he's been off the CPAP he likes to turn his head to his preferred side on his own. The OT just suggested that when we hold him to make sure we are having him face his left side to work on strengthening his neck muscles. Other than that he had no issues with his grip and reflexes!

Bright Eyed

I know this is a crazy close up, but most days Chase is sleeping when Jason visits. Today he was wide awake at 5am after Jas did cares so he sent me this cute pic. My first day back to work was as expected and I think I did pretty well all considering. I did call to check to see how rounds went-his feeds were upped again and they put in a request for an OT consult. This is apparently standard at 32 wks. and I'll be meeting with her tomorrow. If he has any issues with stiffness and motor skills they may give us some exercises to do with him. Considering how active he is, I'd be surprised if he needed anything. Not that the daily OT services I see delivered at work are for preemies...grabbing at things and holding on just seem to be a good sign!

Another Ounce

Slowly but surely Chase continues to gain weight! I spent a long time at the hospital today, since I'm heading back to work tomorrow:( The docs reassured me that even though I won't be there to meet with the team for rounds every morning they'll fill me in when I get there after work. My plan is to get to the hospital right after shift change in the morning so I can get about 45 minutes in with the little one.

Today they did another chest x-ray to see if there was any difference after yesterday's dose of Lasix. There really wasn't that much change, so they wrote orders for one dose a day for the next five days. His O2 levels needed to be upped a little since yesterday, but as soon as I held him his breathing became a bit less labored and they were able to dial him down some.

Jas took a break from the renovation and the insane heat to join me for a visit and see me nurse Chase. He didn't do as well as the other day, since it seemed he was a little too comfy and nodded off a few times. Who can blame him-why work for lunch when a few minutes after he latches they start his feeding through the tube and his belly fills without any effort!

Happy Fourth of July!

In my red, white, and blue onesie for the holiday

Do I look bigger? Today I am 32 wks and I finally reached 3 lbs-Yippee!

Hot day in Baltimore. Chase was breathing a little harder than usual this afternoon and he was requiring about 5-8% more oxygen than he has the past few days. The doc ordered a chest x-ray and it was pretty hazy so they gave him another dose of lasix to help with the fluid issue. That pesky PDA still is causing some trouble! He has not had any bradys since this morning and he continues to do well on the cannula, so we'll see what tomorrow brings. Hope everyone has a great holiday:)

Sacrifice

The title of this post was picked by Jas. He doesn't have much time to update the blog and I asked permission on this one.

Today was a bit of a sad day for my husband:( He sold the s2000.

Most of you know Jason very well so this won't be a surprise, but he kind of loves his car. Not just his car, most cars. Well, not really many American cars, but any performance vehicle that has sufficient horsepower to just scare you a little when you drive with him. Over the past eleven years I've learned a tremendous amount about automobiles from him, and his passion has become mine in a way. For hours on end you can have a conversation with him about anything car related. He knows more than most car dealers, and refuses to let other people change the oil, brakes, clutch etc. whatever maintenance you can think of. Years ago he made me listen to different kinds of exhausts over and over again on YouTube until I found one that he could order that didn't sound like some teenager slapped on his car. He spent two years searching for my car and he was like a kid in a candy store when he finally found it.

He bought his convertible, not his first and not his last one, right before I found out I was pregnant. For the past few months he's been deliberating about when to put it up for sale. Don't get me wrong, it was a really fun car to drive. I know I didn't shift at RPMs high enough for him, but I know why he enjoyed driving it so much. This past week he put it up for sale. He just came home from work one day and said he had finally done it. Being that the weather has been beautiful he got a few bites immediately, and today the first person that test drove it gave us an offer too good to pass up.

Although he picked the title of this post, he had no idea what I was going to type. Even though he is getting rid of his baby, he's trading up for another one that is truly priceless. Jas gets excited when he talks about cars, but he lights up when he talks about Chase. He is so proud to be a father, and I couldn't ask for a more wonderful husband. So even though life sometime requires you to part with things you love, often you are making room to give your devotion and attention to other things.

Primed and Ready-Well Almost!

Thanks to a last minute visit from Dan the renovation is now in the home stretch, sort of. So the bathroom is on hold, but I picked up the paint today and hopefully after a little more touch up sanding tomorrow the main room can be painted! We'll still have to put the floor in, find molding that matches the rest of our 82 yr. old house, and carpet the stairs but to see how far the room has come is amazing. Pictures to come shortly:)

3lbs here we come!

Growing into my clothes. This is actually one of my bigger preemie outfits!

Bundled up after my bath

According to my conversion chart Chase needs to gain 31 grams to get to 3lbs! Today he was at 1330 grams, and even though he was at this weight once before it was when he was having belly issues and the CPAP was pumping him full of air. He's eating like a champ so I know we'll be there soon:)

No change from rounds- there was some disagreement regarding the loudness of the murmer, but ultimately it still kinda sounds like a washing machine! He had a few bradys before I got there this morning but they were all between 96 and 100 and self-resolved. Once he gains a little weight these wouldn't even count and need to be recorded! Since he's still too little any time his heart rate drops below 100 they document it. This chart is usually the first thing Jas and I look at when we go for our daily visits.

You can see from lots of the pics that Chase spends a lot of time on his belly. Generally babies don't sleep on their bellies, but it has been helping with his digestion and his breathing. When he moves to the crib, and isn't hooked to all the monitors like in the isolette he'll sleep on his back. Several people have asked, so I figured I'd put it in a post!

Leaps and Bounds

So...we may need to kick things into high gear to get ready for the little one to come home. Today was a day of milestones for Chase, and he potentially may be able to come home a lot sooner than we expected!

He had his first eye exam before I arrived this morning. The retina of a preemie is only partially formed, and an exam is completed to see if the blood vessels are developing appropriately. Most preemies born before 31 wks are tested for ROP, and may require follow-up exams. Chase's exam results showed vessels that one would expect to see in a preemie, but at this time nothing was abnormal so he won't need to be retested for a few weeks.

The biggest news of the day however, is that I was able to nurse Chase for the first time! During rounds we were having a conversation about the requirements to move him to a crib, and what body temperature range he would need to maintain etc. The neonatologist asked if we had tried to nipple him yet-besides trying a pacifier every once in a while that had been about it. Using a pacifier doesn't require coordinating sucking, swallowing, and breathing all at once so its obviously much easier. So we decided to give it a shot after I pumped for his next scheduled feeding.

The nurse prepped me that he may not be that interested or even be able to demonstrate much of the necessary skills since he is still less than 32 wks. She reminded me a few times before starting not to be discouraged, and then she helped get me all situated. I had absolutely no idea what I was supposed to be doing! After I got over the fact that the issue was probably going to be more my coordination than his, we used a syringe to squirt some milk in his mouth to get him going. He still had his feeding tube in(he will continue to have this until he is able to take full feedings from either me or the bottle) but it didn't seem to bother him. Although he was slow to start, he surprisingly had no issues latching or sucking. He would tire out after a few seconds, take a break, and then start again. The nurse was shocked that he did so well and she let me feed him for 15 minutes. I was so excited and I kept telling him how proud I was of him, I wish Jas had been there!

So the long and short of it is that he is making so much progress they said he might be able to come home earlier than anticipated. Maybe in another month or less! Crap we have a lot of work to do...

One more thing- Jas talked to the doc while I was actually at my own eye doctor's appt. today; and at this time he does not want to move toward ligation for the PDA! Driving to the hospital this morning I was mentally prepped that surgery was the direction in which we were moving. Guess he's surprising us all:) He only had 4 bradys all day yesterday, and 1 today as of this afternoon so it could be that his symptoms are resolving themselves as he ages. We know we still have a long road ahead of us, and there will most likely still be bumps(I'm teary as I type this because I'm so happy right now), but our little man is a fighter and he just didn't want to wait til the end of August to come home!

Countdown to a crib!

Daddy spent a long time trying to get a pic of me sticking out my tongue!

Chase might be moving to a crib soon! He has been able to maintain his body temperature and the isolette temp. is going to be weaned down even further. So, if he continues to do well he may be able to move to a crib in the next few weeks. No changes in news from rounds, in the next few days we'll hopefully have more info about possible treatment for the PDA. He had a great day while I was there today! He required lower O2 and only had one brady and it was while I was holding him. The team categorizes bradys under varying conditions, if it is during cares or when he is being held it is viewed differently than when he is simply sleeping.