So basically things are looking REALLY good for mister Blake. His swelling and bruises from birth are gone and he looks like a normal and adorable little baby. We can't wait to bring him home but we are waiting patiently. On Thursday we take the class (Infant CPR & carseat safety) that they require parents to take before taking their baby home. Still no news on when that might be but hopefully we'll get an idea soon. Thank you for ALL of the prayers and well wishes.. they are WORKING WELL!! :)
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
June 19th updates
A few updates on Blake - in list form. :)
He had the line for the TPN taken out yesterday. This was the last line going into his belly button. We still can't just pick him up whenever because of the sensors & oxygen tubes but now when they allow us to hold him we don't have to worry about a line that's going into a major artery.
They did another sonogram of his heart yesterday morning. The results were very encouraging. The small hole in his heart is even smaller and they're pretty confident that it'll finish healing up on it's own. The side of his heart that was weaker is gaining strength and nearly equal to the other side, and the thickening of the muscles of his heart is almost completely normal. This is VERY good news. Blake's doctor says there will be one follow up visit with a cardiologist and anticipates no future issues.
Today they raised his feedings to 3oz at a time which they say is now appropriate for his weight. Now they've taken him off of all supplemental nutrition including clear fluids and he is receiving breast milk ONLY. :) The doctor said once they get two normal blood glucose readings (they've gotten one as of now - just one more!) they will stop poking his heel and testing him altogether, meaning they will no longer consider his glucose to be an issue! YAY!
Lastly, his respirations have greatly improved over the last 24 hours and are running normal most of the time. They don't want to turn his air flow down yet since they like to make sure he's stable for at least 24 hours before they start to wean it down. HOWEVER, as of this morning his doctor said if he is calm and breathing below 70 at time of feeding, we can attempt a bottle! He hasn't quite gotten there yet but this is great news!
So basically things are looking REALLY good for mister Blake. His swelling and bruises from birth are gone and he looks like a normal and adorable little baby. We can't wait to bring him home but we are waiting patiently. On Thursday we take the class (Infant CPR & carseat safety) that they require parents to take before taking their baby home. Still no news on when that might be but hopefully we'll get an idea soon. Thank you for ALL of the prayers and well wishes.. they are WORKING WELL!! :)
So basically things are looking REALLY good for mister Blake. His swelling and bruises from birth are gone and he looks like a normal and adorable little baby. We can't wait to bring him home but we are waiting patiently. On Thursday we take the class (Infant CPR & carseat safety) that they require parents to take before taking their baby home. Still no news on when that might be but hopefully we'll get an idea soon. Thank you for ALL of the prayers and well wishes.. they are WORKING WELL!! :)
Sunday, June 17, 2012
One week old
At 11:28pm tonight, Blake will be 1 week old. It's not something we expected.. to be spending this day, Father's Day, in the NICU at Cooks Children's Hospital. Our little guy is a fighter, however, and we continue to see improvements every day. I feel like there's so many people out there praying and rooting for our little boy that there's no way he could do anything except continue to get well.
In the last week a lot has changed. As of yesterday, June 16th, Blake has been off the ventilator. They extubated him at about 10am and it went very well. The one thing working against him right now is that he is still working way too hard to breathe. He's doing it all on his own, though they did put in a nasal cannula with just air to help push the air into his little body. The doctor this morning said that what we're waiting on to move forward is for his respiration to slow down. Once that happens they can start teaching him to eat from a bottle and wean him off of the TPN and feeding tube. The TPN (which is basically fats & nutrients through an IV) is the only thing keeping me from being able to hold him. The line for it is going into his belly button and they are very careful with it. If it comes out, not only is it very hard to get another IV in, but it's going into a main artery and can cause a whole lot of bleeding and would start a whole new hurdle for him.
They took him off the bili lights a couple of days ago, and then yesterday he was put back on them, as his bilirubin levels were trending upwards and were at 15. Now it's been 24 hours and another check shows it down to 9.5 so they went ahead and took the light off. He is currently withdrawing from versed which is a narcotic they were giving him to basically knock him out so that he wasn't thrashing around with the feeding and oxygen tubes, so that he would sleep and heal. It's been about 36 hours since his last dose and last night was rough... he shakes and cries (which he can now do without the tubes.. so sad). Now that they took off the bili lights, they're able to swaddle him and tuck him in and he finally seems to be resting peacefully.
Matthew left on Friday for Colorado. Poppy and Mimi are taking good care of our little boy and I know he's better off there than surrounded by the confusion and chaos that's going on at home. I sure do miss him and could really go for some hugs & kisses from my munchkin. I get tears in my eyes just writing about him and thinking about how empty my heart is without him here with me. It's only been a day and a half and I already can't stand it. :(
I will continue to update here when I remember. Hopefully Blake will continue to improve and I'll be able to hold him, feed him, and do more to comfort him while he cries. Until then we're just hoping and praying for the day to come where he's well enough to come home.
In the last week a lot has changed. As of yesterday, June 16th, Blake has been off the ventilator. They extubated him at about 10am and it went very well. The one thing working against him right now is that he is still working way too hard to breathe. He's doing it all on his own, though they did put in a nasal cannula with just air to help push the air into his little body. The doctor this morning said that what we're waiting on to move forward is for his respiration to slow down. Once that happens they can start teaching him to eat from a bottle and wean him off of the TPN and feeding tube. The TPN (which is basically fats & nutrients through an IV) is the only thing keeping me from being able to hold him. The line for it is going into his belly button and they are very careful with it. If it comes out, not only is it very hard to get another IV in, but it's going into a main artery and can cause a whole lot of bleeding and would start a whole new hurdle for him.
They took him off the bili lights a couple of days ago, and then yesterday he was put back on them, as his bilirubin levels were trending upwards and were at 15. Now it's been 24 hours and another check shows it down to 9.5 so they went ahead and took the light off. He is currently withdrawing from versed which is a narcotic they were giving him to basically knock him out so that he wasn't thrashing around with the feeding and oxygen tubes, so that he would sleep and heal. It's been about 36 hours since his last dose and last night was rough... he shakes and cries (which he can now do without the tubes.. so sad). Now that they took off the bili lights, they're able to swaddle him and tuck him in and he finally seems to be resting peacefully.
Matthew left on Friday for Colorado. Poppy and Mimi are taking good care of our little boy and I know he's better off there than surrounded by the confusion and chaos that's going on at home. I sure do miss him and could really go for some hugs & kisses from my munchkin. I get tears in my eyes just writing about him and thinking about how empty my heart is without him here with me. It's only been a day and a half and I already can't stand it. :(
I will continue to update here when I remember. Hopefully Blake will continue to improve and I'll be able to hold him, feed him, and do more to comfort him while he cries. Until then we're just hoping and praying for the day to come where he's well enough to come home.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Blake Wesley
So I stopped using this place for blogging like I wanted to. Mostly because I feel like nobody reads it.. but I feel like I need an outlet right now.. where I can talk (type) about what's going on without it being a Facebook status. I feel like that's not good enough. A quick blurb about our son isn't enough.. it doesn't do my sweet newborn boy justice.
Sunday mid-morning, we were on our way back from church when we made the decision to check into labor & delivery to be on the safe side. I was having more frequent contractions, as well as pelvic pressure. There was also the lack of movement, when Blake had always been a very active baby. When I got to L&D, they checked me in and hooked me up to the monitors. My doctor happened to be the on-call OB for the weekend so he was already there. After watching the monitor for a while, he didn't like how Blake was reacting. A couple of hours later showed the same results and the doctor decided to admit me into the hospital. At about 5pm he went ahead and broke my water. A few hours later I still had not dilated more than the 4 or 5cm that I was at the week before. The issue was that they couldn't give me pitocin to induce labor as long as the baby's not reactive because it can make things worse. Hours later nothing had changed so the doctor came in to discuss a possible c-section. He checked me one more time before making that decision, and turns out I was almost fully dilated with little to no cervix left. The doctor decided to try having me push just to see if they could get anywhere.
At 11pm I started pushing. At 11:28pm, Blake Wesley Trombly was born. He was 11 lbs 1 oz.
Immediately they noticed something was wrong and took him to the nursery. We were able to see him for about a minute before they took him to the nursery and put him on oxygen. We later found out his blood sugar was 8 when he was born. After a couple of hours in the nursery, he was still having to be on pretty high levels of oxygen to keep him breathing, and he was 'grunting' to breathe.. meaning he was making very unpleasant noises while the muscles in his body basically overworked to pump his lungs. At one point the nurse (who was amazing, by the way) decided to see if I could hold him for a second while she prepared to do something (I don't remember what it was) and when she picked him up, he spit up blood. Immediately they decided it was too fresh, and more than the amount of blood that would be considered normal from delivery. The hospital contacted the local children's hospital to arrange having him transferred.
Just after 6am on June 11th, the transport team from the children's hospital arrived. They spent about 2-2 1/2 hours there running tests and prepping him for transport. They brought him to our room before they took him and explained everything that was going on. They really were phenomenal. They had sedated him to allow his body to relax, and they put him on a cpap machine to help him breathe and force the oxygen into his lungs at a steady rate. Jeremiah followed the ambulance to the hospital while I stayed behind and my mom came to stay with me. Our awesome neighbor, Sonja, stayed at the house with Matthew.
Because I was recovering well and my diabetes was under control, my doctor allowed me to be discharged by that evening. By 7pm on June 11th I was home with Matthew.. which I think was the right decision since Matthew already seemed pretty upset by everything that was going on. He avoided me like the plague, which hurt, even though I understood.. but I was hormonal and had already been crying for more than 12 hours. :(
Jeremiah's dad, John, flew in from Colorado last night and stayed with him and Blake overnight at the children's hospital. I got about 7 hours of sleep and brought Matthew and my mom in to see him this morning. Matthew acted a bit distant initially but ended up holding Blake's hand and touching him a bit. It'll be a bit of an adjustment.. not only having a baby brother, but having a sick baby brother. We are working hard to make sure he still gets the attention and love that he needs.
As of right now, Jeremiah and I are at the Children's hospital. My mom took Matthew to the movies, and she's going to take him home where Jeremiah's dad will take over since she has to go back to work tomorrow. We are going to both stay the night here tonight while Matthew is safe with his Poppy.
Blake is doing okay. He is still considered "critical" and has plenty of hurdles to overcome, but we know he will. His lungs need to mature and adjust so that they can properly oxygenate his body without the assistance of a machine. He'll still have to learn to eat, and right now they are switching him from IV fluids to an actual nutrition infusion, along with small feedings through a tube 4x a day. They are still doing tests to rule out issues that may have caused him to spit up blood, which he hasn't done since yesterday morning.
Our little guy is a fighter, and he's got so many people rooting and praying for him. We are lucky to have the support of our family and friends and we appreciate every gesture and kind word that is passed our way. We are leaving our baby boy in the hands of God and the amazing doctors and nurses here at Cooks.
Sunday mid-morning, we were on our way back from church when we made the decision to check into labor & delivery to be on the safe side. I was having more frequent contractions, as well as pelvic pressure. There was also the lack of movement, when Blake had always been a very active baby. When I got to L&D, they checked me in and hooked me up to the monitors. My doctor happened to be the on-call OB for the weekend so he was already there. After watching the monitor for a while, he didn't like how Blake was reacting. A couple of hours later showed the same results and the doctor decided to admit me into the hospital. At about 5pm he went ahead and broke my water. A few hours later I still had not dilated more than the 4 or 5cm that I was at the week before. The issue was that they couldn't give me pitocin to induce labor as long as the baby's not reactive because it can make things worse. Hours later nothing had changed so the doctor came in to discuss a possible c-section. He checked me one more time before making that decision, and turns out I was almost fully dilated with little to no cervix left. The doctor decided to try having me push just to see if they could get anywhere.
At 11pm I started pushing. At 11:28pm, Blake Wesley Trombly was born. He was 11 lbs 1 oz.
Immediately they noticed something was wrong and took him to the nursery. We were able to see him for about a minute before they took him to the nursery and put him on oxygen. We later found out his blood sugar was 8 when he was born. After a couple of hours in the nursery, he was still having to be on pretty high levels of oxygen to keep him breathing, and he was 'grunting' to breathe.. meaning he was making very unpleasant noises while the muscles in his body basically overworked to pump his lungs. At one point the nurse (who was amazing, by the way) decided to see if I could hold him for a second while she prepared to do something (I don't remember what it was) and when she picked him up, he spit up blood. Immediately they decided it was too fresh, and more than the amount of blood that would be considered normal from delivery. The hospital contacted the local children's hospital to arrange having him transferred.
Just after 6am on June 11th, the transport team from the children's hospital arrived. They spent about 2-2 1/2 hours there running tests and prepping him for transport. They brought him to our room before they took him and explained everything that was going on. They really were phenomenal. They had sedated him to allow his body to relax, and they put him on a cpap machine to help him breathe and force the oxygen into his lungs at a steady rate. Jeremiah followed the ambulance to the hospital while I stayed behind and my mom came to stay with me. Our awesome neighbor, Sonja, stayed at the house with Matthew.
Because I was recovering well and my diabetes was under control, my doctor allowed me to be discharged by that evening. By 7pm on June 11th I was home with Matthew.. which I think was the right decision since Matthew already seemed pretty upset by everything that was going on. He avoided me like the plague, which hurt, even though I understood.. but I was hormonal and had already been crying for more than 12 hours. :(
Jeremiah's dad, John, flew in from Colorado last night and stayed with him and Blake overnight at the children's hospital. I got about 7 hours of sleep and brought Matthew and my mom in to see him this morning. Matthew acted a bit distant initially but ended up holding Blake's hand and touching him a bit. It'll be a bit of an adjustment.. not only having a baby brother, but having a sick baby brother. We are working hard to make sure he still gets the attention and love that he needs.
As of right now, Jeremiah and I are at the Children's hospital. My mom took Matthew to the movies, and she's going to take him home where Jeremiah's dad will take over since she has to go back to work tomorrow. We are going to both stay the night here tonight while Matthew is safe with his Poppy.
Blake is doing okay. He is still considered "critical" and has plenty of hurdles to overcome, but we know he will. His lungs need to mature and adjust so that they can properly oxygenate his body without the assistance of a machine. He'll still have to learn to eat, and right now they are switching him from IV fluids to an actual nutrition infusion, along with small feedings through a tube 4x a day. They are still doing tests to rule out issues that may have caused him to spit up blood, which he hasn't done since yesterday morning.
Our little guy is a fighter, and he's got so many people rooting and praying for him. We are lucky to have the support of our family and friends and we appreciate every gesture and kind word that is passed our way. We are leaving our baby boy in the hands of God and the amazing doctors and nurses here at Cooks.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Baby Time
Oh my gosh I haven't updated this thing in a while. I'm a slacker.. a professional one at that.
So everyone knows we're pregnant and are going to bring another beautiful boy into this world. Matthew has been the light of our lives for the past 4 1/2 years and I just can't imagine another little cutie around to steal our hearts. I've had many conversations with experienced mamas about how I'm going to spread my love around but they've all assured me that I get an extra allotment of love so that there's plenty to go to every child! :P
The name we've picked for baby boy #2 is Blake Wesley. Blake is just a name we liked and agreed on - was unique but not weird. Wesley is the middle name of (and the name he goes by) Jeremiah's best friend.. Wes is one of the best guys I know and Matthew was the ringbearer in his & Sherri's wedding last Summer. We just love uncle Wes!
As of today I'm 23 weeks and 4 days pregnant. The doctor said that as of this week the baby is considered viable outside the womb and now my O.B. will start seeing me for sonograms about once a week, then every 3 weeks I'll see the high risk O.B. (perinatal) and soon we'll be checking out the hospital and planning the arrival of our little boy! My official due date is July 1st, 2012 but with the diabetes the doctors will likely insist on inducing mid-June.
I can't wait to update more! I need to remember this thing exists!
So everyone knows we're pregnant and are going to bring another beautiful boy into this world. Matthew has been the light of our lives for the past 4 1/2 years and I just can't imagine another little cutie around to steal our hearts. I've had many conversations with experienced mamas about how I'm going to spread my love around but they've all assured me that I get an extra allotment of love so that there's plenty to go to every child! :P
The name we've picked for baby boy #2 is Blake Wesley. Blake is just a name we liked and agreed on - was unique but not weird. Wesley is the middle name of (and the name he goes by) Jeremiah's best friend.. Wes is one of the best guys I know and Matthew was the ringbearer in his & Sherri's wedding last Summer. We just love uncle Wes!
As of today I'm 23 weeks and 4 days pregnant. The doctor said that as of this week the baby is considered viable outside the womb and now my O.B. will start seeing me for sonograms about once a week, then every 3 weeks I'll see the high risk O.B. (perinatal) and soon we'll be checking out the hospital and planning the arrival of our little boy! My official due date is July 1st, 2012 but with the diabetes the doctors will likely insist on inducing mid-June.
I can't wait to update more! I need to remember this thing exists!
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