In a Holding Pattern (Pun Intended)

Dear Samuel,

Today was one of those "once/twice in a lifetime" kind of days. Today was the day your Momma got to hold you for the first time. It took 4 nurses to take you out of your incubator and get you over to momma, but I think it was well worth it. I was lucky enough to have my camera ready to capture some of these moments:

You also got to experience your very first Packer's game (With No sound....thank the Lord). Unfortunately, I shouldn't have mentioned anything about a "streak" in a previous post. So, I'll take this one....my bad. 

After a few minutes on momma's chest I think you were all snuggled up and fell asleep for about 30 minutes.

They finally got to the bottom of why your Blood Sugar has been spiking. The did a blood culture on Friday and finally this morning were able to tell that you have some sort of infection in your blood stream so you were started on antibiotics immediately. Hopefully, that will fix this problem we've been having.

You continue to have really gross looking diapers (which is a good thing, because it means you are getting rid of all of that bilirubin).

Your feedings were upped again to 8 ccs every 3 hours. Our goal is to get you to 10 to 12 ccs every 3 hours. If you can get there, we may not have to do the PICC line (which would be awesome).

Hopefully, we will get a chance to give you a bath tonight....That's where we are heading right now!

See you soon.

Love,
Mom and Dad

The Blood Sugar Chase

Dear Samuel,

Today was another good day......Momma and I came down and did a little photo shoot for you (I'll post another page after I edit them) but for now, here is one unedited.

The only thing that the nursing staff has been fighting with for the last 24 hours was your Blood Sugar. It has been fluctuating from low to high and back again. Finally, this morning they slowed down the game of giving you insulin and then switching back to sugar water and it seemed to stabilize your blood sugar (Around 150 is where they want you to be....you were spiking at 300 and dropping all the way down to 50). 

Your bilirubin was up again today, so they brought back the "bili" light (This time your eye covers had sunglasses on them). Hopefully, this will be one of the last times we have to have the Bili light because you had 2 more BM's and that will help get rid of all that bilirubin. 

They also upped your food intake today as well to 6 cc's every 3 hours. Now we just need you to start getting bigger and stronger....We need to PUMP...you UP! 

Also had one more blood transfusion tonight because of all of the blood draws they have been doing. Your hemoglobin was around 11 (which is about twice as high as momma's right now). All in all the transfusion went well. 

Overall the doctors are amazed at the progress you keep making. Keep it rolling buddy! 

Love, 

Mom and Dad

Status Quo....sort of

Dear Samuel,

Today was about maintaining the status quo. All of your numbers (Heart Rate, O2, BPMs) were well maintained and in the range we want throughout the day. However, we did have some new stuff pop up today.

Late last night, the doctors and nurses (who are awesome by the way) put you under the "Bili" light to help with your bilirubin. There is no cause for concern for jaundice, but they wanted to be proactive. The pictures turned out kind of cool with a blue glow.

This morning, there was some talk of taking you off of the ventilator and switching to a C-Pap. Which, in my opinion, is a great sign. It was just talk though because you aren't quite ready for it to come out yet. Later on in the day, you started getting tuckered out from all the breathing you've been doing on your own and they had to put your ventilator back up to 40 breaths per minute.

Another thing that happened today was we had to give you a blood transfusion, since your hemoglobin was starting to dip a bit. This went well and you didn't have a negative reaction to it.

The doctors decided it was time to put a feeding tube in today too. So, unfortunately, you have another tube going down your mouth BUT you were able to begin taking in breast milk to start helping you grow.

You had a wet diaper today! Yes, we're excited about that because not only was it 18 cc's it means that your kidneys are working great!

Your Mom is doing great too, bud. She's one of the toughest women I know....she hasn't hardly had any pain killers (I think it's the German coming out in her) only Ibuprofen. The other stuff makes her sick, so she just doesn't take it. She was up and moving around today and isn't hooked up to a pole anymore. I have to say......you, me and Isaac are pretty lucky guys.

Sleep tight little one.

Love,
Mom and Dad