Good News

I have hesitated putting this in writing because I am afraid that I might jinx it, but...Perron is coming home on Sunday! We are so excited. If he continues to do well with his temperature and his feeds, then we will spend the night in the NICU tomorrow night and take him home Sunday afternoon. We can't believe the day is finally here. He will be two weeks one day old when he comes home. He continues to eat like a mad man. He had 60 ccs (2ozs) at breakfast and lunch today. He gained another ounce and now weight 4 lbs 3.8 ozs. He is doing so well. We are a little nervous about him coming home, but luckily that is overshadowed by how excited we are. We have been FRANTICALLY trying to tie up all the loose ends and get things ready for his arrival. We are getting close.

On another note, I had another blood pressure check today and I got good news and some discouraging (but not totally unexpected) news. The good news is that my blood pressure was great at my appointment and I don't have to take my medication anymore! YAY! No more pumping and dumping after tomorrow afternoon! While I was there I was able to ask Dr. Gunnells some questions about my preeclampsia. I had been reading about preeclampsia online and thought that I might have had preeclampsia with another servious condition called HELP syndrome. See this link for a good explanation of what HELLP syndrome is http://www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/uvahealth/peds_hrpregnant/hellp.cfm. I asked Dr. Gunnells if I had HELLP syndrome and he confirmed that I did. I asked him if we decided in the future to have another baby what the chances were that I would get it again. He said the good news was that it is less common with second pregnancies; however, if I were to compare myself to my friends that did not have a history of preeclampsia then I would be at a significantly higher risk than they were. I also asked about the possibility of the baby being IUGR again and he said that it would be very likely that the baby would be IUGR. He said that preeclampsia and IUGR really go hand and hand and many women who experience preeclampsia have IUGR babies. Because of the constricted blood vessels due to the preeclampsia it makes it hard for the baby to grow. So not the best news, but again not entirely unexpected. As Stephen has told me, worry about the baby we have right now not the babies we might have in the future. Very good advice!

Big Steps Not Baby Steps

This has been a very exciting week for Perron! As you all know, Perron now weighs in at over 4 lbs...4 lbs 1.4 ozs to be exact. He also is taking all of his feed by bottle. The most exciting part about that is he is now tube free! It is so wonderful to see his beautiful face without the tube taped to it. He has the most adorable nose and mouth (and I am not just saying that because he has my features:)) and it is great to see him with his entire face unblocked. Then when we went in to see him tonight we were greeted with him in a big boy crib! So exciting. He has to maintain his temperature for at least two days in the crib so please pray for him. Also, he has to be able to up his feeds to 45 cc's. That is what they call his 4 hour feed amount. Basically they take his caloric intake needs for the day and then divide it to figure out how many CCs he would have to take in to go 4 hours between feeds. He is currently at 35 CCs but he is taking it very well, so hopefully he will tolerate his feeds being increased. Now that he is on all bottle feeds, STephen and I are able to feed him. Stephen fed him is first bottle last night and I got to feed him his 12 o'clock feed. We have devised a system were Stephen feeds him at the 9p feed and I feed him at the noon feed. Enjoy the pictures below!

4 POUNDS!!!

Yes, you read that right! Perron is over 4 lbs! Can you believe it?!? He gained 45 grams yesterday. Stephen and I would definitely believe it, because we got to witness his bottle feed last night. He literally sucked down 35 CC's in less than 10 minutes. It was unbelievable! I have a feeling that Stephen and I are going to be eaten out of house and home in the very near future. We are so proud of him. He ate so fast that he didn't even have time to suck down any air because it was impossible to get him to burp. Which speaking of burping....very scary and hilarious at the same time. First of all his face gets BRIGHT red and his little eyes look like they are bugging out of his head! It is scary because it is so easy to pinch off his airway when sitting him up to burp him. The nurse is trying to teach me, but I am still a little hesitant.

He is also up to 4 bottle feeds a day. Every other feed is given by bottle and will hopefully will be increased soon. He also is large enough to move to an open air crib; however, when we talked to his nurse last night, she said they rarely do both at the same time. For instance, they would either up his bottle feeds to every feed and give him a little time to adjust to that and then move him to the crib, or vice versa. I am not sure what they are going to do first.

Thank you so much for all of your prayers! they are definitely being answered!

1 Week Birthday

It is hard to believe that at this time last week we had already welcomed our baby boy into this world. Perron is one week old today and he continues to do really well. I just called the NICU and he is 3 lbs 13.4 ozs....almost back to his birth weight! They have started introducing bottles into his daily routine and he is having a bit of trouble with them. His suck reflex is not very well developed and he usually spills more all over his washcloth then he gets in his mouth. They have told us that this is very typical for preemies of his gestational age and it is just a developmental issue that will require patience and practice. It is hard though because I know that one of the milestones he must reach in order to go home is to take all of his feeds by bottle. He also has to finish each feed within 30 minutes of starting because if he takes longer than that, he ends up burning more calories then he takes in. I talked to the Nurse Practioner last night when she was making rounds and we talked about the timeline for going home. She said that a week would be a very optimistic goal, not impossible but a little aggressive. She said it would probably be closer to 10 days. Hopefully he will continue to improve and we will get to have him home with us soon.

Perron had a very special visitor last night. His Aunt Lauren came in for Charlotte for her first visit with her nephew. Perron was very excited to see her and made sure he was at his absolute cutest. I am going to post some pictures below and you will notice one very big change....He can finally wear clothes! YAY!! I washed all of the fabulous preemie outfits that our friends and family have gotten him and I took them down to the hospital. He is wearing one of my favorite outfits that some of our best friends Katie and Scott got him. I love the monkey's and especially love the little monkey feet. They preemie clothes are still a little big on him, but he looks so cute I can barely even stand it.

We had another big milestone last night. Perron was held for the first time by someone other than mommy and daddy. I wish I could say that I was selfless and generous and volunteered to give up some of my cuddle time....but I can't. :) It was Stephen's idea. Lauren, Mom, and Dad all got to hold him for the first time and it was very special. I was excited to get to share him with everyone and they loved the opportunity to give him some squeezes. Enjoy the pictures below!

Leaving without a Peanut

Well, we were officially discharged from the hospital today. It was hard to have to leave the hospital without a baby. It is not fair and it is not what we had planned, but I think we are all taking it in stride. He is still doing so well and we know that this is what is best for him. Today was technically his 35 week birthday and it is hard to look at him and know that he should still be inside of me growing and thriving for at least the next two weeks. However, that is not what God had in the plans for us and we are willing to accept that. We are just so grateful that he is doing so well. The upside to this all is that I will at least have a little bit of time to fully recover from surgery before he comes home. That is definitely a positive.

We got discharged this morning at 8:30 and stayed through the visitation in the NICU. We ended up leaving at around 12:30, so I am a little sore since I have been up and about for the longest period of time since the c-section. ML came and visited Perron for the first time today. He did so good and was a little angel the entire time. His bilirubin is almost within the range of normal, so hopefully he will be out from under the lights tomorrow. I will be so excited because then we will be able to see his little eyes all the time! He is still doing really well and we are so pleased. Please continue to pray very hard for his good health and steady weight gain. He only lost a half an ounce yesterday, so that is great news. We know that God is listening to and answering all of our prayers and Perron is living proof of that. Thank you all again for your kind thoughts, concerns, and prayers.

We love you guys!

Graduation

Hi guys! Sorry for the delay in posting an update. It is amazing how quickly the days dissolve away in the hospital. Things are continuing to go well with my health and we are hoping that we can start weaning me off of my blood pressure medication tomorrow. I am not able to save my breast milk for the baby while I am on the BP meds, so I would love to get off of them sooner rather than later. The good news is that they re-drew all of my major labs this morning and everything is back in the range of normal. My platelette counts are still a little low, but they are continuing to improve, which is all that they need to do at this point.

Emotionally I am holding up pretty well. I am dealing with the same hormonal issues that every pregnant woman has to deal with...just under much more stressful circumstances. I did have a little bit of a hard time yesterday and cried for the first time. We were in the NICU and Perron was crying and I wanted to hold him but couldn't and I felt so helpless not being able to comfort my own baby. It is really hard to have to ask permission to hold, touch, and care for your own baby. I know that they are doing what is best for him and Stephen is really supportive and just reminds me that most people at this stage haven't even gotten to meet their baby yet, so that does help me put it in perspective. If I could have one word to describe the NICU experience, is helpless. You want to be able to do what you can for your child, but what you want to do is not always what is best for them. It is hard, but when you get to see him and see him progressing, it makes it all worth it.

Speaking of progressing...Perron is doing GREAT! He actually had his first graduation today. He was moved out of the open radiant warming bed and into an isolet. It is weird because seeing him in an isolet makes you think that he is actually sicker, but it is really a good sign. They reserve their open beds for their new admissions and their sickest babies. Once they get to the stage where they just need to grow, they move him to the isolet. They don't have to watch his respirations and color as closely, so they can have him closed off. It is actually better for him because it is quiter and a little more sheltered of an environment and he can focus more of his energy on growing. When we went to see him this afternoon, the nurse mentioned that we might be able to start giving him a bottle in the next couple of days!!!! That would be a HUGE milestone! I started crying as soon as she said that because I was so happy and grateful! It is a miracle that he is here and it is a miracle that Perron is doing as well as he is. God has answered every one of our prayers and has blessed us beyond measure. Perron is a miracle and we thank God every day for him. Please continue to pray for us and for Perron's continued success and development.

We have some new pictures and when Stephen gets back into the room we will upload more pictures of him in the isolet. PS...they had to put an IV in his head because he yanked the one out of hand...he is so active.

New Pictures

We had a great visit with Perron this morning. They let me hold him the entire time I was down there!!! Stephen read him some books and he slept almost the whole visit. They fed him right before we left through his little tube and you could tell he is going to be a good eater just like his daddy. As soon as the food hit is belly he got calm and sleepy! Enjoy the picture!