Wednesday, November 30, 2011

One week down

Jackson is celebrating his one week birthday in style. Baba is here! Well, she's been here every day, but she finally got to come back and see him after being quarantined to the waiting room all week. I got to hold him for over an hour and change my first "heavy" diaper. To catch me up with Jenny, Jacks decided to go a little more while I was cleaning him up.

This was actually a good thing, because he decided he didn't want to eat all of his food last night and let his belly fill up to the point that he had to have an x-ray. Everything looked good though, he just needs to fill some more diapers.

His bilirubin keeps dropping and he will get his bug zapper turned off tomorrow to see how he does without it. I think there was some more good news to report this morning, but I don't remember right now.

We're just hanging out now. Grandma Mari might be in tonight to wish him a happy birthday. He acted up a little bit too, so I think the principal is coming to pay him a visit.
He stayed awake and stared at dad for almost an hour.
He threw a fit the entire time the nurse practitioner was in the room,
then stopped as soon as she walked out. 
I was very focused changing my first poopy diaper.
I only used three diapers and about a half-dozen wipes.
In my defense, he wasn't finished when I started. 

Muggin dad. I think he was trying to tell me to get him out of there.
Either that or something about the nurses. That's my boy!

Mom got up early to make Jacks a birthday sign.
She then took a million pictures trying to get the perfect one.
I don't think she ever was satisfied with the results.




Mom's not happy without at least one take a pic of yourself a day.

She'll probably stand there just like this until they kick her out.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

2 Good Days in a Row!

We had another great day with Jackson.  I have been told many times that life in the NICU is full of ups and downs...but I am celebrating the ups for the second day in a row.  He is continuing to show us how strong and resilient he is.  They are continuing to bump up his feedings.  Tonight he went from 18 ml to 20 ml!  He weighs 3lbs 6 oz, getting closer to his birth weight!  His nasal cannula is still working well, and still is room air-no oxygen support.  The nurse said that they may take it out in a couple of days and see how he does without it.  If he gets too many brady or dsat alarms, they will put it back in.  He had a few bradys today, but was able to get out of them himself. 

 I got to hold him for an hour today!!!! 






Our little tree frog.


His skin color looks better!  Bilirubin levels are looking good-he just might get to turn off his light tomorrow.  I sure hope so!  Then we can hold him for more than just once a day.
Jackson is just chillin with his legs propped up and his cool shades on.


   This evening he pooped all on his own.  All of his last poops have been with the help of a glycerin suppository.  Daddy changed most diapers today, but guess who got stuck with the poopy one-yup, his mommy of course!  Nick and I took an infant CPR class at the hospital today, which is one of many things we have to accomplish before Jackson can come home.  But, hey, we got one thing checked off the list! 
Baba (my mom) brought food again for us...she's been a lifesaver with feeding us and taking care of our house, running errands, etc.  Thanks Mama!  I love you!

Finally, today is Jackson's Aunt Kate's birthday.  He wanted me to wish his Aunt Kate a very happy birthday!!!  He loves his Auntie!


Love one proud mama






Monday, November 28, 2011

No news is good news

One proud McMama

Cool background
Not much new to report today. He had another good day. He had some more visitors: Aunt Brenda and "Aunt" Brenda both stopped by. Grandma Mary and Grandma Mari were there. Jen's friend Cortney came by too. So since we don't have a lot to say about the little man today, we thought we'd just post some pics.
Mommy loves her little man!


Check out his cool shades. His color is getting much better.


He only opens both eyes for dad.

Killer grip!


Jenny missed her showers, so folks have come bearing gifts.
Dad's getting a little tired of leaving the hospital with more than we came with.

Chilling under the bug zapper. He sleeps like his dad. 


Happy family!

Sunday, November 27, 2011

GOOD MORNING!!!!!!!!

Old picture - new to the blog. This was taken by Grandma Owen an hour or less after he was born.
We're getting used to the good news, bad news of having a preemie, so now you get some of it too. Most of what Jenny posted last may have seemed like bad news, but it's really just news. This morning we got good news, so here it is:


  • He's tolerating his feedings, which doesn't sound like anything special but it's one of the things he'll have to do consistently to be able to come home.
  • He gained 10 grams overnight. Again, this doesn't sound like a lot, but to this point he had only been losing weight. The gain last night is the precursor to more gains; something he will obviously have to do to come home. 
  • Residuals are no longer green. I think Jenny mentioned the icky green stuff coming out after his feedings. It is no longer green, which eliminates any possible concerns with the discoloring. 
  • Blood Sugar levels have stabilized to the good. 
  • He has only had 3 alarms since they hooked up the nasal cannula. His improvements since hooking this up mean that they will try removing it in the next couple of days to see if he has figured out how to breathe all on his own. 
  • All of his improvements indicate no infection. There was some concern, between the green residuals and earlier lack of bowel movements, that he may have an infection. He could still prove to have one, but all signs now indicate that he does not. 
  • The nurse practitioner that saw him this morning thinks the spots on his nose are just scabs. We've heard conflicting reports on these little spots, but we're not too concerned either way. It was good to hear that, at least someone, thinks it's something that will go away. 
  • His bilirubin numbers have remained too high. This was the only news we received this morning that wasn't good news, but it isn't bad news either. It just means he has to stay under the bug zapper and limits the amount of time we can take him out and hold him each day. 
Happy to report all these good nuggets today. Also happy to report that Jackson had a new cousin, born yesterday. Congratulations Ben and Katie!

McDad

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Reality hits...

Yesterday was by far the hardest day of my life...we were discharged from the hospital, and our baby boy was left to stay...it's not something I can talk about...just yet... but your prayers and God's gentle reminder that this precious little boy is in His hands got me through the night...

Today is a new day and I spent it with my two favorite boys.


Many of you have inquired how Jackson is doing.  Most of the time I reply that he is doing ok.  Well in this blog, I will do my best to give you more of an update of his progress and share some of the things I'm learning from the NICU staff (which by the way are so incredible!)  So, here we go...a lot of this sounds really scary, but Nick and I are reminded that he is "acting his age" and all of this he is going through is expected for a 30 weeker.

Jackson has been having too many bradycardias-which are low heart rates.  His lower heart rate causes desaturations of the blood stream.  The NICU seems to use these terms interchangeably, "dsat" or "brady"  Bottom line-he stops breathing.  When this happens, the NICU team sees how Jackson will respond.  Sometimes he starts breathing on his own; sometimes the nurses need to assist him by rubbing his back.  Because he had too many brady's, they have given him a nasal cannula-a little tube that goes in his nostrils.  BUT the good news here is that he is still on room air, not oxygen.  This nasal cannula is just flowing air, like a breeze, in his nose to help him.  Since this, he hasn't had near as many brady's.  So we and the dr's are hopeful that he will not have to get oxygen support.

His feedings are going well.  He is receiving my breast milk through a feeding tube that goes in his nose.  Tonight he is going from 6 feedings a day to 8!  So hopefully he will pack on a few lb's!  There have been a few icky green residuals after feeding so they are monitoring that more closely.

His blood sugar levels were high a couple times.  A normal range would be over 45, under 100-110.  Jackson's was in the 190s-way too high.  But right before we left for the evening, his blood sugar was 88 which we were thrilled about!

They ran a CBC (complete blood count) on the little guy.  His white and red blood cells look completely normal.  YAY!  They sent off a lab sample to see if he has any kind of infection (because of the green residuals)...we should know the results in a couple days.  But after talking to our nurse practitioner for Jackson she did not realize I was on the Mag drip-she said that Jackson could still be getting over that which could be a cause for his digestive system/green residual situation.

There are a couple spots on his nose we aren't sure what they are.  They could be from delivery-he was sunny-side up.  Or it possibly could be a hemangioma.  We aren't sure yet.  Both of which are not concerning.

Jackson has high levels of bilirubin, so he is constantly under a blue light.  This is no fun for mommy or daddy because we can only hold him once a day because he needs to stay under the light.  Nick says it looks like he's under a bug zapper.  He has some pretty stylish shades.  But guess who got to hold him today?  HIS MOMMY!  The way I hold him is called the "kangaroo care".  They stuff little Jackson down my shirt, skin to skin.  It is by far my favorite part of the day.  It is such a special time that I get to bond with my baby.  When we can't get Jackson out, they encourage "hand containment", which is firm touches on his bottom and head.  This type of touch reminds him of being in the womb, all snuggly.

Although this is all so scary and overwhelming, we actually had a great day with him, laughing at his sweet and funny facial expressions, drooling like his daddy when he sleeps, his cry sounding like a sheep, the way he LOVES his paci, and watching him respond to us when we talk to him.

Thanks, Shannon, for the cupcakes!  

Grandma checking out her cutie-pie!

I love my family!

Mommy and Jackson kangaroo care time.

As always, thank you for your prayers and support.  We are forever grateful.

Friday, November 25, 2011

Stinky Gold

HE POOPED TWICE TODAY. There, enough said.
We're finding joy in the small things now. Like poops and naps in hospital beds. He continues to amaze us. The nurses keep reminding us every time that they tell us something is high, low or that he stopped breathing again that, "He's just acting his age."
He is still under a light and will be for a while. This is normal for a premie and the only real downside is that it limits the amount of time that we can take him out and hold him. Jenny's pumping is going well, and that's all I have to say about that. She can elaborate if she so chooses. He has a little feeding tube that he receives breast milk through now. This was great news to get him started on that motherly goodness.
If you didn't pay any attention to the last paragraph because you were stuck on the, "he stopped breathing" thing, don't worry about it too much. This is also normal for early birds. Jackson is one of the few, if only, babies in the NICU that is not currently receiving breathing assistance. They keep prepping us for it as a possibility, but he keeps showing positive signs that keep them from hooking him up to anything. They are very cautious and don't hesitate to take proactive measures, so the fact that they continue to wait is a very positive sign.
It's getting late now and Ronald says I have to go to bed or clean the fryer, so we'll leave you for now. Check back tomorrow for some more good stuff.

McDad

Now what?

Today is Friday. Jackson is 48 hours old. Jenny will be released today. We have a son. We don't know what to do.
I thought what we went through already would be the hard part. I can't speak for Jenny, but I feel like we handled that part really well. It was not an ideal situation but we got through it and we had a healthy baby boy, all things considered. The fact that he's just down the hall must have made us feel better. We were excited that he was here. We were learning how to be parents, which took some of the edge off. Other than the fact that the little man was in the NICU, it really kind of felt like a normal delivery. The staff here deserves a lot of credit for making us feel so comfortable through our situation. Our family and friends get a lot of that credit too.
Now that we are going to be leaving the "comforts" of the hospital and all its wonderful employees, we have to learn how to be parents away from our son. We will be one place, and he will be in another for probably, at least, the first six weeks of his life. That's not so easy.
Where will we be? What will it be like? How is this going to work? Am I going to drive back and forth every day? What's Christmas going to be like?
There are a lot of questions that someone who spent a lot of time learning how to answer questions and solve problems can't answer for us anymore. We are on our own now. Or are we?



There are a ton of unknowns now. The one thing that we do know right now is that we are going to have more support and help, prayers and thoughts, than we know what to do with. We know that no matter how hard it is, we'll get though it. Someone very close to us told Jenny that God doesn't give you anymore than you can handle. That's true. We can handle this and we will. Who couldn't do their best for this little guy.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Scrub-A-Doodle-Dooooo

Remember in Forrest Gump when Forrest says something about, in the military, there's always someone telling you what to do? Well, in the hospital, there's always someone walking in your room.
I don't want to take away from what Jenny has been through here the last few days, but I'm wondering when I won't wake up to a nurse at the foot of my bed or flipping on lights. Seriously, it's been an every morning since we got here thing. This morning was by far the best though.
After sort of sleeping through part of the night on a "recliner", (I use that term loosely) I woke to a couple of nurses or nurses aids or whatever they were (they had scrubs on but didn't seem to medically savvy) tripping over my footrest to tell Jenny that we would have to move rooms - again.
The room change thing (from the first room to the second) could be a whole blog itself. So, apparently there was some kind of leak above our tiny, 1925 esque room and we needed to move at 6 a.m. We moved two doors down - literally. Now that doesn't sound like much to write about but it was an observation. Who needs an alarm clock when you have a hospital full of nurses.

McDad

Happy Thanksgiving!

The board in Jackson's room that his nurses made for him. 
Well, my wonderful hubby has started this blog, and I finally have a second to contribute to it.  How perfect is it that Jackson was born the day before Thanksgiving?  And boy, oh boy, do we have so much to be thankful for!!! Oh, Jackson is soooooo cute! He has some long arms and legs (like his Daddy) and I'm pretty sure he has inhereited the Brunker nose!  He has some chubby cheeks and sweet fuzzy blondish/brownish hair.  In Nick's first post he mentioned Jackson's head - oh gosh -  it was huge and swollen from delivery (don't worry-I will spare you all of those details!!).  It has gone down tremendously with a little bit of bruising, so we are hoping it will  continue to get better.

We got to visit Jackson throughout the day in the NICU and monitor his progress.  He is surrounded by very knowledgable, caring, and compassionate nurses and doctors.  I cannot even begin to express how thankful I am that Jackson has amzaing, incredible care!  Nick and I have been very impressed.  They have been very informative, encouraging, patient with all of our questions/concerns, and so so friendly.  His two specific nurses are Tess and Michelle-these two gals were his first ones on the scene explaining everything in the NICU to Nick in detail while I was in recovery.

Jackson continues to beat the odds!  He still has not had to receive oxygen support.  He got quite a bit of lab work done yesterday, so we will update you all on that today or tomorrow.  I finally got to hold him-that was such a touching, special moment...after delivery they had to take him quickly to the NICU...so I had to wait for a couple of hours.  I can't wait to do that everyday!

Jackson also met his two Grandma's today!  Their hearts were so full-they are quite the proud Grandmas.

Nick and I have commented over and over how we are so blessed with wonderful family and friends, and even people we have never met who are continuously praying and offering support to Jackson and us.  Thank you!  Thank you!  Thank you!

So as corny as it may sound, there are some specific people I want to thank during this time of Thanksgiving so one day when I look back on this blog I can remember the names of those who helped us during our son's delivery:

Everyone that helped us at Barry Rd. the first night
Don, the ambulance driver.  He calmed my fears all the way to St. Lukes downtown by talking my ear off about all his rescues over his 31 year career as a firefighter
Linda-our day nurse (pre delivery)  I can't imagine how many cups of ice she brought me while I was on the Mag drip
Kristina-our night nurse-especially the contraction night...oh my...once again I will spare you the details ; )
Dr. Lu
Dr. Morales
Dr. Wickstrom
Tess
Michelle
Nurse Martina
Nurse Tosha

Ok, and let me be corny one more time.  My husband has been incredible!!!  I am so extremely thankful for him!  He has been an amazing supporter, encourager, uplifter, motivator and labor coach.  I really could go on and on how amazing he has been, but you all know him....he'd get annoyed at me and say something like "That's overboard Jenny"  ; )  But, honestly, he has been my rock through this whole experience.  And I'm so glad that Jackson has him for his Daddy!

So I wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving!!
We will continue to keep you all updated.

Aunt Kate is very excited to be an aunt and stopped by to see Jackson on Thanksgiving day. 
Papa Brunks is excited to have another man around but was disappointed by the lack of teeth in his grandson's mouth. 
Thank you Mickey P. for our terrific Thanksgiving dinner. She really hooked us up! It sure beat Chinese food in the cafeteria for lunch with Uncle Wes and Papa Brunks. That was fun too though. 
 McMama

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Twenty-three, it's a magic number

We should have known better than to think that the little guy would stay in past the 23rd. McMama - Dec. 23; McDad - Feb. 23; Jackson Lee McCutcheon - Nov. 23.
We went to bed last night thinking that we were going to be in the hospital for the long haul. Not so much. Contractions and pain came back in the middle of the night and by 5 am, mom had an epidural and was headed to the O.R.
Delivery went well and sometime around 7:15 a.m. (we'll have the exact time later) the little guy came on out. Three pounds and eight ounces, which is about four ounces more than they had predicted. He measured 18 and a half inches, but will shrink some because of a huge bump on his head. He tried pushing the fat part of his head through first and after almost two hours there, his head came out looking like a somekindasaurus.
He's been in the NICU here since. We can't say enough about the staff here - absolutely amazing! Best case scenario will have him coming home in six weeks, but he would have to pass a gauntlet of tests to get out then. So far he is impressing the nurses (obviously a Mac) and has not needed any respiratory help.
He's an answer to prayers. He's our little miracle.


McDad

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Sunday Scary Sunday

Check, check, check. Is this thing on? Okay good.

Day one of McBaby's blog is day 1 5/6 in the hospital. Weekend back pain turned into a phone call, which turned into a trip to the doctor's office, which turned into a pretty scary moment and a long stay in the hospital. So here we are.

First thing's first, baby is doing fantastic and mom is much better than she was two days ago - I think. After pretty bad back aches on Saturday and Sunday, Jenny decided to call the on-call dr. at her hospital Sunday night. She (the dr.) said it didn't sound bad, but to come on in and get checked out. We got there, everything was looking great, they were starting to think kidney infection, checked her cervix and bam! Three to four centimeters dilated at 30 weeks - not good.

Jenny was put on a Magnesium drip to stop the labor along with some other shots and a lot of scary information and few dozen signatures later, she was transported to another hospital, because of its NICU. Since getting here, she has stabilized, got the shots and meds the docs want the baby to have and is now completely unhooked and off the Mag drip. From where we were two days ago and what they were telling us then, this is a great place to be. One doctor thought she would deliver Monday. This morning, for the first time, the doctors were using more "probably's" than "hopefully's."

From here, it's a waiting game. Baby could come before I have this posted or he could hold out until his due date on Jan. 29. Not likely, but a possibility. Jenny will be here until the baby is born, unless she stays stable for a significant amount of time (probably a month). We have received so much support and are eternally grateful. We have talked a lot about the amazing family and friends that we have. Thank you all for your thoughts, prayers, texts, calls, emails and everything else. Look forward to McMama writing the rest of these too. I just had to get her started.

Keep on keepin on - McDad