No More Tubes

Today we have no more i.v. tubes! This is a big step for Zac, and one Katy and I are super happy to see. Thought I'd include a picture of him without a hat on today so everyone can see the head of hair he has. :)

Also, the doctor today told us his MRI was completely negative on everything. We know we're still awaiting news on the blood work, and Katy and I can't recall if we've heard something specific on the EKG. I think the nurse told us it was just fine but Katy isn't sure, so we'll double-check and share that when we're certain. :)

They've upped his feedings to 13ml/hour, which I guess is about as much as he'd do on average normally. The next step is to change that up a little to where he's getting more food in a shorter period of time to get him used to taking in more at once. This will prepare him better for being able to handle regular feedings. Since they've had him on this continuous feed, he's not had to deal with that, so this is really just going back to where he was initially, though in larger volumes of food. This should make Zac more able to handle a regular meal. We'll start working on that probably within the next several days.

Not Much News Today

Not a lot new today except he is off the extra fluids he was receiving to add calories and they have upped his breast milk and formula intake so he's receiving enough calories from those alone. He's on an i.v. of saline solution through about midnight, it looks like, and then he might get to have his i.v. removed, which would be great!

Katy and I took turns holding him for awhile today and enjoyed some awake time with Zac. While Katy was holding him to her chest, he decided to lift his head to get a good look at her. Strong little guy for being so young! We didn't get full results of the other testing today, so nothing new to report just yet. Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Testing Update

Well, Zac had a busy day today. He had an EKG and an MRI, plus had blood drawn for the two tests they are going to run. He did very, very well and they were particularly happy with how well he handled the MRI. It made the process go as quickly as it possibly could.

Now we just wait for results of the bloodwork and the other scans. Hopefully we'll only have to wait until Monday on the one for the metabolism question. However, Katy and I are confident all will be well, but please the doctors care enough to want to be absolutely sure he's just fine. While having dinner tonight with Nell, the father of another boy here in the NICU stopped to talk to us for a bit. His boy shares Zac's birthday and was born at about the same number of weeks. It occurred to us that there are probably plenty of children who are born full term who have little things like this going on but nobody knows about it because they aren't being watched so closely like they are in the NICU.

That said, the nurses are very good about trying to reassure the parents that things will be OK and that the tests are precautionary. Aside from that, they have upped his feedings to give him more calories. The hope is that by sometime tomorrow, they may be able to pull him off the i.v. Woohoo! Sorry no pics again tonight. That thing is still in his head so we'll hold off for now.

Tests To Come

OK, well, today's update is more of a prayer request. I know everyone out there has been praying like crazy for us since Katy went in the hospital two weeks ago. Several churches, as well as all family members, have been involved and it's just a great blessing to know God has so many children He wants to use for His will to be seen. :)

Now we've got a more specialized prayer request to share with everyone. A little bit ago, the nurse practitioner came in to let us know they wanted to run a few tests on Zac. In reviewing, for two days, the results of the scan they took of his head, they decided they were seeing something with some blood vessels they weren't fully familiar with and had not seen before. Now, I choose to believe this just means he's a genius and they've not run across it previously here.

They have some different ideas but no way to be sure without testing. Apparently, all their reading tells them everything could be perfectly normal...or it's possible testing might show some type of metabolic anomaly. This could mean he'd need to be on a specific diet once he starts eating big boy food, for instance, so his metabolism would run at the proper rate. The other possibility is that it's due to the magnesium Katy had to be on while in the hospital before he was born. That was to make sure she didn't have any issues with seizures while her blood pressure was so high.

Tomorrow it looks like they'll do an MRI on his head, an EKG on his heart, and draw blood to do lab work for chromosomal and metabolism. The metabolism labs can't be read here, so they'll send the blood off to Johns Hopkins and then they will FAX the results back, probably by Monday of next week. The nurse practitioner stressed to us that likely everything is absolutely fine, but if something wasn't quite right, they couldn't live with themselves if they didn't do the testing to make sure he's OK.

So that's our request. Will you join us in praying for this, please? Zac is a little miracle, for many reasons. He wasn't even supposed to be able to be conceived, and then when Katy had some health issues, he had to come out 9 weeks earlier than planned (which was a week earlier than the doctors thought he was at). He has been able to breath on his own faster than expected, is eating well and keeping his temperature on his own well, and may even be within just a few days of getting out of his isolette and into a crib. As his Puddin' (Katy's Dad) said, God has big plans for Zac. We agree.

Last notes...no pic today because they pulled his i.v. out and put it back into his head. That just kind of gives us the willies, so I'm not taking a picture of that today. :) Also, Nebraska Furniture Mart delivered his furniture today, which initially wasn't supposed to be here until the end of February. Maybe this is a sign that he'll be out of here before the end of the month! :) But, they let us order a crib without ordering a mattress. Can you believe that? You spend all this money on a high-end crib and it doesn't come with a mattress? It's just crazy, I tell you. So we're off to Wal-Mart or someplace within the next few days to find a mattress.

Monday Night Lights

Well, Zac needs a little extra assistance getting rid of the bilirubin, still, so he's back under the lights today. Soon as he, ahem, removes the "waste" which contains this, :), he'll be in good shape. But, the good thing is that at least now he's off the c-pap, so putting on his cool shades to handle the lights isn't nearly as bad for him to deal with. Today's pic is of him in the little Old Navy cap Katy's sister Mickie gave us and it actually fits! We weren't sure if anything would just yet. :)

Breathing Well On His Own

One brief update for tonight. Zac has been doing very well breathing on his own. He's been off the c-pap thing since Saturday morning at 10:30. After the first 24 hours, he'd had only 5 apnea episodes, and had only two last night (part of that total of 5). I was told the episodes he'd had were mild and that he'd pulled himself out of them. Sometimes when a baby has one of these, the nurse (or parent) will stimulate the baby in some way to get them to remember to take another breath. But they haven't had to do that so far, and that's good progress.

Also, because he's doing so well, they upped his food intake to 15ml every 3 hours. It was 10ml just yesterday. He's done well keeping it down, though he did spit up just a bit earlier today while I was holding him. Probably just a slight upset tummy or something, but not much and he seemed to feel just fine afterward (I know because I asked our nurse to make sure). :)

When we arrived today, they had moved the i.v. from his foot to his head. We weren't crazy about that because, well, it just looks like it'd hurt. :) Before we left for supper tonight with Katy's mom, the nurse was about to move it to his hand. Turns out his head wasn't so crazy about having it in there either, I guess! No new pics tonight, but hopefully some more by tomorrow.

Visiting Hours Are Open!

Hey all, just thought I'd put a quick post out there regarding visitation. I'm sure many whom we've contacted have wondered about it and probably haven't wanted to interrupt anything or were unsure if they are allowed to stop up when a baby is in the NICU. I suspect that a number of years ago, that might've been more the case but now there is fairly liberal visitation allowed.

If anyone would like to stop up and see Zac and one or both of us at any time, there is no problem with that. For the purpose of keeping the area quiet, they do limit how many people can come back at once, but that's about it. I'd recommend calling either Katy or myself on our cell phones (e-mail if you don't have this) to make sure we are there. :) We're trying to be there a lot for Zac and also still take care of ourselves a bit so we stay healthy and sane, so we're not always around. However, once we arrive at the hospital, we stay. Well, Katy stays as I have often had errands to run and this next week need to begin working on finishing the basement room so Zac can have a bedroom upstairs by the time he comes home.

If you don't know where the NICU is at the Med Center, it's pretty easy. I'd recommend parking in the Clarkson Hospital visitors lot, just off 42nd street. Come in the main doors and after the information desk and another area, you'll see a hallway to your left with a sign on it that says "Hixon-Lied Center". Follow that direction and the signs to Elevator C. Take Elevator C up to the 4th floor, exit and turn to your right, around the little waiting area with the fake tree and cool kids furniture, and you'll see the front desk for the NICU. Pretty simple!

We Have a Face!

We do! Turns out Zac isn't some little alien child, but rather a cute little guy! While we'd hoped and prayed this would be the case, with all the tubes in him recently there was no guarantee (Dad says with tongue in cheek). :)

Today they pulled the c-pap out at 10:30 this morning, upped the amount of food he gets every three hours to 15ml, and so far, so good. It's about 4:30pm now, so this is 6 hours doing very well. All he has at the moment is the feeding tube, which they've transferred to go in through his nose instead of his mouth. It's a little more comfortable for him there and he's still able to suck on a pacifier if necessary a little bit easier.

Katy and I took the first part of the day to try to relax a bit and and recuperate. We've just been on the go so much, and this has been such an emotional time that we're pretty much drained and have been running on adrenaline. So, in an effort to make sure we are our best for him, we took a little extra time last night and this morning. So when we got here about 4 this afternoon, we were just so excited to see him off the c-pap! That little thing has been driving us crazy because we just want to be able to hold our little guy like everyone else. Katy is holding him right now, getting the chance to look at his face directly for the very first time. :) That's it for now!