All cuddled up with the sun shining in his room. Nathan was about to have another good day and
make his mom and dad very happy. We hung
out with him all day since we wouldn’t come back in the evening. Nathan was doing great!
They completely took him off his IV fluids (TPN) and now he
was only getting my milk. I could only
hope that my ‘liquid gold’ was going to be the main thing to make Nathan strong
and healthy. He ended up getting 10 mL
of my milk this morning at 9am! We have
made it to the double digits. He was a
growing boy and needed all the strength he could get!
We began his 4pm care.
To me, his coloring was good and he was starting to look a lot thicker
than when he was born. I obviously see
only what is on the outside and don’t really know the developmental stages of
his organs and how they are ‘really’ doing.
But anyway…this care was especially funny. As I was changing Nathan’s diaper, I started
to take of his dirty one but as I was doing that, he started to poop. I luckily caught it with the dirty diaper but
he needed to go right then and there. It was
pretty comical. His nurse that day was
Tonya. She was also one of the PICC line
nurses and she had taken care of Nathan when he first arrived in the NICU and
she was the one to actually put his first PICC line in. She was familiar with him and she thought him
pooping in the mist of changing him was funny too.
During his care, they turn the oxygen up a bit since we are
messing with him but for the most part, he stayed in the 38% range for the
day. There was a moment in the middle of
the night that his CO2 went up but they said that wasn’t too concerning and
that they would do another blood/gas level the next day.
We still had to gown and glove while we were handling Nathan
so Kevin took a picture of me in my garb.
Behind me is the oscillator. It
looks like something that belongs in a museum, but instead, it is what is
keeping my baby alive. The other picture
is showing you that I decorated Nathan’s room for Christmas. We have ornaments hanging up as well as the
picture of him, Santa and his mom next to his bed. I was going to make this the best Christmas
that Nathan could possibly have.
As it started getting closer to 7, we sat by his bed, and
Kevin read him “T’was the Night before Christmas.” It was so precious seeing Kevin read to him
and I couldn’t wait for the days when Kevin could sit him on his lap in a
rocking chair and read to him while Nathan would point to pictures and turn the
pages in the book.
It was getting closer to shift change so we began to wrap things up. Nathan was all
tucked in and sleeping like a baby. He
was facing the window in his room so I told him to watch out for Santa and his
reindeer flying across the sky. I knew
that all I wanted for Christmas was Nathan so my present was already here and
wrapped up tight. I also told him that
we wouldn’t see him until the next morning so he needed to be a good boy for
the nurses. I think I taped my phone
number on his room wall for them to call me if anything happens. We would be downtown that night and not a few
blocks down the street so I was a tad on edge, and rightfully so.
 |
| The Children were nestled all snug in their beds... |
We are both ready and we begin heading downtown
Cincinnati. My brother’s girlfriend,
Alicia, gave me the best Christmas present.
She worked for a company that allowed her to get a very nice and large
hotel room that had 2 adjoining rooms with a huge living area for my family to
stay in and be able to spend the holidays with us. When we got there, it was gorgeous. Everyone was there and they were so excited
to see us and vise versa! I hadn’t seen
my brother since everything had happened so it was so good to see him. We hung
out in the hotel for a bit before our reservation time at McCormick and
Schmicks.
As we were sitting around talking, I begin to bring up the
fact that someone made a baby blanket for Colin and Kevin picked it up in the
mail. Kevin looked at me like I was
crazy. “I didn’t pick up a blanket in
the mail,” he said. I told him that it
was sitting on the counter in our room.
So someone had let themselves into our room and dropped it off. That really didn’t sit well with me. I felt like our privacy was completely
invaded. Can anyone just let himself or
herself in whenever they want? Don’t
misunderstand that we are forever grateful for the Ronald McDonald House's hospitality and services, but this room had our personal stuff in it. With all the stress that I was under with the
situation I was in anyway, I almost just wanted to be left alone. I had to ask the front desk if that is
something that they do on a regular basis and see if I needed to be prepared
for them to barge in whenever they felt like it.
My dad came up to me to show me something that he had
purchased. It was a calendar. And in this calendar were (+) and (-). He told me that he was keeping track of
Nathan’s good days and bad days. It was
sweet and I could only hope we could fill that calendar up with more (+) than
anything.
We headed down to the restaurant, which was right outside
The Westin Hotel where they were staying.
We enjoyed a nice meal…some talk about Nathan and his status and some
talk about other things. It was
heartbreaking to have our family so close but yet they weren’t able to come in
and see Nathan, especially my brother.
Our parents had already met Nathan but Dan had not. It would have been awesome if he were allowed
in for just 5 minutes while he was in town.
After dinner wrapped up, Kevin and I headed back to the
RMH. Once we got there, we called the
NICU to see how our little man was doing.
He was doing great and no new news to report. We could sleep easy and pray that Santa was
going to bring us some goodness, health and happiness this Christmas.
Nathan’s Nightly Update (12/24/13)
Merry Christmas Eve Everyone!
This is going to be a short
update since there really isn't anything new to report. To me that is
good news!
Him being on the oscillator
still seems to be treating him well. His CO2 did go up just a bit over
night but nothing too concerning. They will take another blood/gas level
tomorrow. His oxygen was stable around 38-42% throughout the day which is
awesome. He would need to go up when the nurses were fiddling with his
tube while doing care but then he went straight back to his 40%. Such a
good boy.
One thing that is awesome is
that he is completely off his IV fluids (TPN) so he is getting all his
nutrients from my milk!!! That is awesome! He is up to 10ml of milk today
and go up to 11 tomorrow. His PICC line is still in for his antibiotic
but once the antibiotic is done they hope to take that out.
I have attached a video of me
changing his diaper. As I was taking the dirty one off he decided to
start pooping and peeing right then. So luckily I caught most of it but
needless to say we needed to change the towel underneath him. Boys will
be boys, right? The picture below is just his daily picture. Isn't he
cute?
Other than those things, all
is well with him. All the nurses love him and he is a very good boy for
them. We read him 'Twas the Night Before Christmas' tonight before we
left. He has a window so I told him to look out for Santa flying by.
:)
Nathan, Kevin and I are
wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!
Love you all!
Kelly, Kevin and Nathan
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