Some Positives & Another Problem.

Yesterday Ben had the photo therapy lights removed & so far his level is holding about the same (it went up a little). He also was put in an open crib. But.... we just found out today that there is a new problem. Ben has been occasionally breathing fast. I guess this morning he was breathing fast for longer than normal and they decided to do a chest x-ray. The results showed he has some fluid in his lungs. They then tested to see if their was an infection and there was not. I was told that they usually will also have problems getting oxygen when there is fluid present, but he seems to be doing fine on that part. So they have hooked him up to some air to help him get more air and maybe help dry out his lungs.

We were hoping he would be able to come home this weekend, but probably not likely now. That's all I have for now. Until later.

More Pictures

I have been wanting to put these pictures up for a few days & just haven't had time or didn't have the camera with me to get the pictures off. So here they are. Hopefully Melissa doesn't change her mind about me posting the one with her in it. :)

Ben is doing good. He actually had a feeding yesterday where he was able to drink the whole bottle by himself and didn't have to have the remainder fed to him through the tube. It doesn't happen every time yet, but it is definitely a step forward.






In case you don't already know... you can click on any of the pictures to make them bigger.

Some Results...

Well, we spoke with the Neonatologist and he let us know that Ben has a couple of holes in his heart which they say are fairly normal and will probably close up. The problem to be more concerned about is he has an area of his aorta that is narrower than the rest. They said it isn't life threatening right now and he is getting the blood flow he needs, but they want to keep an eye on it and look into it further. So he is going to need to see two specialists down at Primary Children's Hospital now instead of one. Previously he was going to be seeing a Geneticist, and now he will also be seeing a Cardiologist.

But the doctor also confirmed that Ben can come home when his bilirubin levels (jaundice) come down & when he can eat on his own. His levels are lowering and he is eating more, but he isn't there yet. We'll try to post more pictures tonight.

Status Update...

Sorry, we haven't posted sooner. Ben is still in the NICU. Melissa came home Saturday. She is doing well, except that Ben isn't home. He is looking better and eating more. As we expected, he has jaundice so he has to be under the lights (phototherapy). He has also been getting more tests done. He had his second echocardiagram done yesterday. After his first echo Friday, I was told that he has a heart murmer, but it's not bad (Logan had one too). But I was told they found something else in the second echo, and we are supposed to be talking to the doctor today to find out what that is. Will let you know more later. Please pray for him.

1 day old update...

Well, Ben has been sleeping most of the time so far. He has been having a hard time eating, which is still affecting his blood sugars. He is also not regulating his temperature very well. So, we were just informed that he is going to have to go to the NICU. They are probably going to have to feed him through a tube. We have to wait till 5pm before we can go see him and hopefully find out more on how he is doing. We will post more info once we know more.

On a side note we heard Debbie had her baby this morning and wanted to congratulate her and Patrick on June's arrival. We hope everyone is doing well.

And Benjamin has entered the world

For those that don't already know... the new baby is here! After a long morning of uncertainty & waiting, he came out in a mad rush. Melissa went from almost no progression after a few hours to being fully ready with the baby's head right there in less than 10 minutes. The nurse had the doctor paged and called for the delivery setup, but the baby's heart rate was down and staying down and she was having a hard time even finding it, so she decided they couldn't wait for the doctor. She called for the charge nurse, and the 2 of them delivered the baby in about 3 pushes. It was fast. As predicted, he is small. Turns out, that is exactly why the doctor wanted us to come in and deliver today. According to the ultrasound 3 weeks ago he weighed 5 lbs. 11 oz., 2 weeks ago he weighed 5 lbs. 15 oz., but yesterday he weighed 5 lbs. 4 oz., so he had actually lost weight (the doctor didn't tell Melissa this so as not to worry her more than necessary).
Well here are the details:
1:35 p.m.
5 lbs. 1 oz.
18.5" long
All in all he is doing well, we're just trying to keep his blood sugars up.
More pictures to come later.

Not Yet....

Well, it's 11 am, been here for 5 hours, and no baby yet. They attempted early this morning to start the pitosin, but they had to unhook it just about as fast as they started. The baby has been having what they call "decels", which means decelerations. In other words his heart beat keeps dropping or slowing down. In between his rate is fine, so they are just watching closely for now. The decels occur right after each contraction, which are pretty consistent. They are looking at doing a c-section if they get to bad or if they continue and Melissa doesn't go into labor. They have already had her get an epidural in case they need to rush here in for a c-section so she wouldn't have to be knocked out. I would say so far this has been pretty similar to Logan's birth. The pitosin problems, the heart rate issues, the warnings of a possible c-section, the waiting.

The nurse just came in and said that the heart rate has been fairly stable for the last half hour, so they were going to start administering a small amount of pitosin again. So we'll see. Until later...

The Stork is Coming

I went to my 38 1/2 week doctor appointment today and thought that it was just going to be another routine check-up, and "see you next week", but not the case. The baby has been measuring small for a few weeks, so my doctor said that she would keep an eye on him, but nothing to worry about. He hasn't grown very much, if at all from last week, but I was still very surprised when my doctor said, "You're done being pregnant." She thinks that he will do better once he is born than if we wait it out until my due date. I go to the hospital tomorrow morning at 6 am to get induced. So tomorrow the wait is finally over, we get to meet our baby boy! I'm excited, but also nervous under the circumstances. Wish me luck!

Thanks to my talented friend Ash, here are the last pictures of me pregnant!

Master Bedroom Project

My room is finally done! (There are a few things that we would still like to do, like some new furniture and window treatments, but that will have to wait.) We started working on this room before we got married, and just now finished it.


We had some painting that still needed to be done and molding to hang up. We also got new windows and carpet, yay!

One of my favorite parts of this room is the closet. I'm so excited that I can finally organize my clothes! My old closet had a single rod and shelf, so everything was just packed in there and it was hard to find anything. Now, I have shelves and drawers that are easier to get to.

So, after about 4 years of living in a half finished room, and 3 weeks of sleeping in the basement while we finished up the rest, I have a nice clean room! Hopefully, 2009 will be a year when we can get a lot of our unfinished projects around the house finished up!