HOME sweet HOME

Guys. I thought I had these hormones under control. I mean, It's been a few days since I cried. But then we were in the hospital parking lot and had just loaded the kids (all three) into the van and I couldn't hold back a few happy tears. Then again, when I saw Alden laying in his crib at home for the first time. More happy tears! It's hard to describe how I feel, but let's just say my heart is full! We are so blessed and so grateful.

Alden is doing great. He is on oxygen with a monitor, but the oxygen is on the lowest setting and the monitor hardly ever beeps at us, so I'm not too worried about it at this point.

Thanks again for all your prayers, encouragement, help, and even offers to help. I will post some more pictures soon!

Alden Update 7/7

Alden has been here for a whole week now! Still on track to go home tomorrow morning! Unfortunately, we have to bring him home on oxygen, which is a pain :( But I'll take what I can get. Also, I'm missing my girls. I can't wait to have our whole family home and to enjoy our weekend together. <3

P.S. It amazes me every time how quickly a body can recover from being sliced open. Seriously, I don't know how it's possible but one week out and I am feeling pretty great!

THANK YOU MOM & DAD for watching the girls so I can be here with Alden and take naps between feedings :) You have been a huge help.

Alden Update 7/6

Not too much to report today. Alden is still doing awesome. I am nursing him every 6 hours so I checked back in to "Hotel Stay" at the hospital. Evan was able to visit and feed him his bottles at lunch and dinner, so that was fun!

I'm pretty sure he gets more and more adorable with each passing day. Probably because he is getting healthier! Love that boy!

Alden Update 7/5

You guyyyyysss! I am on cloud nine.

I went in this morning, not even expecting to be able to hold Alden, and he was doing SO well, they turned down his oxygen and let me nurse him! (I was a little nervous about it so I waited for his doctor to come in and give me the green light). They were very encouraged by the progress he has made in the last day or so. And the best news is, we misunderstood the 7-day watch. The clock didn't start yesterday, it started when his antibiotics started- basically the day he was born. So there's a chance he could come home as early as Saturday!

I dropped the girls off with Mom today and while I was there I got this cute text from Alden's nurse, Mike.

We went in tonight to nurse him again and he did so well!  He's going to be a great little eater, I think. Also they downgraded him to a LOW flow cannula, so he is well on his way to not needing supplemental oxygen at all :)

You guys, he's the sweetest. I'm sooo glad I got some snuggles in. After the roller coaster ride we've been on, I needed it!

Alden Update 7/4 part 2

I wasn't able to hold Alden tonight, but he is doing okay. He just hasn't been quite stable enough and they didn't feel like he was ready. But we still went and said hello and we saw him with his eyes open! ... for like 10 seconds. Haha. But still... That doesn't happen very often. Wish I would've gotten a picture! He is a sleepy fella, since he's fighting the pneumonia and also has been on sedatives on and off. 

The doctor ordered a "7 day watch" which, turns out, is just the amount of time he's supposed to remain on antibiotics, and the minimum amount of time he has left in the NCU. Could be longer but we'll continue to pray that he improves quickly and can come home when his antibiotics are done.

Alden Update 7/4

I got to hold Alden last night and the girls got to meet him for the first time!

It was wonderful to be with him, but unfortunately when I went back to hold him again this morning, they wouldn't let me. Apparently, right after we left last night he started to really struggle. The nurse was quite worried and called his doctor in while they did an X-ray, expecting that there would be air-pockets and they'd have to insert a catheter in his chest again. Luckily, the x ray still looked good (minus the pneumonia) and he started to calm down shortly after the doctor arrived. This morning they tried turning down his oxygen a notch and he didn't tolerate it well, so they thought it best that we leave him alone for a bit.

They said if he does well today I should try holding him later tonight. I'm so torn because here they are encouraging me to hold him and do skin-to-skin, but at the same time they're telling me how hard it is on him when he's moved in and out of bed. I WANT to hold him but I don't want to bug him if it's going to cause another episode like last night! I just want him to get better and come home, dang it.

Anyway, that's where we're at.

Alden Update 7/3

Here's a run down of what's been going on with Alden since he was born.

During the C-Section, I heard the doctor exclaim a few times "He has a huge noggin!" They were having a hard time getting him out. They tried a vacuum, made my incision a couple inches longer, and in the end had to use forceps to pull him out. I watched them clean him up and as they were wheeling us out to the recovery room, they noted that he looked a little bit blue, but didn't seem extremely concerned. In recovery I asked to hold him skin to skin and my nurse started to look a little worried, noticing that he looked QUITE blue and a little pale. So she called in the respiratory therapist (I think?) and they took him away to the NCU. 

A few minutes later they came back and explained that he was having a little trouble breathing, they were going to hook him to to the CPAP machine (blow a little air into his lungs) and they told us that 60% of babies only needed an hour on this machine and then they'd be fine. Of course, Alden was in the 40% and they kept him in the NCU for further treatment.

So day one, Friday, they had him on Oxygen and the CPAP to dry out the excess fluid in his lungs. They said he'd be in the NCU for 2-4 days. Saturday he appeared to be improving rapidly. They'd actually removed his tubes, CPAP and oxygen and he seemed to be holding his own. We both got to hold him and it was wonderful!

Saturday night he started to struggle a little more to keep his Oxygen levels up, so they decided to put him back on a low-flow oxygen cannula.

Sunday the poor little guy started heading the wrong direction. He was having to work too hard to keep his levels up, needing the supplemental oxygen and still breathing pretty rapidly. They discovered in an X-ray that he had a pneumothorax, a small hole in his lung that was leaking air into his chest cavity. The air pocket can become quite serious if it continues to grow because it can put pressure on the lung and keep it from expanding fully, it can also start to shift the lung and heart toward the other side of the chest. So they told us that either Alden's body would sort of heal itself and reabsorb that air bubble, or they would have to essentially poke him in the ribs and insert a catheter to release the air.

Sunday evening his doctor decided that the latter procedure was necessary. And....It was a little awful.. but luckily they gave him morphine and a sedative and he seemed not to be too distressed. It went well, they drew out 10 mL of air and he seemed to receive instant relief. Yay! They told us that they would monitor him and if the air continued to leak from the lung then they would have to life-flight him to Ogden where they would insert a chest tube. 

This morning, Monday, the X ray showed positive results. The air pockets were much smaller and they had turned down his supplemental oxygen a bit... They're feeding him my milk (through a tube) every few hours, and they're starting to wean him off of his IV. They think he has some pneumonia which they're treating with antibiotics. They removed the catheter from his chest and now they just want to give him rest and time to heal, but did give me permission to start holding him skin-to-skin every 12 hours.

Of course, the whole experience has been a bit of a disappointment. We have spent the day at home today, which has been nice, but I am a bit of a hormonal mess and missing my sweet baby. Feeling weird that I am home without him. Totally didn't expect any of this to happen! But I guess nobody ever does. Looking forward to holding him again tonight (for the third time, ever) and feeling so blessed to know that, in time, he'll be just fine and joining our family here at home.

Thank you, everyone, for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers! We love you and feel blessed to have such a supportive network of family and friends.

We'll keep posting here on this blog to try to keep everyone updated. But no news is good news. You can expect that he'll simply continue to rest and improve each day until he comes home.