Doing good

Hello Maria here making some noise on our page. Tim begs me to do this all the time and I usually say no because I can't give it that spin like he does. Anyway I just wanted everyone to know that we are doing fine. Noah is up to 9lbs and 1oz, he is 21 inches long and really starting to fill out. We go to the Dr. at least once a week for weight checks and/or to check his FK-506 levels(anti-rejection med). Every visit has been fine so far except for our trip to Duke on the 14th. Noah was admitted that afternoon for low sodium levels. The Docs wanted to observe him while they brought it up slowly. We were released the very next day. Noah is having a lot of reflux issues but he is gaining weight so we continue to watch this. I think we have called Duke about 15 times or more since we have been home and we have the pediatrician's cell number and we call her often as well. They will never forget me or Noah for as long as they live. I'm not crazy, (no matter what Tim might say) just concerned. Autumn continues to do well with her new brother. She loves him and wants to help all the time. She gets diapers, wipes and throws stuff away for me. She loves to help give him a bath and she also likes to hold him. We are so very proud of her! Starting next month she will stop going to school and she will stay at home with Mommy and Noah. She is excited about it! She started her gymnastics at the Little Gym again this summer and she loves it. I think we are going to have a good summer and I know it will take time to get use to things but I am so happy to be at home with my family. It has been way too long for any mother to be with out her children. I pray that I never have to be without my family again. Thank you to everyone for all the prayers and support. We have been so strong and it has been because people like you pray for our family everyday. God is good and with him all things are possible. Our faith is so much stronger and we thank him each and every day for our beautiful family and our wonderful friends and family like you. Thanks again!

Too busy to type, so enjoy these pictures

Noah's first time out of the hospital.

Autumn and Noah enjoying the outdoors this evening.

Autumn climbing a tree this evening.

Today Is The Day!!!!

The sign on Noah's door.He looks excited about it, too.

A late weekend update

Sorry for the delay between posts. It was a tiring weekend which took me a full day to recover from. Saturday night, I stayed with Noah in the hospital. I was apprehensive about doing it, but I wanted to give Maria a break. I say it as though I volunteered, but Maria was going to make me stay with him anyway. The night started off peacefully. I was just having to change the little man’s diapers every couple of hours. As he rested, I kept my ears tuned to every little sound he made. Then I fell asleep until midnight when the nurse came in to start his feeds. She noticed that Noah’s heart rate and blood pressure were normal, which is not normal for Noah. She called in the resident, who called in the resident from the PICU and another doctor. They collaborated and ordered an immediate EKG and chest X-ray. While the people were coming and going from the room, Noah’s nurse kept trying to get a good blood pressure. After an hour and a half, I guess Noah got sick of it and threw up all his feeds. So, the doctors ordered that his feeds be cut off. By 2:00 a.m. everyone was gone and Noah was agin resting peacefully. I didn’t get much more rest after that though. I was very glad to see Maria arrived at noon the next day.

The following day, one of Noah’s cardiologists spoke with me and basically said he wasn’t too concerned with Noah’s numbers because he was resting when the numbers were low. He said he wasn’t too concerned with Noah throwing up all his feeds after all he’d been threw while his stomach was filling up. He said that he was going to ask that his feeds be re-started. Sometime later, I asked someone why his feeds hadn’t been started. That person told me that the radiologist who read Noah’s chest X-ray had found a hernia. We were freaking out. It wasn’t until 2:00 a.m. that a doctor came and explained to us that what the radiologist had thought was a hernia was just something that was supposed to be there. It appeared wrong because of the way Noah was positioned when the X-ray was taken. The doctor explaining it to us said that she was going to advise the pediatric team that Noah could start getting his feeds again. Thirteen hours after his feeds had been stopped, they were started again.

That was very discouraging to me because Noah was scheduled to be discharged on Monday as long as he was tolerating his feeds. I knew the big break in feeding would set us back and it did. I know that our hospital time is winding down, though.

Noah tired out from his first stroller ride.

Homeward Bound?

I haven't posted for a couple of days because I've been busy preparing the house for a homecoming. We won't know for sure when Noah will be coming home until he's discharged, but we don't think it will be long now (knock on wood, cross your fingers, pray, do a rain dance, whatever you think will help).