The Lake

A couple of weeks ago we went to Folsom Lake and went jet skiing. We went with our really good family friends, Cal and Michela Reynolds, my brother Mikey, my mom and dad, and Morgan, Noel and I. It was Noel's 2nd time at the lake but her first time playing in the water. She loved it! We all had a good time.
My mom on the jet ski.
My dad with Noel on the jet ski.

Noel playing in the water with my mom. Morgan on the jet ski.
Noel with Michela, a very good family friend of ours.

Playing at the Park

A couple of weeks ago, Morgan, Noel and I went to a park nearby to let Noel get her wiggles out. Here are a few pictures we took.

Day 65 - Samuel Update

Samuel is still being weaned off of the cpap. Every 3 hours he has 3 hour sprints, so he'll be 3 hours on the cpap and then 3 hours off continually throughout each day depending on how he tolerates it. Sometimes he'll still have desats and heart rate drops but not nearly as much as he used to. He now weighs 4 lbs 14.1 oz and is 17 1/8 inches in length. His poor little head is being shaped by the cpap tubing which they have to wrap around his head to keep the cannula in his nose. Samuel still has a significant heart murmur and nothing has improved in that aspect so they'll be keeping an eye on that. His doctor now says that he thinks he'll be home in a minimum of two weeks and a maximum of 4 but Samuel is going to have to tell us when he wants to go home and when he is ready. Oh yah, Samuel is doing a little better with bottle feeding. He took about 25 mls of milk yesterday (some days he is only able to do 10) but he still isn't so good at the suck/swallow/breathe combination, he gets so tired so fast and I don't blame him. But all in all, he is doing great.

These pictures are from this last sunday. It's so fun to hold him without the cpap. In these next few pictures you can see what the cpap machine does to his head. Poor little guy.


This picture was from Monday. He was so squirmy that night.

Day 59 - Samuel Update

Samuel had a good 40 minute sprint off of the cpap today! He is doing so well so they bumped up his sprints off to 60 minutes two times a day, as he tolerates it!

I was there this morning to learn some physical therapy moves for him and afterwards I got to do skin to skin. Samuel woke up just after that and his primary nurse was showing me how well he does off of the cpap. For a good 15 minutes or so Samuel was awake and calmly looking around and so I had to take a ton of pictures of course. It was so cute! His oxygen saturation was in the 90's the entire time. I just can't get over how wonderful it feels to have him in our lives and doing so well. I also think he is the cutest little guy ever!!!

Day 58 - Samuel Update

Samuel is doing wonderfully. He is now 2 months old! He hit the 8 week mark yesterday! Isn't that crazy? He is now doing two 15-30 minute "sprints" off of the cpap, per day, as he tolerates it. Last Tuesday they tried to do two 15 minute sprints and he didn't have a good night after that. He had more desats and had a couple of heart rate drops so they gave him a 2 day break and started up again on Friday. He is doing well enough with the sprinting that they will continue with the two a day for 15-30 minutes each time, for a few more days probably until he shows improvement with those sprints. He gets pretty tired after 10-15 minutes or so off of the cpap and he isn't able to bring his oxygen saturation back up. On monday, I went down to see him earlier on in the day (thanks Mary for watching Noel;)) and did skin to skin with him while he was off of the cpap. He did okay but it wasn't the best sprint. Morgan and I got to go lastnight together to see him (thanks Mom for watching Noel;)) and I got to do skin to skin with him again without the cpap and he did about the same. He does good in the beginning but he gets tired pretty fast. Overall though, he is doing amazingly. Some of the nurses are more daring and leave his beanie off so the tubing isn't wrapped tight around his head, so that his head can start to get back to a normal shape. Our little guy is a cute little conehead right now;) He's got the greatest big/little ears too. His hair is coming in more and he now weighs 4 lbs 6.8 oz. He gains a little each night.

Monday night.

Lastnight, skin to skin.
This is what his monitor looks like. The green number on top is his heart rate. The middle blue number is his oxygen saturation. They like him to be at least between 85-93%. This was while he was off the cpap in the beginning when he was doing well;)

Our little blessing.

Day 49 - Samuel Update

Well, we got some optimistic and exciting news today from Samuel's Primary Doctor. First of all, his doctor hasn't seem him since he was at 28% on the cpap and he came in today to see Samuel at room air (21%) on the cpap and he was very impressed. It's now been 4 days since he's been at room air. His doctor said that he would be surprised if Samuel DIDN'T come home earlier than his due date, which was September 13th or so. We were all expecting him to be there at least until then. His doctor also stated that if Samuel keeps this up, best case scenario, he could be home in 3 weeks!!! We are so excited about that thought. It would be wonderful if that would be the case but that is IF Samuel tolerates the "sprinting" that they do which is where they take him off the cpap for short periods of time and they'll gradually increase the length of time (as he tolerates it). The doctor thinks that in the next 7-10 days, he could be off the cpap. So we are hoping and praying that Samuel will tolerate everything fine plus then he'll have a few other hurdles to jump also before going home, his weight needs to be at least 4 lbs (he fluctuates right now between 3 lbs 13 oz and 3 lbs 14 oz), he needs to be able to bottle and breastfeed and pass a few other "tests". We are so proud of our little boy!
21%!!!!!

Hanging with Dad. Morgan is such a great father!

Day 46 - Samuel Update

I don't have much time but I had to share the news. Samuel is at room air (21%) on the cpap!!!! During the last couple of days he was at 28% which was big but overnight he gradually went down 7% which is never the case with him. Samuel is doing so well. He graduated into a big boy crib (which is a little bigger than a bassinette). He looks so small in it compared to how big he looked in his isolette. He is now wearing all kinds of comfy clothes. I got to hold him yesterday and work with him during his physical therapy appointment. He did so well with his exercises. I am so excited!!! There is an end in sight! Also yesterday he did well with the pacifier. Usually his oxygen saturation drops (he desats) when he has a pacifier in his mouth but he did great with it yesterday and he was sucking like any baby would on a pacifier. His heart rate drops are happening less as well as his desats and when they do occur, they are self recovered and he doesn't require any stimulation. We are so proud of our little boy!!!!

His big boy crib.
He seems to always be awake when we come to visit.


Samuel's corner.