Happy 3 weeks! Patrick is now at the 32 week gestational age and the doctor decided that we can start trying oral feedings. Tonight Patrick managed to get down about 7ccs on his own! And then I panicked about him being able to breathe and swallow and in that time he decided he was too sleepy to try any more. But it was a good start! Unfortunately our camera's batteries were drained, so we don't have any pictures with us tonight, but his nurse did grab the hospital camera so we can get some prints.

He came in at 3lbs 5oz, or 1500 grams! Also exciting. The nurses are dressing him up a lot these days, and I can't wait until he can fill out some of the bigger things! He's gotten a substantial collection of blankets over the last 3 weeks, so he will never have a boring isolette or crib.

Patrick is still sitting at 3lbs 4oz tonight, but he did gain a few grams over the day. He spent most of the time while we were there this afternoon asleep, but tonight he was wide awake. Patrick growls. When ever he's not happy about something, he just makes this "Rrrrrrrrrr" sound. It's like he's too tired to actually wake all the way up and complain about it, but he's not just going to sit there and let it happen.

Nothing big going on right now. Patrick's 4 year old cousin Colin told us tonight that he can't say Patrick ("I can't say Patrick!"), his name should be Zach. He's also told us we should have named him Dash or Colin Cheeto.

Jon gave Patrick a bath today:

Patrick was not happy with getting cold.

So Jon bundled him up and the blanket he put around Patrick's head over the hat looked like one of those winter hats with the ear flaps.

When I came back after the game tonight, Patrick was passed out. Again.

Gramalissa actually got that outfit for Will, but Will never got to wear it so I brought it up for Patrick.

Almost the entire time I was up there, Patrick was making these little growling noises. He wasn't happy about me bugging him in his sleep, but he wasn't going to wake up all the way and let me know. It was the same sort of sound the dogs make when they're asleep and dream about chasing something.
Tonight he weighed in at 3lbs 4oz. I guess since he missed a day on gains, this makes up for it. They did increase his feeds to 27ccs. They've told me before that when they start getting around 3 1/2 pounds, the babies start to maintain their temperatures better. Don't know how it'll work with Patrick, but once he does, we might move to a crib. Also, 32 weeks is when they get babies rooms with windows, so if one opens up any time soon, we might be switching rooms.

I would usually head to bed about now, but there's a spontanious camp out in our backyard that I need to check on.

No changes tonight. He gained 15 grams, but it's not enough to get him up another ounce. One of the nurses informed us that he was eventful tonight, pulling out his feeding tube! That thing was taped to his face, so he had to have been REALLY pulling. You would think he'd stop when it hurt!

We've been practicing the mouth feedings, and he's sort of getting it. He tries for a few minutes, then he falls asleep. In this picture, you can kind of see him "rooting" around. Getting his fingers in his mouth seems to be a good thing.

I do have a card reader to play with, but I'm not sure if it actually deleted all the pictures off of the camera we have with the cord, or if I managed to forget that I put them all on the computer already, so I'll play with that soon.

3 lbs 2 oz! He keeps going! Really, nothing else to say!

We decided that carpet would be a good idea before Patrick gets home, so we added that project to the list of things that need to get done in less than 4 weeks!

He is sort of a stinky kid, so this weekend Jon gets to help give him a bath.

I feel like there are things that I'm forgetting, but I think I've gotten all the notable things on here! Gramalissa brought up a card reader today, so as soon as I get that all set up on my computer I'll have those pictures that have been hiding on our camera.

The easiest kid in the unit...

More than one nurse called Patrick that today. He's had a few alarms go off, but they were all misreads by the sensors. He's taking his feedings, he's pooping, he's sleeping. Everything he's supposed to be doing. Tonight he was up to 3 lbs 1 oz! If we do an ounce a day, the doctor will be happy. In fact, on the daily charts, there's a section for the day's goals -- Patrick's only goal today was to gain weight!

We did try to see if he would figure out the breast feeding motions, but he was way too sleepy to even try today. Another time! He's still on the early side for all of that.

I don't know, there's not a whole lot else to say! Jon's working hard on getting the house ready for Patrick to come home. Tonight we were able to go over and meet Ava and Lydia. Lots of familiar things over there, from both Will and Patrick. But it sounds like everything is going about the same track as Patrick's.

When Will was in the hospital, his neighbor was Reece. We sort of got to know Reece's mom, and today they were all up at the hospital. Kristen stopped by while I was at lunch and left some really cute outfits for when Patrick is bigger, and I actually ran into her as I was coming back from lunch! Going through the NICU is such a strange experience, and it's good to have people around who know what's going on. I'm glad that things are going well for Reece, and we'll hear plenty about Lydia and Ava.

I think it gets later every time I'm able to post something! Thanks for checking in!

3 pounds!

He made it! Patrick is back at 3 pounds tonight! They upped his feedings to 25ccs every 3 hours, and tomorrow we'll probably some non-nuitritive breast feeding, just to see if he has it figured out. He's definitely showing some instincts toward it.

The doctor got rid of his oxygen sat probe, so that's one more line gone! I'm so used to having the yellow line on the monitor screen to watch, I sort of feel lost without it. He's only had one episode where his heartrate dropped to 80, and that was only for a second.

We did get some big news today -- Jon's old coworker Greg and his wife Brenda had their twin girls today! Brenda had been up on the 9th floor for just over a week, and they had gotten to 29 weeks and one day. I think their names are Ava and Lydia, and they weighed 3 lbs and 2lbs 15 oz! It sounds like they're on the same track as Patrick, and they are also on the 5th floor but across the hall from Patrick. Their aunt told me that now Patrick has two possible girlfriends!

Anyway, I wanted to just put out a congratulations to Greg, Brenda and big sister. We hope that everything will go just as well with them!

Yesterday was a busy day for us - Jon and I were hardly at the hospital at all. After talking to the doctor yesterday, it's become a big priority to get the bedroom done for Patrick. We've got 5 or 6 more weeks up here! They're expecting to be able to send him home on the first or second week of November. With Will, we were worried about respiratory problems, but the doctor said that Patrick should be like a normal baby. Getting the ducts cleaned again might be a good idea, though, he did tell us.

Patrick weighed in at 2lbs 14 oz last night, so he's still gaining weight! We'll be back to 3lbs soon. He's eating and pooping and doing everything he's supposed to be doing. He has had a couple of desats (where the O2 reading goes below 84%) but he self resolves, most of the time before the nurse can even get over to check what's going on!

Other than that, we can play dress up with him. Jon's getting pretty good at diaper changes. Patrick is wide awake just before his feeding times, and he's showing signs of being mature enough to nurse - putting his hands to his face, sucking on the pacifier- and we might start trying bottle feedings and all that next week.

Patrick is not the exciting one up here today, and we're okay with that!

Pictures again someday. I'll have to remember the camera.

Finally! I think we're done with the bili-light! No more goggles! We can dress him up!

Patrick is getting full feeds now - 25ccs - and they've started using a fortifier to get him some extra calories, more calcium and protien. He's been a little spit uppy since the change, but he'll probably learn to tolerate it all better.

I have a bunch of pictures on our camera with the lost cord, and a video somewhere else. I'll try to figure those things out and get them up here too.

Yesterday I gave him a tub bath! And by tub bath, I mean Tupperware shoebox bath. They have a mesh ramp to put him on, and we swaddled him up and put the blanket and all in the water. He did not mind one bit! Not even the hair washing.

The doctor has been calling him a rockstar and Superman lately. The nurse today was saying he's been doing extremely well for his gestational age. He seems to be one of the easier kids up here!

Jon was able to spend some time holding Patrick this morning and this afternoon. It seems like he's either focusing better on faces or even recognizing his dad because he just stares at Jon! I'm starting to believe that he really does recognize us.

It's been a pretty exhausing time for Jon. He's trying to get the house ready for Patrick to come home, and the only time he really has is on the weekends anymore. It's sort of up to me to get this room thing rolling, and in order to get paint for the room, I need to know what kind of things we're going to put in his room. I don't know if it's complicated because I'm making it complicated, or if baby things are just crazy to everyone! The sooner we paint the better, just to get any fume-yness out of the house before he comes home!

I think that's everything that has happened in the last couple days! Thanks for checking in with us!

Nothing big to report tonight either! He's back to 2lbs 13 oz after yesterday night being down to 2lbs 11oz. They increased his feeds to 22cc every 3 hours, and we were going to give him a bath tonight, but the NICU was pretty noisy and I didn't want to get him any more agitated than he gets with diaper changes and blood pressure cuffs! Patrick is under the light again, since his bilirubin went up to 10.2. He was back down to 8 something this evening, but they want to keep him under it at least until tomorrow.

The only sort of strange thing is that his temp has been on the lower side for the last two days. Nothing they're worried about, just lower than normal. I washed a bunch of blankets we've gotten as gifts and some of the outfits too. When they take the light off, we'll be able to dress him up more!

Here's some pictures of Patrick playing up the cute...

No big changes, just some pictures.

Baby burrito... little bit bigger than a Chipotle...

He's figuring out how to hold on to his pacifier.

Patrick takes being a ninja very seriously.

Gramalissa had her turn to hold him last night!

Getting rid of tubes!

The doctor decided that with the 18ccs, the umbillical line needed to come out. All that Patrick is attached to now are the monitor lines and the feeding tube! We can practically get him in and out of the incubator ourselves. Speaking of, he was moved to a different incubator since he no longer needs the billiruben light and all the fancy doodads.

Since the umbillical line was taken out, Jon felt comfortable changing his diaper! Luckily for him, it was just a wet one. He did a good job and I'm sure we'll have plenty of practice time. I was going to put him in a little outfit, but he started SCREAMING when I picked him up, so I gave up on that one really quick. I let the nurse take over on that one. He was probably sick of being messed with at that point, I hope.

He weighed in at 2lbs 13 oz tonight! The doctor gave us a call this afternoon to say that the head ultrasound was perfectly normal, nothing to worry about. The echo showed that Patrick does have a very small PDA, but they're not going to treat it unless he starts showing problems that are associated with it, like a higher heart rate, an enlarged ventricle, or problems with his feedings. A lot of times they can resolve themselves and they don't really want to stop the feedings if they don't have to. Patrick is still having some episodes of bradycardia, but again he recovers on his own and they only last for a few seconds.

Grandma Vickie stopped by while Jon was holding Patrick. Jon handed Patrick over to her, since he's so easy to move around now! Grandma Vickie isn't going to be able to come up this weekend, so he thought it would be nice to let her hold him. It's going to be fun letting the grandparents hold him!

Another good day for Patrick, except for the whole outfit debacle. The doctor said he's this close to grower-feeder status! In about 2 weeks he'll be old enough to start working on bottle feedings, until then we'll just keep going with the tube.

I think that's all that happened today, definitely time for bed.

One week down...

Not a whole lot of news today. Patrick had the echo this morning and we haven't heard back on it yet, but the doctor and the nurses have said they didn't hear a murmer today. He's had a couple of bradycardia episodes in the last two days, but he's been able to recover on his own in a matter of seconds, so they're not too worried. As long as he can bring his heart rate back up, they don't see anything wrong.


He was 2 lbs 11 oz today, but he did have some pretty good poops and one ounce isn't bad as far as losing weight. I did ask the nurse about his size, since everyone has commented on how long his arms and feet are, but he falls into the 50th percentile in size, so he just needs to get some fat on him. They went up to 15ccs on his feedings and plan on getting to 18 tomorrow. The doctor said they will probably remove the umbillical line he's been getting extra food through (lipids and TPN) and then the only thing connected to him will be the sensors and the feeding tube!

I held Patrick for about an hour and a half this afternoon, and Jon was able to hold him tonight. It's so much easier to get him in and out of the isolette with the few cords he's attached to! He really likes to be held, especially during his feedings. It seems like he's pretty awake when we start out, but once he gets some food in his belly, he's ready to nap. When I held him, he had one of those good sized poops. I thought it was pretty funny. When he was in his isolette this morning, he managed to grab his ankle and was pulling it towards his face. I wish I had a picture of it! He makes the funniest faces and I always miss them with the camera.

We found out today that one of Jon's coworkers from his old job spent the day at the hospital with his wife. She is up on the 9th floor for the night with their twins. They've gotten to 28 weeks, and it sounds like they might be able to go home tomorrow night, but we know how scary it can be to get rushed upstairs and have to stay at least overnight. We'll be thinking about them a lot, and hoping she gets to go home for a few more weeks before anything happens!

Thanks for checking in on us! Glad to have another day of good news about Patrick.

Tonight Patrick weighed in at 2 lbs 12 oz! He's finally on the upswing with his weight. They increased his feedings to 12ccs every 3 hours, and he had a disgusting poop tonight. I almost took a picture, but I think the world is glad I didn't.

His day nurse let us know that this afternoon they did hear the heart murmer again, so they will do the Echocardiogram (I said EKG before, I was wrong!) tomorrow. Hopefully if that PDA is still open in his heart, it will close with Indocin. Indocin seems to be a pretty amazing drug. I took it for awhile when I was in the hospital to reduce the amount of amniotic fluid and the other bonus side effect is that it works as a sort of muscle relaxant. If they have to, they'll give him 3 or 4 doses and if that doesn't do it, we'll have to do the heart surgery like Will had. But we don't know yet, and I'll find out tomorrow what the plan will be.

Patrick is still breathing well, and he was a lot calmer today when we were there. His feet felt cold to me, so I bought him some tiny little socks. They're adorable, but they don't stay on.

And one more picture... just because.

And if you're wondering, I don't know if Jon will get a tattoo for Patrick. I think that will be decided later.

Technical Difficulties

Sorry for not writing anything yesterday! Our computer would not connect to the internet, but I finally fixed it today.

Okay! So, Jon was able to hold Patrick the other night and they both loved it! We got some really good pictures and the nurse made a cute little scrapbook-y thing to hang in his room. I'll try to get one up here as soon as I can.

Patrick spent most of the morning yesterday pulling the nasal cannula off. He just didn't want anything on his face, and he figured out that he could get his hand around the tubes and just yank it off. I was watching him do it, and even though I knew I should probably stop him, I let him do it because he didn't really need it. Later that day, the doctor decided to take it off completely! Here he is with the tubes up over his sunglasses. Silly kid.

They did go up on his feedings to 6ccs every 3 hours, and he took those well, so this morning the doctor decided he could handle 9ccs! 9ccs is about a third of an ounce, he told us.

Patrick was under a huge light for the phototherapy, but he's doing better so they moved to just the spotlight. We are allowed to turn it off and take his mask off, and when he's wide awake it's fun to watch him. Last night he was so ANGRY when we were there, and we were trying to calm him down with the pacifier and swaddling, but nothing helped. Turned out he was making a large poop and was not having a fun time with that! But we're excited for poop! I forget how much it weighed, but kiddo has lost some weight since birth - last I heard he was down to 2 lbs 9 oz.

He figured out the pacifier thing yesterday. Jon put it in his mouth three times in a row, and three times in a row Patrick grabbed it and pulled it out. And then got mad. On the fourth time, he pushed it in instead of pulling it out, and he held on to it for quite awhile.

I was able to hold him for about an hour yesterday, and that was really nice. I've never fallen asleep in one of the hospital recliners before, but I dozed off a couple times with him. And he totally faceplants. You would think he'd be really uncomfortable, but if you try to move him he gets mad! Also, I was able to get my first haircut since March!

The news this morning isn't anything drastic. The doctor did hear a heart murmer this morning, but he's not going to stress about it until Patrick starts showing signs of trouble. It may be the same issue we had with Will. There's this tiny little duct in babies' hearts that usually closes after birth. With preemies, this tends not to happen, or it just takes a longer time. Since this is the first time the doctor has heard this heart murmer, he's thinking it might just be the duct closing off and causing more noise than it did before. Like I said, he's not worried and we'll see what happens.

Patrick has had a lot of visitors! It's been great to show everyone how well he's doing. Gramalissa, Gramma Vickie and my dad (I still can't call him grandpa anything! Too weird for me) have been up quite a bit to see him. Aunt Sara finally got over her cough and came up to visit yesterday, Uncle Trevor met him the night before. I heard that next weekend his Uncle Ryan will be coming down from Minneapolis to come meet him. We've also talked about having Jon's grandma come down and see Patrick before she goes to Texas for the winter. I think the thing that most people say at about Patrick is that he's long. He has long arms, long fingers, long feet. We have no idea where that comes from. Makes you wonder how tall he'll end up being!

Today we're going to get some things done around the house and head back up in the evening! Thanks Grandma Vickie and Aunt Karen for coming over to paint and put plants in our yard!

Poop!

I really think that the most exciting thing in a NICU is when a baby poops for the first time. For us, it's a sign that Patrick's intestines are working like they're supposed to! The doctor who we had today remembers us with Will, and he's told us a couple time they're going to keep a good eye on Patrick and get him home with us. The nurse practitioner wanted to go up on Patrick's feedings to 5ccs, but the doctor recalled that Will had major intestinal problems and didn't want to push Patrick until we knew that he was moving everything properly. It's incredibly reassuring that these doctors are paying that much attention to remember things from two years ago, or even if they didn't remember, taking the time to see what happened with Will.

What else... he's still breathing room air with 1 liter of pressure from the nasal cannula. His nurse asked about maybe going down to a 1/2 liter, but the nurse practitioner said she didn't want to push him with that either. He had a spell today where a nurse had to give him some extra air because he wasn't taking deep enough breaths, but other than that he was fine. Still does not like the diaper changes.

They pulled the umbilical line that was measuring Patrick's blood pressure because he was looking good and his blood gasses have been perfect. That means that we can probably hold him now! I think if they'll let us hold him tonight, Jon will get the first chance. He hardly got to hold Will, and I want to make sure he holds Patrick as much as possible.

I missed out on giving him a sponge bath today. I had to get home before we got around to it, so we might be able to do that tomorrow.

Not much else going on... Patrick just kind of lounges under his tanning bed light most of the day. They put him on his belly a couple times and he seems to like that.

We're really excited about not being exciting :)

Late Night!

What a crazy day! I didn't touch the computer until we got home tonight, and then we had to go pick up a few things and stop at the hospital one more time. But I'm home and excited to sleep in my own bed tonight! The dogs went crazy when they figured out that I was walking behind Jon tonight. I don't know what they thought, but they were happy to see me.

Patrick is pretty amazing. They took him off the CPAP this morning and he's been on just the cannula all day at room air. He's kind of funny... when they give him a pacifier, sometimes he gets so into it that he forgets to breathe! There were a couple times today where he just wasn't taking deep enough breaths and the alarm went off because his oxygen was too low, but he was always able to get back to the 90% range on his own!

The doctor decided that they would try feeding him today, so starting at noon he got 3ccs of milk. They will give him 3ccs every 3 hours and see how he tolerates it. They had to put a feeding tube down his mouth to his stomach and they let gravity pull the milk down. It takes just a minute or so to get it all in! With babies this small, they want to go slow to check for any bowel obstructions, perferations or abdominal hardness. Again, he was doing everything well. Hopefully he'll poop in the next couple days!

They started phototherapy for jaundice today, so Patrick is hanging out in his tanning bed with the mask covering his eyes like Will did. His color is so much more normal tonight. It's easier to take pictures of him when he's wearing the mask because we're not worrying about the flash bothering him.

Right now he has some lines in through his belly button measuring his blood pressure and other things, but the blood gasses they've tested have all come back good, so those lines could come out in a few days. When the lines are out, that means we might be able to start holding him! He would just have the nose tube and some sensors on him, so it would be really easy to get him out of the incubator. We're really excited for the first time we get to hold him, but we don't want to make him do anything he isn't ready for.

Sometime I'll have to get a video of him crying. I think the nurse described it best when she said he sounded like a kitten. Most of the time he's just relaxing in his little nest, but sometimes he just gets mad! Tonight he did really well when I took his temp, and he only got upset when the nurse picked him up to get his weight. Tonight he was down to 2 lbs 11 oz, but they're not worried about it because he's been peeing like crazy. Hopefully with the feeds he'll start gaining weight.

I still can't find the right cord to get pictures from our camera on here, but my mom (Hi Grandmalissa!) emailed me some from yesterday, so here they are!

We have pictures of him just a few hours old on Grandma Vickie's camera, as soon as I get those they'll be up here too.

It's nice to have good news to share!

Day One

What a day! After we finally got back to my room and I posted the note this morning, I had the best 5 hours sleep I've gotten in a long time! Patrick has been doing so well, this is an entirely different way to start!

I went down to check on him right away when I woke up, and his ventilator settings were so low they decided to put him on the CPAP. The CPAP is pretty much these prongs that go up your nose and it provides positive air pressure to help keep his lungs open. I think. Don't ask me what the C stands for.

They hadn't made any changes when I went back up to my room, but when Jon went down later with our friend Ben, they extubated Patrick and he just started screaming! He was so not happy with the whole situation, but the good thing about him getting upset is that it makes him take deep breaths and his O2 sats go up. It's still amazing to hear him cry.

He's been doing a good job on the CPAP all day, but he still has episodes where he takes short shallow breaths, so they decided not to move him to just the nasal cannula. He's been on close to room air for most of the day, which on the settings is 21%. He's on 24% right now just because he's had those episodes, but he's still doing great.

As far as other medications he's getting, I don't think there's a whole lot. I know they run an antibiotic, and other than that I think he's just getting fluids and some nutritional stuff- TPN. They might even start a feeding tube tomorrow and get him some breast milk! It took such a long time to get Will started on food, hearing that he could start tomorrow was, again, amazing.

On the last message I mentioned they were trying to get his blood pressure up, and that doesn't seem to be an issue anymore. He's been staying in the perfect range all day long.

They did start up the biliruben light for jaundice, so he's wearing purple eye covers right now. They took off his hat and you can really see all his hair!

Other than that, he hates getting his diaper changed, he hates getting his temperature taken, the blood pressure cuff and being moved. Can't really blame the kid, though! He'll get used to it. They put up his hand and foot prints tonight - they're huge!

I'm going home tomorrow, so I'll make sure I find the cord for our camera and get some pictures up here.

Thank you so much for all the prayers and wishes. It really feels like such a miracle that Patrick is doing so well and there's a lot to be said for positive thoughts. We are just so relieved and happy.

What you've all been waiting for...

Patrick Bruce Connealy was born at 10:53 on Monday, September 8, 2008. He weighed 3 pounds exactly and is 15 3/4 inches long. He's doing well right now! He was crying while the neonatologist was getting him checked and cleaned up, and he peed at least 3 times.

Right now he is on a ventilator because he was just deciding not to breathe for a little bit - a few apnea episodes. They're hoping to get him off the ventilator and to CPAP or something else as soon as tomorrow. His blood pressure is a little low, but they're not worried about it. In all, he looks SO GOOD.

He has a head of blonde hair and Jon's nose, but everyone agreed that he looked more like his mom. They had a bright green knit hat on his head. We'll have pictures as soon as possible!

Earlier today we were able to do a 3D ultrasound, and they look pretty accurate to us.

I think the labor story I will be telling for the rest of my life is how I threw up all over the doctor right after she broke my water. She had to go change, and in that five minutes the nurse realized that he was right there ready to come out. Just like Will, it took two pushes to get Patrick out.

Wow.
We have a baby.

Jen's been having crazy contractions all day, and the docs and nurses have done as much as they can for it. It's gotten to the point that they need to let nature do what it has been trying to do for 8 weeks. Jen will be delivering our son this evening, name to be decided and posted shortly thereafter. Wish us luck, and please put us in your prayers.

Jon

After I posted yesterday, the contractions started again. The terbutaline only worked for a little bit. They increased the nifedipine, and now I'm maxed out on that. I had a total of 4 shots of terbutaline last night, and as the night went on they did less and less to stop the contractions. At 2am, one of the doctors was here for a delivery, and he stopped in while the nurse was putting a terbutaline pump in my leg. Theory was that if I had a continuous dose of terbutaline, the contractions would stop.

Not the case. The contractions kept getting stronger all night long.

After almost 24 hours of contractions, they came back in with the magnesium sulfate. FINALLY they're almost stopped. I'm still having a contraction every once in awhile, but it's a lot better than it was before.

Actually just had one as I was typing this. Fun.

They're still going to do what they can to stop everything. We'll see how today goes.

Experimenting with Tocolytics

I'm on a schedule to get medications every 6 hours, at 6 and 12. This morning when I woke up, something just felt wrong. I told the nurse, and she said to let her know if it got worse. It took a while, but I figured out that I was having contractions, and they were getting a lot stronger.

They put me on the monitor at 7, and soon after the doctor came in and decided they would try increasing the Nifedipine I've been taking to help stop any contractions. An hour later, there was no change. I was having contractions about every 10 minutes, but the baby looked okay on the monitor. Since the medication increase didn't help, they came in and gave me a shot of Terbutaline. I hate terbutaline. It increases your heart rate and I got so incredibly antsy, but I couldn't move with the monitor on. Good news is that it stopped the contractions and things have been quiet for a few hours now.

Doc said that even though 29 weeks is a great place to be, they're still going to do everything they can to keep me from having this baby, and they'll put me back on the magnesium if they have to. But things are calmed down now, so we're not going to worry too much right now. Okay, I'm not going to worry too much. I'm sure Jon will worry enough for all of us!

4 straight weeks in the hospital. It's funny to have a doctor tell you, "You go girl!"

No news, really. I don't think there's even plans for anything to write about. Just more laying around. I dropped something last night and decided that I could bend down to get it. I got stuck. I learned that my knees don't work like they used to. That was fun!

Jon brought up some sunflowers he cut out of a field and brought them up here. They're really pretty, and I'd take a picture to put up here, but the camera is at home. I would probably have some pictures of the room, but Jon kept trying to take terrible pictures of me up here and I made him take it home. Maybe sometime I'll be able to trust him with a camera again, but not today...

28 weeks, 3 days

It's always exciting when I can leave this room! We went down the hall this morning to do the weekly ultrasound, and this time we had sort of a crowd in the room. A new resident, two new interns, and a new ultrasound tech were in there with the doctor and the regular ultrasound tech. It was a little crazy.

I think he looks like his dad.

The baby was moving around enough to make the doctor happy, and everything they checked on looked good. It looks like he'll be staying head down, and he definitely looked bigger. The only thing they couldn't check on were how his lungs were doing because he wasn't cooperating. They had the weirdest buzzing stick thing to poke my belly with, trying to get him to move. He did, but not in the direction they were hoping. The fluid level is back up to 16, and they're okay with that. My cervix is still really short... I want to say they said 1cm, but they measured a couple things so I may have gotten them confused. But nothing was pushing through, and the stitch is still doing it's job.

We didn't measure for growth this time around because there wouldn't be a huge measurable change from the last time. The doctor said to add 4-5 oz to the last weight, so maybe 2 lbs 11oz?

Really, I think that's a Connealy nose, not a Bruce nose.

The culture came back from the infection test, and it looks like it was E. Coli. I was a little worried when I heard that, but I guess that it's a pretty common cause, and the antibiotics work in a couple days. It doesn't sound like it should effect the baby at all.

Other than that, just more bed rest!

No News = Good News

I never really thought I would, but I really miss our pets right now. I'm sure they have no clue what's going on, and from what Jon says, they've been digging for China in the backyard. Sometimes Jon will confuse them and put me on speaker phone. Chile talks back, and Jack runs around trying to find me. I feel so bad for them. Queso has taken to sleeping next to Jon's face. She used to sleep at his feet, but I guess she's slowly been taking over his head. She's such a brat.

Oh Chile dog.

Not much going on up here. There's some new med students doing their rotation up here, so different people are waking me up at 5am. I hope we'll do an ultrasound tomorrow since it's been a week since the last one. Otherwise, no contractions, nothing to really worry about for the time being.

Mystery Pain

Yesterday morning, I started having a dull backache, and as the day went on it just got worse. We tried hot packs, massage, Tylenol, stretching, and nothing worked. The thought was maybe I pulled or strained some muscle getting out of bed. I was pretty miserable most of the day, there was no way to be comfortable in bed. Around 10pm, we decided to try a test, and TA DAH! I have an infection from the catheter. AWESOME. So they started me on a different antibiotic, and gave me some Percocet. It was the most amazing thing ever. Slept like a rock.

Baby is good, I'm feeling better. Not much else going on! Everyone is so excited that we got to 28 weeks. Now they want to be greedy, Dr B told me this morning. Greedy is good!

28 weeks!

We made it! The first time I came in and needed the circlage, it didn't seem like we would ever get this far, but I'm still pregnant! AND! AND! The doctor was so happy with the monitoring that this morning she decided to stop the magnesium sulfate and see how I do with contractions!! It's only been about 20 minutes, so we'll have to wait a little longer to see the effects of this change.

28 weeks is a pretty big developmental milestone as far as the survival and complication rates with babies. I found a chart that broke it down pretty well. If you compare this baby to Will, the differences are huge. The risk of respiratory distress drops from 71% to 36%, chronic lung disease drops from 47% to 15%, Inflammation or death of part of the GI tract drops from 11% to 6%, the risk of infection goes from 44% to 17%, survival to 120 days or hospital discharge jumps from 56% to 94% and survival without any of these complications goes from 36% to 79%!

Will had problems with everything on that list and more. He had to have part of his intestines removed due to the death of part of his GI tract, he had respiratory issues, and he was constantly fighting infections. At this point, it looks like this kid could still have problems, but not nearly as many or as severe! We still know that there are all kinds of things that might not work out, but we can't help but be excited that we've gotten as far as this, and that everything looks so stable.

I did ask the doctor this morning about my chances of going home and she said there was a small chance, but we definitely have to make sure that I'll be okay without the mag. We'll take that small chance!

Thanks for checking in today, and I'm so glad I could write up some good news!