Jan 30, 2008

Liam finally made it to 3 lbs! ;-) It's so exciting! They have included a calorie booster into his milk to try to get him to gain weight. The new Dr for the month came on today and wants to put Liam on a diuretic to get him to pee out any extra fluid that accumulates around the lungs. The idea is that kids like Liam with chronic lung disease can get rid of that fluid allowing them to breath better and come down on their oxygen and help with the desatting. But Liam is only on about 21-25% so they decided to give him 24 hours and see how he does. This afternoon and early evening he stayed at 21% and did great. He was on 23% when I left. So- I am praying that they don't need to give him the diuretic.

Prayer is for continued minimal oxygen requirements and less de-sats.
Prayer for continued weight gain and no negative reaction to the booster in his milk.

Praise- his poo is normal now! ;-) It's so fun to get excited over normal bodily function!

Tomorrow is Ian's 10th b-day... I love you, bud!

And a happy birthday to Addie and Ashton!

Jan 28, 2008

Liam is not gaining weight so they have upped his feeds by 2 cc so he is now getting 26 per feed. He does have diarrhea so please pray that it is not a sign of something bad!!!!

Jan 25, 2008

Liam is doing really well on the cannula! Everyone who knows him is always so excited to hear the great news and comes to see how big he is. He sits at about 25-30% oxygen on it and he can usually bring himself back up when he desats.

He is at full feedings tomorrow and will get a calorie booster in his milk to try to get him to gain weight. He is still at 2 lbs 14 oz which is where he has been for the last week.

He got his physical therapy assessment today and he did really well- no issues! I get to hold him easily now and get to do it several times a day. We are now dressing him because he is able to hold his body temperature. He is still in a warmed isolette but he doesn't have to be controlled by the thermostat anymore.

Prayer: Liam will have an eye exam on Tuesday to check for retinopathy. His last exam showed that his retinas weren't even developed yet. They have to follow preemies because their eyes sometimes don't develop right and they can need surgery to correct it. Pray he won't have any issues with his sight.

Pray that Liam will continue to do well with his lung development allowing more weaning (to the regular cannula or room air).

Pray for no setbacks (illness, infection etc...)!

Jan 23, 2008

PRAISE THE LORD! Liam was extubated yesterday morning!! He is on a CANNULA! ;-) The Drs know how fiesty Liam is and knew he would hate the CPAP so they decided to try just the cannula to see how he would do and he is doing really well! The cannula is just the little prongs in his nose giving him some oxygen and a tiny bit of pressure. He is inflating his lungs all by himself and breathing all on his own. Now- they always warn that they can tucker out and end up being put back on the vent or having to go to the CPAP so please pray that he won't ever need to go back to being ventilated again!! His blood gas was great this morning. The only problem is Liam has to be on his tummy a lot or on his side. He loves his back but he can't breath well when he is on his back so for now he is limited. He needs to chill out and relax. Yesterday he squirmed out of his bedding and made his way over to the little portholes in his bed. You would never believe that a little two pound boy could have so much strength until you see it.
Liam is up to 17 cc today on his feedings and doing really well with them!

Prayer: That Liam would continue to do fabulous on his cannula and would never go backwards with his lung development! Pray he would calm down and relax allowing himself to not burn too many calories and breath easier.

Continued prayer for huge leaps forward in his health and healing and no going backwards!

Jan 21, 2008

Word going around is that Liam is ready to try CPAP and they will load him with caffeine today to get him prepped. That means he will no longer have the tube down his throat and will have to do all his own breathing. The caffeine stimulates him so he won't forget to breath. The CPAP will still inflate his lungs some (its a mask with high pressure going down his nose) since he is so little and his lungs have been inflated for him for so long now. He is up to 2 lbs 14 oz and toleratng his feedings well.

Please pray for continued success on his feeds, and marvelous results on the CPAP! Please pray for no setbacks and that Liam would grow strong and mighty allowing him to wean down to just a cannula very soon!!!!

Jan 20, 2008

Jan 19, 2008 10:30 am

Liam has now been put on a continual increase in his feeds. Every 12 hours, as long as he is tolerating it, they will increase his feedings by 1 cc! That means he will be at full feedings for his weight within a week. There are 30 cc in 1 ounce of breast milk so you get the idea of how much he reccieves. We are up to 9 cc this morning. Please pray that his feedings will continue with no setbacks or complications!

Because they decided to work on his feedings this week the Dr is waiting on the vent. Unless Liam pulls out his tube (which is a possibility as he gets wiser and bigger) they are still holding out on chaning it. It's hard because I want him off of it but yet I need to realize that it has taken us 7 weeks to get to the point we are at right now...

Prayer-
Liams lungs
His feedings
His eye development

Jan 16, 2008 4:30

Liam is sucking on his pacifier in this photo. It surprises me that he would want to with a tube in his throat already! Wow- Liam is 7 weeks old now. He weighs in at 2 lbs 11 oz. He is still tolerating his feeds so he gets 6 cc every 3 hours now. They want to get him to 20 cc every 3 hours. They weaned his rate on his vent yesterday and again today. The vent now only does 10 breaths for him per minute. The practitioner said we are moving in the right direction now. He is such a fiesty guy too. It is amazing to see a little boy like him get so mad and frustrated. And you know when he is angry- he turns purple and tries to get out of the position he is in. I was holding him yesterday and he flung himself backwards! We do love him so! ;-)

Prayer:
Please pray for constant continued success on weaning down off his ventilator. He needs to get off of it. Pray his lungs would grow strong and mighty!

Please pray for continued success with his feeds and no complications.

Please pray for no setbacks in any form. Pray that we would continue to head forward at all times and not do the "two steps forward one step back" routine that the NICU does.

Jan 14, 2008 9:30 am

Liam isn't being swaddled anymore- he is burning too many calories trying to stay warm so he is back to his climate controlled bed. Babies can't keep thier own heat until they are 4 lbs. He had to get a blood transfusion last night because he was very anemic. He sats well on room air but will dip down constantly so they cheked his lungs and did a check of his blood yesterday to look for infection. His lungs looked good! And no signs of infection- they think it's just the anemia. The Dr. is back on today so I am anxious to see what he says. But we are praising the Lord that Liams lungs loked so much better than before!! I will try to update later if I know anything new.

Jan 12, 2008 9:40 pm

Liam is up to 6 cc of milk every 6 hours and he is doing really well on them. They are trying to get him fully established with his feeds because they ARE trying CPAP this next week if all goes well. I knew they were going to do it before they said so...it was just a feeling I got when I was praying this past week. I watched a little boy across from Liam go back and forth between 3 different ventilators over the past two weeks and I don't think I could take that roller coaster. It's hard to watch. So-

Please pray with us that Liam would do fabulous on the cpap when they put him on and please pray that he would be able to wean down from the cpap to just the little nasal prongs right away! He is going to HATE the CPAP. It is a hat with a face mask attached that forces pressure into his lungs to keep them expanded. The benefit is he won't have the tube in his throat but he will have to do ALL of his own breathing!!

Liam is up to 2 lbs 9 oz and they are starting to swaddle him with blankets to keep him tight and secure. If his arms and legs are loose he will get mad and start flailing. He looks like such a big boy when he is swaddled.

Thank you for praying for Liam and our family!

Jan 9, 2008 4:40 pm

I am home right now- as tough as it is- and I know I wouldn't be able to if my mom wasn't sitting with Liam. We are praising the Lord today because Liam is doing well. He still needs much prayer for his lungs but he is doing well considering. I don't know when his next chest x-ray is to be able to see how much the vent has helped open him back up. BUT- he was able to go down on his vent some within the last day. I feel like Liam will be able to move to the next ventilator (cpap) soon! The Lord has to be giving me that feeling because I am scared to death of the next step... Thank you for praying with us!!!

Mon. Jan 7 2008 7:50 am

Liams right lung collapsed down yesterday. He is back up on his vent settings. Please pray for him- his lungs need to get strong and allow him to breath with less requirements fromthe ventilator. Pray that his lungs would open up and stay open and strong. Pray he would recieve power and sustaining strength from our Sustainer!!

Jan 6, 2008 8:30 am

Liam has done wonderfully on his feeds this week! He is finally passing stools and his bowels sounds are finally there. His guts are finally passing out all of the meconium! If he continues to do well this week they will up the amount they give him next week and it will finally be considering "real feedings"!

There is controversy over how much to sedate Liam. Some think he needs to be sedated when possible and others think only when necessary. The problem is that when he is active he de-sats (his oxygen absoprtion goes down) and then they have to boost him with more O2. I don't want him too sedated tho because then he doesn't move as much and his lungs get filled with gunk which makes him de-sat too....

Prayer:
Please pray that Liams lungs would grow stronger and healthier and do the job that they were inteded to do! He needs to wean down on his vent! The longer he is ventilated the worse his lung tissue is damaged.

Pray his feedings would continue to progress beautifully!

Praise:
Thank you to all of you who still take the time to read the blog and check the specific prayer requests. And thank you to those of you who post and let me know you're there- even tho your anonymous! I love to read them. There is nothing better than being in the family of God with you all.

Jan 3, 2007 10:00 pm

Today I got to do "kangaroo care" with Liam. It was my first time to hold him! I don't realize how small he is until I am holding him. He did really well with me and I got to hold him for 30 minutes with skin to skin contact. You can't hold them too long because they lose body heat.



Liam also got to get breast milk for the first time today. It's a big deal for them. His tummy digested it and now it's up to his intestines to do their thing. Sometimes the feedings can be rough since their bodies aren't ready for food so the problems that can arise can prevent them from getting anymore.

Liam also did well on his oxygen requirements today.

So- many praises today that we have much to be thankful for!

Prayer:
That Liam's body would do amazingly well with his feeds!

That Liam's lungs would get stronger and healthier!

Jan 2, 2008 8:30 am

I am back at RMH for the next 30 days. I am so thankful to have this house here. If you ever want to help in any way- drop your change in your local McD's boxes at the drive throughs and inside. RMH runs on 80% donations. We get dinner meals usually fixed by volunteers. When we don't have volunteers we don't have meals.

Liam is back up on his vent settings from having a rough night. They tried to move him to cpap this week where he has to breath on his own but the vent still supplies pressure and he was not ready for that at all. Last night his arterial line (the iv in his arm) went out and he lost blood flow to his hand for a while. He was in a lot of pain with that and then his tube got clogged and he wasn't oxygenating right. It's hard to see such a little guy in pain. He scrunches his face and opens his mouth wide to cry but can't with his tube in his mouth. Maybe today they will introduce breast milk. I am on my way over now.

Prayer:
That Liams lungs would grow strong and mighty allowing continued decreases in his ventilator.

That Liam would adjust fantastically to being introduced to breast milk. It's a big deal for his body to finally get food into his gut.

That Liam would not be set back again by any infections, diseases or viruses.