Ups and Downs

Another busy day for Mason

More roller coaster today...When I got there, Mason's nurse told me that he had already had a busy morning. His CRP had come back really high (normal is around 10 and his was 212) which is an indicator of inflammation/infection. This was really the only lab value that was a red flag and clinically he was his usual spunky self. They went ahead and drew blood and urine cultures to check but chose not to put him on antibiotic because he didn't look sick. They will continue to watch this very closely.

Another thing was his weight was down today (2 lb. 5 oz from 2 lb. 6 oz. the day before) and his ostomy output was up (has been averaging 15-19 and today was 29) so they were concerned about his feeds so they decreased them back down to 2.6 mL/hour from 3. Another thing they are going to watch. And his x-rays for his wrist came back with changes showing Rickets' so they are going to supplement him with calcium and phosperous. She said the best things for him will be full feeds and that he will grow out of it. They will also supplement him with Vitamin D and everyone who works with him and us have to be extra careful because he is prone to fractures.

Cranial ultrasound showed an increase in fluid on the left hemisphere. They continue to watch this very closely to check for hydrocephalus which would mean surgery to implant a shunt in him so that the extra fluid could drain. Please continue to pray. It is hard not to get discouraged on days like today with everything that has gone on. But I know that Mason can be completely healed and overall he isn't doing too bad. He certainly didn't look sick so I am hoping that all of the cultures will come back negative and that it was another lab error. I continue to be reminded how easy this isn't and long for the day when I look back on this and it is just a blur. And our little boy is home and healthy.

On a lighter note, Mason got moved to a window seat. Josh has been requesting this since we have been there and finally there was an opening. So here is a picture of Mason's home for now:

Thanks to Lindsay Franks and Pierce's Project (www.piercesproject.com) for Mason's beautiful blanket/isolet cover as part of a care package. She reached out to me over facebook when she saw our story (Pierce is a 23 weeker as well and is doing great...another fighter) and has been a great resource for me to help ease our worries when things aren't going well because she has been there. Thanks to so many other people who have also sent encouraging words/messages through facebook. I have tried to respond to some but many I haven't had a chance to and just know that I am so thankful for them. They are helping us so much through this rough time. And thank you for your continued prayers.

Philippians 4:6-7 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Busy Day

This little boy got a bath today and smelled fresh and clean. I am sure it was about time! She said he was pretty smelly. He also has a bad case of cradle cap that they are trying to get rid of. Check out his spiky hair!

Mason had a busy day today. He had his weekly cranial ultrasound and they ordered x-rays of his wrists. They are going to start giving him a diuretic to try to get any small amounts of fluid off of his lungs two times a day. Because he has already had lasix (a harsher diuretic) he is at risk for having ricket's disease. Ricket's disease is a softening of the bones and is usually caused from a vitamin D deficiency but in premies it can be brought on by diuretics pulling fluid off, as well as calcium and phosphorus away from the bones. They wanted to go ahead and check for this because they can supplement him and they would put a sign up saying he fragile (that way nurses and other professionals would be extra careful when working with him). They are hoping that this diuretic will give him the extra push to get off the vent. They also increased his feeds to 3 today and he continues to tolerate them well. He LOVES to sleep on his belly and was stating good. His blood gas tonight was better so hopefully the medicine is already working. They were able to go down a little bit on his rates. All in all it was another good day.

Psalm 118:1 Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His love endures forever.

Happy 4th of July

Ride Gigi's tractor

Corbin had his day made today because we got to go to the swimming pool AND go to the farm to ride the tractors and see the neigh neighs. He went to bed tonight one happy boy. We also went up to the hospital this morning to see Mason and Corbin finally got to see him out of his "house". Pam was getting ready to change his diaper and work with him so she raised the top so we could give him some love and see him. In his picture below you can see how much he has grown.

Mason had several blood gases that weren't as good as they had been so they have gone up some on his rate and pressures. They also did some labs and his hemoglobin was low so they did a blood transfusion. His platelets were also dropped (down to 96) but they rechecked just those this evening and  it showed 136 so they think it was just lab error. They let his feedings be today and didn't increase since he was getting blood but will look at that again tomorrow. Hopefully they will get this blood gas thing straightened out...prayers for this because he had been doing very good. They want everything just right before they try to extubate again because all was great before they did it last time and it still didn't go well. 

Footprints: 6 weeks old

I am constantly reminded by little things throughout the day how much we are being carried by prayers through this whole situation. The other day I remembered a poem that I always held near and dear to my heart when I was younger and it really hit home. God is carrying us through all of this. How often we need to be reminded that God is always there for us even when we can't see Him and he carries us through all difficult trials in our life.


Footprints in the Sand

One night I had a dream...
I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord, and
Across the sky flashed scenes from my life.
For each scene I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand;
One belonged to me, and the other to the Lord.
When the last scene of my life flashed before us,
I looked back at the footprints in the sand.
I noticed that many times along the path of my life,
There was only one set of footprints.
I also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times in my life
This really bothered me, and I questioned the Lord about it.
"Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you,
You would walk with me all the way;
But I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life,
There is only one set of footprints.
I don't understand why in times when I
needed you the most, you should leave me.
The Lord replied, "My precious, precious
child. I love you, and I would never,
never leave you during your times of
trial and suffering.
When you saw only one set of footprints,
It was then that I carried you."


Mason will be 6 weeks old at 10:36 p.m. tonight. I have been thinking back to that night today and looking at his pictures from that night. My how tiny he was. How hard that time was not knowing what was going to come. If he was going to make it. I still know that just the littlest set back could take him away from us today. Or tomorrow. But am thankful that God has a plan. Thankfully, Mason continues to have good days. He is tolerating his feedings and they increased them again to 2.6. The dr. said that he really feels like the feedings are really helping him. The NP said, "He finally has cheeks!" Mason had an eye exam today because he is at risk for growing too many blood vessels in his eye and possible hemorrhaging and so far it looked ok but they will recheck him every 2 weeks. If this ever becomes an issue he will have lasik surgery to correct this. This morning he weighed 2 lb. 3 oz so he continues to gain pretty steadily. The dr. also mentioned that he is doing well on his vent and that they are probably going to try to extubate him again later on this week. The respiratory therapist came and did another MVT test to see how he might tolerate extubation and he did great. Last time he passed with a 69% (needed a 50%) and this time he scored a 122%! She said that was great. So we will see...maybe with the appropriate machine this time and with a little more time to grow he will tolerate it. He is a tough little guy!  We continue to be so thankful for all of your prayers for our little man. We are blessed!

Corbin

It has been awhile since I have updated what our first sweet boy was up to. At some point I am going to put up pictures of his 2 year old "little red car" party. That took place the day before all of this started happening with Mason.

Helping Mommy pay bills.

Everyone says once you have a baby your first child all of a sudden grows up. Well, I would say that is true. That week that everything happened with Mason and that I was in the hospital it was like Corbin matured a lot. And has kept growing and growing. He is such a sweet boy but has also begun pushing our limits as well. He has started becoming clingy when I leave him (which has NEVER been like him) but I know he can sense that our lives are upside down right now. A major milestone: Corbin is now eating bread. Pretty consistantly. I know that sounds silly but it is the little things in life, right? His vocabulary and use of words are pretty unbelievable. The other night he asked Josh "cut up chicken please, Daddy". My mom came over this morning to bring him breakfast and asked where Mason was and he said "at the hospital". He LOVES to sing and music and knows a wide variety of songs (including the majority of the words). Some examples are, Jesus loves me, twinkle little star, the farmer and the dell, baby bumblebee, you are my sunshine, old macdonald, and this little light of mine. He also loves anything transportation and will often ask to "ride Gigi's tractor, feed the neigh neighs (horses) carrots and apples, go to the farm." He loves playing with our iphone and ipad and is starting to recognize letters from playing with the starfall app. He is a very brave boy and with just a few times in the swimming pool he is working on jumping into Josh's arms. We are blessed with this sweet boy. Before he goes to bed he likes to watch dressage  or "choo choo" videos on you tube and he will say, "Moon out Mommy, night night time." Just recently he has begun using sentences such as "I did it Mommy" "This is my Juri." We are so proud of him and thankful to be his parents. I know he doesn't understand what all is going on right now but we try to explain it to him the best way we can. It is hard to know how to balance everything right now but we are doing the best we can and pray that God will be with each of our babies.

One day closer

So I used to always think if we can just make it through the day and Mason be ok and not have any major setbacks. Praying we could make it, handle whatever was going to happen and that he would grow stronger. Now I am trying to change my mindset and think Mason is one day closer to coming home. It is hard to imagine that right now, I'm not going to lie. Hard to imagine the day when both of my boys will play together. Will actually fight together. Will come up and complain to me about each other and whine. I think I will embrace those days. Everyone has said to me that going through something like this really changes your perspective. I completely agree. No matter what happens I have to see this as a blessing. We were meant to travel this road. To go through this. One day I will understand why. But for today I thank the Lord for each and every day that we are traveling this journey. He will help us understand this one day.

This morning, Mason had another bad blood gas. Again, it was related to tube placement. They went ahead and changed his settings and did a chest x-ray to check for fluids. His lungs showed no "wetness" and the next one was a lot better. He is just really positional in relation to his tube placement. They increased his feedings to 2.2 cc per hour which is almost a "half way" point. This means that he is half way to taking in what they consider complete feedings. If everything continues to go well they think he will be at complete feedings in about 8-9 days. Labs were done and they all looked good. His sodium was a little low so they adjusted that. Other then that it was a good day. He continues to grow and seems to be getting stronger. He weighed 2 lb. 2 1/2 oz. We are so thankful for your continued prayers. Please pray for continued healing for Mason over his whole body. Pray for him to grow and for his brain bleed to have minimal/no effects. I believe in miracles and in the power of prayer. Through anything we go through in life we must remember that He has it in the palm of His hands and He is carrying us through. Let this be our prayer.

10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord)

The sun comes up, it's a new day dawning

It's time to sing Your song again

Whatever may pass, and whatever lies before me

Let me be singing when the evening comes

Bless the Lord, O my soul

O my soul

Worship His holy name

Sing like never before

O my soul

I'll worship Your holy name

You're rich in love, and You're slow to anger

Your name is great, and Your heart is kind

For all Your goodness I will keep on singing

Ten thousand reasons for my heart to find

Bless the Lord, O my soul

O my soul

Worship His holy name

Sing like never before 

O my soul

I'll worship Your holy name

And on that day when my strength is failing

The end draws near and my time has come

Still my soul will sing Your praise unending

Ten thousand years and then forever more

Sneaky boys

Mason had another good day yesterday. We can't complain! He has gained up to 2 lb. 1 oz. and the continue to be able to increase his feedings (I think he is up to 1.8 now). They also increased his fluids as well since now he isn't retaining fluids so that will help him as well. We are happy that he is off all of his medicines now and can hopefully just get stronger and grow. While we were there yesterday, another baby came in to have surgery and we got to see the inside of what happens there. It was deja vu...only 3 weeks ago we were going through the same scary feeling and now here we were on the other side of the "bridge". I remember all the uncertainties and being so scared and feeling helpless. But our God had a plan and he continues to be faithful. I am reminded of this everyday as we continue to plug along through each and every day.

Genesis 28:7 I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.



Mason continues to have a lot of personality even though he is so little. While they were prepping the other baby for surgery he decided he was going to pull on his breathing tube. I had to pull his hand off of it numerous times and I tried to tell him he needed to behave because they were going to be very busy for a little bit and didn't need any distractions. But he continued to pull on it pretty hard to be so little.

Sorry the quality isn't that good (Josh gave me a lesson afterwards) but you can see that he has his hand wrapped around it. 

Big yawn...I am completely innocent and was NOT trying to get in trouble.

Here is our other sneaky boy...this is how he was dressed on the way to breakfast. He has to wear his sunglasses now (like Mommy and Daddy). He says "Sun is bright. Need sunglasses. " They are too funny but we continue to be thankful for our family each and every day.