Memorial Day

Everything has gone smoothly since they turned down Nicholas' heart rate minimum on the monitor from 80 to 70.  It has not alarmed 1 time (1 real alarm that is).  As a result, we have decided to go ahead and try Nicholas on 1/32 as the pulmonologist told us to if everything went well with the 1/16.  We just put him on 1/32 at 2:30 pm today.  The first 24-48 hours will let us know if he is ready for that or not.  We would've put him on it last Tuesday but since the alarm was going off so much because his heart rate had changed we wanted to make sure everything was okay before we changed it.  We will post in the next couple of days to let everyone know how it's going.


Nicholas currently weighs 13lbs15oz.  He did have his strap on so he may be a couple of ounces lighter.


 

Loaded up and ready to go to PaPa's.

I suppose you want me to smile?

Ha!  You thought you were going to see a smile.

Aint happening.

Lift my head??!!  You turn the camera!!!

Asleep at about 9 am this morning.  Those are stuffed animals in his crib.  If he wakes up we like for him to have something to look at or hopefully grab at.  He also has a mirror in there too.

Several Sleepless Nights

For about the last 1 1/2 weeks Mariah and I have not been getting hardly any sleep because Nicholas' monitor has been going off all throughout the night.  We called Apria today and told them that the monitor was flashing full on the memory sign and we took the monitor to them to empty out the memory.  It should also be noted that last Friday night we spent the night in Marion and early Saturday morning it beeped and would not stop.  The memory was full and we never noticed the flashing light leading up to it being full.  So, Mariah had to drive to Florence (40 minutes) while the monitor did 1 steady (pretty loud) beep just to get a new monitor and then drive back to Marion all in 1 day. 

Apria called both Nicholas' pediatrician and his pulmonologist today and his pediatrician wanted us to bring him by just to be checked out.  The doctor said there was nothing wrong with Nicholas and that when some people get older their heart rates are just lower than others.  Nicholas' heart rate never dropped below 73 bpm while being at home but the monitor setting was for >80.  We thought Apria had already changed the setting but while the doctor was finishing his exam the monitor went off and this heart rate was 79.  Hopefully, when his setting gets changed to >70 we will all get a good night's sleep.

On June 5, Nicholas will be going to McLeod for a sleep apnea test.  They just want to monitor him throughout the night to see if there is anything wrong that could be causing his apnea (he was having some apnea spells too).  This is just a precautionary test and it should be noted that if the lead on his lung gets dry it can cause the alarm to go off.  The same applies with the heart lead too.

Complete and utter domination.

Reading and Exercising

Nicholas is still doing well.  He has adjusted to being on 1/16 of a liter and we hope to be able to turn his oxygen down this week to 1/32.  He is no longer constipated but he does still have hard stools.  They aren't nearly as hard as they used to be because of the apple-prune juice.  Here are some pictures of Nicholas in various situations and also included is his growth chart.  It was given to us after he was discharged from the NICU and there is a gap in data but we put his latest length on there to show you where he's currently at.  It says 52 weeks but he was almost 55 weeks when he was last measured.

Oh great....ANOTHER picture.

Good grief!!!  How long is this book??!!

If I could roll over there oh the things I would do you to you...........

As you can see, for several weeks Nicholas was behind in his length but about the time he got off of the ventilator and on the nasal cannula is when he started having some growth spurts.

Mother's Day (1st Trip to Andrews)

Is that the line for people to hold me????

I suppose you're up next?

What??!!  How did she get back in line???  She just held me!!!

I like your stripes.  Reminds me of......well......me.

I know you.  Now where's my cake?????

Usually, it's daddy sticking his tongue out at me.  I thought I'd give it a try and see if this man would smile.  It worked.

Someone please get me my crib.  It's been a long day.

Special Times Captured, Never to be Forgotten

Here is a picture of Mariah's Mother's Day present.   This is on canvas.  Happy Mother's Day Mariah.

From left to right: first time Mariah saw Nicholas, holding him on SIPAP, Nicholas holding his mommy's finger, first time Mariah kissed Nicholas, and the first time Mariah held Nicholas.
The caption says Special times captured, never to be forgotten.  Mother and Son.  Happy Mother's Day.

7 Months Old

Nicholas' physical therapy went very well today.  He was able to hold his head up while on the ball for about 2 minutes straight.  He is also beginning to follow objects when the p.t. moves them from left to right and vice versa.  She said she can definitely tell he is improving and is very encouraged by what she's seen the last couple of weeks.  Here are some recent pictures of Nicholas including some from today.

Still a little top heavy.

Hurry up and take the picture.  The mat is calling my name.

I've never eaten dog before.  I wonder what it tastes like.

You see that ball.  Yeah, I dominated it today.

More Good News

This morning Nicholas went to see the pulmonologist and he was able to turn Nicholas' oxygen down to 1/16.  It was on 1/8 for the past 2 weeks after being on 1/4 for the previous 2 weeks.  The doctor said his lungs didn't sound crackely like they did last time (we were told they sounded like that in the NICU too).  If everything goes well these next 2 weeks then they want us to turn his oxygen down to 1/32.  If Nicholas does well with that on his next visit the doctor will begin the process of Nicholas coming completely off of oxygen!!!!!  He is so close to coming off and we can not help but smile.  Remember, the sooner Nicholas comes off of the oxygen the sooner they can put the tubes in his ears to try and fix his hearing. 

Sunday nap with his mommy.

More milk please.

Some Stats About Your Views

Just thought I'd share with yall a few of the stats from this website and from youtube.  This website is about to eclipse the 7,000 mark.  Meaning, it has been viewed almost 7,000 times since its inception on November 25 of last year.  It is currently at 6,941.  Also, Nicholas' youtube debut has topped the 200 mark too.  The video of him swinging in the NICU is in second with 170 views.  Thank you all for checking up on Nicholas and we hope you continue to come back to both websites.

Just a reminder of where he was and where he is now.

 

PaPa Comes Over

On Friday night Nicholas' PaPa came over and ate supper with us.  Here are some of the pictures we took during his visit.

Who's more give out at 8pm?  Nicholas or PaPa????

3 generations

The 3 most important people in my life.

Trying to get Nicholas to Smile

This is a short video of Mariah trying to get Nicholas to smile. 


http://youtu.be/1E6hgCk6Qj0

Cooing

Nicholas has been cooing for about a month now but he's starting to do it more frequently.  He especially likes to do it during his feeding times.  Below is a link of Nicholas cooing while lying on Mariah.  He'd just finished his apple-prune juice.  Sorry you can't see his face very well but it was a hard angle as he was facing towards the love seat.  


http://youtu.be/N2a8OqS0OH8

Some New Pictures