There are a lot of things I have learned throughout the years from my dad such as dedication, hard work, and the value of family, but the one that sticks out the most is his unselfishness. Whenever you have a conversation with him, he quickly turns the conversation to see how you are doing and you come out of that conversation feeling good about yourself no matter what situation you may be in. That unselfishness is something I try to continue to remind myself to give to others on a daily basis. If you sit and think about the family members and friends that mean the most to you, I bet the ones that mean the most to you are the ones that are willing to listen to you first rather than boast about their personal life. So as I sit back here on my first father's day, I promised myself that I would always be there for Landon no matter what and continue to try to be the best father for him. So again, Happy father's day to everyone!!
As LeighAnn had mentioned in her previous post, we had an amazing baby shower last weekend! It's amazing all of the family and friend support we received last weekend, and we cannot say thank you enough for everyone that attended and those who could not and sent us something special for Landon. At least from my point of view, showers don't always seem to be the most exciting things in the world, but in our case it meant the world to us. I know LeighAnn will be writing a personalized thank you note, but to everyone who attended, thank you for helping make the day something special for LeighAnn and Landon.
Ok, I guess it is that time to get to Landon and how he has been doing. Last time LeighAnn wrote in the blog, he had just gotten off his CPAP machine, still in the incubator, and was on his small oxygen cannulas 2% pressure to help out his breathing. He was also at 3lbs 2oz earlier in the week and his bradycardia "brady" events were very low or minimal. Everything was progressing perfect at that point and we were feeling absolutely great!
Once Thursday came, the doctors decided to try remove his oxygen cannulas altogether and try to do some breathing on his own! We were warned that there would be a good chance he would have to come back on the oxygen. He was doing well on his own on Thursday with some "bradys" but nothing to be too concerned about. LeighAnn and I were quite excited to see him breathing on his own at 32.5 gestational weeks at this point. The good news just kept coming to us on very early Saturday morning when they let us know they moved him out of the incubator into a crib. So LeighAnn and I headed down there once we woke up to see our little guy's progress. It felt so great that he was just like a normal little boy in his crib with no oxygen. Also, they had removed his caffeine intake (the caffeine triggers endorphins that remind the brain to continue to breathe) which was more good news. We also started thinking about getting him transferred closer to home since it seemed more practical in getting him to learn how to feed. It was quite amazing at this point, we were riding a high as parents and felt like Landon could do anything at this point!
Reality began to set in on Saturday afternoon, Landon was beginning to struggle breathing after a few days being off the oxygen and his bradycardia events began popping back up more frequently than his usual self. Our short lived bliss had ended, he had to get back on the oxygen cannulas to 2% pressure and back into the incubator. It's hard to explain what exactly you feel as parents, but you feel a bit defeated. As I described to my dad its like being up 3-0 in a baseball game in the 9th, then the closer comes in to blow the save and ties the game at 3-3. I am not going to lie, it was hard to see him that Saturday evening again even knowing that the doctors and nurses told us that he would be back on the oxygen again at some point. You see so much progress for weeks in a row, and then a bump in the road can hit you hard as parents.
I was a bit tentative on what to expect this morning for Father's Day, but we did have a good father's day this afternoon together. I was able to hold him for over an hour and he absolutely loved it and so did I. In my heart, he is a fighter and you can only sit and imagine what it will be like when he is home. Some more good news is that he has been handling feeds very well, and is 3lbs 10oz! Today I noticing that his cheeks are getting a little chubby, and we are hoping for the 4lb award later on this week! Also, there is a good chance he will be coming out of the incubator and back into a crib again this week and hopefully for good this time.
I am hoping I got everyone caught up and now its time to get some sleep so I can wake up early to try to be at work at 6am so I can continue to see Landon every day (have not missed a day yet). I go down around lunchtime at work so I can try to miss the rush hour traffic. Over the past few weeks I think I have mastered every back road around the Schuylkill Expressway too. I just want to send a big thanks to everyone for their support and I think we have reached over 4000 hits on the blog. We are hoping our story can help inspire others going through a similar experience. I read today 1 in 10 babies are born premature which seemed unbelievable.
Everyone have a great night and here's to a great week ahead for Landon!
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