Day 50 and one step closer!

Hi everyone!  Happy Monday and I hope everyone had a great weekend! Today is Landon's 50th day in the ICN at the Pennsylvania Hospital!  It was also a memorable and happy day today as we found Landon is currently scheduled to be discharged from the hospital on Wednesday!!! 

I still cannot believe Landon could be home this week, and it still feels surreal that we are having our little guy home finally after seven plus weeks in the hospital!   He has held up his bargain so far and has fought his way doubling in size, having stable vitals, and drinking milk like a champ!  Even though Landon has been doing great after removing his oxygen, the reason we have been sticking around the past couple weeks was because he had to 'master' drinking from his bottle.  Little did we know that would become probably the hardest challenge for Landon and preemies in general.  The hospital is quite the stickler when it comes to feeding times with the babies and they have the right to be because it can become the most stressful part of having a newborn.  You want to make sure they eat so they grow and especially for preemies, they need to make sure they don't choke while breathing!  

Landon is now becoming the 'feeding pro' in the nursery and his cribmates next to him are now just realizing how difficult it is to drink from a bottle.   The hospital requires the babies to feed almost perfect for 5 days consecutively or around 35 feeds in a row.  If a baby brady's (low heartrate), or has a large 'desat' (low o2 levels), then you need to restart the 5 day countdown.  So we have had the countdown restart on us a few times, but Landon has gone Friday through Monday doing great drinking from his bottles so that is why the hospital is planning for Wednesday discharge.  He is up to almost 3 ounces a bottle every 3-4 hours now which is awesome and has been gaining weight quickly as well...he is up to 6 lbs 1oz already (~3 weeks to go to due date too)!  In preparation for coming home, we also chose to have his 2 month vaccinations at the hospital to ensure that he doesn't have any allergic reactions.  We are keeping our fingers crossed that he continues to do well tonight and tomorrow so he can come home....we're very, very close!

Below are some fun-facts from our experience:

• 5,172 miles and counting so far to and from the hospital between LeighAnn and I
• Of the total miles driven....3, 232 miles driven just on the Schuylkill Expressway alone
• Over 172 hours driving to see Landon...and worth every second!
• Over 500 hours between LeighAnn and I at the Pennsylvania Hospital (our second home)
• Over 20 different nurses and 5 doctors that have taken cared of our little guy

Now that our journey is nearing the end of the road at the NICU... we are very, very grateful that our story will have a happy ending!   We will continue to update the blog every so often with progress updates, doctor updates, and developmental milestones.   LeighAnn and I never did exactly explain why we decided to blog.  We decided to 'blog' because we knew in our heart Landon was a fighter from day one, and we wanted to share the experiences and knew our story could help others in a similar situation.  If you remember from a previous blog, 1 in 10 babies are born premature and surprisingly the number is slightly rising.   The chances are that someone reading our blog will know of a co-worker, friend, neighbor or family member that may be going through a similar experience.   We wanted to have the privilege to share our story through the blog to help ease their concerns and fears.     

I also want to take this time to thank every single person out there that has supported us through this experience.  We have been blessed to receive meals, gifts, and messages of support through the past 50 days.  It was amazing to see our friends, family, co-workers, and neighbors help us in a time of need.  Every little thing that someone did for us such as make us a meal, buy Landon a gift, message of encouragement, or just make us smile helped brighten our day just a little bit.  These unselfish acts of kindness go a long way and has opened our eyes even more from this experience.   Landon, LeighAnn and I are not completely sure how we can ever repay our appreciation but we promise to continue to go out of our way to help our friends, family, co-workers, and neighbors in a time of a need.  Everyone in their life needs that extra boost to help them get through some difficult times and all of you have done that for us...we want to say Thank You!!!

We are hoping next blog post will be a fun one with sharing our experiences with Landon at home!!

Here's a few pictures!!  Also, I am hoping to post a small video/collage of our little guy Landon next week.  

  

43 Days and a Light at the End of the Tunnel!

Today marked Landon's 43rd day of life and we cannot believe how far he has come!  This journey has been so surreal for us and we are finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  It has felt like a lifetime, but also has seemed to go by so quickly too... perhaps that's due to the fact that the days have all begun to blur together.  Despite the challenges and obstacles we have faced bringing new life into the world, we are so blessed with Landon and it has been totally worth it all.  With each day getting better, Lance and I are itching to get our little boy home!

Speaking of the days feeling like a blur... I was reviewing the last blog entry to check what milestones were made since then and I can't believe so much has happened since last Sunday!  He is really making great strides and I am beginning to see the difference each day as he continues to grow and get stronger.  So where do I begin to catch up...

Last week we started to discuss getting him transferred back to Phoenixville, but decided to stay put at Pennsylvania Hospital.  In the end, we felt most comfortable there, but it didn't help that the Phoenixville ICN doctor was no longer working there and as of July 1 the hospital would no longer be affiliated with CHOP as they were transferring practices to Dupont down in Delaware.  With those things considered, it definitely weighed our decision to stick around in Philly a bit longer.

Even with our decision to stay, it had almost felt like we experienced a transfer since Landon was moved to the transitional nursery in the ICN on July 1.  The transitional nursery is for babies who are around the 35 gestational week mark and who essentially are no longer considered critical care.  Most of the babies in this nursery are "feeders and growers", with the occasional brady here and there.  This nursery is so calm and quiet compared to our former nursery.  We used to be the calmest baby in the other nursery and now I'm pretty sure Landon's monitor makes the most noise with all of his desats!  It took some getting used to being on the other side of that equation once again, especially now with a whole new group of primary nurses to work with too.

When we first moved to the transitional nursery, Landon was just beginning to experiment with bottle/breast feeding.  He still had the feeding tube in and was only feeding by mouth about 4 times per day.  His first full day in the new nursery, "Master Landon" (as one of our former nurses liked to call him) kept pulling out his feeding tube and began calling the shots like he did with the ventilator and CPAP machines.  The nurses determined he was doing well enough with his "po feedings" (by mouth) that as long as he continued to do so they would keep the feeding tube out.  Sure enough he did and is now eating all of his meals by mouth and is chowing down on about 60 mls per feed!  This is the last picture I took of him with his feeding tube still intact:

A day or so after that, things started to look great as the nurses and doctors were beginning to prep everything of his for discharge.  He had his circumcision performed and had his car seat test.  The car seat test is a measure to make sure that the premature babies can withstand their normal heart-rates, respiratory rates and oxygenation levels in an upright position.  Landon passed... unfortunately not with flying colors, but enough to get by.  We felt like that was it as the nurses were talking like it would be "just days" before going home!  Here is a picture of our tiny nugget getting situated for his car seat test:

Landon was still experiencing some blue-spells during his feedings so after making our way into the holiday weekend we knew it wasn't his time yet.  As each day passed, we saw significant improvement with how he performed while eating.  His blue-spells occurred less frequently and his oxygen saturation rate remained in normal ranges for the better portion of the feeds.  Despite not making it home that weekend, our biggest victory was him hitting the 5 pound mark on the 4th of July! Such a huge milestone for our little 2lb 15oz newborn!

Within the last day, we even got to see some personality of our little guy yesterday when we ran out of fresh breastmilk and the nurses needed to defrost a bottle from the stash I built up in the freezer.  Boy did he not like the defrosted bottle though!  As hungry as he was by showing all of his feeding cues, he would cry and scream and even spit out any of the milk as soon as it touched his lips!  Fortunately enough, it just must've been an odd batch as he finally accepted another bottle later that night (thank goodness because we had just purchased a freezer chest to store all of the milk here at home)!

So back to the hospital we go for another week or so, but all in all, there is finally a light at the end of this journey's tunnel.  We are not sure of the exact timeframe as it is truly up to "Master Landon"... apparently he makes all the rules at the hospital, but boy do we have news for him as that is going to change real quick!  Who am I kidding?!? This little boy has Lance and I wrapped around his tiniest of fingers already! :)

I think I've caught you all up for now... thank you once again for your continued positive thoughts, wishes and prayers!  Keep your fingers crossed as we begin to prepare for Landon's trek home!