4 weeks in the NYICU

I took this photo by sticking the camera in the hand hole(the thing by his knee at the top of picture)

I love this picture of his hair. They had just finished the brain scan and he had gel in his hair. When she wiped it up his hair looked like it had been styled. Does it look good Aunt Kassi?

I love his feet. I think because that was all I could touch when I first went to see him. (This is the foot that keeps getting pricked for blood).


Today Duncan has been in the NYICU for 4 weeks. I prayed that the time would feel like it is going by quickly and it really has.


Here is the thing about the NYICU, Duncan is in what they call a POD. There are 9 PODS in the level 3 NYICU and each one holds no more than 4 babies. Duncan is in the smallest pod and it gets crowded in there when there are 4 babies especially when each one has its own nurse. So I had to wait to go see him today until 1pm, so it would be 24 hours since I had started my medication. I got there and sat with him for a couple of hours and then had to go pump. That was a little after 4pm. When I got out of pumping at 5pm they were sterilizing lines and when they do that no one can be in there. So I had to go out for that. Well, they were also getting another baby in the pod. Justin got to there about 5:30. We went up and they said the baby that just came in wasn't stable yet and they needed us to wait. So we were fine with that. The other thing is that they kick you out at 7pm and 7am for nurse shift change, so you can't be in there either when they do that and that takes 30 minutes. By 6pm Justin went and asked what was going on, at this point Duncan's nurse came out and told us that the baby they brought in was very unstable and they were putting lines in and we probably wouldn't be able to go back for quite a while. Those who know Justin know he can't stay up late, he has chronic fatigue and it is really hard for him to be up late, so we decided we would go and so Justin didn't get to see Duncan today. He was bumbed about that. But while we were there Brooke (Duncan's primary day nurse-just means she has him whenever she works) showed us his x-ray of his lungs from this morning. His right lung wasn't doing very well, they call it white out (when you look at an x-ray of your lung it should be black to show that oxygen is getting to it). But today his lung was more black than it had been in a long time. It looked really good. He is 2lbs. 3oz. and 14 in. long. His weight will go up and down like that, but as long as he keeps putting on weight.

He had his 3rd scan of his brain today and I actually made my mom take me back to the hospital around 8pm tonight. They had the results back and he had NO bleed or sign of anything wrong. He has some fluid around the brain but we were told that is very common on preemies and it wasn't a worry. YAY!! I am so thankful to everyone for their prayers and I am so thankful to Heavenly Father who has poured so many blessings upon this special little boy. I am so thankful to Him for all He has blessed us with. I love my little guy and just know he is going to be okay and I know that he isn't out of the woods yet, but no bleeds is a tremendous blessing. Please continue to pray for him.