Big NEWS!!

FINALLY- after 2 months, 2 weeks and 2 days, Duncan was FINALLY moved into the intermediate room!! This means that he is now at a level 2. I was so excited when I found out that he had been moved. It has been a long, long journey and I am so looking forward to the end of it. I feel like Frodo in Lord of the Rings, I have to get to that cliff and the journey is long and at times seems impossible, but it has to be done and no one can do it for me no matter how badly they want to. It has been emotional and exhausting
We were told that he will probably only have to be in there for another 2 weeks. He might come home on oxygen, it will just depend on how he does. The Dr. said that she would rather send him home on a small amount of oxygen rather than keep him there where he runs the risk of getting an infection.

I will keep you updated on what the progress is.

Bath Time

We got to help give Duncan a bath for the first time. It wasn't his first bath, just the first time we had been there when they gave one. He did so great. He LOVED it. He isn't ready for a bath tub, so we bathed him in his bed.

Then his nurse wrapped him up to wash his hair. She washed so I could see how to do it, he just loved it.

Eyes wide open the whole time.

The reward- a nice warm bottle.

Duncan is doing really great. He is 4lbs. 7oz. He is gaining about an oz. a day. They are weening his oxygen down and trying to get him off the vent completely. He is almost there. I think in a couple of weeks he will be off of it all together. He is now taking most of his feeds by bottle. I have tried breastfeeding him about 4 times now. He is latching on, but the milk doesn't come out fast enough for him. Yesterday he did really well and I was able to feed him for about 15 min. Today when I tried, he just kept smiling and not really sucking. He was just being funny.

So Cute!!

How cute is this picture!?! I was holding him and just happened to have my phone out and he started smiling so I snapped this one. I love it. Duncan is now 4lbs. 1oz. He is doing great and is getting used to the bottle and really likes it, he just can't stay awake long enough to finish it. The rest they feed through his tube.

Doing Great

Duncan is doing Great!! He has made amazing progress in the last week. He is off the CPAP and he is loving it. He looks so much more comfortable with the new nasal canala flow tube. A couple hours after being on the new tube they took a blood gas and it came back "awesome" as his nurse said. Friday they started giving him his immunization shots. I was really nervous about him getting those. But he did really well. They gave him Tylenol to help with the pain. The other great news is that today I was able to bottle feed him!!! They decided to try starting him on one bottle feed a day and see how it goes, well he chugged that bottle like a champ!! One thing that preemies have to learn is how to do is suck, swallow and breath at the same time. I really think it helped that the nurses and Justin and I would give him his pacifier whenever he was being feed, I think it really made a difference. I was impressed, I really didn't think it was going to go well, but again this little guy has proven me wrong. He is almost 35 weeks old and the nurses have said that around this time things just start to click with them.

I feel like Duncan has been extremely blessed and I know that Heavenly Father has been very mindful of him and has poured his blessing on him. There is another little preemie boy in his pod and he had to have the heart surgery to close the hole in his heart and we were talking and she said that most preemie boys and some girls have to have that surgery. She said she was shocked that Duncan didn't have to have it and that his hole closed only after one round of the medicine to close the hole. She said she has only seen that happen twice since she has been there. I know that it is because Duncan was given a blessing and Heavenly Father blessed him and Justin and I. He has really blessed me with peace of mind in some of the most scary situations. I am just so grateful to my Heavenly Father. I am so grateful to everyone that has been praying for him and putting his name in at Temples all over the world. Thank you so much.

Events of the week

Before the play, Nana came to visit Duncan. I think she was excited because Justin and I have been the only ones that have really been able to touch him. If you can see he is holding her finger. We also got him a 2 month present for going into his big boy bed, a mobile. He really likes it. The music is very soothing.

Today Justin and I went to Flagstaff for the day. We went to see Duncan and make sure he was doing good and then we headed to Flag for this Arizona Celtic Festival. It was really cool. Literally, the weather was so cool there that I was ready to buy a house. It was in the low 80's and it rained and felt oh so good. It was a nice relief from the 115 degrees we have been having.
The festival is put on every year. This was our first time going. I was reading the Arizona Kids magazine in the hospital and saw that this was going to be this weekend, and if you don't know Justin, he loves Scotland and all that goes with it. He loves swords and has a large collection of swords. He was really itching to get a sword and I know he really wanted one, but they come with a pretty price tag. He didn't get one, but he had a good time looking at all the cool swords. Also the kilts. Oh my, they were beautiful. The wool was so nice. They had live music and an area for kids, and they had dueling, and the men came out in their kilts. It was so fun.

This was a group of men that won a trophy for Scottish athletics. This log toss, it has a more specific name, but I left the paper in the car and I'm too tired to go get it. I was so mad at myself I was getting ready to take more pictures and the battery in my camera died.

After we left the festival we went to the mall there, it is a very small mall, but it had better stores than Arrowhead. We drove through town by NAU and headed home. We went back to the hospital and Justin got to hold Duncan. He was so cute, he kept trying to pull out his CPAP and I could tell that Justin was getting nervous and I told him this is what babies do. He was also getting fussy because he was sleepy and he was trying to fight it, again I reassured Justin this is what babies do. We got exciting new while we were there, the Doctors came around to get updates on babies and they were talking about Duncan and the Dr. said to put him on high canala flow oxygen tomorrow-so this means NO MORE CPAP!!! For now anyway, and hopefully no more. His poor nose looks like a piggy nose so this will feel much better and his nose can recover and go back to normal. He now weighs 3lbs. 14oz. He is almost 4lbs. I think by Monday he will be too.

So as I said, it was a busy week, but fun at the same time.

"Wicked"

This has been a busy week, so I am going to just start in the order things happened. First, my mom and I went to see "Wicked" and it was so great. We had a good time. The music and acting was just great. I actually didn't know that much about the play other than it was about the witches from the Wizard of Oz. It had such a great story and can I just say that as a blond, Glenda was great. I loved the song Popular, the actress that played her was hilarious and did a wonderful job. The actress that played Elphaba was great as well and can I just say that I am glad that I don't get painted green each day. If you can get a ticket you must go see this, it was fantastic.

Big Boy. . . Sort of

My big boy bed

Me being swaddled with my buddy close by-this really makes him look like a little peanut!

My first cute outfit to wear

Duncan got moved into a "big boy" bed during the night. He is able to keep his body temperature where it needs to be on his own so he was moved into a crib type bed. He looks so cute in it. It makes him look so little, well more than he is. Being out of an isolet means that he gets to wear clothes and he gets swaddled, which he loves. He is doing good. If his blood gas tests continue to come back good then they will start weening him off the CPAP. I don't think he will be off of it for another week or so. He tends to move forward and then take a step back. So I'm hoping they don't take him off of this too soon. I really don't want them to have to inti bate him again, and I'm sure he wouldn't like it either. We're going to go buy him a mobile to put on his bed, and I think when we are done with it we will donate it to the NYICU, I think they could use those.

He loves his bed and so do I because it means I can hear him cry more. I know that sounds strange, but when you haven't been able to hear your baby cry for almost two months, it is a sweet sound. It also means that I can give him kisses!! He loves his binky and he loves to look at me, close his eyes and then quickly open them again to see if I am still there. I tried to kangaroo care him the other day and it just didn't go well. It is really hard to do with the CPAP in, he can pull it out easily and I can't see him to put it back in. The outfit he has on is a preemie and it still swallows him. We had to fold the arms because they were too long. He is 3lbs. 9oz. He did go down, but Justin and I think the blood is what made him weigh so much before. He is adorable and precious and I just love him and can't wait until he is moved into the intermediate room, that just means one step closer to going home.

Sweet 16

Happy Birthday Jack!! I can't believe it has been 16 years. Have a great birthday and I love you tons.

Chunky Boy

This again, is an older picture. But I just love this one, you can see all the wrinkles in his face.

Duncan is doing much better. He was given blood yesterday and they think that because his blood level was low he was having difficulties with his lungs. After they gave him the blood, he was doing really good. His oxygen level was low and he wasn't working so hard to breath. He is still doing well on the food. He is up to 30cc's every three hours. They are even talking of putting him in an open bed because he acts like he is warm in his bed, so if he can keep his own body temp up they may put him in the new bed later today or tomorrow. He is now 3lbs. 11oz.

On another note, I am doing much better with the pumping. My milk began to increase. I'm not sure what I did, but last week I rested a lot more, spent less time at the hospital (not easy to do), ate oatmeal, and drank tons and tons of water each day, and I drank chocolate malted Ovaltine. My sis-in-law's sister is a midwife and she has friends that are very knowledgeable about lactation and she spent time finding info for me and sent all of it to me. It was very, very kind of her to do that and I really appreciated all the info she got for me. Thank you Anne. And of course, thank you to all of you for the info you sent me as well, I tried a lot of different things. Of course another thing that was suggested was to pump both breasts at the same time. Well I have a Medela pump, a really nice one, and you can pump both at once. One night I was pumping and my dog Angus was trying to jump on my chair and I reached over to push him down and the whole pump fell off the table and I picked it up and was trying to put the hose back in the valve and the valve had snapped off into the hose!! I was so upset. It was an expensive pump and I broke it and how was I going to pump both, but also how would I pump when I went back to work?!! So I was looking in the booklet and decided that I would try to return it. I decided to look on line and email customer service. After I emailed them I saw that you could buy replacement parts so I looked and sure enough, the entire faceplate comes off and is replaceable for a mere $8. I was saved. I was so glad it was that cheap to replace and I don't have to go through the hassle of trying to get it fixed. The part should be here this week.

Must love Dogs

Angus

Pippin

I love my dogs. People that know me know that I really love these guys. They are small, spunky and full of energy. They are also both male, neutered and house trained...at least I thought. This is my problem with these two the last few months. Because they are both male they are both trying to be the dominate male, so they have decided to go around and mark things. . . IN THE HOUSE!!! I have been patient with them, I have rubbed their nose in it, we put them outside when they do it. When I had Duncan we went to my parents house and they went with me and I thought it would stop. Nope they tried doing it there too. At first we thought it was only Angus that was doing it, but then at my parents house Pippin walks right into the room I was staying in and lifts his leg on the hanging bed spread. I couldn't believe it. The funny thing is that we can tell which one did it, because the guilty one will cower and try to hide. My big worry is that I want the dogs to be good when Duncan comes home. I want them to be used to his smell, and also I don't want them peeing on things in his bedroom so I do allow the dogs to go in when I am in there. Well I forgot to close the door and I had a basket of Duncan's clean clothes on the floor and sure enough I go in there and Angus has peed on one end of the basket and the floor. He is now in his kennel. I have decided that if they misbehave they will go in there. I really don't want them to have to become outside dogs, but Justin said if they don't stop that's what will happen. So if any of you have any ideas how to stop them from doing this, please, all advice is welcome.

A Duncan Update

This is an older picture. I need to take a few new ones, but with the CPAP in you can't really see his face.



Duncan is still on the CPAP, he has made it about 4 days which is really good. He gave us a little scare today though. He has been working hard to breath the last two days. His oxygen level hasn't been too high the last few days, but then today she had to go up to about 62% oxygen which is a lot for him. So she finally said to the NP how much higher am going to go on this. Well they decided that they needed to do an x-ray and they found that his left lung is barley working, it is whited out as they call it. That means he isn't getting enough oxygen into that lung. His right lung looked really good, but it was doing all the breathing. So they are going to do a breathing treatment with him and they are keeping him on his right side to try to get the left doing what it is supposed to do. They are trying to not have to inti bate him again, but they will if they have to. He has lung disease, which is scar tissue on the lungs. When people are given artificial breathing they most likely develop this. It just damages the lungs to a degree, luckily for babies they grow new lung all the time until they are 8 years old, this can happen to adults too, but we wouldn't grow new lung. This is very common for preemies, I had already looked it up and new it was a possibility that he would get it, in fact I think all preemies that are given a lot of oxygen get this. It is also referred to BPN. Most children out grow it by the time they are 2. He just wants to keep us on our toes. We were getting a little too comfortable with his progress, so he probably thought he wasn't getting enough attention. Justin and my dad gave him a blessing and I pray that Heavenly Father will just continue to bless this little boy. He has so much already.

On the CPAP

Duncan was switched over to the CPAP today. As you can see, this machine goes in the nose and is held on by the sweet looking head gear. It's better than the tape! He is doing really good on it so far. Keep PRAYING for him that he won't have to have the tube back in. I had a talk with Duncan tonight before I left and told him that he doesn't want the tube again and that he needs to breath and do what he is supposed to do. He does have apnea, and again this is typical for preemies and they do usually outgrow it by the 34th-35th week. For Duncan it will probably be a little longer. He gaining weight. He now weighs 3lbs. 3oz. He is feeling a lot better and the infection is almost all cleared up. He is still on antibiotics for a couple of more days.

My mom and dad will be back from Alaska tomorrow and they said they had a great time and are ready to plan another trip back.

Okay another thing. Have you ever watched Cake Boss on TLC? Well it isn't my favorite show, but it is entertaining. Anyway, I watched a marathon of all the episodes yesterday and in one they made a lobster tail pastry. If you ever go to an Italian bakery and see a pastry that looks like a lobster tail-buy it and enjoy eating it. They are sooooooo goooooood. My first experience with this delightfully, flaky, cream filled treat was in Boston (of course). My brother and his wife took us to the North End which is little Italy. They have a couple of bakery's down there, but the best is Mike's and Elisabeth kept saying we had to get a lobster tail. We did and I was in love. So on all my many trips I always want to go to Mike's and get me a lobster tail, but the last trip I didn't get one-very sad. So I'm watching Cake Boss and thinking I really want that. I did this when I was pregnant too, I craved clam chowder. Not just any clam chowder, I wanted Perkins Cove, Maine clam chowder. I never got it. I guess I won't get my Mike's lobster tail either. That's okay, just one more motivation to go to Boston!!

Happy Belated 4th

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July. It was very hot here so Justin and I spent a good part of the day inside. Actually I did, but Justin was busy taking our cars to get the windows tinted. Let me tell those of you that don't live in AZ having tinted windows makes a HUGE difference during the summer. I was so glad he did it.

Anyway, after that was all done we went to the hospital, or as I refer to it, our home away from home. We were able to spend a couple of hours with him. He is doing better. He looks a lot better and is tolerating people touching him better as well. If you look at this picture, the pink thing that has a tube in plastic, that is part of his breathing tube. This is what they use to suction the junk out of him. When they first started suctioning him after they found the infection it was bright yellow and today when she suctioned him it was a tanish yellow. She said that is good because it means the medicine is working. YAY!! Also, we were told that the tube will come out when Duncan pulls it out. He did it on Friday, but they are hoping he will keep it in for at least a couple more days. Once he pulls it out they will try the CPAP vent again. He is a little trooper. He is really funny too-he knows when it is time to eat. His nurse said today, without fail, at least 20 minutes before his feed time he would get really fussy and upset and as soon as she would feed him he would settle down.

Also this weekend we went and saw Transformers 2. It was really good, we both really enjoyed it. I thought they did a really good job. I do agree with my sister who thought it was a little long. But still really worth it. Now I can't wait for the next Harry Potter movie to come out.

We found out today that Duncan has another infection in his lungs. They have him on medicine to help clear it up. It was so sad seeing him today, he just wasn't himself. I guess that is natural because I'm not myself when I'm sick either, but it is just harder to see it on my baby. He was so weak looking and even Brooke said he wasn't himself today. He usually likes to "help" by grabbing tubes and squirming around, but he didn't do that today. She said she was suctioning a lot of mucus out of his mouth as well. Justin and his dad gave him a blessing tonight.

Please keep him in your prayers. We knew that he would have set backs, I just hope this is the extent of them. Little steps each day. He will be on antibiotics for the next 7 days and hopefully his infection will clear up. This will probably delay the removal of his tube since he needs to keep his energy to fight off the infection.

I promise I will take pictures tomorrow.

Good advice

Thank you all for the great advice on the lactation problem. I am going to try the Mother's Milk Tea. I was also told about the oatmeal and will eat that each day-I love oatmeal so it won't be a problem. I am going to pump more frequently and through the night and I am also going to call the Le Leche League. I don't think I will try the beer unless I am absolutely desperate and talk to my Bishop first :) I knew I would get good advice if I put it on here.

Quick update

I just wanted to give a quick update. Duncan did have to have the breathing tube put back in early this morning. He was just working too hard to breath and it was exhausting him. He is doing good now with the tube in and they are hopeful that they can take it out either later this week or early next week. He is 32 almost 33 weeks old. Although most babies have their tubes taken out about this time, Duncan's lungs just need a little bit more time to develop. We know he can do it, he just needs to be able to do it without working so hard. Please keep him in your prayers. He is a fighter and a very strong baby-to me he acts like he is done with the hospital, but he will be there until late August.

On another note- I am really struggling now with producing breast milk. I tried to take the herb Fenugreek, but I took it once and made me really sick so my Dr. told me not to take it. They told me to not spend so much time at the hospital this week and see if that helps-that's just really hard for me to not be there. So if anyone has any suggestions I wouldn't mind hearing them.