What's Happening?

Well Tuesday grandma had to head home for a long over due medical appointment. See grandma has been off work from her normal duties of flying jets around the sky due to an injury while at work, so she had to come back to Calif. I spent the day packing and stopping by the hospital to see the little guy, who was spending a lazy afternoon snugged up with mommy. Yep, Amber got to hold him for the full 2 hours without any complications. I arrived just as he was been placed back in his bed. The nurse had turned up the room light so Lucas was under the covers, so to speak, with a cloth diaper placed over his face. Of course grandma had to peek and was delighted to see Lucas wrinkle up his face when the lights hit his eyes. He squinted and made it quite clear to grandma to turn off the lights. I was elated! See one of the more common problems for preemies is blindness so the fact that Lucas can sense brightness and darkness is fantastic. We won't know about his total eyesight for many months, but we know now he sees light and dark for now and we will take this accomplishment with joy. Keep praying!
Oh, Amber didn't get to have any of the scheduled Baby Shower's as planned. Peggy, from work, is having a mommy/baby party this coming Sunday. Part of the "games" will be to guess Lucas's weight so I have been instructed not to provide the actual weight gain by Lucas. Of course I can give clues. The doctors and nurses have discovered Lucas has quite an appetite now and have increased his food consumtion to 8 cc's every 3 hrs, as of Wednesday night. It seems like he is a little piggy now when it comes to eating. Way to go grandson! I can tell you he is gaining weight and beginning to fill in his wrinkles.
Last night the nurse got tired of having Lucas's feeding tube down his mouth, so he was switched to a more conventional method of down the nose. Let me tell you he was "extremely" mad at the nurse for that change. Lucas was so upset that mommy had to leave the room. Fortunately when it was all over mommy was able to go back in and comfort Lucas. He was really tired from the whole ordeal and just wanted to curl up and go to sleep, and he did. Later that night Lucas's big brother dropped in for a nighttime visit, where Brayden and daddy, with Amber were able to say goodnight to Lucas. Grandma misses you too, little buddy, but I will be back for the party. Keep going and beat the odds kid! We are all praying the brain ultrasound on Thursday hold positive news.

Memorial Day May 25th A Very Good Day.

Must You Wake Me UP

Mommy and Grandma had the afternoon with Lucas. We got to give him a bath and see him struggle to get his way. We found out he doesn't like getting soaped down, but he loves getting rinsed off. Also we woke him from a good nap to give him a bath and he let us know he was not please with our inconsiderate ways.

The good news he is gaining weight! Tonight he breaks the scale at 2lbs 8oz's YEAH WAY TO GO!!! Finally he is eating like a little piggy.

The doctors have increased him to 6cc. That is fantastic! He is still on the ventilator and we have found when he sleeps deeply he forgets to breath, otherwise he would be okay off the vent. Maybe a few more days. His bloodwork is looking good and there is no signs of the brain bleed causing any problems as of yet. Keep the prayers going folks, this is a long journey for this battle. We need them!

More Pictures from Saturday

I Am Awake Now

It's Grandma's Turn

After yesterday's fiasco grandma elected to go over and spend the afternoon with Lucas. I arrived just in time to meet his day nurse and she was real nice and on the ball when it came to taking care of Lucas. Lucas was off of the blue light and had his own tent. That means no visors or hats etc. She filled me in on his daily progress and Dr R came in today and added two more antibiotics. Dr R says nothing is growing from the bloodwork yet, but it may not since Lucas has been on antibiotics since birth, and she feels he is still fighting something since he is working too hard to breath. Seeing him back on the vent was okay because it was obviously apparent he was doing much better on it.

I got to do his daily 4pm cares, sponge bath, diaper change, and feeding. He was sooo sleepy, all he wanted to do was go back to sleep, which I was pleased to see he was so relaxed. The nurse said he ate his whole lunch of 4cc's of milk (about a tsp). Amber and Josh stopped by after spending the day with Lucas's big brother Brayden. Brayden had a runny nose and was off limits to the NICU. Amber and Josh did Lucas's night cares and Lucas weighed in at 2.4 oz. Finally he is going up in weight.