Up and Down

Over the past six weeks Drew has gained one pound! He now weighs two pounds four ounces! He had a wonderful christmas and last week started out looking really good. Drew was stable for most of the week and it looked as though Jenn was going to be able to hold him again, but on Friday Drew started showing some signs of a possible infection. He was becoming a little irritable and some of the blood tests weren't looking very good. He was also having a very difficult time digesting any milk, it would just sit in his stomach and not move through the digestive tract. Yesterday he had some more blood drawn and sent to be tested after which he was placed on antibiotics and his feedings were stopped. The tests usually take about two days for results but so far they have not come back positive with any infections. One possibility for Drew's change in behavior could be that he didn't respond well to the smaller doses of hydrocortisone, so they have increased his doses back to where they were previously. His feedings of milk will continue after they can figure out what the problem is with his digestive system - hopefully soon so that he can grow. Drew's lungs have stayed the same for the past week and we are praying that they will show some significant signs of improvement this week. He is so precious and it breaks our hearts to see him struggle through these challenges. We feel very blessed to have so much support and such wonderful nurses and doctors who all care for our son. We love our precious little guy and hopefully we can hold him this week!

Merry Christmas Drew

It's the most wonderful time of the year! Drew is doing well and he is enjoying his first Christmas. Jenn's mom wrote a beautiful poem about our beautiful boy. "An early gift from God above was sent to us for all to love, our precious gift, our baby boy, has brought us love, faith, hope and joy." Merry Christmas to everyone, thank you all for your love we are very blessed and we love our little angel Drew!

Indescribable

Yesterday was a day that we will never forget. Jenn got to hold Drew for the first time! Mommy and Daddy got to sing and talk to Drew for almost 45 minutes while he cuddled on Mommy's chest. The feelings of love that we have for him are so strong and this experience forever changed us. Drew has an extremely powerful presence and we feel very blessed to have him. He is doing well and his lungs might take a while to fully mature but he is stable and oxygenating better every day. We can't wait until we can hold him again, we just love him so much.

Growing Stronger

Drew had a nice peaceful day today. Other than the enema that helped him fill his diaper he didn't have to endure anything traumatic. His lungs are working so hard and trying to get stronger. He is oxygenating and ventilating pretty well, and because of that they were able to slightly lower some of the settings on his ventilator. We cherrish days like these, it is so much fun to play with his legs and hold his hands when he feels good like he did today. We pray that this will continue and hope that his lungs can mature quickly so that we can hold him soon!

First Try To Breathe

Drew had an eventful day today. He started out doing extremely well and his lungs had even showed some pretty good signs of improvement, which gave the doctors some hope that maybe he could breathe without support from the ventilator (breathing machine). Drew has been on the ventilator since the day he was born and the doctors would like for Drew to get off of his ventilator as soon as possible. Drew had also outgrown his breathing tube and the nurse practioner as well as the physician decided that today would be a good opportunity to see if Drew can breathe without the ventilator. They took the breathing tube out of his trachea and placed him on the continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) which forces air through small tubes that fit into Drews nostrils. Immediately Drew decided that he didn't really like the change and began having difficulty oxygenating well. They intubated him again with a larger endotracheal tube and placed Drew back on the ventilator. Through all of this Drew was kicking and swinging his arms, he is a little fighter but wasn't quite ready for the big change. It took a little while but Drew returned to his happy self and we spent the rest of the night taking pictures of him in his hat and booties that our nurse brought for him. Drew loves the camera and we love taking lots of pictures of him. We love Drew!!!

Wonderful Day

We Received really good results today from the head ultra sound that they did yesterday! We were really excited to hear that the bleeding in Drew's left ventricle has subsided and that he is slowly breaking down the dead cells without complicating the flow of cerebrospinal fluid. The nurse practitioner explained that the bleeding Drew experienced early on shouldn't have any long term affects on his development. This was great news to us and we know that Drew has been extremely blessed. We are aware that he has many more hurdles and that he is at risk for complications due to his prematurity but we feel that Drew is doing well and we are grateful for his progress. His lungs are still very immature and it is going to require some time and patience for his lungs to improve. Drew has started on Mommy's milk again, they had stopped feeding him due to some motility difficulties but he seems to be digesting better now. We love Drew so so so much, he is our little miracle.

One Month!

Drew is one month old today! We cannot believe how fast this past month has gone by. He now weighs 1 pound 13 ounces and is 13.75 inches long! In his first month of life Drew has had to miraculously overcome many challenges. In these beginning stages Drew has faced more trials than many of us will ever have to confront. Today at church we discussed the humble circumstances under which our Savior was born as well as the incomprehensible agony that he endured during his life. We can be assured that Jesus knows of Drew's difficulties and that somehow his atoning sacrifice has had a large affect on Drew's life. It is such a joy and a privilege to spend time with our little guy. Today was a good day. He is doing well and his lungs are even showing small signs of improvement! We were excited to be able to play with his legs and hold his hands again today. After we changed his diaper and took his temperature Drew decided to wake up and play. He was awake for about an hour and he loved pressing his little feet up against our hands. Drew has brought us so much joy and we are so grateful to have him in our family.

Getting Better

Drew has been doing pretty well for the past two days. Yesterday his only problem aside from his lungs was that he wasn't urinating at all, but the nurse said that today he has been "wizzing like crazy!" We believe that he is overcoming the infections and that could be why he is doing a lot better. Drew looked really peaceful and happy today. We took some good pictures with him yesterday and today. We think he loves getting his picture taken, and we know that he loves it when Mommy and Daddy sing and read stories to him. His lungs seem to be doing a little better and we hope that they will continue to grow and strengthen. He has overcome so many challenges and we know that all of the prayers in his behalf have uplifted him and our family. Thank you so much to everyone for your support and mostly for your constant prayers. Drew is so blessed to have so many wonderful people who care so much about his well being, and we are so blessed to have Drew in our lives. He has taught us so many priceless lessons and has brought our family closer to one another and closer to God.

Hard Day

On Wednesday Drew was doing pretty good. He was oxygenating pretty good and it seemed like he was getting over his infection. Yesterday started out pretty good but Drew had a difficult night. His lungs are not getting better and he was having a hard time oxygenating as well as ventilating out the co2 from his blood. Today was a tough day for Drew. He has a new infection and his lungs are really struggling. We are amazed at his toughness and strength, but he is in need of a lot right now. Drew is on a lot of antibiotics and they had to switch his ventilator (breathing machine) tonight because he was really struggling with the jet and drager ventilators. He is doing ok on his new ventilator the oscillator. We pray that his body and the antibiotics will quickly defeat these infections and that his lungs will do better on this ventilator. Despite these challenges Drew is fighting hard. He needs lots of prayers for his lungs. Thank you everyone for your prayers and love.

Getting Better

Drew had a good day today! He did very well all day and it is apparent that the prayers and medicine are working. One of our nurses explained to us that he had done some tests on Drew that weren't scheduled until six hours later but he felt inspired to do them immediately. It turned out that the prompt treatment Drew received as a result of those tests saved Drew from some serious complications! It was a real testimony of the power of prayer as well as a confirmation that Heavenly Father is in complete control. Drew is starting to feel a lot better, he oxygenated very well today and his sense of humor is back! Drew loves to kick and play, Jenn and I spent 45 minutes tonight playing and talking to him while he was awake. It was so funny to hold our hands up against his little feet while he would push against them like doing leg presses. Each time we would pull our hands out he would start kicking and squirming so we quickly put our hands back in and he would start pushing against them again. He was also sucking pretty hard on his breathing and feeding tubes so we gave him his binky to suck on for a while. It really is the cutest thing to watch his little mouth suck on the binky while he has his hand holding it in place. Time goes by so fast when we are with Drew, we love every second we get to spend with him. We pray that he can have another well deserved good day tomorrow.

Roller Coaster Continues

This was a rough weekend for Drew and for us. Drew confronted a variety of challenges but he is doing a lot better tonight. On Saturday morning Drew wasn't tolerating any of the routine cares and check ups. His lungs were not oxygenating very well, his lungs were not ventilating CO2 very well, he was dehydrated, his kidneys had some difficulties resulting in an increase of total body acid as well as lower urine output, his adrenals were not supplying a sufficient amount of hydrocortisone which plays a complex role in regulating normal body functions, his feedings of milk were stopped and all liquid in his gut was sucked out, and his TPN (nutrition fed intravenously) had to be replaced with sugar water. Drew has to be the toughest little guy in the world to fight through all of these challenges. All of these complications led the doctors to believe that Drew had contracted an infection. They took a few blood samples to be cultured and started him on two types of antibiotics last night. His blood cultures showed this morning that he has a bacterial infection and will need to stay on the antibiotics for around ten days. He is also on hydrocortisone and he is well hydrated again. Drew was put on a different ventilator (breathing machine) last night. The new machine is called the Bunnell life pulse high frequency "jet" ventilator, it works in tandem with the Drager ventilator and Drew is responding really well to his new ventilator. His lungs looked a lot better in the chest x-ray today and he is oxygenating as well as ventilating CO2 extremely well! We were so impressed with his recovery and we are so grateful for his desire to keep fighting. We know that he can feel the support from all of the prayers from his friends and family. We will find out this week if Drew will have any long term complications from the challenges he faced this weekend. We keep praying that Heavenly Father will bless him and help us to trust in his will. Our family continues to grow closer every day and for that we are very thankful for these experiences.

First Binky!

On Wednesday Drew got to suck on his first binky! He absolutely loves it which is a good indicator that he should be able to eat without too much difficulty when the time comes to remove his feeding tube. The binky looks huge in the picture but it is the smallest little binky we have ever seen, it is so cute! Today we had a care conference which is a meeting with the neonatologist, physical therapist, speech therapist, case manager and a few other specialists. The conference was setup to clarify Drews status and progression. We learned a lot about the long road that lies ahead of Drew. His lungs remain the main area of concern as they have not progressed very much in the past week. The main complication in his lungs is a condition called atelectasis and the treatments they've given have not helped much. While his lungs remain the main area of difficulty he is still able to oxygenate well which is very good and we pray that his little lungs will mature quickly. Next week Drew will have another head ultra sound and we should know the full extent of the intra ventricular hemorrhaging (brain bleed) that drew had two weeks ago. The doctor seemed fairly confident that the hemorrhaging that Drew experienced was minor and will not have a long term affect on his development. Overall aside from his lungs Drew seems to be doing well, he is growing and now weighs one pound eleven ounces! He is so sweet and has received so much support from so many wonderful people. We love our little guy.

New Room

Drew moved into a new room today. He now has a window view so that he can look out and see the world! His old room was placed next to the operating/delivery room where they admit new babies into the intensive care unit. Apparantly they are expecting a high number of preemies to be admitted into the intensive care unit and they need the beds that are closest to the operating/delivery room. Yesterday was a bitter sweet day for us and Drew. We found out the results on the most recent head ultra sound which showed that the bleeding in the left ventricle is gone and the bleeding in the right ventricle is breaking down and subsiding! It was a huge blessing to hear that wonderful news. The bitter part of the day was when Drews lungs took a step back and he required more oxygen from the ventilator in order to oxygenate his body. His chest x-rays showed his lungs getting progressively worse throughout the day. During the night they tweaked the settings on the machine and tried various techniques to better suction out his lungs. Thankfully he is doing better today and we think he is loving his new room with the window. He has a long way to go before he will be able to breathe on his own but we hope that he will progress from this moment forward. Tomorrow we will know about the results from the heart echo which will tell us if the medication (indocin) helped to close the artery near his heart. When that artery closes completely it should help with his circulation and overall oxygenation. We miss him every night when we have to leave the hospital but it is so wonderful to spend time with him and we are so blessed with amazing nurses and doctors who care so much about our sweet son. We love Drew!

Eyes Wide Open!

Well maybe not wide open but Drew is trying so hard to get his precious little eyes open wide enough to see his Mommy and Daddy. We were so excited to be there today when he was awake so that we could look into our little guys eyes. He is still doing well and we are so grateful for these good days. The artery by his heart that should have closed at birth has re-opened which is causing some circulation problems. They started him on the same medication that they gave him earlier called indocin which should help to close that artery quickly. Drew's little lungs still have a lot of fluid in them and they are still very immature but we believe that they are getting better. We have been very blessed to spend a lot of time with him and he is looking better every day. We love our little Drew so so much!

16 Days

A little over two weeks ago Drew joined our family and time has gone by so fast. He has gained five ounces since his birth and now weighs one pound nine ounces! Drew has been very stable for the past five days, and we keep praying that each day he will get better and better. His immature lungs remain one of his main complications. He has a hard time consistently maintaining his oxygen saturation levels where they should be and his little body can't circulate the fluid out of his lungs. We know he is fighting so hard and we pray that his lungs will mature quickly. We had a special moment today when Drew opened his right eye almost all the way! It was incredible to look into his eye as he gazed back at us. It was amazing to watch as he would try harder and harder to open his eyes while Jenn would keep encouraging him. The highlight of every day is when we are at the NICU (Newborn Intensive Care Unit) spending time with our little guy. It is so hard to leave him at night but we are very comfortable with the nurses who take care of him. We have been blessed with wonderful nurses who care for Drew like he was their own and we are very grateful for them. We are very blessed and grateful for his progress, thank you everyone for your prayers.