Milestones

Well okay...it's been over a week since my last blog. I find it difficult to blog when all I want to do is sleep when the kids are finally asleep at the same time or do the dishes or catch up on one of my favourite shows. The DVR is almost at capacity and we're gearing up for another week. Oh well...at least you can watch shows online but who knows when I'll get to that either!

Lochlan is doing well. He's getting bigger and is now smiling. He has the cutest little smile. Actually it's a pretty big smile - it fills his entire face. I managed to catch a bit of it in this picture.

He's also started rolling from side to side and is able to move his head from one side to the other.

The problem with blogging week to week is that I forget things that I want to mention. I'll try to remember as best as I can.

Loch had another follow up eye appointment last week and things are healing and looking good. Although they keep mentioning this one thick vessel that they've never seen before. But they aren't concerned, so I shouldn't be either right?

We go back on Thursday and I'm praying that will be the end of opening up his eye with this clamp thing and shining a big light in his eye and poking around in there. It hurts my heart to hear his cries whenever he gets it done. It can't be comfortable. I know it's a necessary evil but still. I think it starts to bother me when there is more than the 2 main doctors looking at him. I'm like...okay....he's good now...okay...you've had your look. I know part of it is so that people can learn and they can confirm as well, but I feel a little bit like, he's been through enough - now it just feels like torture.

Abby loves to help her little brother. Help....yes more like, she wants to do it all herself. This morning when I was typing up this blog (which I had to take about a 3 hour break from doing) I heard, "Mommy, Lochlan pooped!" I said I'd be there in a minute...and then thought better of it. (I can't leave her alone with him but she had been watching a show and I took advantage of the spare moments)

Well, good thing I went in to check. Even though Lochlan was in his playpen, she had his pants off, and his feet up in the air (hiked as far as they would go by the way and he was right up against the side of the playpen) and his one snap undone on his onesie. I scooped him up, much to some protest from Abby who said, "No Mom, I'm doing it."
Um no...

I compromised and had her help me by putting him down on the floor on a change pad and she undid his diaper and even wiped his bum and then did up his new diaper. She actually did a really good job. But man...if he wasn't so fragile, I could practically leave her to babysit. (JOKING)

She helps out all the time and it a wonderful little helper. Helping with his bath, his diapers, etc. But I have also caught her doing some "oh no things" like the story above. Trying to pick him up, burp him, yanking on his oxygen tube...that sort of thing. And then there was the time earlier this week where she tripped and almost kicked him in the head. (at least I think she tripped) I was like, oh be careful honey...or something like that....well wouldn't the lil monkey try to kick him in the head again. Thankfully I caught her just in time and was able to move Lochlan out of harms way. That was definitely a "naughty step" moment.

Overall though, she has been wonderful and really loves her little brother. I can't wait for him to get stronger and bigger so they can play together. Even just to interact a little more. She loves it when he smiles at her. It's super sweet.

The other day Lochlan and Abby both decided to have a poop at the same time. I told Abby this and she said "We're pooping together - as a team!" Here's the pic to go with that story. I had to grab my camera to capture the moment before I was going to change both their bums. She wanted to lay down beside Loch.


I could go on and on about all the cute stories between the two of them. And I'm so thankful they will continue for years to come.



Here are a few pics from when Abby and I went apple picking.





Too cute not to share!

Hallelujah!

Lochlan's follow-up for his eyes on Monday went well. Both Dr. Gayle and Dr. Arthur were VERY pleased with his eyes. The surgery was a success! We have to go back this coming Monday to make sure the rest of it has healed. [insert sigh of relief here] We did end up waiting a very long time before he was seen however. Which was a bit frustrating, but surprisingly enough, I had a lot of patience that day! It took over an hour before we were even seen to have his eye drops put in, then still had to wait an additional hour for them to dilate his eyes and for the doctors to be ready for us. Needless to say it was a long wait, but so worth the wait for such good news! Medigas came yesterday. (Wednesday) Lochlan remains at 1/16th of oxygen per litre. He was sat'ing on average 93%. If he gets to 97%+ then he will be tried with either a lower setting (only 2 more to go!) or off to see how he does. Melissa is coming again in a month! I know! One more month! But...if Dr. Flavin says to come back in 2 weeks she will to see how's he's progressing. I REALLY hope she comes back in 2 weeks and he's ready for a trial off of the oxgyen. That would be so fantastic! Don't want to get my hopes up....but you never know with this little miracle! Speaking of off of oxgyen...whoopsie...mommy was over tired on Monday night and I went to take him upstairs and realized the regulator was still on the one tank and wanted it to be on a bigger one that's in his room...well I transferred his tubing to the smaller tank, realized I wanted to do something different, and then transferred him back to the main tank in the living room. (all of which took about 30 seconds) Well....I forgot to put the oxygen back on! Seriously, Jenn? I had no idea until about oh...a half an hour...45 minutes later. Lochlan was alert and looking at me and smiling (which he's starting doing the past week or so) and was showing no signs that anything was different. Then I thought, oh I'll transfer him now...(after I'd did what I needed to do-- I had been side tracked too with a phone call) and then I realized my error. Are you kidding me? I was shocked and annoyed with myself! How could I have done that? Thankfully Loch was okay. Didn't change colour, didn't breathe or act any different. Today was his paedatrician's appointment. He now weighs...ready for it? 7lbs and 4 oz!!!!And is 50.5 cm long (almost 20 inches...i think it's like 19 3/4 inches) His head circumference is 36.5cm. He's growing! He's growing! But....he's still on the low end of the growth chart for very low birth weight children. (5th percentile for weight ..a little higher for height) AND...another happy note...his head ultrasound from last Friday is NORMAL!!!! No brain bleeds...everything looks great! I AM SOOOO HAPPY!!!! I immediately said.."praise the Lord!" So they've increased his iron but other than that we go back in a month! I can't thank you enough for your thoughts and prayers. He truly is a miracle. Sorry the video is so dark.

Sigh of relief: post eye surgery

I'm so relieved to tell you that Lochlan's surgery went well. Dr. Gale said he sailed through it. So proud.

We got the call just after 11am that the OR was booked for after 4pm that day but that he was on standby basically. The Pedatrics team told me to bring Lochlan in around 3:30pm and to not feed him after 12noon. I had my concerns because I know how these things can go...especially if he wasn't booked in for surgery just on call.
I didn't want my monkey to not be able to eat for that long. He usually eats between 2 and 3 hours in the afternoon. But he had to have an empty stomach for 4 hours prior to surgery.

We waited. And we waited. He finally got some sugar water between 5 and 6pm after he got his IV in. His nurse was going to put it in his head but I asked if that really was a good idea if he was getting eye surgery -- maneuvering his head etc...so they agreed and decided to try his foot. Didn't go so well. Tried his other foot...that didn't work either. So they went for his his again. He has an incredible vein his head that just screams to have an IV in it! I can understand why she wanted to use it in the first place.

IV was in place. All that was left to do was wait. Lochlan was amazing as usual. He handled not having any food incredibly well. I was expecting him to just lose it at some point, but other than a few small bouts of crying, he was really good.

He went in for surgery around 7pm...7 hours after having breastmilk. Poor lil monkey.
The anesthesiologist was amazing and so very nice. Rob and I waited in the OR waiting room and just before 9pm Dr. Gale came out and said how well the procedure went. He ended up not doing laser. I can't remember what the procedure was called but it's what they used to do all the time. I guess the laser wasn't working or something. Anyway, the good thing is it's done and over with and we can breathe a big sigh of relief. They didn't have to tube him as they say. (intubate --- where they put a tube down his throat to help him breathe while he's under) Another big sigh there.

He will go back on Monday to have his eye rechecked to make sure everything is good and regressing as it should now. Please pray for that! If not, they can do another surgery where they inject a medicine in the eye. How fun does that sound!?

Loch was moved back up to peds in the PCCU for close monitoring. Lucky for us, Christine from the NICU was his nurse! I really liked her from before when she had been his nurse.

Shortly after we got up there, I nursed him. He was slightly awake and so he fed around 10pm. He was a starvin marvin. But he was also beat muskeet so he didn't go very long. Then he nursed again at midnight and then slept until 4am!! Only because Christine had to wake us both up since he was going past 4 hours. So needless to say, he had a great night.

I forgot to mention that Lochlan's eye looked like he'd been in a bar fight. And it wasn't helping that he was mainly turned towards that eye because the IV was on the opposite side of his head. So that was puffing it up even more.

Still cute as ever though.

Just after 8am, we were moved to a regular room on the pedatrics floor. It was basically a sit and wait to be discharged based on his O2 requirements. They wanted to release him on the same settings he came in on. (1/16th of a litre) During sugery and for a few hours after because of the deeper sedation, he was on 1 litre of oxygen. I was a bit nervous it would take a while to get there.

Finally between 4pm and 5pm, he was back to his baseline of 1/16th. He remained sat'ing well and we were able to be discharged!

We made a pitstop at the NICU for a quick visit since we hadn't said our goodbyes and thankyous when Lochlan was officially discharged from the hospital to come home on August 16th. We were able to visit with 3 of his nurses: Mary Anne, Cathy, and Lois. I plan on bringing him back in a week or so to see a couple of the other nurses I really liked.

So that's where things are at. He needs to have eye ointment put on his eye twice a day and as mentioned before, he'll go back on Monday for a follow up appointment.

Tomorrow, he had his head ultrasound to check for development and any bleeds. I'm praying everything will be normal. The last time he'd had his head ultrasound was after his last eye surgery. It was normal then. So I hope nothing has changed. I say normal but they said they didn't comment on anything so I hope that means it was normal. That the blood had reabsorbed.

Oh, I forgot to mention. Lochlan was weighed on Tuesday afternoon. He's 6 pounds and 12 ounces!! He gained almost 2 pounds since coming home almost a month ago! He's 19 inches long too. Grow baby grow!

Here are a bunch of pics from the last few weeks. Enjoy! And thank you for your continued support and prayers.

*hugs*

Jenn

















Post op.