More updating (Joshua)...

Little Joshua Emmitt has been coming along very well. After losing 5 ounces last week (he got down to 3 lbs 3 oz.), he has bounced back and now weighs a "whopping" 3 lbs. 12 oz. He does still have a heart murmur (most newborns, even preemies, lose the murmur after a few days or up to a week after birth). They did an echocardiogram earlier this week and determined that the lingering murmur doesn't warrant any medication or procedures yet (in fact there is still the possibility it may still fix itself, just later than usual), but they are monitoring his heart and vitals closely. He was also introduced to nursing and bottle feeding this week, but we still have a long way to go.

Johsua has had good and bad days (almost always good days) - good days are when there have been only a few or no events (beeping monitors), successful bottle and/or nursing sessions, weight gain, normal body temperature, lots of poopies, good BR levels and some alertness/activity during the day. Today was sort of a bad day, as he had several events, was very sleepy all day, did not bottle feed or nurse at all, had a low body temp most of the day and may have to go back into his "oven" for a while, and his BR levels were almost too high and he may have to receive some more phototherapy tonight. I would have to say, though, that his bad days still aren't that bad. He is a very healthy preemie... but still a preemie.

The best days for me are when he is awake and alert while I am there to see him. I love to watch him looking around taking in all his surroundings. This video was from a couple of days ago on a "good" day.


They are dressing him now while keeping him out of his incubator to see how well he can maintain his body temperature. He usually does really well and can keep it up all day. And the fatter he gets, the easier it will be. I am loving the outfits especially - they are SO small!

Finally!

After a week, I finally felt well enough and deemed myself healthy enough to hold my son. As soon as he touched my skin, I started to cry feeling such love and emotion, and I was as elated as I could possibly be. I held him for 2 1/2 hours and even introduced him to the idea of nursing (we've got a long way to go), and would have held him even longer had the nurses not needed to put him back in his little box so that they could transport him from the NNICU down a level to the Special Care Nursery. We are happy to have him there, as he is a step closer to the door (literally and figuratively speaking). :)

Brooklyn is also doing as well as can be. She is still being very adaptive, and we hope she continues to be such a sweet and good little girl. Of course, it helps when mommy and daddy bring presents from Joshua home in the form of lollipops and oreo cookies (her very first oreo cookie ever). :)

Just before they handed him to me.


One of the best moments in my life!


We never actually caught it with the camera, but several times, he actually lifted his head as if he was trying to look up at me. It was amazing to see how strong he is already!

This is some video of Joshua with hiccups. We are excited about them because this is probably the loudest sound that comes out of him - he never cries!

Brooklyn eating her very first (of many to come, as we are more proned to spoiling her these days) oreo cookie!! She REALLY liked it - she rarely licks her hands and fingers.

Father/Son Bonding

We have been given the okay to hold Joshua now, even though he still has all kinds of wires, an IV and a feeding tube connected to him. But, since I am still fighting a cough, I am not able to hold him myself. However, Matt is perfectly healthy and thus elligible to hold him, so he did today for the first time. I was very jealous, but happy that Joshua was able to be held and spend some quality time bonding with his Daddy skin to skin. And I think Joshua liked it, too. :) He didn't cry at all (although I must mention that he rarely ever cries). He did get the hiccups at one point, and he grunted a few times in his sleep, but what man doesn't grunt, right? The best part for me was that he had his eyes opened for quite a while and I was able to snap some great pictures of him with his eyes open.


Then it was time to say goodbye and go back into his little oven. He was so content after 2 1/2 hours hangin with his Daddy. :)


This was two days ago when his BR levels were a little high and he got to do some tanning under the lights. Don't you love his tanning goggles???

Our Snowy Day / What we missed

It's Friday around 6 pm on February 12th in the Mayberry household, and Matt and I are running around grabbing things for the hospital as we were far from packed and ready for this baby to come. In the midst of my rather painful contractions, I managed to give Brooklyn as many hugs and kisses as possible thinking I had no idea when I would get to see her again and worried she would be really sad as we walked out in a hurry. And in walks Matt with this enormous bear! It was supposed to be her Valentine gift, but it seemed appropriate to go ahead and give it to her at the time, so as she was happy when we left. And boy was she happy! She absolutely LOVES it!

Then, as we are walking out the door, it starts snowing... which is VERY rare in these parts. So, it was a welcome distraction from the painful contractions on top of contractions, to watch all that beautiful snow fall all around our speeding car as we dashed to the hospital, weaving in and out of traffic, horn honking, hazards on and running red lights. Unfortunately, I was unable to see the final beauty of our snowy wonderland, as I was a little preoccupied in the hospital, but Matt's parents enjoyed it for us and took lots of pictures. It was a little sad that I was not there to experience Brooklyn's first snowy day... but I am very glad she got to have one.

Of course, there had to be a snowman with all that snow. She called it her "funny snowman". I would have to agree with Brooklyn. :) But she was very proud of it. It was still standing when we came home last night and she was so excited to point it out to me in the window.

Can't ask for a better update...

After a quick and natural delivery, I recovered just as fast. I was up walking around within minutes after delivery and was feeling so good the next day that the doctor agreed to ignore their 48 hours after birth discharge rule and let me go home less than 24 hours after little Joshua arrived (she also didn't want to keep me from seeing my son any longer than necessary). So, I am now home... well, more like in between places - Joshua's hospital and home. I am in no pain, but I do feel a little weak and sore (like I just finished a marathon or something), and I am still trying to recover from a pretty bad cough and cold and hope to be well enough to hold Joshua whenever he is ready to be held.

Joshua is doing as well as a preemie ever could. He is so strong and we are so proud of how well he is doing. Since he was only 30 weeks, and there were some complications with the delivery (an abruption), the hospital we delivered at could not give him the total care he needed, so they did transfer him to a hospital that has a NNICU. He has been doing so well in this NNICU that they have already removed all assisted breathing and he is breathing completely on his own, now. He was a little jaundice yesterday and they were planning to treat him with light therapy late today or tomorrow, but his levels today turned out normal. He's even had two poopies (which may explain why his BR levels went down)! He has lost some weight (which is still normal) and he now weighs 3 lbs 5 oz. But, while he is not the biggest preemie there in the NNICU, they say is he definitely the biggest 30 week old preemie they've got. Also, we found out how long he measures in at: 15 inches! We are very proud of him and his accomplishments thus far and are very optimistic for the future.

Here are some pictures of Joshua that I took last night in his new little home. Since these pictures were taken, the breathing apparatus on/in his nose has been removed.

More Pictures

Here are some pictures of Joshua just before they transfered him last night to the NNICU at another hospital. They have since removed his breathing tube.

He's Here!!!

Joshua has arrived...VERY EARLY!!!

He came out crying and weighed in at 3lbs, 8ozs.

After a mad dash to the hospital (arriving just in time to deliver - no drugs!), Mom and Baby are doing good.

Update

As most of you know, I was hospitalized Monday till today for signs of preterm labor (I am 29 1/2 weeks). It started with lots of contractions, which led to a dilating cervix, which caused some bleeding, which is what put me in the hospital. The doctors did a FFN (fetal fibronectin) test, which was positive, a couple of sonograms, which showed funneling, and monitored my contractions (which at one point were 2 minutes apart). The positives are that baby is very healthy and a whopping 3 lbs 14 oz (estimated), he is also VERY active with a strong and stable heartbeat, and was not at all affected by the contractions.

They gave me some medication to help decrease my contractions, which seems to have been effective (so far). They also gave me a series of steroid shots to prepare baby boy for the possiblity of an early delivery (for his lungs). Then they sent me home, and I am now on strict bedrest (yuck!) probably till he is born, which the nurses seemed to think was going to be within the next few weeks, as they were saying, "see ya in a few weeks". I corrected them on my way out saying, "no, we won't be back for at least a couple of months"... they just smiled at me. We are hoping that I can obey the strict bedrest guidelines so that I don't exacerbate the labor symptoms. And, we are happy to have Mom and Dad Mayberry here to help us (okay me) while I am rendered useless, and Brooklyn is even more excited to have them here.

We will try to keep everyone updated if/when anything changes... but in the meantime, we welcome all thoughts and prayers for baby and I to last as long as possible, and thank you for them.