One Step Forward, One Step Back

Colby is still doing awesome except he went back to his good ole days of throwing up his feeds. This seems to happen when they attempt to feed him 55 CCs of formula every 3 hours. They're going back to 36 CCs every 2 hours, where he seems to tolerate them more. They're also going to try to make a decision on his final chest tube hopefully after tonight's shift, dependent on the output.

Interesting note, Colby threw up during American Idol's cast off show, I like to think it was his absolute disgust in the fact that Matt got booted or is his personal commentary on the sad state of our current entertainment options. Either way, Colby has spoken(barfed, actually)!

Jess stayed the night here last night and will again tonight, lets wish her luck that the alarm sounding meds pump that acts up every night keeping her awake is going to behave itself tonight. I went back to work today, it was nice to get back to some normalcy.

Cruising along!

Hey all, Colby is still crusing along, he's actually taken down his last feed without it coming back up. He's currently taking down his next feed and no signs of it coming back up yet, so we're keeping our fingers crossed. He is somewhat out of it as they gave him some medicine to...remove one of his chest tubes! Yup, he's one more tube down. One to go. The last shift his last remaining tube's output was 20 CCs so they'd like to see 5 CCs in one shift before removing it. So we're rooting for that. Some of the "normal" baby stuff is beginning to be metioned to us, hearing screening, circumcision, etc. So that's a relief too. We just found out Colby will need to be on the special formula he's currently taking for about 6 weeks. Its looking more and more like we may need to have him on the dreaded tube feed for a few weeks once he's home. I think we're gonna attempt to get him trying some bottle feeds here really soon, to see if he can take it.

I'll be heading back to work tomorrow as my time off is up. I took an extra day for today and will be back on the scene, tomorrow. It'll be nice to get back to work, some normal-ness, as opposed to all the craziness of the past couple weeks. Jess will be staying here at the hospital and I'll come over in the evening after work. Hopefully we won't have to deal with this situation too much longer. Once Colby comes home from the hospital I'll try to work something out so I can be home for a few more days to help out. Work has been so understanding with everything, I can't thank them enough.

Flew the Coop

Coop has been, well, cooped up alot lately, the poor little guy has been shuttled back and forth between grandparents and has done very well all things considered. They have this great playground on the roof of Motts and we took Coop up there the other day here are a few photos.

Colby Drew

Pics of our little man from last night.

ICU...C...U..Later

Colby loving life in his baby hospital gown! Hey look ma, no tubes! Except for the feeding one! :)

Colby sleeping before they removed his oxygen tube.

Colby's new bed space


The small room, you can see our neighbor's space too. We had to call the cops on them twice, once for a loud party and the other time because they wouldn't stay off our lawn.

Our space, you can see the couch we sleep on in the lower left.

That's right , we said C U Later to the ICU. Like I said before it was bitter sweet in numerous ways. Obvioulsy its great for Colby, its a big step. But its also nerve racking for the families. The care situation is night and day from the ICU. We haven't spent the night here since the Tuesday after surgery. But I stayed here last night, Jess will be staying here the rest of the week. You pretty much have to as you feel like the first line of defense if anything were to go wrong. The nurse has only two hands and can only be in one place at a time, so if Colby throws up, which he has been doing often, then we need to be there to help him and let the nurse know we need help. General care really, really gets you back to reality and prepares you for the road to going back home. I think any parent can attest to the fact that bringing a newborn home is scary enough, now adding this to the mix makes for even a more interesting transition. We're still about a week, give or take a day or two, from bringing the Big Cheese home. I'm terrified, you have all these issues to watch out for normally, and now we have a few more to throw in the mix. But hey it is what it is and we'll figure it out and in no time Colby should be crawling around like nothing ever happened.

The other strange feeling leaving the ICU was moving forward in this process while leaving some of the other families behind that we've forged a small bond with. Although they are just 500 ft away, it does seem like miles. I will say though that there is not a sense of guilt. Like I said in a previous post, there are congrats and well wishes from those same families and we just pray that they'll be joining us here soon. It is wild though, most of the people down here we know, so alot of us are still together. That is comforting in itself.

Colby is doing great, as Dr. Hirsch said this morning, heartwise, he's fabulous. His main issue is keeping his feeds down. He's throwing up after every feed, but the nurse practioner thinks it's because he still has some build up in his lungs from intubation. So the nurses are working to loosen that up and get it out of him and it'll be a process, but hopefully one that ends soon. He still has two small chest tubes and one may be out tomorrow. So he's getting more and more fiesty, crying and showing us he's bummed out, all good signs he wants outta here.

Our room is tiny and we share it with another family who's son just had his final surgery to repair his heart. Its definitely more private in here then in the ICU, but it's a give and take both ways, like I said before, it's bitter sweet.

The Waiting Game

Hey all! Well we're currently playing the waiting game. Colby is still doing awesome. He is wowing the nurses and doctors with how quickly he is coming around. He currently is doing so well he has his orders to go to the floor, the general care floor! :) Whohoo! But there are no available beds right now. So he remains in the ICU. His only issues right now are he still is draining chylous and he's also not enjoying the formula they have to give to him because of the chylous, so he's been spitting up some. We think his stomach may be a bit upset too. He has these spurts where he cries and its so sad. Its this muted little cry and although it breaks your heart to hear it, its also a great sign that he's on his way to recovery. They tried to have him start taking feeds out of a bottle, he took down about 5 CCs but he fussed alot and doesn't seem ready for that step up just yet. He does suck on a pacifier like crazy so he's got to be on his way.

Jess and I heard talking in the ICU last night of a heart transplant happening. Our nurse told us they were going to be doing a surgery late last night and we are assuming it was a transplant. We believe the child is across the hall from us as there is a huge machine in the room that we've never seen anywhere in the ICU since we've been here. This place is just amazing as to what goes on here. There are some big time miracles going on here on a daily basis.

We had a nice little distraction today, we popped on the NFL draft and watched a bit of that as our beloved Lions take another stab at a banner year, at least it can't get any worse than last year, or can it?!

I can't believe I left you all hanging about the Oreo Dream Bars, Earth Day style. They were fantastic and looked just like a big chunk of dirt. The perfect earth day treat, who knew dirt could taste so good.

Hopefully tomorow I'll have some new pics for you and be able to tell you all about our big move!!

Blog to ya later!

Colby's Rockin Out!

Hey everyone, Colby is rockin and rollin! He's doing really well. Thursday night he had to get another small chest tube to help remove more fluid from around his lungs. He's about to be taken off oxygen and were getting closer to moving to general care. He did have one little setback with his feedings. He began draining chylous which is a milky substance full of fats. He now has to be taken off milk and put on a special formula. He will be on this until he stops the chylous. It was a late night again so I promise to post more tomorrow Jess and I plan to go to rounds tomorrow morn.
Scott and Jess