4 weeks

ok...i have decided to schedule in blogging time to make sure i get this updated. i am going to make sure i update at least every tuesday. if something is going on during the week i will update more...but expect an update every tuesday. Tuesdays are the days lane turns a week older, so from now on tuesdays are the day. it is hard to believe that lane will be four weeks old tomorrow. yesterday was his actual due date and i have had him almost a whole month already! he is doing so good. he has started smiling a lot the last couple days. it is the sweetest thing to see. he has also been more awake the last two days. please send a little prayer up that the shunt is still working. his head size was bigger today so his nurse is coming back wednesday to remeasure. i am so hoping all is well and he wont have to have another surgery. i dont know how i could bear to send him back to the operating room. he is growing a lot, weighing in at 6lb 11oz today. Lane is still moving his legs really good!! I'm praying they continue to move. We are suppose to start physical therapy this week. I have my serious doubts that our little guy has feeling in his feet :(  Lane went to the neurosurgeon on Wednesday and got his stitches taken out of his back. She was very pleased with the way things were healing. He is now laying on his back and in a regular car seat. We go back in two weeks and then we should be done with the checkups with her for awhile. Well thats all for now so im gonna put up a few pics....sorry the week has been so boring but its a good thing for us.

wide awake in his swing

swingin

lane and mommy

lane

lane in his first pair of pants

sleeping like his momma my little angel

3 weeks old!

So we did make it home last wednesday as many of you have probably figured out by the fact that my postings quit. Being home is so nice. I had missed this place so much. Two months of no grass, trees, or open spaces left me very appreciative to the place I call home. I have very much enjoyed driving around in the country. Yesterday my grandma watched Lane and I took the backroads home so I could enjoy the wide open fields and beautiful country. We tend to forget what a beautiful place we live in. Now...on to Lane which is what you all really want to hear about. :) He is doing good and growing leaps and bounds already. It is so hard to believe that our little man is already three weeks old. It seems like it was just yesterday I was sitting in the hospital waiting for his arrival! He weighed in at a whopping six pounds even today. We met his home health nurse who was very nice. Tomorrow we are headed back to Indy to see the neurosurgeon and with any luck get the stitches out of his back so he can lay on his back and be in a normal car seat. The feeding tube is going well and everyone is getting comfortable with feeding him. Lane sure does love to pee and poop everywhere when he gets his diaper changed. lol Roger went back to work yesterday so Lane and I are trying to get our own routine together. He is getting way spoiled. He loves to be held and knows that a little cry will get him picked up right quick. Lane is showing us already he is going to be quick to learn manipulation. He will be sleeping in his bed quite content until I walk in the room and say something then he starts fussing. He is so gonna be a momma's boy! The shunt seems to be working well and his back has healed great. Every day we get closer to his due date he does more baby stuff. He has started smiling and grabbing fingers( and his feeding tube) which is so cute to see. I an really gonna love to watch him grow and do things that the doctors told us he would probably never do. It's amazing how much my love for him grows each day. Well I will attempt to do better on posting. Here are a few pictures of our miracle baby....God Bless.

his hat is always falling off..

two weeks old

at home with daddy

wide awake...lol

peeking at mommy

snoozing in his bobby

hoping to come home tomorrow!

so we did not make it home today, but it is looking hopeful for tomorrow. lane is doing good. the test they did on his lungs today looked good. they decided he did not need oxygen. apparently because he is so small his airway gets blocked by his tongue and occasionally "collapses" but it is instantaneous as his oxygen levels never drop and he has no problems taking breaths. he still is at five four so weight gain is going slow. his temp is not staying up very well so we are bundling him up really good. he is on a high calorie formula mixture so hopefully he will chunk up soon. Even though we are going to be coming home it sounds like we are gonna be at the doctors office several times a week at first. this is fine with me. we need to figure out some way to transport him so i dont have to carry him around the stores and stuff. he cannot lay on his back which makes a normal car seat impossible. i guess i will just have to have help if i go anywhere. :) he should be in a normal car seat in two more weeks. his back is looking really good and the shunt is working well. his neurosurgeons are very pleased with the way he is doing. we are still waiting on the final genetic tests so please keep praying that comes back ok. well im headed to bed for my last night of sleep....here are some new pics...hope so see you all very soon! well pictures are not loading i will try again in the morning

grrr.......

well its not looking good for us arriving home today. lane didnt quite pass his sleep study so now we have a whole slew of new doctors coming in to check his lungs and stuff out. so we are still hoping for today but reluctantly planning on tomorrow. i was pretty upset, but it is best to make sure he is ok before we go i suppose. the good news of the day WE DON'T HAVE TO CATH ANYMORE. Little Lane has started peeing in his diaper. This is really good news. So hopefully we will just be taking home the ng feeding tube and discontinuing it soon too. We may have to go home on oxygen. We are praying that is not the case, but time will tell and hopefully we know that this afternoon. The nurse just told us lane has to have a test where they put a scope down his throut to look at his lungs and make sure they look good. Poor little guy, I'm so ready to get him home where he won't have to deal with all this crap. Well hope to see you all back home soon....

.....

so today is the final tests before we get to go home. we are hoping to head home today but it will most likely be tomorrow. lane just got out of his sleep study and the results of that are not back yet. i am waiting for his dad to come out so i can go see him. im feeling pretty stressed today trying to get everything done and make sure i have all the information i need. the car seat study is at one so hopefully that goes well. i will update this post with the results later this afternoon.

11 days old today!!

I cannot believe that Lane is eleven days old today. Time is flying by way to fast. Not a lot of new stuff going on today. We weighed him earlier and he is down to five pounds four ounces now. I wish you all could see him. He is the most precious little angel you have ever seen. He sleeps with his hands in a praying position right by his face...it is so cute! At two I am suppose to insert his ng tube for the first time. We have to learn that before we are released. We are getting so close to coming home. Only a few more things and we are ready to roll. It is looking like Tuesday or Wednesday. I cannot wait to show him off to all of you. :) We are still waiting for the last genetic test so please continue to pray for that. I also ask that you all send up a prayer that his sleep study goes well on Monday so he doesn't come home on an apnea monitor. I know your prayers work and appreciate so much all the ones you all have already said. You should see the carseat Lane is coming home in. It is called an angel rider and is made so he can lay on his side in the car. It is so neat. I am a little nervous about bringing him home. It is not going to be like having a healthy baby at home. We still have to cath every three hours and do his ng tube. We also will most likely be waking him up to eat instead of the other way around. It's amazing but his prematurity has had some effects on him. Being only four weeks early I had not expected any effects. The prematurity could be causing the swallowing issue with bottle feeding and he has to be snuggled or his body temperature drops. It also is the cause of him sleeping through his feeding. I think that is all I have at the moment but i will let you all know how the ng tube goes this afternoon. Thanks for all your prayers. God Bless you all!

pictures!!

Good day today. Lane got circumsiced which he did not appreciate. Roger and i had to take a class about infant cpr and learn how to use an apnea monitor. Overall it was a great day even though we were shut out of our module for several hours. Things are still moving towards coming home. We are so ready. I will be so glad to not have to leave my baby at the hospital. Here are the pics i promised. I cannot believe that our little guy is ten days old now.

10 Days old

10 days old

9 Days old in his first outfit ever!!

8 days old his hat is falling off

look at that red hair!!!

cutest baby ever!!!

good news

Today was a good day. Lane got to wear his first outfit and I will put that picture on as soon as i get back to my computer. He looks to cute and soooo little dressed. His IV came out today which is good, just one less cord attatched to him. He had a kidney test and that turned out really well. The bottle feeding didn't take...he just kept spitting it out. We have to work on that some more. The highlight of our day was finding out they are gonna let us go home next week. We have a few more tests and Roger and I have  to learn a few more things and they are sending us home early in the week. We have to go home with the ng feeding tube. I'm so excited. Well I will add the pics when I get back to the RM house.

more care

today was a pretty uneventful day. We are still waiting on one genetics test so please keep praying all will turn out well...though things are looking better everyday. Lane finally got back on full feeds this afternoon...he wasn't taking all of them since his surgery. Tomorrow we are gonna start working on the bottle, but the doctors warned me that he will most likely have problems with aspiration. They are also gonna start kangaroo care tomorrow. it is where i will hold him with skin to skin contact. this is to help my milk come in as i am going to try to breast feed. They are also gonna work on non-nutritive sucking. I had never heard of this but it teaches him to go to breast without feeding fully while trying to work out his sucking problems. Its amazing the things they do around here. Roger and I started doing Lanes catheter's today. I started the morning by doing it and it was so much easier than i had anticipated. Roger did his afternoon cath and did quite well. I hate that he has to be cathed every three hours but hopefully by the time we go home he wont need it or at least not as much. Well it is late and i need sleep. I will try to do better tomorrow on a more thorough update! :)

moving forward

Things are going good today. Lane had his surgery and that went well. He was still groggy tonight but he has had such a long day he needs his rest. Rogers dad is staying at the hospital which puts my mind at ease so hopefully i will sleep. My body is nearing exhaustion and i know i will not heal and get better without rest, but its so hard to be away from him. This week we start working on all the little things that are keeping him from going home . Tomorrow we start learning to cath him and he is suppose to start trying to bottle feed. I hate that he has to be cathed right now but only time will tell if that is going to be permanent. We are praying it is not. I handle the cathing better than roger, but he will do fine...he is great with him in every way.  We also will be working on keeping his temperature so he can move from a warmer to a crib. There are some other things but from what i hear roger and i will be doing his complete care while we are there very soon. it is very late and i must sleep so i am going to add some photos and head to bed. i will be posting tomorrow.

sleeping

with mommy

peeking..isnt he cute

looks big for a five pound baby

he loves his binky

during bath he looks scared but his eyes r open