Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Mommy and Auggie's "day" together

Tim went into work today to get some paper work done... It's not really a full day together, more like 3-4 hours. :) Auggie was up for a little bit so I was able to take some pictures of him. Can't believe he'll be 3 weeks old tomorrow (and a MONTH next week!).
Our future Lumberjack! 
Auggie had his 2 week appointment with his pediatrician Monday morning. He is up to 8 lbs. 2 oz. and 21 inches long. She'll be able to get all of our referrals for his Austin doctors. Good! I had my 2 week check up- nothing special there.. It took us 45 minutes of waiting to see my doctor for 10 minutes and more than half of it was spent talking about Auggie and boobs (and not mine, trust me). lol! Alll Tim's fault on that one!

My doctor was talking about how he looked up pictures of the syndrome Auggie has and how all the pictures looked a lot worse than Auggie's features. Well Tim chimed in about how even if you Google "Boobs" its going to come up with the worst possible pictures- like Size F's. Then my doctor went on talking about how if you search for "boobies" on Amazon, it'll come up with books on birds (you know, the blue footed boobie??)... Nice to know my doctor is THAT kind of guy, right? And then the conversation turned to me.. for 2 minutes and then we said bye! I go back in 4 weeks. WOO HOO... (btw, I still love my doctor)

I think Auggie has officially gotten his nights and days mixed up. He was up from 3 to about 8:30 this morning. He was not a happy camper, either. We couldn't figure out what was wrong until I picked him up- He LOVES being picked up. *shrugs* We'll see how tonight goes.


Saturday, November 27, 2010

Home At Last

Auggie was discharged from Dell Children's Hospital Wednesday evening. It was such a nice surprise. Dr. Kelley, the craniofacial surgeon, told us the sleep study came back saying Auggie had mild sleep apnea but any typical newborn can have it, too. His recommendation was that we go home since we were in the NICU for two weeks and nothing happened. Within a few hours, Auggie had his car seat test done, we were checked out of the Ronald McDonald House and on our way home!

Our first couple days at home have been good. Auggie has kept up with his feeding and sleeping schedule... That is, until today. He's been snacking in between meals "/ We'll need to put a stop to that especially since Tim will be going to work in a couple weeks. He had been sleeping great and then the snacking started. We'll see how this turns out.

This coming week will be the start of all our doctor appointments. We meet with Auggie's pediatrician and then I go in for my 2 week appointment on Monday. Later in the week, we start Auggie's weekly appointments in Austin. Weekly appointments- kind if not looking forward to spending all that time in the car.. I'm hoping Auggie enjoys the car seat!! We'll be meeting with Dr. Kelley each week to keep an eye on Auggie's jaw and cheekbone growth. I think this week we'll be going over his CT Scan so we'll know more information about that. Tim is really looking forward to seeing it. 

Tim & I put the Christmas tree up this evening. It looks great even without any ornaments! lol. I thought I had my ornaments at the house but I can't find them- and there aren't too many places they could be hiding. They might be in La Porte or Giddings. The tree is 7 feet tall and has 3 strands of lights. Can't wait to put those ornaments up, though!

Last night I took a 4.5 hour nap and while I was asleep, Tim and Sherwin moved out our upright freezer. The dining room looks so much better now that its gone! They also put up lights outside on our half of the duplex :) Now I need to redo our wreath and we'll be decorated for Christmas.

And now for the disappointing part of the holidays- we'll be spending our first Christmas as a family at home (most likely). The doctors told us to stay put as much as possible because of the risk of getting Auggie sick. We're supposed to limit visitors, especially kids. You all know how many kiddos there are in both of our families. Since Auggie has a restricted airway to begin with, getting RSV or even a cold will lead us to the hospital and most likely back at Dell Children's. If you want to come visit, you're more than welcome to, just make sure you have no sign of the flu or a cold.


and now its picture time!
Keeping his head warm
November 18, 2010

Auggie's Birth Day
11-10-10
Born: 11:22 pm
Picture Taken: 12:08 am
Mommy & August
Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Just Thinking
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Taking a break from being in Auggie's room after lunch
November 15, 2010
Trying to keep things light during lunch
November 15, 2010
We finally had some clothes for Auggie!
November 20, 2010 
Auggie's 1st Time in the Car
November 24, 2010
Happy Thanksgiving!
November 25, 2010
Auggie's 1st Day Home!
November 25, 2010


Hope everyone enjoyed their holiday! We sure did!!
Starting next week, I'll be posting Tuesdays & Thursdays so we can finally get into a routine!



Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Day 13- An Update from the NICU

I can't believe it has been almost 2 months since I posted! That tells you how much has happened since the last one... well, our lives were really boring up until 2 weeks ago!

2 weeks ago, I went to my last doctor's appointment. Somehow, my blood pressure was high (well, higher than it usually was). Turns out if you have high(er than usual) blood pressure for the last 3 appointments, it means you have "gestational hypertension." I was deadset on going to my doctor and telling him I didn't want to be induced if I showed no signs of trouble... "High" blood pressure changed my mind. My doctor scheduled me for induction at 5 a.m. Wednesday, November 10.

Of course, I cried- basically the whole 5 minutes back to the house. I was just scared/nervous because Auggie hadn't dropped and there were no signs that he was going to soon and I wasn't ready for a ridiculously long labor. My mom was waiting for us when we got back to the house- she had planned on coming. Good thing, huh? She helped us get Auggie's room a little bit more organized and did some things around the house.

Tuesday night was one of the best sleeps I had while I was pregnant. How does that happen when it was only like 3 or 4 hours?? Tim & I got to the hospital around 5 a.m. I was admitted and induced by 5:58 a.m. I thought it would take a little bit longer to get things going- I definitely thought wrong. The nurses started my pitocin drip really low and by 7:45 a.m., they had tripled it since things hadn't progressed. My contractions were still really mild. My nurse was really surprised. I wasn't trying to "save face" or anything- I just thought I'd been in more pain before. They ended up breaking my water around 1:45 p.m. That helped things along just a little bit and around 3:15 p.m. I wanted an epidural. I still didn't think my contractions were unbearable, I just didn't want to get to the point where I was overly uncomfortable. As soon as the anesthesiologist walked into the room, I started sweating. I was really nervous about getting the epidural, you know, with all the side effects and the main thing- the needle! I made sure I didn't see the needle and I even told the anesthesiologist to not count to 3. TThe epidural was fine. I had a couple side effects- itching and shaking- but I was glad I got it.

The epidural was neat. It worked immediately and I was able to "self medicate" as I needed. I think I only used it 3 times. The nurses made me turn on my sides and back several times to try to get Auggie to drop. He really didn't want to go anywhere! Eventually they got Auggie to move further down. Around 9:30 p.m. I was given oxygen so Auggie would have enough for the duration of labor and the pitocin was stopped (didn't know it was stopped until I just read Tim's notes lol).

Around 11 p.m. my doctor came in to get me ready for Auggie. It all seems like a blur in my mind and I guess I'm right because I only pushed for 7 minutes! I pushed for a total of 9 times, 10 seconds each and Auggie was out and on my chest! He was adorable (and still is!)!

August Robert
November 10
11:22 p.m.
7 lbs. 3 oz.
19.5 inches long

[[and guess what- my blood pressure was (more than) perfect the WHOLE time!!]]

I don't really remember much between the time he was born to the next morning. I was tired from 18 hours of "labor" and so so hungry since I hadn't eaten in over 24 hours! I do remember though, the look of the nurses' faces when they were checking his vitals, etc. They kept looking from Auggie to the doctors and then back again... and didn't have to most reassuring faces. As I noticed when they laid him on my chest, they also noticed that his ears were deformed. His ears and, as we found out later, jaw were the signs that something just wasn't right. By the next morning, we had a visit from Auggie's neonatologist who had an answer to why Auggie's ears and jaw weren't developed correctly. Eventually she contacted a few specialists in Austin to see what should be done and by Friday it was recommended he be transferred to Dell Children's Hospital. Auggie had his first ambulance ride that night. Tim & I followed the ambulance to Austin and we have been here since.

Since Auggie has been in the NICU at Dell Children's, he has:
  1. Been treated for jaundice. He was under UV lights for a little over 24 hours.
  2. Had 2 sleep tests done (one that lasted 24 hours and one that lasted 12 hours). The first one produced questionable results so they wanted to try a newer one that hadn't been tested on newborns much.
  3. Had an endoscope procedure done where the craniofacial surgeon and pediatric ears, nose and throat (ENT) specialist looked at his airways. They saw that his airways were almost blocked off because of his tongue.
  4. Because of the results of the endoscope, Auggie had his first CT scan. The CT scan showed that he had "challenging anatomy" (according to the craniofacial specialist) but Auggie is a candidate for a jaw distraction. The jaw distraction would lengthen his jaw and allow his tongue to rest properly.
  5. Had an eye examination by an ophthalmologist. She said his eyes look good so we don't have to worry about eye problems other than needing glasses... and that's a given since Tim & I have poor eyesight.
  6. Had blood drawn for a genetics test to determine what Auggie should be diagnosed with. Depending on the results, Tim & I might have to get tested further down the road.
  7. Had 2 hearing tests (and also 2 done at the Med in College Station). He failed both times here at Dell but his left ear did respond some to the test. According to the pediatric ENT specialist, Auggie most likely cannot hear right now. We'll have to see an audiologist to be sure what we do next but the ENT specialist is sure he'll need bone conducting hearing aids to be able to hear. He'll have to be fitted with special hearing aids since his ears aren't fully developed. It'll most likely happen in the next year so there are no complications with his speech.
  8. And most importantly, Auggie has been baptized. With the information we received from his endoscope, we weren't sure if Auggie would be home before he had any surgeries so we decided to call Pastor Walloch. He was able come that afternoon and performed Auggie's baptism in his room.

Clinically, Auggie is doing great! He's eating 2-3 ounces at a feeding, depending on if he's been poked and prodded too much. His breathing has been good. He's been going through enough diapers and even using Tim & I as targets! He's not interested in breastfeeding, which is disappointing, but I'm still going to try. There have been SO many things in the way. I have been pumping since the 13th and the lactation consultants were bragging about the production since Auggie was only 3 days old. Tim has even been (sort of) bragging about it... I have found it odd to announce it too much. lol

Our nurses have been awesome (with one exception). We've had some multiple times and others just once. With the exception, we kind of learned to do things on our own so now we're pretty self-sufficient. Our nurse today keeps coming in and asking what we need and said she feels bad for not doing more. *shrugs* We have to learn to be on our own sometime- might as well do it when we have supervision!

Tim & I are doing alright. We're trying to focus on the things we know and trying not to focus on too far in the future. We do know that we are so grateful for all the well wishes and prayers. It has been comforting knowing we have all your support.

We'll try to update regularly.

and now AUGUST!!