The Phillips Family

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Update

Nathan did the car seat challenge yesterday. They put him in his car seat and make sure that he can maintain his oxygen saturation for an hour. Nathan passed! He also passed his hearing screen on Sunday.

Nathan in his car seat.

He got kind of fussy about half way through.

Kaylene, Analisa and Nathan

Becca and Nathan

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

More Random Pictures

Nathan sleeping the morning after being extubated

Steph feeding Nathan via his feeding tube

Lin bottle feeding Nathan (His first time!)

Steph bottle feeding Nathan

The boys sleeping

They removed all the developmental aids from Nathan's bed
in preparation for him going home.

Kyle holding Jacen

Nathan's new "normal" room

Nathan and Karyn

Nathan and Keri

Photo Shoot #2

Our friend Jonathan was kind enough to come up to NICU and take some pictures of the boys the day after Nathan was extubated. And yes, there are more pictures of Stephanie with the boys than of me. Trust me, you all prefer it that way.

Nathan and Jacen with Lin

Nathan did very well. He was awake and alert through the entire thing. Jacen was another story. He slept through most of it and when he was awake this was his general reaction.

Finally, Jacen had enough and decided to punch Nathan. That's when we decided it might be best to separate them again.

Long Weekend

It was a rather long weekend for Nathan. Friday and Saturday were both very good days. He continued to take 50cc or more each feeding. On Saturday they closed one of the areas in NICU because there weren't enough babies to justify keeping it open. Because of this, they needed Nathan's room for another baby who needed a more isolated room. Since Nathan didn't anymore, he was moved out into the regular area. He seemed to like it. He spent time that day and night looking around and watching what was going on. Dr. Sutter was on call this weekend and she said that with the progress he was making it was likely we would be going home the first part of the week.

Sunday was a harder day. He had several noticeable seizures during the day. I went back up there that evening for his 9pm feeding and he had 3 pretty substantial seizures while I was trying to feed him. In some ways, the seizures are harder for me since he's come off the vent because I can now hear him cry out in pain and fear. I got little sleep that night and called up to check on him several times.

By Monday morning he was absolutely worn out. He was still having seizures but he was so tired he wasn't eating much either. I talked with Dr. C that morning and he said that since his feedings were down, he'd lost weight the last couple of days and the seizures weren't under control we were probably looking at another week or two before we could take Nathan home. Dr. Brown, Nathan's neurologist, came by late afternoon and increased his phenobarbital dosage.

This has actually helped. Nathan's feeding were back up through the night and the seizure activity has decreased to almost nothing again. Dr. C told us this morning that assuming Nathan continues how he is today we will be rooming in on Friday and taking Nathan home on Saturday.

Please pray that Nathan continues to improve and please pray for Steph and I that we can survive the continual ups and downs of this journey.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

What a day!

Nathan has had an absolutely fantastic 24 hours! Following his successful extubation at 11:30 yesterday morning, he began breathing on his own so well that Dr. C removed him from the oxygen tent after only 10 hours. The next step in his journey was to take a bottle, which would be his first time to do so. Nathan downed 48 cc's in his very first bottle! That is INCREDIBLE!

Today is a good day! Please continue to pray as God is hearing our prayers!