8 Weeks and Counting

So Andy is 8 weeks old! Almost 2 months, boy is that hard to believe!! And still really no sign of when we will be able to come home, I asked his nurse today and she said that they first needed to find out why he was having desats ect..., so I didnt get an answer there. He has been taken off of the caffine today and they want to do a "sleep test" on him some time next week to see if they can figure out why he has desats while he is sleeping, so we are praying that some answers will be found.
He has been doing pretty much the same with his throwing up problem, yesterday he got put on demand feeding, which means that he can sleep up to 5 hours before they will wake him up to eat, and then he can eat as much as he wants, the nurse said that it was one step closer to going home, but when we went in today they had put him back on somewhat of a scedule because they want to see if feeding him more often ( every 3 hours at least ) and then not giving him as much ( no more than 40- 60 mls ) would help him keep his milk down, so far today he has been doing good with that and he did not throw up at all both times that we were there to feed him. He also now weighs 5 pounds 4 ozs since Sunday night.
This afternoon he went for an altrasound of his kidneys, he had some water in them when they had checked it out last time, so they wanted to do a follow up on that. The results should be in tomorrow or the day after that. Other than that he does not have any other exams ect... right now that I know of, so far his eye seems to be just fine and when he is awake he is looking around and seems to be noticing alot more, he is so cute when he is awake!
So that is about all our news here, Im sorry about not updating sooner and that there are no pictures in this post, I forgot our computer at home on our last visit so Im using someone elses computer and dont have any pictures.
We thank you for your prayers and ask that you might continue to remember us when you go before our Lord in prayer, things that you can pray for are:
Andrews kidneys to fine...
Andrews lungs to keep growing stronger so that he can stay off of the caffine this time...
Some answers to be found next week...
Strength for Josh and I as we continue to wait. THANK YOU!!!!

Our Little Guy

Andy Is 7 Weeks Old!!

We would never have thought that we would be here this long! We are so thankful that we are being held up by a God that loves and cares for us and would never have us go through anything to great for us!

We have grown ever more in love with our little man, needless to say, he has stolen our hearts!

He is doing very good, his throwing up is getting less and less and he is eating more and more. He took 50 mls tonight and will sometimes take up to 60! He weighs 4 pounds and 11 ozs since Monday, he is getting to be so big. :)

His breathing is also doing great, at least with the caffine, they are going to try taking him off of that again tomorrow, so please pray that his lungs will have grown stronger!
We want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and a Blessed New Year! You all hold a special place in our hearts for all the prayers you have sent heaven-ward for us! We love you all!

We are now aiming to MAYBE get home around Andrews due date, which was January 10th. We are praying that it might be sooner, but more importantly that Gods will be done!

Thank You For Your Continued Prayers!

Andrew is doing much better, thank you for your prayers once again! He is getting caffine once a day and doing much better with his breathing, they did have to increase the amount of caffine that he gets today cause he had a bunch of dips during one of his feeds, but he was fine when I fed him, so it must be doing its job.

He is still doing some spitting up, sadly the caffine will make some babies throw up, so I guess you just cant win them all. We will work on the breathing first and then on keeping the food down.

But even though he is throwing up he is still gaining weight, he weighs just about 4 and half pounds now and will get weighed again tonight, so that is wonderful!

So we are looking at spending Christmas in the city, not what we had planned, but God has provided, and thanks to your prayers we are still looking up. Please continue to pray for Andrew, He needs your prayers, and we are so thankful for them!

Please Pray!

This morning Andrew gave us a bit of a scare, he had been off of the caffine, that he was given to help stimulate his breathing, since Tuesday and today he was having alot of desats in his oxygen, just while sleeping. He had to be given oxygen twice while we were there this afternoon becaus he dipped so low and would not come back up on him own.

So the Docter came in and said to put him back on the caffine, they gave him a big dose of that right away, and when we came back at 4 he seemed to be doing better, we didnt get to give him a bath because they wanted him to get as much rest as possible. So I guess he will stay on the caffine for a few days and then try it again and see what happens.

So once again we ask for your prayers for Andrew, that he might not go backwards again and that he will grow ever stronger lungs. We thank you so much! And one more thing, Andrew was weighed last night and he is now 2028 grams, that is somewhere around 4lbs 5ozs. Praise God for this!

Andrew Is 6 Weeks Old!

Hey, sorry again about the wait. But anyway, Andrew is doing very good! Thank you for your prayers, they are still making a huge difference! He has been off of the nasal prongs since the 9th, praise the Lord! He is doing very good and has little to no desats in his oxygen except when he throws up. It is such a big step for him to get closer to going home.

His feeding is still going well except that he has problems with throwing up, and because he throws through his nose it causes him to desat when ever he throws up, so starting yesterday they have been thickening his milk to see if that will make a difference. It seemed to be helping yesterday so we will se how he did during the night when we get there today.

Nursing has also been going better, he now knows what to do and yesterday he took 9 mls while nursing! This is great! Now we are praying that he will be able to continue nursing because of his throwing up, we wont really know until he takes more to see if he throws up after nursing as well as after taking the bottle or being tube fed.

Andrew is also now getting the bottle for every feeding that we are not there, and he is starting to take the whole bottle most of the time. Another big step! We still do not know when we will be able to go home, he is what they would say full term now, so now it all depends on him and how fast he wants to get out. :)

After his last check up they have found some blood in the retna of his left eye. There is no detatchment so they have decided not to do an altrasound, but they are rather going to check it every Monday to make sure that nothing is going to get worse. This is another place where we ask for prayers, that his eye would heal and that there will be no permanent damage.

As you can see he is still cute, :) and still growing bigger, he is now 4 pounds 2 ozs, a gain of 1 pound! We continue to praise God for all the steps AJ is taking towards going home, and we thank you once again for your prayers!

This morning while reading I found this verse that seemed to be ment just for me:

Teach me to do Thy will, for Thou art my God: Thy spirit is good, lead me into the land of uprightness. Psalm 143:10

Tagged

Six Names You Go By
Rebecca
Beca
Becky
Reb
Becs
Becpa

Three Things You Are Wearing Right Now

Slippers
Pants
A Hoodie

Three things you want very badly right now?

For Andy to come home
For Andy to come home
And yes for Andrew to come home. :)

Three Things You Did Last Night/Yesterday

Went to see Andrew
Went shopping
Pumped :)

Two things you ate yesterday?

An apple :)
Sandwich

Two people you last talked to on the phone

My Mom
Andrews Doctor

Two Things You Are Going To Do Today

Eat some peanuts
Pump

Your three favourite beverages

Water
Ice tea (like the Canadian kind ;)
Root Beer

Hey everyone, Im sorry about not updating yet, Lord willing Ill be doing one on Wednesday, but anyway, the Munks have a great giveaway on their blog, go check it out!!

Another Update...

Andrew is 5 Weeks Old!

In a way it seems hard to believe that we have been parents for that long already. But dont get me wrong, we are still REALLY ready to go home! We still dont know when that will be, it all depends on AJ, and how well he does with his breathing and eating.

He moved to a new bed on Saturday, this one is open which means he has to get used to all the sound, and keep his own temp. which he has been doing very well!

He also moved to another room, still in the NICU, but this one is for bigger, stronger babies. Here they have 1 nurse for every 4 babies instead of 1 for 2. It is also alot quieter in there because not all the babies machines are beeping all the time. :)

His breathing as really improved alot! He has been on the nasal prongs since last week Thursday and has been doing great. No more sedation for him cause he is so much more relaxed when off of the CPAP. From Sunday to Monday night he was off of everything, and did all his own breathing all night long, but by morning he was getting tired so he went back on the prongs. They will probably try without them again in a day or 2. We are so thankful that he is improving in this area, it is a huge answer to prayer!

His weight is up to 1796 grams, this is about 3 pounds, 13 ounces, or somewhere close to that. He is getting 30 mls per feeding and is no longer throwing up like he was, this is also an answer to prayer as he really needs to keep eveything in his tummy so that he can grow.

Yesterday I tried nursing again, he has kind of upset about it, but did suck for awhile. Then I gave him the bottle, he took 6 mls before getting to tired to care, this was very exciting for us! He still has a hard time remember to breath, suck and swallow, all at the same time, but he is learning and once again we are so thankful!

We got training on how to give him a bath yesterday, he didnt think much of it, but he sure liked it afterward, as you can see in the picture, he was very relaxed! :)

Well its been fun to do a post that has so much positive news in it! We are still so grateful for all of your prayers as we continue to feel them every day. We are so blessed to have you all behind us! Please continue to pray for his lungs to grow stronger and that he will figure out his whole eating thing, :) thankyou, and God bless you!!

Andrew is 1 Month Old

Happy One Month Birthday Andrew!!

Wow, one month of being parents! We dont really know if it seems that long or if it feels like its been way longer; either way its been something that we never thought would happen to us! But God has definatly been with us this past month, without Him we would not have been able to make it this far!

Andrew is doing very good, we have been praying for this for almoast 1 week and finally yesterday he got back on his nasal prongs!! We are so happy and are very thankful! He is still on them today and doing very well, he is much more relaxed like this. He has only had 1 major desat so far, other than that he will drop down a bit and then pop right back up on his own, this is a big improvment and we are very thankful!

His amount per feeding went up to 32 mls but because his tummy was not able to keep it all in they moved him back to 29 mls. He seems to be doing alot better this way. He gets weighed twice a week now, yesterday he weighed 1716 grams which is somewhere around 3 lbs and 11 ozs. This is a big jump for him, and we are very happy for it!

He still loves to be cuddled, as you can see, we were able to try to nurse him today, he was pretty smart and caught on right away, he just needs to keep on growing stronger so that he will be able to stop the tube feeding and only need the bottle and nursing.

We want to thankyou all once again for your prayers, you are all very special to us! We ask that you would please keep on praying for us, We would love to be home for Christmas but we also want to trust God and follow His plan for us, we know that He knows what is best for us!

New Car!

Last week Josh and I traded in our car for a Honda CRV. It sits higher and has four wheel drive which will be very nice for traveling the gravel roads in the Winter.

It will also be nice for when we get to take Andrew with us, much easier for me to get to him when he needs me.

We really like it and pray that it will serve us well in the years to come.

We Are Still Here!

Sorry about not updating sooner, our family was out on the weekend. But we are still in the city and as of right now it looks like we will be here for awhile. Andrew went back on the CPAP on Friday and he is still on it, his breathing is fine as long as he keeps the prongs in his nose. Because this is kind of hard to do they have been giving him sedation once every 12 hours or so, just to keep him more settled and so that he sleeps more peacfully. We are really praying that he will be able to go back to the nasal prongs soon, and that once he does improve that he will not go backwards again.

Andy has been growing though, you can see and feel that he his getting a tiny bit bigger. He now weighs 1582 grams which is about 3 lbs 7 ozs. He gets 29 mls of milk now and as he gains weight he will be getting more.

So thats where we are right now, we are praying to be home for Christmas, but most of all we are praying for God's will to be done, we know that He is in charge and we want to do our best to live out his will. Thankyou all for your continued prayers!!

A Big Thank You!

Thank You once again for all your prayers, We have a great God! This evening when we went to see our little miracle he was back on his prongs! The nurse said that he was doing better on the prongs than on the CPAP. We are so thankful that he has once again taken a step in the right direction!

He also got above his birth weight today! We were so excited for that! He now eighs 1480 grams; You have to ask either of his Grampas what that is in pounds. :)

We had alot of fun together tonight, he loves to snuggle, and so do I!
Dont you just love that blonde/red hair? Just like his Daddies. :)

So once again, we thank you, We are so blessed to be part of this wonderful family where we are never on our own, we deffinately feel your many prayers!

And the peace of God which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Phil. 4:7
Thankyou Mom and Dad Pauls for that wonderful verse of encouragment, it was just what we needed!

Please Pray!

Andrew is back on his CPAP, he had a tough evening so they also took a blood test, now we are waiting for the results there. But when I was holding him this morning he was more busy pulling at everything than ever, so I know that he is getting stronger and he sure was not acting very sick! :)So we are asking that you would all pray that Andys lungs will grow stronger and that his breathing will improve. Thank you!

Andy Update

Hello from the city. We are still going good, as is our little miracle. This last week as been a good week; It started out with Andrew getting an infection, but he is all cleared up now, he will stay on the antibiotics till the 27th though, just to make sure that the bugs are all gone.

He has had his IV moved all over his little body, both arms, his foot and his head. We are hoping that once he is done with the antibiotic maybe he will be able to get rid of the IV, although he is still getting caffine once a day through the IV to help him with his breathing. So we are also praying that by then his breathing will be strong enough to go off the caffine too.

Wake Up Little Man!


Andrew's breathing has been getting alot better! He was off of his nasal prongs all day yesterday!! This was very good knews for us. He lasted from 10:30 in the morning till 3 last night, we were not really expecting him to stay off of them cause he is still so little, so this was an answer to prayer! Please continue to pray that his lungs will keep getting stronger and he will be able to do all of his own breathing.

What A Big Yawn!

He is also doing very good with his eating, he is still being tube fed and now gets 30 mls. per feeding. On Tuesday he reached his goal of 27 mls and then after he started gaining weight they uped it to 30. Today he weighed 1390 grams, which means he only needs to gain 40 grams to get back to birth weight. This is very exciting for us!


But Mom, Its So Hard To Wake Up!

So once agian that is where our little man is at, still making progress, one small step at a time.

Getting His Lungs Listened To.


We once again Thank You for all your prayers, as our life has a lot of ups and downs right now, and we never know what is going to happen next, Your prayers are so very important to us.


Being Comforted By Daddy.

We want to say a special Thank You to our families for all that they have done and are doing for us. You are so very special and without you we would be lost. Thank You for the food, the fun visits, phone calls, texts, and prayers. We love you and miss you all!

Good Night Sweet Heart!