Sam is still struggling.  They were trying some different things on him this afternoon to see if they can get his levels figured out.  When we left his room about 5:30 pm, he was pretty stable and was very slowly starting to level out a little but is still a long way from being out the woods. 

Its so hard to sit there next to him knowing that there is nothing we can do except put our trust in the doctors and nurses, and know that he is in God's hands.

We are going up there with him this evening to celebrate his 1-week birthday at 11:17pm, and then we will stay with him until 12:00 for New Years. 

Please pray for Sam to begin to improve his oxygen levels and give the doctors and nurses the knowledge to help him as best as possible.

Rough day

Sam is having a rough day today. They are changing some of his medicines and he currently has his oxygen turned all the way up. He is taking much longer to recover from stimulation, so we are just praying that he has time to recover and that his lungs start to work better. Please pray with us!

12/31 update

Sam is still having some problems with his oxygen levels. They are monitoring him real close to see if they can make any changes to help him level out some. He's back on the billirubin light for now but the Doc said that is very normal. Let's hope and pray that they can get his oxygen levels figured out today.
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The first non-perfect day

As Ryan has mentioned several times today, Sam is having his first less than perfect day. It has been emotionally difficult for us, but at the same time, I'm not sure I would even call this a bad day. It is just hard because it is the first time we have seen him struggle at all. However, this is to be expected of preemies. It's just hard to watch such a small fragile body and hear the frequent alarms as his oxygen levels dip and rise.

They removed the lights since his bilirubins were leveled (aka not jaundiced), so he hasn't been wearing his eye mask. When I changed his diaper this morning, he started squirming and scrunched up his eyes like he was crying. I almost cried with him. It hadn't been an issue before because his eyes had been covered. I understand babies cry, but it was hard for Mommy to see that. :)

On another note, we have been blown away in the past few days by the generosity of so many people. There are so many people who just want to help us in some way. We don't always know what we need, but it truly is the thought that counts in this situation. We feel so blessed to have so much support! Thank you!

Sam update

He is having a little bit of a rough day.  His oxygen levels have kind of been up and down all day.  He really needs to be relaxed because when he is uncomfortable and squirming around a lot, his oxygen levels start to fall. 

The doctors decided this morning to do another ultrasound on his heart to see if there was anything in there going wrong which was causing the problems.  We got the results back from the test a little bit ago and they didn't find any problems.  This was of course good news, but at the same time it would be nice to be able to find the root of the problem with his oxygen levels.  I think they are planning on doing a chest x-ray in a little bit to see if they can find any other issues there.

The neonatologist said today that he has done "remarkably well" under the circumstances so far.  So that was nice to hear.

Please pray that Sam can start getting some better rest and hopefully his oxygen levels will begin to level out.

We are still amazed at the amount of prayers and support that everybody is giving him.  We even have nurses in the NICU coming up to us and saying that they have heard about Sam from other people they know.  Keep up the good work everybody, the prayers are working!

Update

Sam is continuing to have some problems with his oxygen levels. They just did a scan on his heart to check for any problems so please pray that comes back ok.
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False alarm

I'm back up here with him now. They got him repositioned and he is doing better. Thanks for the prayers though.
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Sam needs extra prayers this morning

We just called to check on Sam and he did not have a great night. They had to turn his oxygen level way up to keep him comfortable. Please pray that this is just a short term problem and that this doesnt turn out to be more severe.
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5 days old at 11:17 PM tonight

What an amazing 5 days so far.  We just got back from another good visit with Sam.  A couple good things happened today.  He got his first dose of Mama's milk today.  They only gave him .6 ml to make sure he didn't have any bad reactions but that is a big step.  To give you an idea of how much .6 ml is, stack 2 pennies on top of each other and that's about it.  He also graduated to a bigger diaper! Ok don't get too excited, its actually not really bigger, but more absorbent since he is peeing more. He had been having some ups and downs with his blood sugar the last couple days but they seem to have gotten that under control today.  They also decided that his billyrubins (somebody spell that) were in much better shape and they turned off the jaundice lights for now. 

Specific things to pray for:  He is having a chest x ray tomorrow.  Dont know if they are looking for anything specific but just hoping it turns out ok.  He is still at risk for infection so please pray that the bad germs stay away.  Also pray that he goes "poopies" (thanks Titus) soon.  This will be a good indication that his intestines are working well and will also get some of the bad stuff cleaned out of his gut.

Thanks for all the support and prayers.  We are amazed and overwhelmed by the amount of people that are praying for him.  Keep up the good work!

Finally from Keenon

I finally saw the blog today after much prompting by Ryan. I know it sounds crazy, but I have been so busy. Between visits to the NICU, pumping breast milk, visitors, pumping breast milk, eating, and pumping breast milk, I haven't had a lot of time to sit and relax and catch up on facebook posts and emails, much less write on this blog. I will try to write more though.

Sam has been honeymooning (a.k.a. doing extremely well) for 5 days now. Because of this, we have obviously been on an emotional high, but we have to give ourselves reality checks several times a day to remember that this will be a roller coaster ride and there will be ups and downs. We are taking it one day at a time because we are not guaranteed tomorrow with Sam. However, I can truly say that I believe the massive prayer network behind Sam is working. It touches me because it is more than I ever expected. Sam is such a beautiful and sweet baby. He is more than I ever thought I deserved. This experience has been crazy and hard and will continue to be so, but I wouldn't change it for the world.

The bonding experience between a mother and her newborn is different when the child is in the NICU. It is harder and it takes longer. I feel like the past two days have been huge in bonding for us. Yesterday, I cupped my hands around his head and feet to cradle him and provide him support and comfort while he was laying down. He was gently pushing on my hand with his left foot (his feet are SO soft), and I just got lost in our own world for a while. I don't know how long I was sitting there with him, because Nurse "Aunt" Kerry left us alone. Ryan eventually came and I let him do the same, although I could have sat like that all day.

These little moments are so special to me because they are all I have. As Nurse "Aunt" Kerry told me, there is a grieving process you go through when your child is in the NICU because you can't do all the things you anticipate doing with a newborn. I want so badly to hold him against my chest, feed him, kiss his hands and head, and even just mess with him to see his reactions. What I can do for my child at this time is limited to: talking to him, occasionally touching him and changing his diaper, and providing milk for him. Because this is all I have, each time I do one of these things, I treasure the moment.

Sam is amazing and we are loving every minute we spend with him.

Sam is going to get his first taste of milk today! Hope he likes it :)

Good morning. I'm sitting next to Sam right now writing this. Sam still going strong this morning. Nurse said his blood sugar got a little low in the middle of the night but he got some extra meds to fix that and he's back to normal levels now. He is squirming around a lot right now which is nice to see, but probably means he is a little uncomfortable. Hoping he gets some good rest today so his body can continue to grow. Thanks for all the prayers.
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Just got back from putting Sam to bed for the night.  He is still doing about the same as earlier which is great news.  We had such a great day with him today and were so glad that the brain scan came back so good.

His biggest risk right now is infection.  Please pray that he keeps his fluid levels on track and that the infections stay away.

By the way, Keenon wanted to make sure everybody knows that I am the one posting stuff on here and not her in case there were any spelling or grammatical errors.  Just the English teacher coming out in her :)

Brain Scan

Brain scan came back with great news! No major issues. Thanks for all the prayers!
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The brain scan was done today but we may not know the results until tomorrow. Please pray that it comes back with no major issues.
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12/28 Update

We have had a good day with Sam so far.  We got to spend about and hour with him this morning.  Yesterday was a special day because Keenon got to hold him for a few minutes and we both got to change his diaper at different times.  The nurses keep saying that they are waiting for him to get off his "honeymoon" period.  We cant tell for sure but it looks like the doctors and nurses are a little surprised at how well he has done so far.

Today is a big day because he is going to have his first brain scan.  They will be checking for bleeding and any other problems.  The nurse practitioner said that brain bleeds are very common with babies this premature, but we are hoping and praying that they wont find any major problems.

Everybody continues to be so supportive and we thank God for every moment we get to spend with him.

We will try and keep this blog updated as often as possible.