Coming Your Way Soon...

Yesterday, Brian took Landry to Brenham for the afternoon and evening.  That left me with some extra time on my hands to take care of some odds and ends like folding laundry, mopping the floors, mending pant hems, and tackling Shannon's birth announcement.   Here's the final product that we'll attempt to mail out this week.  (Hopefully the image is smaller than actual size!!).

Recap of the First Two Weeks at Home

As of this Tuesday, Shannon will have been home with us for two weeks.  It's almost hard to believe because it's gone by so fast (unless you're counting the middle of the night feeds!) We've been enjoying the process of getting to know him and learning to adjust to life with two boys under the age of two!  So far, he's been a great eater (now weighing 7lbs 7oz!) and a very noisy sleeper!  He likes to be held, particularly in the evenings, and he loves to be swaddled almost around the clock.

Two weeks in, we also have the hang of his apnea monitor.  We have yet to have anything scary happen - just alarms to indicate a drop in his oxygen stats that are easy to fix by repositioning him. We also no longer panic when it goes off, like we did the first few days.  Overall, I would say that the alarm has been a blessing in disguise because it provides peace of mind when we're not able to hold him or be in the same room as him.

And, Landry has adjusted well to the new addition to the family.  He's far more curious than jealous, and he likes to kiss Shannon on the top of his head.  We had one incident when Landry painted Shannon with Fisher Price paints, and I'm sure that will be the first of many instances of big brother "abusing" his little sidekick.

That pretty much sums up the first two weeks for those of you who have been curious!  We feel extremely blessed and thankful to have him thriving at home with us.

Deja Vu

This blog is in desperate need of some updating, which I intend to do when life settles down a notch, or I get more efficient at managing my life, whichever comes first.  But, for now, I'll have to settle for a short post with a couple of pictures.

Since Shannon's birth, there have been times when I thought that he looked just like Landry, but never more than tonight, when I compared to similar shots of them getting baths in the sink.  I did a double-take when I looked at these two snapshots side by side! 

Shannon.....

Landry....



Almost-Five-Week Update

Tomorrow Shannon will turn five-weeks-old, and I realized that it's been a long time since we've given an update on his status. He's now taking all eight feeds via bottle, gaining weight at a good pace, and able to keep his temperature up in an open-air crib.  In fact, he was doing so well that the doctors came within one day of discharging him last Friday, but he started having additional apnea episodes, including two right in front of his doctor.  (He has to be free from apnea episodes for 7 days before they will send him home.)  He also started running a fever and showed signs of anemia, so the doctors threw out scary terms like "meningitis" and "spinal tap" and even "blood transfusion."  Thankfully, all of the cultures for meningitis and a urinary tract infection came back negative, and the general antibiotic successfully treated his mysterious infection.  Also, his bloodwork showed a higher red blood cell count this week, so it looks like we've dodged the need for a transfusion, but we have a unit of my Mom's blood on hand in case he ends up needing it down the road. A test done today that ruled out reflux, which could have been another trigger for the apnea.

So, we're rejoicing with each test result that comes back as a negative, but we're still left with far more questions than answers about the source of his apnea episodes.  Now, we're back to inmature lungs being the likely culprit.  Unfortunately, it looks like he will need around-the-clock oxygen and an apnea monitor when he comes home, and it's looking like he will come home sometime next week.  We're hoping that the need for oxygen and the apnea monitor is only for a very short season! 

His team of doctors has a weekly meeting on Wednesday to discuss their caseload and brainstorm together, and they've indicated that Shannon will be a hot topic tomorrow.  Before that meeting, the doctors will repeat his 8-hour sleep study so that they have the most current and precise results of his lung/heart/brain activity.  So, we would love your prayers for wisdom for the doctors at their meeting tomorrow so that they arrive at a clear consensus of the source of the apnea and are able to develop a gameplan for treating it effectively before Shannon comes home.

Here's the sweet little boy in his open air crib.  We're anxious for him to come home, but would like for him to be breathing well on his own before he does!

Psalm 139:13 - For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.