Our First Week Home

1. Adding Jaden Medley to He's Got the Whole World in His Hands at bedtime
2. Hearing "Mom, did he pee or poop?" with every diaper change
3. Feeling clausterphobic with Christmas decorations, new presents, and baby stuff
4. Hearing Todd sing to our sweet baby
5. Trying to adjust to waking again every 3 hours
6. Remembering to share my attention with the first little boy who captured my heart
7. Camden's 30 sec "holds" of his little brother
8. First doctor's appointment at Suburban Pediatrics
9. Washing bottles ALL THE TIME
10. Photo shoot fail with Michelle-who knew newborn shoots were so much work?!

Mommy, is it Christmas?

Christmas morning 2013

Jaden's NICU Stay

Jaden was born 4 weeks early and spent 21 days in the Intensive Care Nursery both at Truman Medical Center and Children's Mercy. He had pneumonia which caused his breathing to be tachypnic or faster than normal. He also had a little trouble with his blood sugar due to his birth mom having gestational diabetes. He was on CPAP machine to help him breathe at first. Then, he graduated to a nasal canela. Jaden was also born with a VSD, Ventricular Septum Defect, which keeps his breathing a little faster than normal. He has a hole in his heart that may need to be fixed with open heart surgery when he is about 6 months old. Jaden stayed in an isolette which Daddy and Mommy called an incubator for his first week while he was trying to learn to regulate his own body temperature. Here is his isolette at Truman-his home for his first few days.

The neonatalagist at Truman thought he may have had an endocrinology issue and suggested he be transferred to Children's Mercy when he was 9 days old. After further testing, he did not have that issue, but we were glad he was transferred as they take a more aggressive approach in treating preemies at Children's Mercy. He was on 10 days of antibiotics to treat his pneumonia and in that time, his lungs finished maturing and his breathing slowly improved. His antiobiotic was given through a midline IV in his head. While this looked pretty scary, the nurses explained to me that this is the best place for an IV for a newborn. It is less likely to come out, its their biggest vein and the nerve ending haven;t completed developed, so they don't feel the pain. Jaden did have to have a feeding tube almost his entire stay. His breaths per minute had to be below 70 in order to bottle feed. If you try to bottle feed while they are breathing too fast, newborns can aspirate. As the antibiotic worked its magic, he was able to take more and more feeds with the bottle and finally got rid of the feeding tube at Mommy's request when he was 16 days old. Two days later, he was able to get off the nasal canela. Each of these were steps toward coming home!

Life lessons

While staying at the Ronald McDonald house with us, Camden had the opportunity to meet another sweet boy his age, Zeke. Zeke has cerebral palsy and had surgery a few weeks ago. This was an incredible learning experience for Camden and his little eyes were opened to a more diverse world than what he has known. He and I had quite a few talks about why Zeke can't walk and how he and Zeke are the same, yet different. The boys played well together and Camden LOVED wheeling Zeke around. We plan to keep in touch and try to encourage Zeke and his momma, Jessica. They will continue to be at the Ronald McDonald house for a few months-only getting to see Zeke's daddy, brother and sister on the weekends. Here the boys are playing Spiderman and shooting webs.

Nurse Carol

You had lots of nurses during your NICU stay, but Carol was Mommy's favorite. She made our first days in the Children's Mercy Intensive Care Nursery very pleasant. She explained things to Mommy and Grandma and just made us feel so comfortable. She came back and checked on Jaden even when she wasn't his nurse. We will miss her!

the Ronald McDonald House

We were very fortunate to be able to stay in the Ronald McDonald House close to Children's Mercy hospital while Jaden was in the NICU. I cannot say enough good things about this place. They don't charge, only recommend a $10 donation per night. It is truly a home away from home. They provide all your meals and there was always snacks to take with you to the hospital. Different organizations would come in to cook lunch and dinner almost every day. There are activities and play areas for the kids. On the Friday night we got back with Camden, the Missouri/Kansas State Troopers came in with a delicious meal and toys for the kids. Camden got several games and toys. The generosity was honestly overwhelming at times. We usually saved our soda tabs for Nick to give the the Ronald McDonald Foundation before this. But I guarantee that I will always save them from now on. I have seen firsthand the benefits of saving these. Todd and I would love to be able to support the Ronald McDonald Foundation in St. Louis in some way to give back some of the kindness that was shown to us. 

Party in the tub?

Little Man called us in the other night to see his party in the bathtub. Todd and I met in the hallway with surprised looks-both of us wondering what mess was in store for us. Well, we were relieved to find out Camden had just "drawn" a party with his tub crayons. :)