Month 2

Conner's first month at home consisted of eating, sleeping, diaper changes and lots of visits from friends and family.  He was around 8 1/2 lbs. by his 2 month birthday!  Growing boy!

Loves his swing

Granna came to visit

Gran came to visit

Worn out from having his picture made

Grandma and Grandad Parsons came to visit

Tummy time

First trip to see Daddy at work

Uncle Jeff visiting

Cousin Trent holding Conner

Decked out for the Duke/UNC game

2 months old!!

Coming Home

This is a bit overdue, but here it is anyway!  Conner finally got to leave NICU and come home on February 10th, his one month birthday!  Ironically, February 10th was also my originally scheduled c-section date.  Conner was 6 lbs. 3 oz. when we brought him home!  It was a great day!!

Rooming in the night before we went home

Brianna walked us to our car

Loaded up and ready to go!

First bath at home

Loves his lion mat

First Duke game with Daddy

Hanging with Gram

Grandad and Conner

Aunt Kacy holding Conner for the first time

Conner and Nana Jo

Conner with Dennis and Lynda

Conner and Leslie

Uncle Jeff holding Conner for the first time

Conner and Grandpa Chuck

Week 3

     Conner is still working on bottle feeding this week.  He started off the week doing well and hit a bit of a "preemie slump" and hasn't been feeding well the last part of the week.  The speech therapists recommended a barium swallow test to see if Conner was aspirating any of the milk into his lungs.  It turns out he wasn't aspirating, but there was a little bit of milk that was getting into his nasal passages while he was eating compromising his ability to breathe.  This may account for some of his drops in oxygen levels and heart rate.  The speech therapists recommended strict "pacing" with his feedings (even more than we were already doing), which means to pull back the bottle after 1-2 sucks to allow him to breathe.  I was concerned that it was going to take so long for him to feed that way that he would tire out before he could get his bottle down; however, when we tried it, he did much better since he wasn't having to work so hard to breathe and got his full bottle down!  It's great to see progress!  Hopefully we will keep moving in the right direction!  On a lighter note, Conner got his first tub bath this week and he grew to 5 lbs 9.8 oz and 18 3/4 inches long!

Week 2

    Conner made excellent progress this week!  He got off oxygen on January 19th and we began trying to bottle feed him again once per shift.  During evening rounds on January 24th, Dr. Sparks wrote an order that Conner could bottle feed anytime he was alert and ready to do so.  He took his first full bottle at his 11 pm feeding on January 24th.  At the end of this week, Conner weighed 5 pounds 2.6 ounces and was 17 3/4 inches long.  As soon as he can take a full bottle at every feeding, we are set to go home!

Conner's First Week

    Conner was placed in an oxygen tent when he was first born to help him breathe.  However, he continued to grunt and struggle to breathe.  Although his oxygen saturation was adequate, Dr. Carroll decide to put him on a cpap (continuous positive airway pressure) machine during his first night so he wouldn't have to struggle to breathe.

  

     On January 11th, Dr. Atkinson ordered an echocardiogram on his heart due to a couple abnormalities he had seen on my ultrasound Monday.  We worked on weaning his cpap today but didn't make much headway after he got upset during his echo.  He finished the day at 35% oxygen, after starting at 40% (21% is room air).  I got to hold my sweet boy for the first time tonight at his 9:00 pm feeding, and it was definitely the best moment so far!

   On January 12th, Conner did very well weaning off his cpap, going from 35% oxygen to 27%.  The results of the echo were normal, showing only that a valve in his heart hasn't closed yet.  This is called a PDA and is perfectly normal in pre-term babies, especially those delivered via c-section, and should close on its own in the next week or so.  Conner occasionally experiences something called periodic breathing, where he forgets to breathe for a short period of time; however, his oxygen saturation has not fallen during this time, only a slight drop in heart rate.  This is also very common in preemies and will correct itself as he gets older.

     On January 13th, Conner's oxygen on his cpap machine was weaned to 23% throughout the day and we did a room air challenge late in the evening.  Conner wasn't quite ready to breathe on his own, so the respiratory therapists put him on a nasal cannula for oxygen.  It's so nice to see his pretty little face better!

     On January 14th, Scotty and I got to give Conner his first bath and he loved it!  He also reached 45 milliliters on his feedings so the nurse was able to remove his IV.  Conner weighed 4 lb 12 oz today.

     Conner continued to do well on tube feedings and nasal cannula for the next couple of days.  We tried to bottle feed him for the first time on January 16th, but he wasn't quite ready to suck, swallow, and breathe all at once.  His oxygen saturation and heart rate fell a little bit during the feeding, so we put off bottle feeding for a little while longer.  Conner weighed 4 lb 9.9 oz and was 17 inches long on January 16th.

     On January 17th, we gave Conner his second bath and he didn't enjoy it quite as much as first, but he did great.  Some of our favorites nurses that took care of baby Conner throughout the week were Jodi, Tammy, Cindy, Briana, Alex and Stuart.