day 4 so far

Thomas had a fairly uneventful night and his blood gasses were better this morning... it's really about the first bit of solidly good news we've had since he was admitted. His neonatologist wants to see him at least maintain that improvement for another day before talking about starting to wean him off the ventilator. Right now he is on 100% oxygen so that is the first thing they would like to turn down once they feel it is safe to do so. The pneumos are stable/perhaps smaller so the risk of having to put in a second chest tube is decreasing. His current interventions are the ventilator, chest tube, antibiotics, blood transfusions (mostly because they have to draw off so many labs, they have to replace it), and IV nutrition. He gets morphine from time to time if he gets upset, but for the most part he is so worn out and sick that he sleeps all the time. I don't think I've seen his eyes open since a brief instance immediately after he was born. Sometimes he tries to get his little fingers in his mouth to suck on them, and he gets so frustrated because the vent is in the way! It's kind of cute and pathetic at the same time.

Tim and I have realized that sometimes it's hard to get across to others the seriousness of what's going on, especially because Thomas was "late preterm" (some babies born at 34 weeks have no problems at all and can go right home) and because he had a good birthweight. At first glance it maybe doesn't sound so awful. Frankly he is having considerably more trouble than a typical 34 weeker, for whatever reason or combination of reasons we are not sure. He is one of the sicker babies in the NICU right now and his respiratory therapist admitted that on Tuesday night (the night he was intubated) she was awake worrying about him. I can really struggle to see much younger and smaller babies without half the tubes that he has, or to see that 90% of the babies are well enough that their mamas can take them out and hold them. We are eagerly looking forward to the day that we can do more than just touch his foot!

thomas edward

I'll try my best to keep some updates available here as to how we are all doing given the surprise early arrival of our son Thomas. We have some pics and at some point I hope to get those up too. For now, here's a summary:

Sunday Aug 1

I was having lots of (what I assumed to be) Braxton Hicks contractions, all morning through church. I tried resting after lunch and that seemed to help, but then they picked up again in the evening. Finally I realized that the usual tricks of resting and drinking water were not going to clear them up and I would have to go in to L&D. I was 100% sure it wasn't real labor so I just went over by myself at about 7:30 pm while Tim was putting the kids to bed, telling him I'd be back in a few hours after they checked everything out. To my incredible shock it turned out that I was 6 cms and contracting every 2-3 minutes, way too far along to even think of stopping labor. We found someone to watch the kids and Tim rushed over to the hospital. There was a debate among the doctors as to whether I should be transferred right away to the bigger hospital in town which has a NICU, but they decided to keep me as I was progressing quickly and they thought a 34 weeker had a good chance of being okay on his own.

Monday Aug 2

At 12:22 am Thomas made his entrance! At 6 lbs 6 oz he was very big for his gestational age and looked healthy but he starting having breathing trouble almost immediately. I got to hold him for a few seconds and he was whisked off to the nursery for oxygen. Over the next couple of hours the doctors changed their minds several times as to whether he was going to need to go to NICU or not. He would do better for a short time then have trouble again. Ultimately they called the transport team and Thomas was taken by ambulance to Sparrow hospital at about 3 am. He looked so miserable and sick and was whimpering with every breath. He was started on CPAP (cannula with positive pressure) even before he went in the ambulance and it did ease him a little bit right away.

Tim and I grabbed a few short hours of sleep and then worked to get me discharged first thing in the morning. We went straight to the NICU and spent most of the day with Thomas. He had the CPAP and got medication for his premature lungs (surfactant) as well as IV antibiotics. The doctors felt he had respiratory distress syndrome (basically from being a preemie) and possibly some pneumonia as well. Thomas was somewhat stable but not considered to be doing well, we were not really allowed to touch him much let alone hold him. Mom/Grandma arrived from Wisconsin which thrilled the big kids to bits.

Tuesday August 3

Not a good day. Thomas just slowly went downhill all day. His oxygen sats decreased, his blood gasses worsened. He developed a pneumothorax (air bubble in his chest) so they had to take him off CPAP and put him in a 100% oxygen tent. This helped maybe a tiny bit but not nearly enough. All day there was the constant threat of intubation and/or chest tube. In fact in the evening they set everything up for intubation and sent us out of the room to do the procedure, only to have the attending call it off at the last minute, which was quite the roller coaster for Tim and I. In general they seemed to be preparing for a turn downhill, and instead of an IV he had umbilical lines placed so they they had better access and could get more precise lab measurements.

Wednesday August 4

Thomas was intubated at about 5 am and also had a chest tube inserted at some point in the wee hours. This chest tube was for a second pneumothorax that showed up in his chest x-ray overnight. The first one they were content to monitor as it was fairly small. Although we were really upset that he had to go on the ventilator, it was obvious that it brought him some relief in that his stats improved and his breathing was much less labored. It does mean that his stay in NICU is going to be longer rather than shorter, so we are trying to mentally adjust to more of a long haul. Over the course of the day his chest xray showed that the chest tube did resolve the pneumo on that side, and the other pneumo had decreased some on its own. We are hopeful he won't need the second chest tube and firmly believe he has enough wires and tubes coming out of him already!

Great Dairy Adventure, year two!

We repeated our successful outing to the Great Dairy Adventure at MSU last week. Last year George milked a cow- this year he did that and THEN some. Take a look:

Even mommy didn't try that one!

Helen was mildly interested in the cows but frankly she was really there for the snacks. She managed to put away string cheese, yogurt, chocolate milk, and ice cream, and still managed her lunch without a problem shortly afterwards. You would not believe the way that dainty little girl can eat. Oh, my aching grocery bills.

hooray, I'm still pregnant!/boo, I'm still pregnant!

I have made it to 31, nearly 32 weeks without being admitted to L&D which is quite exciting. On the other hand I will say that pregnancy gets a little less fun every time you do it and I surely wish I was closer to the finish line than 8ish weeks. Just taking it one day at a time. So far most things are looking good with the baby and the pregnancy so I don't mean to sound ungrateful for that, especially after the scary news earlier on. It's just the minor indignities that are more of a trial to the spirit on a day to day basis.

Grandma was here over the fourth of July! Since this was Tim's first 4th as a US citizen, we sure to do it in style- burgers on the grill, s'mores, fireworks, parade. The fireworks were a big hit with the kiddos.

camping!

We lucked out with a rare warm and sunny weekend up at Mackinaw City over Memorial Day weekend. We have a tradition of staying at a cabin up there with my mom and sister and brother in law, this trip was especially good! Our campfire cooking has been improving by leaps and bounds every year. The marinated flank steak, feta stuffed peppers, and campfire-baked apples will be making repeat appearances, I am sure of it. One of the highlights was a morning spent on the Lake Michigan beach. We tried to teach the kids how to make sand castles but they are still at the age where destruction is more interesting than construction.

a sampling of questions I've been asked in the last 24 hours

Why does a balloon go up?

Why does an airplane go up?

Why does fire go up?

Why does steam go up?

Where is the sun at night?

How can I get into outer space?

How does a space shuttle go higher than an airplane?

What is lightning?

What is thunder?

Can you teach me to read all by myself?

Can you teach me spelling?

(I taught him C-A-T. Then he said, no mama, all the words! I said we don't have time, I'm making lunch. To which he replied OK, after my nap. And naturally brought it up as soon as he woke up- "it's time for me to learn spelling!!!")

How does a car drive?

How does electricity work?

How do batteries work?

(Then after an extended discussion about motors, electrical and gasoline-powered, he commented "the food processor is like a tiny car with one wheel." I've said it before and I'll say it again, ENGINEER.)

number three

Introducing- baby boy Durrett! Isn't he a cutie.

If you're looking very closely you'll see that the ultrasound picture is labeled "University of Michigan" and you might ask yourself, now weren't the Durretts halfway across the state at Michigan State, not down in Ann Arbor? And you'd be right about that. But, certain events have transpired lately. At my first ultrasound a problem was noted which is an unusual and alarming/serious finding (echogenic bowel). My midwife actually rarely sees it and I didn't get much information from her but I did get a whole lot of scare. Eventually we learned that this issue is associated with a number of severe disorders and we had just a 2 in 3 chance of having a healthy kiddo when the 9 months are up. We were referred for further diagnostics at the University of Michigan and just had a looooong appointment there on Tuesday. Very, very happily they noted some positive findings in terms of how the little guy is doing and our odds are much better (maybe 90-95% chance of a good outcome). We still have some tests out and we ultimately won't know for sure whether he is okay until he is born. It will be a tough wait but given the perspective of where we were last week, we feel hopeful and are surrounded by family and friends who love us and are praying faithfully. As are we.