Almost Home!

Andrew has been moved to the Continuing Care Nursery. This is the last level of care before he goes home.  He is no longer hooked up to monitors.  All he has is a feeding tube.  We are continuing to work on feedings. Now they are feeding him 3 times a day with a bottle for 15 minutes to help his muscles develop.  We have to hold him in a special position to make sure the milk is going in the right place.  They are going to conduct another swallow study next Wednesday to see if they notice improvement. (The last study showed a bit of aspiration when he was in a cradle position.)  The nurse practitioner who spoke with us today made it sound like we were going to get to take him home by the end of next week with a feeding tube!  We are not going to get our hopes up just yet, but we can tell she is really pushing toward getting him home sooner rather than later - that's great!!!  We would LOVE to have Andrew home for Easter Sunday, which also happens to be baby dedication Sunday at our church!  First and foremost we want Andrew to be doing well with his feedings, so please continue to pray that he with have a strong suck and swallow and that the milk will go exactly where it is suppose to be going!  Pray that they will see improvement, and know which nipple (they are working with 2 different kinds) is best for Andrew when they conduct the next swallow study so that they will have greater confidence in sending him home!

Also, in case you are curious - Andrew got circumcised today. :)  They said he did great during the procedure.

Riley got to spend a lot of time with Papa this weekend while we were at the hospital.  She LOVES his backyard!  He let's her water the flowers and pick and eat berries!

Feedings

The speech therapist did a feeding study on Andrew today to see how he was handling his food when drinking from a bottle.  It showed when she fed him on his back he aspirated a little.  Obviously, we do not want any aspiration at all, so she tried feeding him on his side.  No aspiration this way, but some of the milk went into his nasal cavity.  She is going to work on different positions tomorrow to see what works best for Andrew, then we and the nurses can start feeding him.  We were a bit discouraged, as the process seemed to slow down again, but then we thought about how scary it was when they took the breathing tube out of Andrew...we all thought they was going to have to go back in as they masked him, and he turned white....but the Lord intervened and Andrew made a speedy recovery after that VERY hard day.  Do it again Lord with his feedings!

I dressed him in this cute outfit that I got when I was out shopping yesterday.  Button down onesies are the easies style for him right now.  They are gentle on his neck/spine, and the wires can go though the holes. :)

I changed his diaper, took his temperature, and tucked him in before I left!

Breathing

We are so thrilled to write that Andrew is breathing on his own!  Yesterday he did so well on the nasal cannula that they decided to take it off!  We held Andrew with no tubes in his nose.  It was so sweet to get a better look at his adorable little face!  Thank you Lord!  That was a processes that went by MUCH faster than the doctors expected.  We are now on step 2 - feeding.  The speech therapist came in and evaluated Andrew today.  She began one feed with a pigeon nipple (due to the cleft pallet.) He was able to drink 20 cc's which is about 6 teaspoons from sucking on the nipple.  They thought that was very impressive for his first time.  The goal for getting to take Andrew home though is that he takes all of his feedings by bottle.   That is 8 feedings a day, about  67 cc's a feeding.  Please pray that he will continue to impress/surprise the doctors and get this mastered quickly.  Also pray that he will not aspirate -that he will drink the milk well and it will go down his esophagus into his stomach. We would LOVE to have Andrew come to church with us on Easter Sunday - before would be even better!!! Thank you all for praying - it makes all the difference! We believe the Lord is just getting started revealing HIS POWER in and through Andrew. 

A Great Weekend

This weekend Riley celebrated St. Patrick's day at playgroup by decorating cupcakes, while Andrew got moved into a crib.  We also got to give Andrew a bath and put some clothes on him.  We chose orange for his first outfit since it's the color for breakthrough!

When we went to visit Andrew today they surprised us by switching his c-pap to a nasal cannula!  He is much more comfortable now, and he can sleep on his tummy. We pray that he continues to handle it well, so that we can start working on feeding him without a feeding tube. When we get that down, it sounds like we can bring him home!

We also spent our last day with Nala and Granpa K at the Dallas Arboretum.  It was beautiful!  Riley had a great time running around and walking through the artist houses. Can't wait until we get to bring Andrew with us too!

A Step Closer

Today was intense.  They took Andrew to Children's to remove his breathing tubes, then they sent him back over to Parkland.  When he got back he needed a lot of help breathing!  They tried the c-pap, then they used a mask, they even tried to stick a tube down his nose, but he did not like that at all.  Kenten and I were actually in there for part of the drama.  It was very nerve racking to see Andrew struggle and turn white!  He finally stabilized a bit, and now he has a c-pap in.  They are going to check his gases every 4 hours tonight, and check his blood sugar levels.  This means Andrew cannot eat.  He hasn't eaten since 2:00am yesterday morning.  Poor Thing!  This is what he looks like now. :( Not exactly breathing on his own, but hopefully getting closer. (The tube in his throat is a feeding tube.)

A Big Day for Andrew Tomorrow!

Tomorrow Andrew is going to get his breathing tube out.  They decided to wait until tomorrow instead of the weekend so that they have full staffing available should they need it.  Instead of doing this at his bedside they are going to take him to an operating room at children's in case they need to re-intubate or put a trache in.  We are praying that Andrew's lungs are strong and that he will be able to breathe on his own or with a c-pap.  Someone prayed for him last night and asked that tomorrow he would give his first cry of praise!  Amen.  We have not been able to hear him cry due to the tubes in his throat.  We pray that tomorrow will be the day!  We are ready to move past step 1 - breathing. :) This should all be happening around 10:00am, and they said it takes about 2 hours.  Please pray!

I thought it would be fun to put a newborn picture of Riley and Andrew on the blog to see how similar their sweet little faces are.

Thankful

Yesterday we received the results from the MRI.  Basically it said his brain looked great, but his spine still had the curve.  Thankfully, there is some space between it and the spinal cord...not as much as most people have, but it's not pinching the cord.  As I was driving home from the hospital I felt discouraged that we didn't get to see his spine "healed" in the MRI.  I know God is perfectly capable of making that happen.  As I was thinking and telling the Lord that I was frustrated, I felt like he told me to be thankful.  Then I started thinking about the doctors.  I can't even imagine committing that many years of my life to schooling and sleepless nights, extremely hard days, as well as good ones.  So, I began to be thankful that God has called people to the medical field. That is quite a calling! One doctor (or maybe he is a fellow) in particular came into mind. 

When Andrew was born it took a few minutes to get him air.  Evidently one lady was trying or doing something, and Dr. Josh took over and got the tube down.  I am so thankful that they all worked as a team, but that Josh just reacted so quickly under all that pressure and got the tubes in Andrew's throat.  He was without oxygen for about 3 minutes...had it have been longer, it may have cost him function of his brain! Thank you Lord for being in the details!  (I love that the Dr. who put the tube in was named Joshua. :))

While I was in the hospital I kept asking the Lord to let me see an angel. I never saw one, and while I was pushing I had my eyes closed. But, the first 2 nights of Andrew's stay in the NICU he was right next to a baby named Gabriel! :)

When Riley was born our landlord put out pink balloons on our mailbox.  When Andrew was born, we came home to a brand new sink in our bathroom! It gives us more counter space, storage, and we can have warm water instead of just hot or cold.

I am thankful.

The anesthesiologist just called me.  They are going to take the tubes out.  He needed my consent to do this and made sure I understood that if he has to put the tube back in that it could cause injury to his spine.  I consented.  That was a hard conversation.  Jesus, right now please make Andrew's lungs strong.  May he respond to the c-pap.  Protect him in every single way! I trust you Lord. You are Andrew's great physician, and you are guiding these physicians!

He is here!

Andrew Simon Kenten Waldrum came on his own terms on March 2nd at 12:29pm.  He weighed in at 7 pounds 8.6 ounces and 14 1/2 inches long.  He is adorable!  Unfortunately he is still in the NICU, and is needing help breathing.  On the night of his birth they confirmed the diagnosis that they gave him from the beginning that he would not survive.  We were devastated. However, the next morning they changed the prognosis, keeping it in the same skeletal dysplasia category, but saying it was not fatal, and that he would live!  We have experienced a whirlwind of emotions over the past 5 days.  We are tired, but thrilled that we have a son! Thank you Jesus for life! Thank you for our little miracle!

We had the best nurse for Andrew's delivery.  Her name was Kristina.  She was very encouraging during labor, she stayed by our side pretty much the whole time (even the hour before when we were waiting for Dr. Lo) and she made a way for us to get to hold Andrew in the NICU even though they were busy running tests on him!  Thank you Father for our sweet and persistent nurse. Thank you for this opportunity to hold him!

We are waiting for him to get an MRI done on his neck so that they can remove the breathing tubes.  The x-rays showed a severe curve up near his head that could cause paralysis if the spinal cord is damaged in anyway, so they are being extra careful with his neck.  We are praying that this place in his neck will be healed, and there will be no signs of a curve on the MRI.  We can't imagine our newborn baby having to undergo neck surgery.  He is so sweet and innocent.  We just want to hold him and tell him everything is going to be alright.  We are in love!

Looking at Andrew it is easy to see and think that he has a lot of problems.  Thankfully, with God we always have hope, and we believe these "problems" can be opportunities for breakthrough. The journey we have ahead may be long, but we are going to take it one step at a time.  God's word is still true, and He is still able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we can ASK or imagine.  We are so thankful for our adorable blessing!  Please pray that we will get to bring him home soon!

Andrew has had several visitors to come and love on him!

Mimi

Papa

Nala

Aunt Leah

Uncle Ryan

Aunt Bec

Uncle Michael

Aunt LeAnne

Great Mama

Amy... and also my sweet friend Becky drove down from Waco, but her picture is on my mom's phone.  I will add it later.

We also had a parade of visitors at the hospital eagerly anticipating Andrew's arrival.  We felt so loved by all of our dear friends and family who were standing with us and praying for us.  Thank you!!! People from our church as well as many other believers all over have been, and continue to carry Andrew in their hearts and prayers.  They have even started a Caring Bridge Site. Here is the address if you want to visit: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/andrewwaldrum

Thank you all for investing in our son!  He is a mighty warrior! We feel so covered and supported in this journey.