Oh my goodness, 3 week without a posting!

I'm sure those of you who check the blog regularly know there's been nothing new for 3 weeks now.

It's been difficult to get time to do a post. First, work has become really hectic just before Christmas and I've been putting in a lot of hours. Second, I caught some kind of sinus cold, and wasn't feeling well. This was tough and I had to stay away from Aidan as much as I could while Denyse did all his feeding, holding, etc. This was also frustrating since we've done everything we could to keep from getting sick and I've barely left the house for weeks. So I'm not sure where i caught it from. I'm better now, and so far Denyse and Aidan have not shown signs of getting sick.

Here's me holding Aidan while working:



I spend most of my day on the phone. We've been having pretty wintry weather the last week...



Aidan's still gaining weight really well. Yesterday we weighed him and he is now 3906 grams (8 lbs 9.8 oz).



Notice mom protecting us all from a peeing incident, which happens often :)

Remember this picture from several weeks ago when Aidan was barely over 2 pounds:



Now look here... same bear, different baby (over 8 1/2 pounds):





From just last night's bath:









Just a little bit different from his first bath back in September:





Some more pictures from the last 3 weeks:



Aidan takes out his frustrations on his toy monkey:

Happy Thanksgiving, and wonderful news!

First, I'd like to wish all of our family and friends a Happy Thanksgiving. We certainly have a lot to be thankful for this year!

With Aidan's delicate condition, and since we have just entered cold and flu season, we are not supposed to take Aidan out of the house except for doctor appointments, and we are supposed to limit the number of people he sees. We are paranoid about Aidan catching a cold, which would be really rough on him with his immature lungs.

So we had a very small get together for Thanksgiving this year. We had Aidan's brother Andrew, and Aidan's grandparents Marshall and Charlotte. Charlotte was nice enough to cook us a very nice Thanksgiving dinner.







On Wednesday, Aidan's pediatrician suggested it was time to try Aidan without oxygen. So Wednesday from 11am - 11pm, we did this. We were too scared to leave Aidan off oxygen all night, and we didn't want to stay up in shifts watching him, so we put him back on the oxygen for the night.

On Thanksgiving morning, we again removed the oxygen. We kept a close eye on Aidan all day, watching for a change in his skin color. We usually look for a change in the color of his lips. In the NICU, when Aidan would de-saturate into the 60s (or worse), Aidan's lips would first turn from pink to pale, then grey, and then blue. All day on Thursday, we never noticed any change in color, so we think he did really well.

At bed time, we needed to decide if we would put Aidan back on the oxygen, or take the nervous step to keep Aidan off the oxygen for a full night. On Friday morning, Aidan had another pediatrician appointment, so if we could make it through the night, we could test him with a pulse oximeter in the morning after he had been off oxygen for a full 24 hours. That would tell us a lot about what he is capable of. If we put him back on oxygen for the night, he would only be off oxygen for a couple hours and the oximetry test to me wouldn't mean as much.

So we decided now was the time to test Aidan, and we would leave him off oxygen for the night; so we set the alarm clock to wake us up every 1.5 to 2 hours to check on him. We did still have him on the heart and apnea monitor, but we're not sure how bad his blood oxygen would need to get to actually set off one of these alarms, so we still wanted to check his skin color often throughout the night.

Aidan made it through the night just fine. He actually woke us up every 1 - 2 hours to eat, which was before the alarm clock ever went off.

So we went to the pediatrician appointment at 9:30am today for Aidan's second RSV vaccine. Before the shot, we hooked Aidan up to the pulse oximeter to see how he was doing. The very first reading was 98%!! This was huge news, and means that 9:30am on Thanksgiving could be the last time Aidan is on supplemental oxygen!

On November 1st when we left the NICU, Dr Kaempf told us that he expected Aidan to need oxygen for 4-6 weeks. Today is 1 day short of 4 weeks. If any of the nurses from the NICU reads this, please let Dr Kaempf know Aidan has made it off oxygen.

So tonight, we'll remove the TenderGrip tape from his face since Aidan doesn't need the cannula anymore!!

No more oxygen!! (at least, for part of the time)

Put November 26, 2008 in the book of important dates. Today, we started trying Aidan without oxygen.

We took Aidan to the pediatrician for his 2-month "well baby" checkup (aka 2-month vaccines :(). While we were there, we did another oximetry test where we took Aidan off the oxygen and monitored his blood oxygen with a pulse oximeter. Aidan again showed improvement since the last time 2 weeks ago. Aidan was really hungry, and we let him fuss to see how he would hold up. He did really well. His blood oxygen only dipped below 90% a couple times, and it very quickly popped back up above 95% when he calmed down a little. And no matter how much he cried, he never dipped below 85%. After this the doctor said, "Well, I think it might be time to take him off the oxygen."

So for 12 hours today, Aidan was without supplemental oxygen! We were not comfortable to go without oxygen overnight while we sleep, so we put it back on for the night. On Friday we need to go back to the pediatrician for a followup RSV vaccine, and we will check to see if Aidan is still doing well with the pulse oximeter.

Pictures from the last few days.

Check out these lungs...



...and see he's smart enough to put in his own binky. Aidan with his heart monitor belt:




Heading off to the pediatrician:



Look, no cannula!!

Happy Birthday Aidan!!

In an alternate universe somewhere, where whatever lead to Denyse's water breaking didn't happen, and Aidan stayed cozily inside for the duration, Aidan Matthew Stawicki was born today.

It's a Boy!!
Aidan Matthew Stawicki
[Supposed to be] Born November 21, 2008
Weight: 3150 grams - 6 pounds 15.1 ounces
Length: 47 cm - 18.5 inches
Head: 34 cm - 13.4 inches

I received a "Boys, birth to 36 months" growth chart so we can track how Aidan is progressing in weight gain, length and head size compared to normal term babies. We will update the chart monthly. Here is how Aidan matches up with "regular" babies.

Weight: 25th percentile
Length: 15th percentile
Head: 20th percentile
Weight:Length Ratio: 90th percentile (I didn't make this metric up, honest))

Not too bad considering he lost 10-14 days in growth, being born so early, and then had to play catch-up the whole time. So I read this to mean he is a little short for his weight, or heavy for his length. But other than that, he is pretty proportional.

So Aidan now has a positive corrected age, and is officially a "newborn", rather than a preemie.

Some pictures of the last week of Aidan as a preemie:



Look! He's getting blond hair:





Aidan a little fussy (believe me, he gets way louder than this...):



Isn't that cute, he holds his own bottle (with some help):









Napping after play time:







Aidan will lay there and play with the animals for 30 minutes, when he's in a good mood.

On Thursday, the Inman's were kind enough to bring us spaghetti dinner. Thanks Mary, thanks Dave!

No more ROP!

Back on October 14th, the ophthalmologist in the NICU reported that he could see mild stage 1 ROP (Retinopathy of Prematurity) in Aidan's eyes. This was upsetting since ROP is one of the big fears for premature babies, and can lead to serious vision problems. At the next check on October 29th, the ROP was not any worse, and was actually starting to go away.

Today, we took Aidan in to the ophthalmologist, and ...

THE ROP IS GONE!

Only one more week until Aidan's original due date

It's really wild to think that if Denyse's water hadn't broke in July, Aidan still may not even be born yet. Next Friday 11/21, is Aidan's original due date. Yesterday at the pediatrician, Aidan weighed 6 lbs 8.5 oz. It's hard to imagine him still being inside; Denyse would have been huge! Next Friday, Aidan will have a corrected age of 0!

Yesterday morning we took Aidan to the pediatrician for another oximetry test. His lungs have definitely improved. He only dipped below 90% a couple times, and didn't drop below 85 at all while he was off the oxygen. After the test, we (with the pediatrician) decided to no longer increase Aidan's oxygen to 50 ml for feedings and car rides, and just leave him at 25 ml all the time. A first step towards weaning him from the home oxygen!

Some pictures and videos of the last few days...

Aidan is wearing a monitor belt around his chest with the heart monitor leads on it. This makes him look really stocky like a miniature football player:



And at times, he looks like John Goodman:



Play this, and you'll see I'm right.



Tummy time!



OR, "These lights are freaking me out, man!" You decide which:



Denyse walked around today with Aidan in a Moby Wrap:







So I had to try:





In the last couple days, Aidan appears to be interacting with his surroundings for the first time. Here is the first time we saw him play.



Or maybe he is just flailing his arms around and they accidentally hit his toys.

More pictures from the last few days: