Day 72-112!!! We are home!!

First week of Hayden's life!! About 3 days old!!

Hayden now!! 7 pounds!!

We are so very sorry about not keeping you all very well up to date. Mister Hayden has had quite and adventure in the last few weeks. We finally got to bring our little man home on July 23 and we were soo sooooo excited!! But let me go back a little bit and update you on what has happened in Hayden's life since we posted last.




A few days after our last post, Hayden had his circumcision and they found a little surprise...he had two double hernias on each side that were rather large and would require surgery. We were a little upset about it because we were so close to coming home but we tried to be optimistic. They told us that they were going to send him by ambulance to Roanoke Memorial Hospital and have their surgeon look and him and decide what to do. So we went with him to Roanoke and stayed with my grandparents while he had his short trip to a brand new NICU. Well, long story short, he stayed at Roanoke Memorial for a week and they could never find the hernias again! So we ended up going straight home from that hospital. We were so very very excited to finally have Hayden home!!

Great-grandpa holding Hayden

When we finally took him home he weighed 5 lbs. and 10 ozs!! Such a big boy he was! He was also now up to eating 2 ozs. every three hours. They also found that he was allergic to something in my breast milk that I was eating so they put him on a special (very expensive) kind of hypoallergenic formula and referred him to a pediatric gastroenterologist. The specialist is now in the process of trying to wean him to Similac Alimentum which is much more accessible (because you can buy it in the store instead of having to order through the pharmacy) and much more affordable. He is doing pretty good with it and so far no allergic reaction.

We had him home about 2 days when we had our first pediatricians appointment just to check and see how he was doing. They said in the two days he was home, he had gained up to 6lbs. and 1oz!! We were shocked that he gained 6 ozs. in two days! The pediatrician also had other news for us....he had found Hayden's hernia again. So this time he referred us to a surgeon at University of Virginia to see if they could check him out and see what was going on. He gave us an appointment for the 17th of August and sent us on home.

Well everything went really well for about two weeks and then Tim and I were giving him a bath one morning and noticed a huge lump in his stomach. He was crying and couldn't keep down his food, so once again we took him to the pediatrician to be looked at. They sent us immediately to University of Virginia for emergency hernia surgery. He was admitted and had the surgery the next day. They said that both of the hernias were very large and it was a good thing that he went ahead and had the surgery done. The incisions are so small they said he probably wouldn't even have scars. When they weighed him there before surgery, He weighed 7 lbs and 1 oz!! Our teeny tiny 2 pounder!! They went ahead and sent him back home the next day and we have had no problems since then.

Hayden has been home with us for about a week since his surgery and we are LOVING it! He is a very good baby. He takes long naps and rarely cries unless he is hungry or his stitches hurt. He is loving and smart. We are so blessed to have him and he truly is a miracle. God brought us so far!! Through almost 3 months of NICU here in Lynchburg, 1 week of NICU in Roanoke, and surgery at UVA, he made it through it all with flying colors. No more heart murmurs, no breathing or lung problems, no problems eating, gaining weight, eyes perfect, ears perfect. He is truly a miracle and we are so thankful for him. Thank you everyone for following his journey and ours as well as we went through this tough time in our lives. We love you all and appreciate you so very much!!

Tim, Hilary, and (now home) HAYDEN!!!!

BIG smiles!!

Days 62-71

Sorry again about not updating you all on Hayden's progress for so long. You all know about the terrible Lynchburg power outages that we have been experiencing lately and that is mostly to blame. But the good news is that my computer is back in working order and so now hopefully the blog posts will be more regular. Today is up to day 71 (gosh I knew there was a reason that I preferred to think about it in terms of months instead of days!) and we are still trucking but hoping to make it to the home stretch soon. We have so so much good news to report to you since last time we posted!

First of all, Hayden failed his last count down and had another event so we had to start a new count down. We have now made it to day 4 of 8 on that count down. They figured out that it was his being so anemic that was causing the events with his heart so they went ahead and gave him another blood transfusion which helped a whole whole lot. He is acting like a brand new baby now. He hasn't had any more events since the transfusion. Also, I wanted to mention, Virginia Baptist Hospital is hosting a blood drive with the Red Cross on July 10th from 11:30 to 5:30 in the Craddock Auditorium. So I am encouraging everyone to go out and give blood for those who need it because there is a national blood shortage. The blood has saved Hayden's life and I will never be able to express my thanks to the person who gave it to him. So please just consider making a difference for someone else (maybe even a baby like Hayden). Tim is also going to donate and I really wanted to but they wouldn't let me because its too soon after having Hayden.

He also now weighs 4 lbs. and 5 ozs! Yay!! But they are saying that he is still gaining weight a little slowly for his age and that they would like for him to start putting on weight a little more quickly. So please pray that Hayden would start beefing up a little bit more and that he would keep on the weight that he has put on already. Losing his weight is another of his little problems but we are working through it slowly and surely.

And now....drum roll please....the biggest news of all.....................NO MORE FEEDING TUBE!! He is now taking all of his feedings by bottle all by himself. He hasn't quite gotten the hang of breastfeeding yet but they are hoping that will be in the near future as well. So we are soooo excited at his awesome progress. I wish I had a picture of his brand new look without the tubes but I don't have one on my camera yet. As soon as I get a picture though, I will post one. He looks so handsome!

He also had another eye exam the other day and it turned out perfect! His eyes are now totally mature so they don't have to do any more exams. He also had another head ultrasound that showed that the bleeding on his brain was gone!! And he had another heart ultrasound to check and see if he still has his slight murmur. We haven't gotten the results of that one yet but will let you know when we do.

The only other thing he is having problems with right now is that he is having some blood in his stool still which they think is being caused by the lactose in the formula that they are using to supplement him with. So they switched him today to a special non-lactose formula that they are supplementing the breast milk with. Hopefully this will help but they want to watch him for a few days and not feed him any breast milk just to isolate what it is that is making his stomach hurt. So they are only feeding him this special formula for the next couple of days to see if it helps.

Sorry about how long this post was, I guess it is because we have missed a few days with the posts. But we appreciate all of your prayers and just keep praying for Hayden and that maybe he will get to come home by his due date (which is now only three weeks away). We love you all!!


Tim, Hilary, and Hayden

Day 58-61

Wow I am so bad at this. I have missed another 4 days on Haydens blog, Every time I have the Internet I forget to post and every time I remember to post I have no Internet.

Well anyways Hayden is now 2 months old and he is doing very well the Dr. even said the words "when you get to take him home" it is the first time anyone has said that to us. He is on day 5 of his 12 day countdown. They just took him off his caffeine he has to do good with no events for the next 12 days after that it puts him one day closer to coming home. the two main things they are looking for before Hayden gets to come home are no Heart rate drops, no O2 drops, and he has to get his weight up over 4 lbs.

Hayden is on 35 mls. of milk every three hours. also he is still getting fed every other feeding by bottle, that is when he isn't too sleepy. Last time we were told he weighed 3 lbs. and 14 oz.

Please keep Hayden in your prayers that he will keep doing well and that he will get to come home soon.

Thanks everyone

Tim Hilary and Hayden.

Days 55-57

OK so here goes on day 55-57.

Hayden has been doing very well (but we won't tell him that) cause if we do he gets a big head and shows them just how bad he can be. He has been doing well with his feedings and guess what he finally gets to eat through a BOTTLE twice a day yeah. The first time he ate about 17 mls. with the nurse, the next time he ate about 22 mls.for Hilary, but the last feeding he had I got to feed him and He ate about 27 mls. I was such a proud daddy My little baby boy made me so proud.

They are going to do another blood count tomorrow to see if he is able to bring up his blood count by himself. I have a feeling that he has cause he has not had an event for such a long time.

We wanna thank everyone for joining us on our little adventure, thanks for all your prayers and support we love you all and keep the prayers coming.

Tim Hilary and HAYDEN :-) :-)

Days 49-54

This is the only recent picture I have of him but he is getting so big and soooo handsome!!!

Sorry that its been so long on the posts everyone, same trouble as we have been having. My computer is still out of service (hopefully now not that much longer since my uncle found out what was wrong with it). So I am currently at my parents house using one of their computers. I have to fill you in on days 49, 50, 51, 52, 53 and today being 54. So I am going to summarize all of the days together.

Ok so, since we last updated, Hayden has had a setback and then made a comeback. He had to go back on oxygen for about a day and a half because they told us that he was not being able to breathe very well since they moved his feeding tube into his nose. They said though that they had to keep the tube in his nose because he would not be able to nurse if it would be in his mouth. Since then, he has managed to come back off the oxygen and to only have a couple of events.

He is still doing pretty well with his feedings. They tried to treat him like a big boy and go to the bolus feedings spread out over an hour with a two hour break but his tummy did not like that at all. He has managed to keep it at a feeding spread over 2 hours with a break of one hour. The main point is that he is no longer on continuous feedings which is a great great accomplishment. He is also doing well with his nursing that he gets to try twice a day which is great! We are really hoping that maybe by next week he will be on all bottle feedings. He also now weighs 3 lbs. and 7 ozs.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Awesome!!!!!

His biggest problem right now is that he is anemic. They have already given him two blood transfusions and they have helped but he is still too small to keep his blood supply up all by himself. I believe they said that the normal red blood cell count was around 46? (it was either 45 or 46) and that his level was 25. So he needs to make more red blood cells. They don't want to give him another transfusion unless they have to because they said that it sends a signal to his body not to make more. They are hoping that his body will get the hint and start to make more on its own over the next couple of days.

Also, he had another eye exam that is now showing that he is stage 2-3 immature instead of stage 1. Which means it was good because they didn't see any bleeding or anything out of the order, but also means that they will just have to re-check them again in another 2 weeks to see if they have fully matured.

I think that's about all the updates on mister Hayden. He is doing very well and we are hoping that maybe he can come home sometime towards the middle or the end of July. I hope that he doesn't have to stay there till his due date in August since he is making such good progress. Please keep praying for him that he will continue to do well and that he can come home soon. We love you all very much and thank you for following our blog and praying for our little miracle baby!

Tim, Hilary, and Hayden

Day 48

His first outfit!! Way too big even though it is a preemie!

Today Hayden is having another great day! He has not had any more events since he went off his oxygen almost a week ago! He has some ups and downs with his heart rate and oxygen but he has learned now how to bring it back up all by himself and without any help! So he has made great great progress!!

Tomorrow he will be seven weeks old!! YAY! And on Wednesday his gestational age will be 33 weeks. That leaves seven more weeks till his due date. So if he has to stay until his approximate release date (which is his due date) then we have made it halfway through his hospital stay as of Wednesday. He may be able to leave a couple of weeks early if he keeps doing well, but they have told us not to expect that, to expect his due date instead of getting our hopes up.

Bathtime!

He is doing so well with his breathing that there is nothing more to report. He is not needing oxygen and he seems to have learned how to breathe all by himself. So please keep praying that he will continue to do well and continue to stay off his oxygen. His feedings are still continuous but tomorrow they are going to switch back to what they call bolus feedings. This means that they will run his feeding pump over a period of two hours and then give him an hour break before they start another feeding. It just helps his body learn how to get his feedings all at once instead of getting small amounts continuously. They are hoping this will also help him prepare for bottle feedings because he has to be able to get his food into his stomach once every three hours before he can bottle feed. So this is a good step in the right direction and hopefully he will take it well and his problem with reflux will be resolved.

He weighs 3 lbs. and 2 oz. again and they are happy that he has gained that weight back. They said he needs to be about 4 lbs. to 4 and a half before he will be big enough to get out of his isolette and maintain his own body temperature.

Mommy giving Hayden a bath.

We feel like he has made so much progress! They told us when he was born that he had to accomplish 4 major things before he could go home 1.) He had to be able to breathe on his own, 2.) He had to be able to eat on his own, 3.) He had to be big enough to keep up his own body temperature, 4.) He had to be able to do all three of these things at the same time. So far he has accomplished one out of four of these things and he is well on his way to accomplishing the other three. Please continue to keep him in your prayers and keep us in your prayers as well that we will have strength to make it through the other half of his hospital stay. We love you all!!



Tim, Hilary, and Hayden

Day 46-47

Well today I will try and update you on all the new changes for Hayden for the last couple days. We also have some new pictures for you guys to enjoy (and pictures of Tim's parents getting to hold Hayden).

Yesterday he did pretty well, he gained back another ounce which was really good! That puts him back up to 3 lbs. and 1 ounce! He also did pretty good with his suckling again last night and hopefully sometime this week they will let him start bottle-feeding a little bit. They said that they will start him on one bottle feeding per day and the rest tube feedings and then they will gradually increase him one feeding until he makes it up to taking all 8 of his feedings by bottle. Yesterday they had also increased his feedings to 9 mls. per hour or 27 mls. every three hours.

Today, he has had another great day! I went in and the first thing they told me was "He needs a diaper change and we think its a major stinky!!" So, I changed it and he must have been saving up for me all day! Oh how I wished that Tim had been there to change it and not me (since he has never before in his life changed a stinky diaper). I would've loved to see the look on his face!

Pretty much everything is still the same with him today, he is still getting the same amount of food and he is still doing good breathing on his own. He is having a little trouble with reflux when he eats so that is why they are progressing slower on his feeding process. He is also still on continuous feedings so he has to be able to go every three hours on his feedings before he can bottle feed. Also, I have not had a chance to find out how much he weighs yet so that may be on tomorrow's post.

Its hard to believe that we are already up to 47 days! He will probably be here at least another 47 days before he finally gets home. But that is ok as long as he is healthy and keeps making progress in the right direction. Sometimes it feels endless but we keep trusting God and he is helping us make it through. Through it all, we have to keep remembering to be glad for the small accomplishments and not expecting leaps and bounds. He has done so remarkably well for a baby his size and continues to make the doctors and nurses very impressed with how well he is doing. Please just keep him in your prayers as we still have a long road ahead of us. We love you all!

Tim, Hilary, and Hayden

Day 44-45

OK so I did it again, I missed another day. But I think that it will be all worth it in the end cause we have some great news.

But first lets start with some not as great news. Hayden over the last two days has putting on the pounds. He put on up to 3 lbs. and 2 oz. which he just lost today, I guess he just saves it all in his tiny little stomach and lets it all out at once. So he is now down to 3 lbs. even :-(. My Father stated last night that he had eaten meals bigger then Hayden, and I have to say that goes for me too. lol
       Anyways the nurses have let the grandparents hold Hayden "cause he is doing so well" And they all seemed to love it.

Now to the news you've all been waiting for Mr. Hayden.............................................
is now............................................
OFF ALL HIS OXYGEN
And he is breathing all on his own, and he is doing amazing with it. Now we can't tell him that its gone cause if he knew that then he might get scared.

Thanks everyone for all your prayers and support. Hopefully we will have our little baby boy home with us soon.

We love you all. Tim Hilary and Hayden

I'm sorry we have no pictures for you I am trying to find my memory card reader and I will try to get them up as soon as I can.

Day 43

Well well well Hayden has done it again. Not only has he been bumped down from 2 liter to 1 liter on his oxygen ( on which he is doing very well ). But he has hit the magical 3 lbs 1 oz. mark, this baby is growing like there is no tomorrow. They are hoping that in the next week or two he will be off all his oxygen. We can't wait to see what happens next to our little baby boy. So now we have finally made it to 1 lb. gained since he has been born 6 weeks and 1 day ago. It has been uphill both ways for Hayden but he has shown us all that he can make it through anything that life throws at him.

Pray that he continues to do well and that he can get off all his machines and come home soon. And most of all pray that God will be glorified through the whole thing. Thanks for all your continued prayers. We don't have new pictures tonight but we will try to get some more tomorrow.

Tim, Hilary, and Hayden

Day 42

So today Hayden is officially 6 weeks old! He has come so far and grown so well! We are so proud of how good he is doing and how strong he is. Don't have much to update you all on tonight, everything is still pretty much the same as it was yesterday.

He is still on his 2 liters of oxygen (and thank the Lord he has been doing very well on it, no events at all since then and we are praying it will stay that way). He also is still on his continuous feedings although they did increase them slightly again today. He is eating almost 25 mls. every three hours now (which is just a little short of an ounce). He is still getting his extra calories to help him beef up a little. Other than that, he is doing pretty much the same. He also didn't gain any weight from yesterday. He still weighs 2 lbs. and 15 oz. One more ounce to go till he crosses the three pound mark!!!

Also, today was great because I got to try letting him suckle a little bit. He is just playing around and getting used to it now but the nurses have told me that its really good for him because it will help make it a little easier for him when it comes time to actually breast and bottle feed. He did really well with it (in my opinion of course hehe) and he seems to really love his pacifier. All of which are good signs that he is getting closer to being able to bottle feed.

Also got some great pictures of my parents holding Hayden for the first time! I got some great pictures of them here on the blog tonight. Timothy's parents will be coming to hold him Thursday for the first time too so it seems this week Hayden will be introduced to both sets of his grandparents! More pictures of this encounter to come on Thurday. Thanks everyone for your prayers and for all your support. You all have been great and we love you very much!

Tim, Hilary, and Hayden

Day 41

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so happy for once we posted two post in a row without missing a day. Aren't you so proud of me?
Anyways Baby Hayden is doing so well that this is going to be the shortest blog post ever. He is still on room air at 2 liters per min. by his little nasal cannula, and doing amazing He hasn't had an event for at least 3 days. He is tolerating his feeding very well, He is getting 8 liters of milk every hour and its going all the time. He has lost about an ounce in the last two days but that just means his body is digesting it well. He loves to be held, when I get to hold him He is very active and with Hilary He is so relaxed he just sleeps, But as soon as she puts him back He is wide awake.

Thanks for all the prayers keep them coming.

Tim Hilary and Hayden

Day 40

They had to tape the oxygen tubing to his nose because he was
pulling it out so much!!!

So today Hayden is doing very well! I was told last night that he accomplished quite a feat yesterday....HE FLIPPED FROM HIS BACK TO HIS STOMACH ALL BY HIMSELF!! I was told that one of the nurses went to check on him because his heart monitor had slipped off a little bit and when she went to check on him, he had turned over all by himself. He is such a squirmy baby and a mover! We are so proud of him and he is such a smart baby. Another feat he accomplished last night during the night (that I found out about this morning) was that he managed to get the adjustable part of the nasal cannula (the part that's on the back of his head) into his mouth and was chewing on it! He has such a personality and all the nurses are telling me that I should have named him Houdini instead of Hayden.

To give you an update of how he is doing physically, he is now back down to 2 liters of oxygen and he is still staying on room air. He has not had any events since yesterday morning, so he has made it over 24 hours without having an event! YAY! He has also been increased up to 8 mls. of food every hour. He is still on his continuous feedings but we are hoping soon that he can come off of those and back to being fed every three hours. They have also told me that on Wednesday (when he turns 32 weeks) we can try and experiment with a bottle and see what he does with it. He may not take it but we can at least see how he responds to it. They have also told me that by 34 weeks he should be taking it much more readily and easily. He is also getting an extra 27 calories per feeding to help boost his weight gain. He also is still at the same weight as yesterday, no weight gain today.

We are so proud of him and how he is doing so well! Also as a treat for you blog followers, I have brand new pictures of him and (if I can get it to work) a video of his gymnastics lol. We love you and thank you for all of your prayers!

Tim, Hilary, and Hayden

Day 38-39

So once again we have skipped a day and for that I am very sorry. We are still trying to get Hilary's computer fixed and haven't had time to post. so i am doing it from work. So baby Hayden is doing well he has gained up to 2 lbs and 14 oz. they just took him down to 2 Lt. of oxygen instead of 2 1/2 his nurse said he is doing well with it. he has had no events today. He has also been bumped his feeding up to 7.9 mls. per hour still on continuous feed. He has started trying to escape from his isolate with no success which makes him try even harder. He had his eye exam and they said the his eyes are developing just how they wanted them to. there are three stages of eye development he is at stage 1 which is fine. They are going to do a follow up in two weeks to make sure they are still going in the right direction.

Thanks to all for keeping him in your prayers.

We will try to post everyday from here on out, but please know if we cant post we will fully update you asap.

Thanks Tim, Hilary and Hayden

I was just thinking of where Hayden has come from, so I am going to post a couple pictures so you can compare them. "LOOK HOW MUCH BIGGER HE IS"

Days 36-37

I know, we missed another day with the blog! Sorry about that guys but it is because my laptop is out of service and the only internet we can use is at the hospital....when someone else isn't using it (which of course they were last night when we needed to post about Hayden). So today I have to report for two days.

Yesterday he did really really well and he only had one breathing event in the early morning. He was still in room air all day long and he was being pretty stable with his oxygen levels as well. He is also still at 2 and a half cylinders but they were talking about maybe taking him back down to 2 if he continued to do well in the next couple days. He also was eating about 7 mls. per hour of continuous feedings (which equals about 21 mls. for a normal 3 hour feeding). He also had lots of poopies yesterday all by himself which was also really good. Yesterday he weighed 2 lbs. and 10 ozs. YAY!! Getting so big!

Today he also had a really really good day. He only had one little event this morning and has had none since then. He seems to be getting in the habit of being a once a day misbehaver. He has also been on room air all day today as well and he is still on 2 and a half cylinders. His feedings have been increased though and now he is eating 22 and a half mls. per every three hours. Also today he weighs 2 lbs. and 12 ozs!!!! We are so proud of his great weight gain this week! He has done sooo good! We are just waiting for him to hit his big 3 lb. milestone and they are telling us that it probably won't be long now.

Tomorrow he has his first eye exam to check and see how well his eyes are progressing so please pray that it will go well and that he will have normal development. Also, they said that hopefully next week he can start trying to take a bottle. They want him to try to get the hang of the bottle first before he tries to breastfeed because they said that can be a little more difficult for preemies. So please just pray for his continued development and pray for him to keep on growing! We love you!!!

Tim, Hilary, and Hayden

Day 34-35

Ok so I have to apologize for the tardiness of this post, our computer just crashed and we didn't leave the hospital till about midnight. Yes I missed a whole day of Hayden's life on the blog but I will try to make up for that now. So let us journey back in time to May 28th 2012, so put on your imagination caps and come along with me. On this day in history Hayden was so cute ( as always ) He didn't gain any weight cause he gained so much weight the other day, and he refuses to poop any of it out he was such a good boy. Mommy got to hold him for about 2 hours and I could see both of them glowing.
Now come back to the present day. We haven't seen him yet to day cause we spent the whole day in Roanoke to look at a used car and we can't get internet at the house so I am going to post what I know now and I'll have to tell you the rest tomorrow when we know more. But for now here's what we know thus far. Hayden has now pooped his guts out as the nurse put it. He has only had a couple of  events today, and other than that he is doing good we will try to keep the blog up but just keep in mind that if we don't update the blog we will do our best to keep up with it.

Thanks everyone for taking a trip with me, I hope you enjoyed it.

Tim, Hilary and Hayden.

Day 33

Today Hayden has had another great day. His breathing and heart rate have improved today and he only had one event early this morning (and none at all last night). He is back on the room air but they did increase his oxygen to 2 and a half liters instead of the 2 that he was on. They have told me that by 35 or 36 weeks he should mostly have grown out of his spells where he drops his heart rate.

Also, he is still getting his continuous feedings but he is up to 27 calories per feeding instead of the 24 that he had been getting. They said this should really help him be able to put on weight faster. Speaking of which, he is now up to 2 lbs. and 9 ozs!!!!!! We are so so happy! That is such a great improvement and he looks so much better now that he did even a week ago. He is starting to really look like a miniature full term baby now.

Overall he is doing great and he is continuing to show his personality. Today we found out that the nurses have noticed he doesn't like the dark. He does much better with his breathing and heart rate when they leave his bedside light on and pull back his sunshade. I don't know why that is but it works! Also this week his activity has greatly increased and he is wiggling out of his bed and doing high kicks and punches. He is extremely squirmy and just doesn't want to sit still.

We appreciate you all so much and all of your prayers for Hayden. Thank you for all that you have done for us! We love you and please continue to keep praying for our little miracle baby!

Tim, Hilary, and Hayden (aka little miracle)

Day 32

Today Hayden seems to be doing much better than yesterday. He is keeping his heart rate and oxygen up very nicely today and he is also breathing more consistently. He is still getting a continuous feeding of 150 ml. per day and he seems to be tolerating it well. Yesterday they also took his calorie level back down to 22 calories because they were trying to see if that was what was causing him to have his episodes. So because of this he lost a little weight, putting him back down to just under 2 lbs. 6 oz. We are confident he will gain it back soon though with how well he is doing today.
Also, today was Hayden's baby shower! YAY! And we got lots of very cute stuff for the little man (which I can't wait to organize in his nursery). Sorry today is such a short post, Tim and I are both exhausted from such a crazy and hectic week. But we promise that we will make it up next time with a longer and more detailed post. Thank you for continuing to watch the blog and pray for Hayden. We really appreciate all your prayers.

Tim, Hilary, and Hayden :)

Day 31

I am so glad to say that as of today there have been over 10,000 views on baby Hayden's blog. Thank you all for your support, encouragement and prayers. Hayden was not doing so well tonight. He had alot of trouble keeping his breathing and heart rate, they think its because of the meds that Hilary is on getting to him through the milk. So they told her not to use that milk anymore to see if it helps. He is dropping his heart rate about 4 or 5 times in an hour and normally he does it only once a day. So they have started putting him on continuous feeding to see if it is reflux that is causing his heart to drop. he is getting 150 mls. a day instead of every 3 hours. By the way, on the plus side Hayden is now 15 inches long and weighs 2 lbs. and almost 7 ozs. He was doing better when we left him tonight but he still needs lots of prayers. Hilary is doing much better the meds are making her a little sick but she is getting much better. We promised good pictures from last night and here they are. We want to thank everyone for everything you have done for us.

Tim Hilary and Hayden.

Day 30

Today Hayden has had another great day! He is doing much much better with his breathing and has not had any more episodes since last night!! We are really happy about this because it seems like his breathing is so much more improved. He is still on room air and he is on 2 liters of high flow oxygen. Hopefully if he continues to do well then they will take him off the high flow and to the regular oxygen soon. He is doing great also with his tube feeds and he is still at 21 ml. every 3 hours. He seems to be tolerating the new fortifier very well and he is now up to 24 calories per feeding. This is causing him to chunk up a little bit, which we are really happy about! He now weighs 2 lbs. and 5 and a half ozs. He looks so much better and he is also not needing his bilirubin light any longer because he is doing so well!! Also today is his official one month birthday! He had his four week mark on Tuesday. From one month ago I was at the hospital with a brand new 2 lb. 1 oz. baby. He has come so far since then! We are all so amazed at his progress. Also, they rechecked the medicine that I am on and it is safe for me to breastfeed him so I am very happy about that. And they are also letting me hold him again now which I greatly needed. Also for those of you asking about me, I am doing much better and thank you for all your prayers. Sorry I don't have pictures tonight. Tim got called out on an emergency neonatal ambulance call and I do not have the camera disc with me. But I promise good pictures tomorrow night. Thank you for all your prayers!!

Day 29

Baby Hayden did so well today besides the fact that he almost drowned. The machine that gives him his oxygen has to have some humidity so that his nose doesn't dry out, but it got a little full and started to run down his nose. I have never heard him scream so loud. The nurse came down and suctioned it out and fixed the machine but it doesn't look like Hayden is going to like swimming so much.
Hayden is now getting 21 mls. of milk every 3 hours and 24 calories every feeding. he is up to 2lbs. and 5 ozs. he is still breathing room air and is still at 2 liters per minute. He still has a little bit of trouble with keeping his heart hate up but he is getting better. thanks for all your prayers.

Tim Hilary and Hayden.

Day 28

Hilary's thumb against Hayden's little feet

Today Hayden has had a pretty good day. He has had a little trouble keeping his heart rate up because he falls asleep too deeply and forgets to breathe. But we are praying that these will continue to get better and that he will continue to get stronger. His oxygen levels are still looking great!! He is still on 2 liters and room air (which is so so so good!!). So we are very excited at how much his breathing has improved.

He is also up to eating 21 mls. every three hours now on the feeding pump. They have also started him back on the fortifiers and he seems to be doing really great with those as well. The night nurse last night said that he had 5 poopie diapers for her! All of them normal so we are hoping he continues to do well with this as well. If he continues to do well with the fortifiers, they will take him from a 22 calorie fortifier to a 24 calorie fortifier. That is supposed to help him gain weight even faster. He hasn't lost any weight lately but he also has not gained any weight, he still weighs 2 lbs. and 4 ozs.

I didn't get to hold him tonight because I am now on antibiotics for a UTI and possibly uterus infection, they aren't sure yet. So please pray for me that I will heal quickly so I will be able to hold Hayden again soon. Also, I am having to throw out all of my breast milk while I'm on the antibiotic because its dangerous for Hayden. Please also pray that this first round of antibiotics works so that I will not keep having to throw out valuable milk. Also, please keep Hayden in your prayers and keep praying for him to continue doing as well as he is doing. We love you and thank you for all your support and prayers!!

Tim, Hilary, and Hayden.

Day 27

Today Hayden has had another great day!! They have discovered the cause of his tummy problems...he is lactose intolerant. They said that this is caused by him being a preemie and should disappear when he gets closer to his full-term age. So they have put him back on the fortifiers for the breast milk (to help him gain weight) and they are also adding something called lactase to my breast milk to keep him from being allergic. He seems to be doing great with this. No weight gain so far but we are hoping that since he is on the fortifiers that he will start to gain weight faster.

He is also breathing very well on his own. He is still on the 2 liters at room air. Today however, he went about 30 minutes with the prongs slightly coming out of his nose and he still stayed from 95 to 100%. He is just doing so well with his breathing now. He still had one heart episode today where they had to stimulate him to wake him up, but those as well are getting fewer and further between.

His skin has been very dry and scaly lately. They said that this is because he is no longer in any humidity in his incubator and the warm, dry air will dry his skin out. So now he has some prescription cream that he is getting for his little dry skin. Overall, he is doing great and is so alert and happy. Thank you all for your prayers and support.

Tim, Hilary, and Hayden

Day 26

Today Hayden has had another great day. He seems to be responding really well to the blood transfusion. He is more alert and more happy than yesterday. This has also helped him not to have so many heart episodes. Overall, he seems like he feels much much better.

He also got a new incubator today. It is pretty much the same as the one he had, except they told me that its an older model that they use for less critical care babies. So now I call it his "big boy incubator" because it is a small step in the way of not needing one at all (eventually).
He is also doing great with the change in the oxygen levels. Since they took him down to 2 yesterday he has pretty much stayed in room air. Basically what the machine does is force the air up into his nose to help him breath. But he no longer actually has a machine that breathes FOR him. The nurse said that the next step for him is to go down to 1 liter and then after he does well with that, they can take him off of it altogether and he will be breathing like a regular newborn would. This is soooo huge for him and it is such a big accomplishment!! They have also told me that if he keeps doing this well with his breathing, I may be able to try a little experimental breast feeding in a few weeks! YAY!

He is still a very smiley and happy baby and the nurses say that he is just such a sweetheart. He continues to be our little miracle and he continues to make such good progress. He is such a fighter and has such spirit already (Lord help us when he gets older haha). Continue to pray for our miracle that he would get to come home to us soon and that he continues to do this well. We greatly appreciate you all and all of your love and support.

Tim, Hilary, and Hayden

Day 25

Oh my gosh baby Hayden is doing so well, he is still on 2 lpm of oxygen in his tiny little nasal cannula, which was too big and they had to get the smallest one they have. He is staying between 89% and 100% oxygen and they want it to stay between 83% and 100% so he is doing well with his breathing. His pulse rate has been running between 135 and 160 they don't want it to go below 100 or above 180, so that is doing well too. He is so peaceful and calm he is the sweetest little baby ever. Hayden did need about 15 mls. of blood cause he's still just a little bit low. they had to stop his feeding till 2:30 in the morning just to let the blood settle, he seems to be responding well to it. Other then that Hayden is loving life and we are loving him.
Thanks everyone for your prayers and please keep them coming.

Tim, Hilary and Baby Hayden.

Day 24

Well......I have an extremely big accomplishment to report on Hayden tonight!! He is off of his breathing machine altogether and he has went to regular 3 liters per minute of oxygen! NO MORE VENT OR SIPAP!! That means that now he is breathing ALL BY HIMSELF! No more extra help breathing, now he just gets a little extra oxygen to help him out. He is doing great with this change and seems like he is doing a really good job keeping himself breathing. The nurses are super excited about his progress and this is such a huge huge step for him! We are just gonna keep praying that he continues to do this well and that he continues to make such rapid progress.

He also has made it back up to 18 mls. per every three hours and this has caused him to chubby up a little bit. He has made it back up to 2 lbs. and 5 ozs! He has also had two more regular poo poos which means that his tummy is back to normal! No more problems there either. He is also off of all of his IV fluids! He still has the IV lock in his arm but thats just in case he needs more IVs later (which at this point since he is doing so well, they don't anticipate). They also said that his blood sugar looks really good as well and that he is not running as sweet as he has been lately.

Both Tim and I got to hold him tonight and he did SO well. No apnea or spells with his breathing and he also maintained his heart rate really well. He was back to his normal self today and he was very smiley and happy. He is such a little sweetheart and he really really is such a trooper. Also tonight he was playing with Daddy and they were having a whole lot of fun. Every time Daddy would stick out his tongue, so would Hayden. That got lots of smiles from Mommy and Daddy.
Thank you all so much for your prayers. We are just amazed at what God is doing with Hayden and how fast he is progressing and how much he is accomplishing. Thank you all so much for your prayers and your love! Keep us in your thoughts! We love you all.

Tim, Hilary, and Hayden