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

Day 22-23

I need to apologize to everyone watching Baby Hayden's blog, I forgot my computer when we went to see him yesterday and we don't have internet at our house. So I will have to update y'all on the last two days right now. Hayden has been restarted on his food at 10 mls. every three hours. He is still on his pump for the food, they will increase his feeding by 2 mls. every eight hours. So far he has made it up to 12 mls.  He will be on his IV till tomorrow when they get him up to 16 mls.  His X-rays came back normal again! So as far as we know it was just an allergic reaction to the formula that they gave him. He has also been taken off all of his antibiotics that they gave him to clear up his allergic reaction. This luckily hasn't caused him to lose much of his weight that he gained. He still weighs 2 lbs. and 3 ozs.

His breathing has been great lately and he is still on room air and only on 15 breaths per minute to help him out. His spells of apnea and bradycardia have also started to come fewer and farther between. This is a great sign and hopefully they will decrease him even further on the oxygen tomorrow. They said that the next step for him is continuous air flow with no extra help breathing. He has also been moved from the critical care side of the NICU to the progressive care side, which the nurse said means he has graduated and is making great progress!! Also, they have taken his lab work down to be taken from once every day to only twice per week now.

He still hates anything touching him; he was trying to pull his feeding tube and O2 off while we were holding him. I think he may have been a little tired today from all of the fussing because he seemed rather grouchy and he cried a lot when he was being messed with. Yesterday though was a good day for him and he was very smiley and alert. So hopefully tomorrow when he gets his energy back from the feedings he will be more relaxed. He is making such good progress and we know that it is because of all your prayers and because God has great plans for him. We greatly appreciate all of you and know that because of your faithful lifting up of little Hayden to God, he continues to grow stronger every day. Thank you all for your words of encouragement and the love that you continue to show us.

Tim, Hilary, and Hayden

Day 21



Sleepy little fellow

Hayden is doing great again today!! He had a repeat X-ray on his stomach to see if he was still having infection problems and it came back great! It was absolutely normal, no infection. He also hasn't had any more tummy problems today. So hopefully after they do one more panel of blood work and one more X-ray tomorrow morning they will start his feedings again. Its starting to look like it was just the formula that upset his tummy but they want to make 100% sure. He is still on his IV but you can tell that he knows his tummy is empty. He keeps sucking and rooting for food and he can't relax unless he has his pacifier to calm him down. He was wide awake when I went to see him today and he was very very curious about what was going on around him. He can control his eyes much better now and he can follow faces and see light more now also. We have also found out that he has lots and lots of facial expressions! He is a very expressive baby and makes it clear when he likes something and when he doesn't; have also found out that he can wiggle his ears just like Tim. He also likes to smile and seems like a very happy baby. He is also doing much better with his breathing and seems to be having less and less episodes and less and less need of high oxygen concentration. I think he is on room air now and he is still getting 20 breaths per minute. He weighed the same as he did yesterday. Overall, he seems to be active and feeling pretty good so that is a good sign that hopefully there will be no infection develop and tomorrow's X-ray will be great. Keep him in your prayers that he will get past this other little bump in the road and that he can get back to eating and putting on weight. We hope he can keep making good progress so that he can come home to us by his due date. We appreciate you all so much and all the love and support!
Tim, Hilary, and Hayden

Day 20

So baby boy is out of his Teens He is almost as old as I am well he's 21 days old and I am now 22 years old but close enough, what a couple year?  After his antics today the nurses have taken to calling him "Houdini Hayden". Hayden has pulled out his feeding tube at least 9 times, the last time he pulled it out and and rolled on top of it so that the nurse wouldn't know it. He has pulled off his heart monitor, his diaper, his breathing tube, and his O2 sensor. baby still does need a little help, he has a little bit of blood in his stool and the Dr. doesn't know if its an infection or if he just didn't like the formula that they gave him. So they are going to stop his feeding till that get all the tests done, And they are going to put him back on an IV till they figure out what it is that's going on. But Hilary got to hold him again this afternoon ant this was the first time I have ever heard her laugh with the baby in her arms. It was very encouraging. thanks for all your prayers, pray with us that he will get over this little set back.



Tim and Hilary

Day 19



Sleepy in his sock monkey hat

Today is Hayden's first Mother's Day and to celebrate the NICU gave me a card with a new set of his little footprints on it. Today he weighed 2 lbs. and 6 oz.!!! He gained two whole ounces in one day! He seems also to be doing better with his breathing because today he only had one incident where he stopped breathing; hopefully as time passes they will get less and less frequent. He is eating 19 mls. every three hours by pump and seems to be doing great. Also, he has started to be able to have more regular bowel movements all by himself. They also took off his body temperature sensor last night because he is getting better at regulating his own body temperature now. And one more big accomplishment.......BIG BOY DIAPERS! He has graduated to the next size up in diapers. I got to hold him tonight and he did pretty good. He had his eyes open and was looking around at everything. He was also smiling a lot tonight. We got some really good pictures with his new little preemie sock monkey hat that a friend made for him, unfortunately, it is still a little too big for him! He still looked adorable anyways and at the rate he is growing I'm sure he'll fit in it soon. Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there!! Keep remembering to pray for Hayden because he is doing so so well because of your prayers. We love you!

Tim, Hilary, and Hayden!

Day 18

A hug from her baby for Hilarys first mothers day.

Wow oh Wow. That is all I have to say right now, when I get my thought process back ill let y'all know.
So first thing this morning and I do mean first thing cause it happened at 2:00 AM pour baby he never gets to sleep. Any ways they pulled baby Haydens PIC line from his arm so he no longer has any IV fluids running YEAH!!!!!!!!!!! Also I just found out that my Baby boy is a major flirt. this baby knows how to get attention, he will sit all calm and peaceful while the nurses are working on him, but as soon as they leave to work on another baby he will either slow his breathing or his heart rate so that one of the alarms go off and they have to check on him, then he acts all better. He is so strong he will grab a hold of his feeding tube and turn his head trying to pull it out. according to the nurses he has pulled it out six times already. Like I said he just wants attention. he is eating about 19 mls. every three hours, and he now weighs 2 lbs. 4 oz. 2 LBS. 4 OZ. We love this baby and we love all the work that God has done in his life. Hilary was telling me the other day that before she got pregnant with Hayden she told God " if you give us a baby we will dedicate his life back to you for your will". This baby is such a blessing and we hope that God has answered her prayer and that his life has blessed your life as much as it has ours. we love to hear your encouragement and your prayers. thank you from the bottom of our hearts THANK YOU.

Tim, Hilary and Hayden.

Day 17

Sun tanning under the phototherapy light

Hayden is such a little trooper!....and apparently today also such a little rascal for the nurses. I came in tonight and the nurse told me "We didn't have the feeding tube taped down to his mouth really well and somehow or another he has managed to pull it out three times!!". I just laughed and told her that sounded exactly like my son. Also was told that he found this extremely funny and would grin at her EVERY time he did it. He is getting fed the maximum 17mls. every three hours now...YAY! Apparently he says yay too because he has gained a whole ounce in one day, now up to 2 lbs. and 3 oz. He is also on regular IV with less nutrients that they are hoping to wean him off of by tomorrow so that he can get all of his nutrients from fortified breast milk. When this happens, they can take the IV out altogether. He has had less breathing episodes in the last couple days but he still has problems with his breathing and with maintaining his oxygen levels. There is no way to fix this except for him to grow out of it and we are hoping that his lungs will mature sooner rather than later. He has such a personality and pretty much every nurse I have talked to loves him but knows that he likes playing games. He will pull off every wire and then grin like he has done something fabulous. We all love him so much and thank God that he is doing so well!! Hopefully if everything goes well, we will have him home with us sometime in July. Thanks everyone for all the prayers and support! We love you!!
Tim, Hilary, and Hayden :)

Day 16

Hayden still amazes me with all the progress that he is making. They told us today that they are decreasing the amount of IV fluids and the consistency and if he does well with it they are hoping that tomorrow they can take his pic line out. last night he had a bad night but after they cleaned out his nose he did a lot better he has had no problem today. They let Hilary hold him for about two hours and besides A LOT of hiccups he loved it. he is being fed 12 mls. every three hours, they have him on a feed pump that runs over two hours. He was letting us know that he doesn't want to have the feeding tube in he took a hold of it and tried to pull it out several times. but altogether he has been just the cutest and sweetest baby ever. We love him very much and are so proud of all the progress that he is making.
We want to thank everyone for all the prayers that you are offering up for him.
Tim and Hilary.

Day 15

People praying for Hayden have written his
name on their hands.

Well, Hayden seems to be having another great day today!! He had two little episodes with his breathing this morning but other than that he is doing really well. He is on room air and he is getting only 15 breaths per minute now and the rest of the time he is breathing all by himself. He is up to eating 12 mls. every three hours by pump and because of this he has been taken off all of his lipids by IV. He is now only getting a small amount of fluids by IV which the nurse said will also be discontinued once he reaches 17 mls. every three hours. He is back on his bilirubin light but that is normal and this time he made it three whole days without it!!! YAY! We are making progress. He is also getting the hang of pooping all by himself even though he still needs a little help sometimes. He is doing so good and seems so peaceful and content now that he is starting to get the hang of breathing. He has also gained another 10 grams which puts him up to 940 grams. Its funny how a blessing like this makes you appreciate the small things and learn not to sweat the things you can't change. Every day with Hayden makes me appreciate life more and cherish the next one. We thank God every day for our little miracle and for friends that have kept him lifted up in prayer. We love you!

Hilary

Day 14

WOW WOW WOW!!!!!! Baby Hayden is doing so well today he has no meds running. He has to get a little bit of caffeine once a day, he is getting 11 mls. of milk every three hours he is starting to get his milk by a pump so that he doesn't have so much problems breathing. they are going to start slowing down how much the machine is breathing for him, Right now the machine is breathing 25 times for him and they are going to put it down to 20 times. he is doing so well. he is so relaxed and just sleeping today. They have done a follow up head ultrasound and they said the blood is starting to evaporate, they are going to do another one in two weeks just to see its still going down. this baby is going to be a super hero. thanks everybody for your prayers baby is doing so well I am so happy.

Day 13

OK so we are getting later and later with our posts, I have to apologise for that. But we are at the ICU with baby Hayden and he is doing extremely well he is up to 10 mls. of milk every 3 hours, he is off his antibiotic, and he is off his Billie light. all day long he has only forgotten to breath once. this baby is astounding everyone in the ICU. Thank the Lord our baby is doing so well, there is nothing else i could say but God is watching over or little baby boy and if I can fit him in my hand then all God has to do is wrap one little finger over our little baby. although form the looks of things He has done so much more then that. thank you everyone for your prayers. keep them coming.

Tim and Hilary. Oh yeah and Hayden.

Day 12

Overall today Hayden has had a pretty good day. He is still on antibiotics for his infection, but they do not know what is causing the infection yet. The blood tests have come back negative for the bad stuff (yay!!). Hopefully they will stop the antibiotics by tomorrow, we will see how he does. He is up to eating 8 mls. every three hours!! YAY!! And they have decreased his IV fluids because he is getting more nutrients from his feedings now. His breathing was better today but when I left the hospital tonight he had started having a little trouble. The nurses have told us that his lungs are immature still so that is why he has trouble with his breathing at some points. Please keep that in your prayers when you think of him because we do not want him to have to go back on the ventilator. He is so smart and he is such a loving and cuddly baby. He loves it when I go in and hold him and we just cannot wait to take him home. We praise God for all his little accomplishments and right now we are just concentrating on the day to day. We love you and thank you for all your prayers!
Hilary

Day 11

Hey yall we have a couple of updates on baby Hayden. Late last night after we posted the blog we went up to see little baby and they let Hilary hold Hayden Kangaroo style which is a skin on skin hold to keep the baby warm and calm, and he did very well. As of today baby has had a little trouble remembering to breath, and when he does he breathes too much so they have to keep changing things up. He also had about 3 mls. of blood cause he was just a little bit low. And now poor little baby has an infection so they have to put him on a little bit more antibiotics. But he was ok enough to let Hilary hold him for a little bit and he did very well. They have stopped his feeding for now so that they can run some tests. He still needs a little bit of help. But God will provide and please continue sending up prayers for him.

Day 10

Hayden is having a good day today again with his breathing. He hasn't had any troubles breathing since they put him on the nasal cannula. I haven't been to see him yet today because they are giving him a small blood transfusion this afternoon because his red blood cell count is a little low. They said that it will be about 3 teaspoons of blood that they give him this afternoon and I should be able to come see him and possibly hold him after they are finished. He had his last feeding around noon today and they won't resume feeding him again till after the transfusion is finished around 5:30 or 6 tonight. So everyone please pray that Hayden does well with his transfusion and that there are no complications with his oxygen or breathing during the process. Also, the results of his heart ultrasound are normal! YAY!! And he does have a slight murmur which the doctors said should correct itself within a few weeks. Keep him in your prayers today as he undergos the transfusion because he surely needs them. We know that God is taking care of our little boy and he is watching over him. Just keep him uplifted in prayer and keep us in your thoughts. Thank you our dear friends!!
Hilary

Day 9



NO SIPAP!!!! YAY!!!!!!!

Yeah. Baby Hayden is off the SiPAP finally, they have put him on a regular nasal cannula. He has also been bumped up to 5 mls of milk every 3 hours (for those of you that failed math like me, 5 mls is equal to 1 teaspoon). He had an ultrasound done on his heart this afternoon and we will be getting the results from that tomorrow, and let you know how it went. Baby Hayden is now 9 days old and he is starting to show his personality. When the nurse put the probe on him for the ultrasound he was not happy, and he started throwing a fit. He was kicking and whining. At the same time showing us that our first assessment was correct that he is a fighter, and he will not quit. Thanks for all your prayers and keep them coming. 

Day 8



Tim put his wedding ring all the way up to Hayden's shoulder!! Such tiny, skinny arms!

Well today was another great day for Hayden!! He has not had anymore breathing incidents since yesterday morning. Because of this they are increasing his feeding per 1 ml. every 12 hours that he goes without an incident. He was up to 3 ml. every three hours when we got there earlier and the nurse said that if he did well in the next 12 hours that they would increase to 4 ml. every three hours. He is also not on his bilirubin light anymore because his bilirubin has gone back to normal. They said this may change if it builds up again, but for now hes doing great. His blood sugar is normal and yesterday he had gained 2 ounces (tonight they are going to weigh him again to check and see if he has gained anymore). He is slowly gaining back up to his birth weight and we can't wait till he starts having a steady gain. We are praising God for how well he is doing and how fast Hayden is progressing. He has had a few scary setbacks and keeps mommy on her toes. Overall though he is doing great. Keep the prayers coming, they are working!!

Smiles for mommy!

Hilary

Day 7

Today Hayden had a really good day! He is a whole week old today! He had a couple of small incidents this morning with his breathing but overall much better than yesterday. He has had his feeding increased again to 1 ml. every 3 hours and the nurse said that if he does well, they will increase it to 2 ml. in the morning. He had his sonogram today and it came back really good. He has some minor brain bleeding but the doctor said that its probably from where they shook him up from the c-section and it should go away in about a week. They also said that he is doing better than most babies his age. He is on room air through his SiPAP and he is very active and opens his eyes and looks around a lot. He is doing wonderful and he is a little fighter. I went in to see him today and he looked up at me and seemed to say "Mommy I'm tired". I just kept telling him to hang in there and everything was gonna be ok. We really appreciate the prayers of everyone and all the love you have shown us.

Hilary