Friday, November 30, 2007

Lindy Update

They had Lindy ready to go this morning and at the elevators when one of the nurse anesthetists got a page that said, "Don't bring the baby." They took her back and called and for whatever reason, they couldn't do her surgery at that time.

So she ended up going around 9am and she did well. She had to go back under anesthesia which means she had to be intubated. They went in and washed the blood out of her eye. The doctor said the retina looks good though, it is attached as it should be. She looked closely at the left eye while Lindy was under and she still isn't sure what the eye is going to do. The doctor will check her eyes again on Tuesday. They will decide then what her chances are of going back to Baptist or whether she will need to stay at Duke and be monitored by their eye doctors.

There is no doubt about it, she is a tough little cookie! She has been such a fighter and has stayed so strong.

Today is their four month birthday! Can you believe it? They have come such a long way.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Black Cat

Lindy left for Duke around 10:15am this morning. Drew got in the car and headed to Durham as well. He caught up with the ambulance in Durham, quite close to the hospital. As they were coming off the highway, there was a black cat on the side of the road. The ambulance had to slow down because the cat decided to cross the road. We all know that when a black cat crosses your path it can cause bad luck. Just what Lindy needed today, more bad luck.

After checking out her eyes, they discovered the left eye still has an area that is raised, but it is not threatening the macula. Therefore they will just continue to watch it.

Unfortunately the right eye still has some post-operative blood in it. They will be readmitting Lindy to Duke so that the surgeon can wash the blood out. The hope was that the blood would resolve itself, but three weeks out of surgery, it has not done so. The doctor said with adults she would just allow it to go away on it's own, but with babies it can block too much of the development of their vision. Therefore she feels it is necessary to wash the blood out of her eye.

They will do the procedure tomorrow morning, early, around 7am. It's back to the OR, for lets see, the 8th time. 8 times in 4 months. We don't know any kind of time frame for how long they will keep her.

Maybe one day Lindy will grow up and win the lottery. She's had enough bad luck to last her a lifetime and yet it just keeps coming. Somewhere in her life I hope she hits the good luck jackpot because she certainly deserves it.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Baby Update

Once again the week has flown by and I haven't posted anything! Sorry to those who check every day!

The babies have had a relatively quiet week. Will continues to grow like a weed. He had an ophthalmologist appointment today and his eyes are great. The right eye is completely healed and the left eye has a tiny spot, about 2 millimeters wide, that hasn't finished healing. He is done with his follow up visits for his eyes. Yeah! He also had a follow up surgery visit this afternoon and they said everything looked good. They weighed him and he weighed in at a whopping 7 pounds 10 ounces! The nurses asked, "What have you been feeding him?" I guess I'll spill the beans that I add Snickers bars and fatback to his bottle every night. ha ha!

Lindy Jane is growing like a weed too. She is 5 pounds and 8 ounces (Milky Ways and fried chicken for her)!!!! When comparing her to Will she seems small, but she really is growing well. Her big news is that she is going for a little road trip tomorrow. She is going to Duke tomorrow for a follow up visit with the eye surgeon and there is a good possibility that she might be readmitted to their NICU. We are really keeping our fingers crossed that the doctor looks and says that her eyes are doing great and sends her back. But Lindy has never been one for luck, so we'll see what they tell us. We are hoping to see that the post-operative blood in the right eye is resolving itself and that the retina in the left eye is not detaching. It's a big appointment for her! Think of her tomorrow (Thursday) around noon!

Lindy has tried learning to eat this week but she has had some problems so far. She has two of the three requirements down pat (sucking and breathing). Now she just has to learn to swallow. Well, she does swallow, she just sometimes forgets to breathe! Oops! Will started off the same way and he learned with time so we hope Lindy is the same way.

Keep Lindy in your thoughts tomorrow! We sure do hope she comes back to Baptist.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We spent the day with Drew's mom, sister, and brother. Drew and I left Will (for the first time since he has been home) with his family and we went to see Lindy together.

Enjoy a few pictures of our little turkeys.




Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Breaking News!!

Lindy is on her way back to Baptist Hospital in Winston! She might already be there. We are finally getting her back "home!" It will so much better than having our family split in half. Now we can both be home at night with Will and we can split our days visiting Lindy. Perfect timing that she got to come back in time for Thanksgiving.

The eye doctor checked her eyes Monday morning and said that her left eye is moving in the right direction. There was an area about 5-6 clock hours wide that was elevated. We have been waiting to see if it would start to detach like the right one did. When Dr. Toth checked her yesterday she said the area is only 3 clock hours wide now. So it is getting better! She said Lindy was not critical anymore and that she felt comfortable with moving her back to Baptist. We were very excited to hear the news that her eye looks better and that she gets to come back!

A slight wrinkle in the plan is that Dr. Toth still wants to see Lindy next week for an appointment. So it looks like she might have to go for a little ride next week. Assuming she checks her and the left eye continues to get better than she should turn around and come right back. If the left eye has gotten worse then I guess she would move back into Duke. We'll deal with all that next week though! For now she gets to spend a week back at Baptist!

I was able to go to Duke and spend the weekend with her. It was really nice to have some good quality time together. She has become a smiley little girl! Of course I can't capture any smiles on the camera though! I got to hold her all weekend which was great.

Mr. Will is doing awesome at home. He had another weight check today at the doctor's office and the boy has hit 7 pounds!!!!! He weighed in at 7 lbs 1.6 oz today! He's an eating machine. He can now suck down 3-4 ounces in 8-10 minutes. We have to continually pull the bottle out to slow him down. He is a pleasure to have around. He's so sweet!

Here are some recent pictures of the babies! Enjoy!






Thursday, November 15, 2007

Lindy Stays Put

The eye surgeon checked Lindy's eyes yesterday afternoon and said that she wants to keep Lindy at least through the weekend to monitor her left eye. It is right on the fence, and could go either way; possibly needing surgery and possibly not needing surgery. I think it will probably take it's own sweet time deciding, just so that she has to stay at Duke longer!! They will check her again on either Sunday or Monday and see if there is any difference.

On the bright side, they said her right eye looks good. The retina has reattached itself which is excellent.

Drew came to visit me and Will last night. It was nice to see him. Being apart really stinks. Especially with two babies that we aren't getting to see much of. I have a new appreciation for single mothers. I've been by myself this week and it isn't easy. Luckily I have the most laid back and best baby boy in the world and he is easy to take care of. That leaves me time to wash bottles and do laundry. Thank goodness. If he required constant attention and someone holding him then I'd be in trouble!

So that is the update. Lindy is still at Duke and will be there through the weekend.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

One at Home, One at Duke

Will has been home one week today! It's very hard to believe. So far he is a great baby and has been pretty easy to take care of. We only hope it continues to stay that way!

Last week ended up pretty quiet. Drew came back from Duke on Friday night to see Will. My parents and I went to Duke on Saturday to see Miss Lindy. "LJ" as my dad has taken to calling her was doing well. We held her all afternoon and it was nice to spend some good quality time with her. I hated leaving her. Drew's mom went and spent Sunday with her so Drew could have another day with Will. Sunday Lindy had a pretty bad episode of dropping her heart rate and sats. Apparently it was one of her worst episodes. They ended up putting her back on the nasal cannula and they started a septic workup. She had also had a little bit of residuals left in her belly from a feeding on Saturday. Those two events made the doctors question a possible infection. They did the usual blood and urine cultures and tried to obtain spinal fluid from a lumbar puncture but they were unsuccessful. Scary words like meningitis were being thrown around. So far nothing has grown out of her cultures. We hope it stays that way!

Another thing Lindy has going on is a little bit of twitching. Drew and I noticed it the day after she got to Duke and they told us it was probably withdrawal from the pain meds she was on at Baptist. Drew didn't see it the rest of the week. Apparently she started it back up on Sunday and the doctors wondered if she was having small seizures. More scary words being thrown around. Yesterday was full of tests for Lindy. She had an EEG to check her brain functions and she also had a CT Scan to check on the shunt. So far everything has come back fine. They are going to do longer EEG overnight though, just to check again. I sure hope nothing comes of all of this.

Some good news in Lindy's life is that for two weeks in a row, she has tested negative for MRSA! You have to have three negative tests (done weekly) to be considered MRSA free. We will definitely be looking for another negative next week! It would be great to rid ourselves of that label!

The pediatric ophthalmologist checked Lindy's left eye today and we are cautiously optimistic that she will not need surgery on it tomorrow. He said it looks about the same as it looked last Monday which is a good sign that it has not gotten worse. He said it could still get worse but that it is just something that needs to be checked on. The surgeon will look at her eyes tomorrow and hopefully say the same thing. Hopefully we'll get her back to Baptist soon!

That covers all of Lindy's news. Will is doing so well at home. He had a pediatrician appointment today and he weighs 6 lbs and 11.6 ounces! He is gaining a lot of weight! We have permission to feed him every 4 hours during the night instead of every three. Maybe we can get a little more sleep! He has been such a pleasure to have at home. We are really getting some good bonding time lately with Drew being at Duke.

Enjoy some pictures from the past week.

Will's first real bath! He had only gotten spong baths at the hospital and was sitting in the sling mesh part the first time we gave him a bath at home. This was the second bath we gave him and had him sitting down in some water. He liked that much better. Man it put him to sleep though, he would hardly wake up for his bottle!
Miss Lindy on room air! Pretty cool huh?Jack checking out the new addition to the household.
Sweet Lindy

Thursday, November 8, 2007

Long Time, No Post

I know, I know, I haven't written in forever and I know I have left everyone wondering what is going on. The weekend and this week have been a bit busy. Keep reading to find out why!

I hadn't had a chance to post pictures lately so here are some. I'll be updating with pictures in chronological order, so the good stuff is at the end of this post! Anyway, here are pictures of the babies on Halloween. No candy this year. Sorry Will and Lindy!


Lindy wore her first bow in her hair on Halloween! Well really she wore it on her forehead with the help of a little adhesive. The nurses were responsible for that one, not me!



Random cute pictures of the babies!



So news regarding Lindy and her transfer to Duke. She did indeed make the trip to Duke on Sunday morning. She left around 10am. Here is a picture of her in the transport isolette.
This is Lindy's new bed at Duke. They checked her in and Dr. Toth, the eye surgeon, came to check her eyes out at 2pm that day. She looked and she agreed that her right eye was having some retina detachment and definitely needed surgery. She said the left eye was questionable. There is a spot that is concerning but did not need surgery yet. Instead she wanted the pediatric ophthalmologist to scrub in for surgery to see if the left eye could have any more laser treatment done to it. Surgery was scheduled for 1:30pm on Monday.
Here is Lindy being wheeled through Duke hospital over to the Eye Center where she had her surgery on Monday.
Little Miss Lindy soon after her eye surgery. They ended up doing more laser treatment on her left eye, in hopes that she will not have to have more surgery on it. They did the planned surgery on her right eye. It is a pretty interesting surgery. They sucked out the vitreous jelly from her eye and put a gas bubble back in her eye. The gas bubble slowly works its way out of the body and the area fills back in with her own saline. And somehow this helps the retina lay back down! Don't you dig her cute little pink eye patch!!
This is on Tuesday, without her eye patch. Her eyes looked really good. They were hardly puffy and just a little bit red. There is some tape residue all over her forehead in case you were wondering what that was!


So we had little Miss Lindy set and through surgery. We spent Sunday and Monday nights in Durham and went by to see her on Tuesday morning. We left around 11am and we drove straight to Baptist Hospital to pick up Will and bring him HOME!!!! We got there around 1pm and we had some last minute discharge things to do before we could leave. We walked out the door with Will at 2:30pm.

Here is Will in his going home outfit in his new car seat!
Here is Drew, holding the car seat. We were at the elevators, ready to get on. Will was all bundled up and ready to head out! It was so odd to have him out of the NICU. It was odd that he wasn't attached to any wires!!
And here is Will all set to go in the car. The first time we have had a baby in our car!!! Pretty crazy! I had to ride in the back seat with him on the way home, just to make sure he was okay. He slept the entire ride home. He did not appreciate the sun shining in his eyes. Mommy was his own personal sun shade on the trip home.
As soon as we got home it was time to eat. Here I am giving Will his first bottle at home.
One last picture from the first day at home. He's so sweet!
So the updates since we've been home. The first night was interesting! All he did was sleep at the hospital so we just knew he'd do the same at home. Instead he was quite awake for most of the afternoon. We had him in a bassinet in our bedroom for the first night. I'm not sure how much anyone slept that night. As most people know, babies make a lot of noise! Will is a pacifier boy and he fusses a bit when he looses his paci. Plus we got up to feed him 3 times the first night, and we were just plain nervous and excited! We had to make sure he was still breathing. For three months we have relied on monitors to tell us whether he was breathing. I'm happy to report, he's still breathing!!!
Wednesday morning we started the day off with Will's first home bath. He didn't seem to enjoy the first experience. What he did do was poop during his bath! He was on a little mesh thing and he pooped all over it! Then he had his first pediatrician appointment. We went to meet the pediatrician and get him established. We had wanted to meet her this summer but we all know how the summer went down. She came highly recommended from a friend and we were really impressed with her. After the doctors appointment, Drew left and headed back to Duke to be with Lindy. Will and I hung out together all afternoon and then my parents arrived in the early evening. They got to hold Will for the first time ever! They will be here through the weekend to help me out.
Lindy was still on the ventilator when she went to Duke, but not anymore! They extubated her yesterday and put her on nasal cannula. She did so well that today they took that off and she was/still is on ROOM AIR! The first time ever for Miss Lindy! We've talked to the nurse around 10pm tonight and she is still doing well. They have also started her feedings back up. I hope she can tolerate them okay! Breathing and eating are two of her last obstacles!
Drew is hanging out in Durham tomorrow and coming home in the evening. My parents and I are going to Duke on Saturday to see Lindy. It's been hard for me to not see her and Drew to not see Will. The situation is not ideal but we are doing what we have to. They will check Lindy's eyes again on Tuesday and will decide if she needs the surgery on her left eye. If she does she will have it done on Wednesday. If not, hopefully she'll get transferred back to Baptist.
So there is finally the update. It might be the longest post in blogging history! It has only taken me all day to get this written! Right now things are calm and quiet. If we can get Miss Lindy back to Baptist and then home, all will be well!

Friday, November 2, 2007

If I Don't Laugh, I'll Cry

Well I just read a sweet comment from a friend and she said, "What's one more hurdle?" Well we are officially crossing that hurdle right now and it is a doozy.

Let me start from Thursday afternoon and fill you in on what's been going on. The eye doctor came to do a follow up check on Lindy. And guess what??? There is a problem and she needs more surgery on her right eye. A small area of her retina has started to detach itself. "How can this be?" we ask ourselves. The though of her having to go to surgery AGAIN is about more than I can handle. "So okay, lets do this" we tell ourselves. We'll all get through it.

AND then the other bomb drops. There is no one at Baptist who does this surgery, she has to go to Duke. So here we are, two days away from taking Will home and we are told our daughter has to go to Duke. Could the timing be worse??? I don't think so.

Then the chaos begins. Doctors talking to doctors about all the aspects of the surgery and the transport. And trying to figure out what in the world to do about Will. We got home late and packed up our stuff, expecting to go to Duke today. We get there this morning ready to meet with the doctors again and we ended up waiting most of the day for some news.

So the short of the story is that Lindy is supposed to be going to Duke on Sunday and having surgery on Monday (or possibly Tuesday). Will is going to stay put for now, until at least Monday. Having him safe and taken care of in the hospital will make it a little easier for us to go to Duke and be with Lindy for her surgery. If he can stay a little longer we might do that. If we have to bring him home then we will split our house. I'd stay home with Will and Drew would go to Durham with Lindy. We'd might switch off at some point. We really don't how long she will be at Duke though. She will definitely come back to Baptist.

I had visions of how it would be to bring home a baby from the hospital. I think it will be a big deal. Lots of pictures, video coverage, etc. Our first night with one of our babies was going to be special. And now Drew might not even be there. How much does that stink? Yet another experience we might get the short end of. Seems to be the way things work for us.........

We'll update when/if anything changes and when we know more information.

Thursday, November 1, 2007

November 1st

I cannot believe it's November. Three months of sitting in a hospital have flown by.

The babies celebrated their 3 month birthdays on Tuesday. It really is so hard to believe. I actually have a hard time believing everything we have been through. I can't even remember how little the babies were when they were born. I saw a new baby in the NICU the other day and I asked the nurse if my babies were that little and she said yes. Thankfully the last 3 months have gone by very quickly!

Lindy had her surgery Monday morning and is still recovering from that. She isn't recovering very fast this time though. She is still on the ventilator with pretty high settings. She has been dropping her heart rate and oxygen saturation a lot lately. Yesterday they started a septic work up to check for an infection. They draw all kinds of samples, blood, urine, etc, and they see if anything (bacteria) grows out from it. They got that all done yesterday evening so we'll wait on that. They started her on antibiotics just in case she does have an infection. I hope she doesn't have any infections.

Will has continued to do great this week. He has started eating 3 ounces (90mL) at each feeding! He is a little piglet! He has been on his brady countdown (can't drop his heart rate for 7 days). Today will be day 6 of 7! He's so close and if he continues to behave than he can come home on SATURDAY!!!! We have been working to finish getting the house ready for babies. We got out a car seat and installed it in the car in case he does get to come home! We're getting excited but also getting a little nervous!

Everyone have a wonderful Thursday.