Jonathan is home!

This is a picture right after surgery, notice how red and swollen his face is!


Well its done Jonathan had his g tube surgery and we are at home, but
we had a terrible exsperience. First the doctor again tried to
convince my husband and I to get the fundo and of course I said no. A
friend of mine whos son was also born at the same hospital said this
doctor did her sons hernia surgery and wanted to do a fundo on him
because of his every so slight reflux!
This is the tube that will be replaced in 6 to 8 weeks


Jonathan went back to surgery and it was quick, he had an allergic
reaction to the anastesia(sp?) his face was swollen and very red. He
did very good we got him to his room then he started with some apnic
episodes, scared the death out of the docs, nurses and the nurse
manager we tried to explain this is jonathan and when he is hurting
he does some breath holding but always comes back. Well long story
short we ended up in the NI with one of his old nurses during the
night and one durning the day, before we left peds they had him on 1
liter o2 and when we got to the ICU they pulled of his o2 and he did
fine ( it really helps when the nurses know how your kid is)satted 97
to 100 unless he fussed which was a lot he would drop to low 80s but
bring it right back up. Well his breathing episodes we think were his
reaction to morpine, I am allergic to morphine so we think maybe he
might be because he did a couple episodes but nothing like earlier in
the day. So since they didnt want to give him morphine they made him
suffer through his pain with just plain old tylenol(every 6 hours
errrr) but his nurses were excellent and it was like a family reunion during the night his old nurses just held his little hand and massaged him, (thank you NI nurses my son still loves being massaged, head, feet, hands anywhere because of
his 21 week stay and your loving care!!)
This is what I dealt with all night, my poor little man!


I had it 5am I knew Jonathan needed something else and the poor kid needed to eat he was clearly starving! So at 5 am his nurse paged the resident that finally gave in to giving Jonathan tylenol with codine and he was so mellow after that and we tried out the g tube putting only 40ccs in and he took it like a champ he fell asleep andslept for a good hour!

This is when we told Jonathan he can eat :)

We have been feeding just about 2 ounces every
2 hours and he is handling o.k he is very tired and just wants to be
held and rocked which is fine with me! Yesterday we weaned Jonathan off his medication and he has been his happy self he slept good last night and this morning was wanting more to drink (via g tube) so he is almost back to his full feeds, probably tomorrow. The G tube is a little scary you can see the stitiches which will be removed this coming friday and in 6 weeks from then he will get a button which is almost flush to the skin where this tube is about 4 inches long and very irrating he will be wearing p.js for awhile. I was hopeing to get rid of the long tube and have the button placed before our vaction but it doesn't look like it will happen, oh well. We can't wait till we can put real food into his belly, we are going to wait till he is 1 year old corrected so around mid March or we might wait till after vacation it will be nice not having him strictly on formula!
Thank you everyone that kept us in your prayers, we love you all!

G tube surgery and HEARING!!

Jonathan will be getting surgery tomorrow, this surgery will help him gain the weight he needs to develop. A g tube is placed directly in his belly and then he can eat by mouth (without the current tube thats down his nose and into his belly) and not have any irrating tube in his throat. At night we can pump his needed calories he didn't get throught the day into his tube, or as we will refer to it tubie tube! I am very worried about this surgery eventhough its only a 20 minute procedure and the surgeon that did a phenominal job on his PDA when he was an ity bity 2lbs is going to do this surgery. We will be in the hospital for 2 to 3 days depending on how Jonathan feels, I hate seeing him in pain! We know he is going to do fine, GOD has shown us so many examples of his faithfulness and love, Jonathan is just a miracle and we love him so much!

Well Jonathans hearing... When we came home from beaumont hospital it was said to us that Jonathan was profoundly deaf and we have noticed his hearing just getting better, so at the University of Michigan they took another hearing test a couple days ago and listen very carefully Jonathan has mild to moderate hearing loss did you hear that o.k if you didn't Jonathan has MILD to moderate hearing loss PRAISE GOD, is he not worthy of praise, right here this very blog you are reading is the works of the LORD happening I just want to shout to the world that GOD deserves all the praise!! Get this it gets better, the audiologist that did the test also fit him for hearing aides and said its possible he outgrows these and doesn't need them, that it seems his hearing is getting better as he grows!! GOD is good!!

Well tomorrow is the big day and please keep us in your prayers!

Love you all!!

The feeding clinic

Well the feeding clinic was not exactly what I thought but it was informative. Jonathan loves food in his mouth anything actually he has no sensory issues so that is great however he does not eat enough to gain the weight even if we add a half stick of butter he still would gain no weight and I am not going to give my son butter to live on cause it can't be healthy! So the clinicians advised us to try a feeding pump at night to get most of his calories in then during the day we don't have to push so much. We have tried the feeding pump the last three nights and it works to some degree, I get to go to bed at 9pm and not worry about getting a feeding in him however jonathan is waking up at 330am or 4am (not cool) in a very good mood but I really don't like getting up when its dark. Plus he is not handling the amount of 70ccs an hour he is only wanting about 55ccs an hour so we may have to get something done to check his stomach size according to the clinic because he should be able to tolerate more than that! They think its possible he has a very small stomach and its just not stretching, he also had a swallow study to make sure he is not aspirating and he did great he drank his bottle and ate some applesause and did not aspirate. They were very impressed that he still loves things in his mouth after having an ng for as long as he has. So all that said we are going ot go ahead and scheduale a g tube. This will help him get the calories he needs and he will be able to eat his limited intake without a tube stuck in his throat. We are sad it has to be this way but also know it will help him, he is really sick of the tube. So we will set up the date this monday with his surgeon and go from there.

I will update more when I get time and post some cute pictures of the little man!!

No more cuddle bunny!

I think my boy is growing up! He has always been a cuddler but now a days he wants to explore. If I hold him for to long he gets all fussy and wants to be put down, even if its time for a bottle. I guess in a way its a good thing its showing his independance.

We have done so much these past few weeks, we went to frankenmuth and stayed in a hotel during the week so it was less likely to be busy and we were right hardly anybody there. This hotel has 6 pools, a kiddie area and putt putt it was so much fun. Jonathan loved it the whirpool was very nice and it hold about 20 people so it was huge and we (our family) had them all to ourselves. Then we went to Bronners its the biggest Christmas store in the U.S its always featured on the travel channel, I love that place its like being in Disney World and we only live about an hour away. Jonathan was so excited he was amazed by all the lights, colors, sounds and he didnt even want to be picked up which is very unusual he always wants to be held when we would go places but he just stayed in his stroller and took everything in making ohs and ahs, I love seeing his face light up! I can't wait for spring and summer to take him places and him enjoy it, since last year was not the greatest because we didn't know why he cryed 19 to 20 hours a day, oh I am SOOOOOO glad those days are gone! We are planning on going to Virginia in April and I need a vacation! Plus I'm not sure if my family knows their watvching Jonathan for a day so Justin and I can have some alone time but i am sure nobody will mind he is such a good happy boy! Then our next big vaction will be on a cruise in 2010 that should be fun, a two year old on a cruise maybe I should rethink that:)

Jonathan is growing like a weed he is now 16lbs 7ozs however he has somehow caught a cold and I am pretty anal about people washing their hands before coming into our home and almost everyone abides by our sign on the door but somehow he caught one so we'll see where his weight is in a couple weeks.

This cold has Jonathan coughing like a mad man I feel terrible he is so fussy and just doesn't know what he wants. His eating is not great but I guess I wouldn't want to eat if I threw up after I was done! We did have therapy yesterday and Allison our therapists was super surprised with him, 1. because he has had no therapy for 2 weeks because the sick bug seemed to go around the therapists and 2. because he was sick and still doing so much, I'll tell you I LOVE hearing that he is doing good because sometimes I wonder if I am doing everything I can for him! I still count every calorie that goes into that boy and some days I tell myself this is it I am not going to count anymore calories then we go to the doctor I see how good he is doing and kabam I start counting calories again becase I don't want him to lose weight and now that he is sick, dear GOD I am a mess I keep telling myself he is sick he is not going to get all his calories, see what I mean I even have to tell myself in the blog! The doc did give us the o.k to go to cincinatti for the feeding clinic I am so excited to get into this clinic and hope that we do see light at the end of this tunnel. I did try the hunny bear cup with Jonathan and he drank from it, didn't gag, cough, or choke so thats a good sign and we will definitly bring it to the clinic. He will now sit in his highchair and play with food, he loves yogurt on his hands and not his mouth:) So please send prayers our way for this monday when we leave for Ohio for feeding clinic!

A long video

I made this video its labeled miracles do happen, yes its long about 25 minutes but Its from the boys birth till Christmas. I couldn't just pick a couple pics of Jonathan hes cute what can I say! Anyway its in the column to the right I wasn't sure how to post it like a regular post, so just click on the pic and it will take you to the video! ENJOY!!

Amazing!

It has been forever since I have posted. First off I had the worst cold I have ever had actually it was the flu and I just prayed day and night Jonathan would not get it! He didn't and is doing pretty good health wise.

About 3 weeks ago I finally got to met up with another preemie mom (Jaimie)that I met on a micro preemie group, we have talked on the phone many times so it was nice to finally meet. She has three beautiful kiddos, 26 weekers and her son is also Johnathan! She is really great and very informative her kids are about 4 months older than Jonathan so she gives me a few tips, thanks Jaimie!

Christmas was the best we actually ventured out to my grandmas and my aunt, uncle and her two grown kids and my parents were there and it was great. Jonathan is so awesome to go out with he is always smiling unless he is uncomfortable or tired! Now don't get me wrong I was very sceptable about going out because of RSV but everyone was well. Jonathan fell asleep before we got to open presents and then Christmas day was at our house with both our parents and siblings which also was awesome. My mother in law was just amazed at how Jonathan is progressing, like all of us! Jonathan is one spoiled boy getting everything a little boy wants! We got him a huge dog from F.A.O SCHWARZ he loves it especially if he only has his diaper on since it is so soft. New years eve was spent at a hotel, we were very nervous about this since the last time we did this he cried non stop from 11pm till 7am but again it was great we all fell asleep before midnight but Jonathan enjoyed the pool and he had so much fun and thats all that mattered!

Therapy is going how should I say this phenomenal. Jonathan is lifting his head about 70% of the time when we are holding him he is usually holding it up to look around so I know with continued prayer and therapy he will be doing this 100% of the time! Jonathan is standing and putting all weight on his legs when we hold him up and he keeps his head up but his trunk is still loosey goosey so we are going to work harder on that. He tolerates his belly and will look up if he has something under his arms (boppy. He is still getting fed through his NG but is drinking from his bottles too. He still is not tolerating big amounts of food but we have discovered he has high taste buds meaning he loves garlic and lemons! He continues to love water therapy, his favorite! He is using both hands and kicking like crazy he has learned to kick his socks off, he thinks its funny. We are going to Ohio to a feeding clinic and this will put some insight to what we should do to tell you the truth I am o.k with a G tube placement because this Ng makes me cry every time I have to put it in! The G tube will only be temp. until he can eat enough to gain weight. Today we went to get his synergis (sp?) shot to help prevent RSV and they weighed him, he is a whooping 15lbs 7ozs isn't that cool? I am so excited and actually today I woke up to find him smiling and holding his tube in his hand, I was really hoping it was a sign that he wanted to eat more and get rid of that tube for good well that lasted about an hour. Oh well he is a happy,smiling boy and its great, life is great and God is good! Love you all!

Wordless Wednesday

Jonathan loves clifford, Thanks aunt Cheryl, uncle Mark, David and Suzie!!!