10 pounds!

I know that it's been over a week since my last post. Cade keeps me very busy. Especially when you add in the home health visits and other doctor appointments. Last week, we had the home health nurse come on Tues and Fri to check on his O2 saturation. He stayed above 90% which is what the doc wants. They also weighed him both days and on Tuesday he was 9 lbs 8 oz and on Friday he was 9 lbs 15 oz. 7 oz in 3 days is amazing weight gain. Today, we went the the pediatrician and he was 10lbs 3 oz. He's almost 5 times his birth weight. He is also 22 1/4" long. For 4 months old, he is not on the charts but for 4 weeks (his adjusted age) here's his stats:

On the preemie charts for boys born below 1500 g:

Weight 75%

Length 95%

On the standard chart for boys:

Weight 70%

Length 75%

Also, today we went to Children's to get a head ultrasound and then the neuro office to get the results. It looks like his ventricles are shrinking and are now close to normal size. This is great news because it means there will be more room for brains :). Plus his head circumference is increasing which means his brain is growing while the ventricles shrink. We'll have another follow up appointment in a month.

This weekend Sean's dad and girlfriend came down and we got a chance to hang out on Saturday afternoon/evening. It was good to have them here since it's so tough for Phil to get away. He is the primary caretaker of Sean's grandparents up in Chisholm and it's more than a full time job. Here's some pictures of grandpa Phil.

Last week, Cade modeled an outfit for me. We had to try it to honor the women's soccer team's gold medal. Notice the soccer ball on his shirt.

4 months old and happy to be home

We had a great weekend with Cade being home. It's so nice to not lug around a tank of oxygen everywhere and he seems to be doing really well without it. We have a nurse coming tomorrow to make sure that his O2 saturation levels are staying in the high 90s like they are supposed to be. On Saturday, Cade had his first trip to see family. We went to Sean's brother and sister-in-law's house for dinner. It is only about a 30 minute drive but was the longest that Cade has been on so far. His Auntie Jill was happy to be able to hold him and spoil him. Uncle Andy was a little more apprehensive but after a little coaxing did hold Cade. Jill is due on Sept 25th so Cade's cousin is on his way in about 6 weeks from now. It will be good to have Cade and little Phillip so close in age.

Friday night

Ready to walk the dogs

Life is good

I'm cute

Having fun with Auntie Jill

Hangin' with Uncle Andy
Sunday Afternoon

Belle's favorite part of having a baby - the diaper box

Home Again

After a week in the hospital, Cade is back home today (Friday). He received IV antibiotics for what turned out to be a staph infection. Luckily, the infection stayed localized at the wound site and never got into his blood. Today, the scab was removed and the wound is completely healed. Grandma Linda and Grandpa Reg were in town yesterday and today so they went with me to pick up Cade and bring him home. Oh, I didn't mention the best part. He is off of his O2! They took out his cannula on Thurs morning to test him out for 1/2 hour and he stayed in the 90-100% range. So, the doc said that as long as he stayed above 90% he could breath room air. Well, he kept his sats up and no longer has to be on O2. The nurse will come 4 times in the next 2 weeks to make sure that he still stays above 90% and we have to keep the monitor on him for another 2 weeks. So, at least Cade lost one tether and will soon lose the other one. Sean and I are very excited.

Other news to report, Cade's new friend was born on Wed morning at 5:14 am. My friend Amy had a little boy named Evan Paul. He weighed in at 9lbs 6oz which is quite a bit bigger than Cade. He made it to 9 lbs on Thursday. We hope to meet Evan this weekend.

Re-admitted

Unfortunately, Cade was readmitted to the hospital on Thursday night. On Wednesday, I noticed that the scab on his shunt incision site looked infected so I called the neuro nurse practitioner and got an appt for Thursday afternoon because she thought that she better take a look. We were going to be in the neighborhood anyway because we had a follow-up appt with the pulmonologist. Both offices are near Children's. She took one look at the wound and said that she regretted to tell me that she thought that Cade better be admitted as a precaution. Her main concern was that the infection could move to his shunt and that would mean another surgery for a new shunt and an extended hospital stay. I agreed that it was better to be cautious so she called over to Children's and was able to get Cade a bed in ICC where the doctors and nurses already know him. I was very relieved and she was adamant that he would get the best care if he was back in ICC where they understood the issues with being a preemie with a shunt. So, Cade and I took a walk over to the ER to get admitted. Sean met us there and we sat there until 8:30 before we got moved to ICC. It was a long stressful day for all of us but by the end Cade was where he needed to be and we got to see a bunch of friendly familiar faces. They started IV antibiotics and took a wound culture and a blood culture to check to see what type of infection was in the wound. The blood culture came back negative which is good because it hasn't moved to his bloodstream. It seems to be localized and they will keep an eye on it. His white cell count was up a little last night but was back to normal today. They are hoping that this hospital stay will only be for a few days and then he'll get oral antibiotics but they need to let the wound culture grow because it was positive for infection after 24 hours. The good news is that he no longer needs to take caffeine for his respiratory drive. The pulmonologist said that we could discontinue it after we were done with the bottle but the ICC doc has discontinued it as of today because the dose was too low for his current weight. The ICC doc is also hoping to wean him from his O2, but we tested him without it and his saturation levels dropped to the low 80s when they need to stay in the high 90s. I told her all of this but she said she was still going to test it out. It would be great if he was off of the O2 but the specialist thought it would be at least another month. I spent most of the day at the hospital and headed back there this evening with Sean. It's funny because Cade seems to be eating better (at times double what he was taking at home) and on a better schedule (every 3-3.5 hrs instead of every 2 hrs). I was joking with the nurses this morning that they would whip him into shape. Apparently, before I got there he had a really good feeding. He had just started another when I got there so the nursing assistant handed him over to me for the rest of the feeding. Well, he promptly went to sleep and took about an ounce less than the feeding before. I think he just missed his mommy and wanted to snuggle. OK, that's all for now because I can barely keep my eyes open.

Daddy went back to work

Well, Cade and I are surviving our first week at home without Sean. Monday we had another pediatrician appt and it was late enough in the day that Sean met us there. All went well. The doctor called Cade's weight gain "phenomenal" at an increase of 1 lb in 2 weeks (7lbs 9oz to 8lbs 9 oz). Since he's gaining so well, we switched his formula to 22 calorie/oz instead of 24 calorie/oz. Today, we had the public health nurse come so that we can start the process of working with the schools for early intervention. It's a program that Cade qualifies for based on his low birth weight and they will be working with Cade on his development from now until 3 years. We'll have our first meeting with the ECFE teacher sometime after school starts. This sounds like a great program because they will work with us on any developmental delays that Cade may have and give us ideas of what we can do at home. Tomorrow, we go to the pulmonologist to evaluate Cade's oxygen needs and his apnea monitor results.

Watch out Mr. Giraffe. If you come any closer, I may have to bop you in the nose.

The dogs are warming up to Cade

Due date

Well, we've reached Cade's due date today. It's funny that he's 15 weeks and zero at the same time. The home health nurse came yesterday and he's now 8 lbs 3 oz. It makes me wonder if he would have been bigger or smaller had he been able to stay in the womb.

We celebrated today with a bath. What else do you do on your zero birthday?