Morgan Smiling

Hi everyone. I just wanted to post a couple of pictures of Morgan smiling. He has been laughing and smiling quite a bit lately but it seems like every time I get my camera ready he has stopped. Morgan seems to laugh and smile quite a bit when Brad talks to him and tickles him. I finally got a good one of him smiling today. Morgan is still doing well. We went to the ophthalmologist and the ROP continues to regress nicely so we don't have to go back until November! I have been scheduling appointments for Morgan with the physical therapist and the developmental doctor to make sure he is developing on pace. My only concern right now is that he really really favors turning his head to the right side which is causing the right side to be flat so we are trying to only hold him in our right arm so he has to turn his head to the left to look at us. It is hard to keep his head to the left when he is strong enough to move it. Other than that he is doing well and getting big! He is also starting to "talk" more which is quite cute!

"2 Months Old"

I just wanted to give a quick update to let everyone know that Morgan is still doing well. It's hard to believe he has been home for 6 weeks now and that it has been 2 months since his due date! He is up to 10 pounds 6 ounces and we have been giving him breaks from his oxygen recently to see how he does and he has been doing pretty well. He is usually around 97-98% while awake and around 94-96% while sleeping so hopefully he can come off of oxygen for good soon. He will come off of the apnea monitor when the oxygen is gone. It will be so nice to be able to carry him around without any cords or tubing! He has his swallow study this Wednesday so hopefully he can start eating formula without thickener, the thickener starts to get expensive. Morgan still only likes to sleep either in his bouncy seat or while we are holding him. Sometimes he will sleep in his car seat for a while if he falls asleep in the car. I am going to try to transistion him to his crib for naps, at least start putting him in his crib to get him used to it.

Morgan is getting huge

Hi everyone. Sorry it has been so long since my last post. I am lucky if I get a shower everyday let alone post on the blog. Morgan is doing awesome. He is up to 9 pounds 11 ounces!! He is huge and eating very well. It took a while once he got home to get him eating like he should but now he is on his way. We went to the lung doctor today and he was very pleased with his weight gain and said we could start weaning his oxygen at home to see how he does. We have a machine at the house that will tell us his oxygenation levels like the one at the hospital. Every time I check his O2 he is sating at 100 so I know he can be bumped down. I am really hoping we can come off of the oxygen and apnea monitor in the next couple of weeks. The monitor hasn't gone off in over a week since Morgan has started eating better. Morgan's eyes are also doing very well. The right eye has completely corrected itself and the left eye is getting better. We go back to the ophthalmologist in 3 weeks and hopefully after that we won't have to go back again for 6 months. I love how he gets older our appointments get fewer and farther between!

"One month old today"

Hello everyone. It has been a month since Morgan's due date so he is really one month old. Sorry it has been so long since my last post. These last two weeks with Morgan home has been very challenging. I thought the transition would go a little easier. He won't sleep in his bassinet so Brad and I take turns sleeping with him in the recliner in the living room. Over the past couple of days I have put him in the bassinet and he will take maybe a 20 minute nap in it and then wake up crying. I thought for sure he would be better at sleeping in his own bed because he did it in the NICU. We saw the pulmonologist (lung doctor) yesterday and based on the apnea monitor he things maybe Morgan is getting reflux and that is why he is very fussy at times and likes to sleep on our chest at night. He prescribed some medicine so I am hoping that will make a difference. The doctor didn't change any of his oxygen settings but I am hoping he will when we go back in 2 weeks. Another concern is that Morgan isn't gaining as much weight as we would like to see. I think he is burning more calories at home because he is more active and probably crying more than in the NICU. The thickened formula isn't helping him either because the thickener has no nutritional value and takes up a lot of volume so Morgan has to eat more to get the amount of calories he needs. Hopefully his next swallow study will show he can go down to less thickened formula. Overall things are going well and we are very glad to have Morgan home.

Morgan is home!!

Hi everyone. I just wanted to give a quick update to let you know that Morgan came home yesterday. His discharge had been talked about for the past week but I could never get a final word from the doctors. I called Friday morning to see about him going home and the nurse talked to the doctor and called back and said he would be discharged when ever we came to get him. Well of course Brad and I left work early to go get him. He enjoyed the car ride home but last night he didn't sleep very much. He just needs to get used to the new surroundings so hopefully tonight will go better. I will post more later.

Quick Update on going home status

I spoke with the doctor yesterday about when Morgan will be going home. She is pleased with everything except maybe how much volume he is taking at each feeding. He was taking around 55-60 ml (2 ounces) but she would like to see him taking 65-70 ml because of his size. He weighed in yesterday at 7 pounds 10 ounces! Unfortunately the swallow study on Monday showed that he still needs the honey thickened feeds with a cross cut nipple which is the hardest combination to drink. Morgan did very well yesterday when I fed him, he sucked down 75 ml in no time so I am hoping he continues to do that. As long as he continues to eat well he should be going home tomorrow or Friday possibly Saturday or Sunday, but either way he will be going home soon!!!

Car seat challenge and going home this week

Morgan is getting so close to going home. It looks like it will be sometime this week. He passed his car seat challenge today. He had to sit in his car seat for an hour and a half without dropping his sats and he did well. He was getting a little fussy with 15 minutes to go but luckily I was able to be on pacifier duty and that calmed him. Morgan will be going home on oxygen (they did a room air challenge last week and he did alright but he definitely does better with the oxygen). It's funny because he is on so little...only 21% which is room air so he isn't actually getting any extra oxygen at .05 liters which is nothing really but it seems to make a difference with him. So he'll have the oxygen and an apnea monitor. He doesn't have apnea episodes but I guess at that hospital if you go home on oxygen you automatically go home on a monitor. The monitor will be a pain but it will give me reassurance when he first comes home. I will also have a spot check monitor to check his oxygenation settings. I will probably have to do this a couple of times a day. He will be on two medications (which isn't much for a 24 weeker), flovent which is an inhaled steroid for his lungs and a diuretic to rid extra fluid in his lungs. Both will be given twice a day. Right now he is on thickened feeds so he can coordinate the suck/swallow/breathe combination which he is doing much better with. Tomorrow they are going to do another swallow study to see if he can be reduced down from the honey thick which is the thickest they can make the formula to nectar thick which is in between honey and regular. I really hope the study shows he isn't aspirating the nectar thick anymore because he gets so worn out trying to suck the honey thick through the nipple. Last week they also did an ultrasound of his scrotum and didn't see any intestine so they think it is just a hydroseal (trapped extra fluid) for now, it will have to be monitored to make sure the hernia doesn't reopen. Overall Morgan is doing awesome and I am so excited for him to come home. It has been a very long journey!