Moving On Up

Well we have finally finished moving into the new house, man what a hassle. Trying to work, visit Brayden, spend time with Payton and move is killing us. Here lately we haven't been getting to bed till 2 a.m. and then getting up at 8. I guess this is getting us ready for when Brayden comes home.

Speaking of which, he is doing so well. A few day ago they began feeding him with a bottle as well as letting Miranda continue to breastfeed. In the beginning he only took a little bit from the bottle but he just took off and started eating all of his feed from the bottle. Yesterday I tried to feed him, it didn't go so well, but today was much better. We have started tag teaming him when it comes to feeding time. Miranda tried to breast feed first, then I get him and finish it off with a bottle. He has kind of slowed down and isn't taking all of his feed from the bottle but the nurses and doctor assure us this is normal. In the beginning he was only getting two or three feeds from the bottle and the rest were through his NG tube. Now he is getting all of his feeds from the bottle, so basically we are asking him to eat alot and expend al0t of energy for such a little baby.

The doctor was gone for a few days and when she came back she told us that she was absolutely beaming with pride. She said he wasn't even hers and yet she was just so proud of him. She said that he was exceeding her expectations with his feeds. He is still on oxygen but has been taken off the high flow cannula and put on a low flow cannula. This is the same thing Payton was on until he was 2 but she expects him to ween off of it within a week or so. She still expects him to be coming home in a couple of weeks.

Now the sad news. Dr. Nesslein is leaving us to go to Cook Children's. A month ago when Brayden was at his worst, she came to us and told us that they were making her move hospitals and that she would have to put Brayden under another doctor. We pleaded with her and she was able to make arrangements to stay with us for another month. With Brayden on the upswing now she is being asked to move. While we will miss her calling and bragging on him we understand she is needed elsewhere. She told us that she put us under Dr. Maio who is also a great doctor and someone we feel very comfortable with. She told us that she didn't want to put him under the doctor that was taking her place because Dr. Nesslein thought she was one of the doctors we had problems with when Payton was in the NICU. I asked the doctors name and when she told us, Miranda's exact comment was," she is not coming near my child!!!". Dr. Nesslein heard her through the phone and kind of chuckled.

Currently Brayden is weighing in about 4lb 5oz and getting stronger. He definitely has his own personality. He will let you know when something displeases him. Sorry this was so long but it had been a while since I updated the site so I had alot to tell. In closing, I would once again like to ask for prayers for the little baby in POD 3 who is fighting the hard fight. We don't know anything about the baby other than he/she is on some of the most critical machines. I would like to thank all of you for your thoughts and prayers and hope you can share some of those with the other families in the NICU. The NICU is not a place you ever want to be. Life inside the NICU can be both beautiful and heart wrenching at the same time. My hope is that one day there won't be a need for the NICU.