May your troubles be less,

And your blessings be more.

And nothing but happiness, 

Come through your door.

-irish blessing

3.15.16

Nothing but happiness is exactly how we can describe this week.

20 weeks old (actual age) | 4 weeks old (adjusted) 

weight: 4,620 (10 lb 3 oz)| height: 21.5 inches

Respiratory– Right about when we finished up last week’s blog post we called to check on Jack before bed and he had pulled out his nose pronges and never looked back.  He fed through the night without needing oxygen and it’s been a week of just that.  Just when we made a plan and wrapped our heads around the possibility of having to bring him home on oxygen, he laughed in our faces.  Not sure why we even try to plan things anymore, we’re living in Jack’s world and playing by his rules.  Rest assured the moment the nurses took the last sticky dot off his face and we finally saw his full face, after hundreds of days, the nursery was flooded with tears.

Brain Bleed (Grade IV) – Jack had his brain MRI this morning (standard for all preemies towards the end of their stay) and as scary as it is to see your baby leave the nursery without you for anything, we had to laugh because the transporter he was taken in was clearly not built for our godzilla baby.  His legs were practically hanging off the end.  He MRI-ed like a champ and the results were in line with the weekly ultrasounds he has been getting since October.  Nothing new in terms of swelling or bleeds, which is great news.  There is still a little blood remaining that will eventually recede and we will be monitored by our Neurosurgeon after we are discharged throughout Jack’s development.

Eyes– And I quote….”we are out of the woods” on eyes.  And that deserves it’s own sign (thank you Pauline).

Feeds– All. Feeds. By. Mouth. Without. Oxygen.  Read it and weep chronic lung disease.

 

We are just shy of 5 months into this NICU journey and have stumbled upon many of the pebbles that were on this path but as Jack is telling us he’s just about ready to wrap this portion of his life up soon it’s hard not to flash back to all the moments.  We became a family inside a sterile environment but somehow it feels warm and familiar.  A family of three is now a family of many.  You read all the books, you follow all the rules and one day that map you were following gets tossed out the window and you have a baby 4 months early and strangers become loved ones.  And in the words of the Dead — ‘What a long, strange trip it’s been.’  BUT we couldn’t leave before celebrating another holiday, that would be crazy!! St. Patrick’s Day here we come! This will be quite different than Mommy and Daddy’s past Paddy’s celebrations but hoping the luck of the Irish will be with us for the remainder of our NICU stay.