8 weeks today

Reece is now 8 weeks old. He's doing well. They have increased his feedings again today. Now, he's up to 38mls. per 3 hours. He had a PIC line put in a few days ago and the line has gone out a little. So, now it's a peripheral PIC line and will hopefully last a while. I actually got to soothe him during that process and was happy to help out in my hat and mask. It was fun! I don't know if you've seen our son in a while, but he continues to be very yellow in color due to jaundice. It's a different form than that which you get as a normal baby. It's called "direct" jaundice. And, it's due to him being on TPN/having bowl problems. Well, at least they think that's the reason. The doctor has actually ordered some tests just to be safe. He doesn't foresee anything coming up, but thought it would be good to rule things out. So, please pray there are no problems that come out of these tests. Pray in thanksgiving for his feeding schedule...it's gone up every day thus far - a true answer to prayers and an extreme blessing! Thank you for loving our family with your support and prayers. We appreciate you!

Sunshine?

We were happy to have sunshine/clouds but warm temps today for the Marchforbabies. It was a lot of fun and I may even try it again next year. Thankfully, we got finished before it rained. And, we were able to raise some money for a great cause. Thanks for the donations!
Reece is doing well. He went up on his feeds yesterday as well as today. He's a an all time record...22mls! He's never had this much food - EVER! It's an exciting day and we hope it's just a small part of bigger things to come. Thanks for your prayers!
"Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be the name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be His glorious name!"

All smiles

Oh the smile of a little baby...it lights up my life! Add a coo or two and it's sweet bliss. I am so very thankful Reece is in good spirits. Oh, he has his moments of gas/bowel pain when having a BM, but I can only imagine how that must feel in his little body. :-) He's now up to 10mls. for his feedings and the staph infection was the "good" strain. No isolation! YEAH! He's being treated with anti-biotics and the first cultures have shown they are working. I can't tell you how nice it is to play with him and see him interact. He's a joy and I'm very thankful God has been healing him so quickly. Thank you for praying for our son. We send praises today!

Walk for Babies

As BJ and I have been up at the NICU, we have been in awe of the many babies whose lives are touched each and every day. Currently, there are 110 babies on their census! That's 20 more than the 90 "limit". However, they don't turn anyone away. Isn't that great?
One of the organizations that works closely to the Helen DeVos Children's hospital is the March of Dimes. I know it's short notice, but this Saturday there is a walk for the March of Dimes that I'm going to walk in. If you're willing to donate to this wonderful organization, please bring a check or money to our house by Saturday at 8 AM. (Payable to March of Dimes). Or, you can go on-line to marchforbabies.org and give under my name (suenykamp). I'd love to have your support!
Not sure where your money will go? Well, it will go to fund important research and programs that help moms have full term pregnancies and babies begin healthy lives. And, it helps provide information and support to families whose babies were born too soon or were sick. Personally, BJ and I have been blessed by their continuous support through their rep, Amy. She comes around often and listens and chats and helps us network with other parents too. She's a great asset to our "family" up here.
Please help me spread the word to those who may not read this and try to support it. Thanks!

cultures

Not sure why a child can get sick quickly, but cultures seem like they take forever to grow! Okay, so I'm a little sick of playing the waiting game. Sorry. But, so far we know he has some kind of staph (spelling?) infection. Not sure if it's the bad strand or the easier to treat strand. We're praying it's the easier to treat strand because if it's the "bad" strand he may have to go into isolation. The funny thing is, Reece looks and acts very healthy! He's cooing and holding is head up again. It's like he's back to his pre-surgery self as far as attitude is concerned. We can thank God for that! He's also started to eat again. Although it's only a teaspoon, it's at least a beginning. We are thankful for that too. The small baby steps mean so much while we wait.

Infection

Reece has developed an infection. I did not write yesterday because all of the things going on were tests, tests, and more tests. What brought it on? Well, he had a fever for a few days which led to the first round of blood tests. These showed that there was some kind of infection going on, so more tests were ordered. He had blood and urine cultures taken. At this point they also began hitting him with 3 different anti-biotics. His fever did go down with the anti-biotics. The cultures take at least 24 hours to show any initial results. This morning, we found out the cultures did grow something (I cannot remember what it is called). The doctors recognized it as an infection in his PIC line. Fortunately, the anti-biotics are the best way to treat it. Now, they continue to wait until the 72 hours are through and they are able to tell EXACTLY what is wrong. Tomorrow morning they are going to take more samples to see if the anti-biotics are working.
I hope that made sense, but it all boils down to the fact that he has an infection in his PIC line, they are fighting it with anti-biotics, and they will be checking to see if the medication is working by doing more blood cultures tomorrow.
On another thought, Ben is not feeling well. Last night, he threw up at Erica's house. Bless her for taking such good care of him. She even took him home for us and we came home early to be with him. He did pretty good, but none of us slept well. Right now he's napping and I'm glad he seems to be feeling better. Neither BJ or I went to the hospital today. It's a first for me. Not easy...let me tell ya. But, I just can't bring the germs to the NICU. As long as Ben's feeling well, I plan to go tomorrow to see Reece. I think I'll wear a mask just to be on the safe side.
Thanks for reading and for praying. God can heal and we are in awe of His love for our family every moment of every day.

Zzz's

Okay, so in the last blog I think I was having a little "woe is me" moment. Sorry. Since we have been holding him this afternoon he's slept very well. In fact, we hope it's not going to make the night nurses have a struggle, but we've loved his quiet, calmness. BJ says it's daddy's touch. I say it's my touch, and Grandma Grace is hoping to have some time holding him so it's her touch too. Thanks for the prayers and send a few praises God's way for being our faithful friend. Lots of love - Sue

Pain

It's been a long night and morning for Reece. He's finally had a stint of sleep (3 hours) where he seemed comfortable and not agitated. Last night and this morning he was very restless and ornary and yet didn't want to be cuddled (very unlike him). Obviously, he's in pain and hungry (both or one or the other...not sure). It's the first time in a while where I came up to the hospital and got a negative report from the nurse. As a mom, it's so hard to hear he's hurting when I just want him to feel good. I know there's a process for everything and he's getting good care, it just hasn't been the best of mornings for him. I'm praying this afternoon is better.
They did take his suction off and are checking to see how he digests the stomach fluids. This is the next step in the process towards food. They still haven't talked food yet. We're just praying God can bless him with healing sleep. Peaceful, comfortable, content, and powerfully healing rest that can only be found in our Savior's healing hands.

YEAH POOP!

The nurse "went in" to give Reece some medicine "down there" and by doing that ended up with poop all over her gloves! His desire to not get medicine pushed up must have been the trick to his first bowel movement! We are all very happy and hope that he continues to be "regular". No other news today. The doctor said it's just more of the same. Although, he has now discontinued Reece's morphine. I'm hoping Reece can handle everything on Tylenol alone. But, he may be a little crabby today his nurse reminded us. Thanks for your prayers!

Reece today

Reece has had a good day today. He got his IV taken out of his head today, so he looks better. However, he is still using morphine to help with pain. We are holding him as much as we can and enjoying every moment of it!
I had my post-op with my OB today and that went well. I do have high blood pressure and she thinks I may have had it for a while. So, I'm now on medication and will get checked again in a month.
We are praying for a poopy diaper. I know that isn't what most parents pray for, but we hope he has one soon so he can start eating again. Funny how the hospital changes things...
Thanks for your prayers. -Sue

No Fever!!

Sue talked with the nurses over night and Reece's fever is gone and they did not have to start him on antibiotics. Hopefully this means Reece is healing well and has no infection. Sue is on her way to the hospital and just wanted to thank everyone for their prayers and give an update.

infection

Reece developed a fever today, so they drew some blood and discovered there could be an infection somewhere. We left for the night, but will call later to see if they decided to do some cultures and give anti-biotics or what. When we left, the nurses had been waiting to see what the doctor would say. Please pray that this is not a bad infection but something that can be handled easily. We know He hears our prayers. -Sue

Reece is now off the ventilator! YEAH! I was even able to "hold" him. He rested on a pillow with his head in my arms. I felt a little unsure of it at first because he looked uncomfortable. However, his nurse assured me it was a good thing to hold him and that he was probably uncomfortable because of all of the tubes that were in his throat. He was just getting used to being free of them. Now, he just has a tube from his nose to his stomach that is helping him heal before he can digest too much. We are glad he is able to breathe on his own thus far and the doctor thought he should be able to handle it no problem! Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

morning news

Reece continues to be on the ventilator this morning. He's still in need of morphine for the pain, so the vent is essential. Other than that, he's doing very well. He has been urinating which shows good signs that his kidneys are functioning and his fluids are working well for him. We hope he can maintain comfort today and be able to get off the ventilator when he's showing signs he's ready. But, until then, we just pray God continues to heal him from his surgery and we pray in thanksgiving for this to be all over once he can feed well. It could be a while, but we're over the half way hump!

Finished!

The surgeons finished Reece's surgery around 11 something this morning. We spent some time with him and then had lunch before getting on-line. His surgery was VERY successful! YEAH GOD! We are so happy that Dr. Robertson was able to make two connections. This is great because that means they were able to save all of the small intestines he had left since the last surgery. He had minimal scarring and little blood loss. Dr. Robertson also took out the appendix (not sure how to spell that) while he was in there. He said Reece had had enough tummy surgery. :-)
Reece is now resting in his same location in his same crib. He does have a warmer above him because they need to monitor his chest area for a while. He also continues to be on a ventilator, morphine, and has suction coming from his stomach (because his bowels aren't ready for digesting yet) as he recovers from surgery. It's so nice to see him without the bags and with only a bandage to recover with!
We thank our Lord for watching over Reece and the surgeons during the surgery and continue to pray for his recovery. He has quite a road ahead of him yet as it will be a while before he can begin eating and then work up to full feeds.
Thanks for your love and prayers! God is good! -Sue

Surgery Tomorrow!

Yes! The surgeons have scheduled surgery to reconnect Reece tomorrow morning at 7:30 AM. Please join us in praying that everything goes well. Currently, Reece is in 3 parts. Dr. Robertson informed us that as long as the part which is resting inside is long enough, they will make 2 connections. If that portion is not long enough, they will only make one connection. We pray they will make the right decision on this matter and do what's right for Reece and his recovery. It's difficult sometimes to put the lives of our children into a doctor's hands. But, ultimately, we believe we put the life of Reece in God's hands and know He will guide the doctor's through it all. Thank you for your prayers and support.
Tonight, we are going to leave early because we'll be up here early tomorrow. We'll keep you posted on tomorrow's events. Thanks for your love! We love you too! -Sue

Happy Easter

We would first of all like to say Happy Easter to you and your families. We had a great day today as we were able to spend time with worshiping our Lord and Savior and then we spent some time with both of our families before heading up to see Reece.

Reece has had a great last couple of days. He is still is at 15mls and he seems to be doing well with this amount. We are hoping to meet with the surgeons tomorrow and hopefully they will be giving us a date for the Surgery to reconnect our little guy back togather.

We will let you know what we hear on Monday.

15 mls.

Yes, that is correct, we are back up to 15 mls. today!! Reece had a wonderful night last night and his output has been great as well. He's even up to 9 pounds 7 ounces. What a chunker! We are so delighted by his increasing awake time as well. He's enjoying his short tummy times and practices at sitting up. He loves to look out the windows and enjoy the lights. (His parents enjoy watching the progress of the construction workers...it's amazing what they get done in one day! Kind of our own tv channel in a way.)
Thank you for praying for Reece and for loving our family. We appreciate you!
-Sue

12mls

Where did yesterday go? I know things were busy up at the NICU and NIM. We had several other patients admitted on our side and we heard the census was way high too. Because of that, the doctors didn't see Reece until after 6 PM. But, he's doing well and things seem good. Dr. Gelfand met with him and was okay with his output for the last few days. So, he moved him up to 12mls! YEAH! So excited! We were glad to have him progress again. As far as the bag goes, he keeps the nurses busy by losing it at least once a day. He also lost it twice last night so they replaced it again this morning and just about an hour ago they lost it again. Amazing! I'm just thankful they can continue to find creative ways to bag his stomas so they can keep his skin clean and his stomas protected.
Today, the doctors haven't met with him yet either. I'm sure he's not high on their priority list right now considering how well he is doing. We are very thankful for that. I'll let you know more tomorrow.
Off to pump! -Sue
PS - Thanks Kari for dropping me off at the hospital today. It's nice to be blessed by others! Thanks!

Love

Sorry about not blogging in a while. I meant to yesterday, but chose sleep instead. I meant to Friday, but chose to go on a date night with BJ instead.
But, today I feel the need to pass along some words I remember from today's sermon. Pastor Mark talked about Ruth 3 today and towards the end of his sermon he gave our congregation words of encouragement for all of their displays of spherical power...the power of people who show love to others around them and it "spheres" into the community and everywhere else. Immediately I wanted to give words of encouragement to all of those who read this blog and show their love to us "spherically". Everyone has been amazing at this! We are very loved and hope to spread this love on to others some day as well.
Reece has been very stable the last few days and continues to grow. He's over 9 pound now! We have given him the nickname of "squirt". It's appropriate considering all of the squirts from his stomas and squirts of sucrose given to him as a means of comfort. He's our little squirt! And, we love him to pieces!
We hope to update photos on here sometime. So, look for those this week maybe.

PIC news

Reece has a new PIC line! Thank you for praying for us. We're glad it's in so that there is no more worry on mommy's part that he will have to be poked so often. Reece has had some problems with high output levels the past two days though. Please pray he'll start digesting his food better again. It's hard to see his level of intake have to go down because things are not working well. I think that as a parent we are informed this might happen, but until it does everything seems fine. Just when things seemed to have been going well, now it seems as though there's been a slight set back...nothing serious, but the roller coaster ride has begun.
We continue to pray in thanks for all of our prayer warriors out there and for those loving words of encouragement we get wherever we go. Bless you all and praise be to our Father!