Well, tomorrow night Brayson will be four weeks old. Isn't it exciting?! He is a growing man! He reached 5 lbs. 3 oz. today. We're so proud! He has been taking his bottles very well lately. He is taking a bottle every other feed right now, and that number will hopefully be increased tomorrow since he is doing so well. We are beginning to have discussions about him coming home, so that means it will be really soon!!!

Brayson has been in wonderful hands this week. Mrs. Becky is a fantastic nurse at UAMS, and she has declared Brayson as her favorite! :) She had him a couple of weeks ago and requested to have him when she was assigned back to the SCN this week. She is such a sweetheart, and it makes me feel so much better knowing that he is under her care. All of the other nurses in the NICU are incredible as well! I've really gotten to know many of them over the past few weeks. Becky let me give Brayson a bath tonight before his 6:00 feed! It was so exciting to see him for the first time not hooked up to anything!!! And he loved his bath! Jeremy got some great pictures.....

THREE WEEKS!

Our little man is three weeks old tonight! We are so proud of how far he has come in the past three weeks. He is such a wonderful baby. Many of the nurses have commented on how he almost never cries. He is very content most of the time. He continues to improve every day. He is up to 4 lbs. 7 oz. and is looking great! We had a rough day on Monday...his temp dropped and he had to be put under a warmer. He had been spitting up and having other problems so there was a chance he was getting sick. Jeremy and I were pretty scared, but everything worked out and he bounced back really fast! Brayson lost an ounce that day, but he gained 2 ounces the following day to make up for it!!! :) He's doing pretty good with his feeds. He prefers the breast over the bottle and surprisingly does much better with the breast! This is a little unusual, and the doctors really want him taking a bottle well before he can come home. So occupational therapists will be working with him starting today on his bottle feeding. Pray that this goes well and that he picks up this skill really quickly!!! This is the final thing preventing him from coming home with us!!!!!

Well, I am off to the hospital to spend the day with this cutie! I just love him so much! Everyone have a fantastic weekend!!!



~ Crystal

A BRAYSON UPDATE

Wow! It's hard to believe that Brayson will be two weeks old tonight!! :) The past three weeks all seemed to go by so slowly, but at the same time they have flown by.......how is that possible? Things are going really well. Brayson is such a champ! He has started breastfeeding twice a day, and we will probably go up to three times a day tomorrow. He still gets his other feeds through his tube. Once we get up to four times a day, they will introduce a bottle. So three feeds will be by breast, one by bottle, and the other four will be by his tube. We will continue to climb up until he is taking all eight feeds by mouth. He has officially been moved out of ICN to the SCN, so a new team of doctors are evaluating him daily. An ultrasound was done a couple of days ago on his head and it showed that there was a level one (the worst level is four) bleed in the left ventricle of his brain. No long term effects are expected, and he will get another ultrasound in a week or so to see if his brain has soaked up the bleed and healed itself. The doctor told me that brain bleeds are pretty common in preemies. They're just going to monitor it and make sure it doesn't get any worse and watch for signs of hydrocephalus. Now, back to good news.......Brayson was moved into a crib and is regulating his body temperature all on his own!! He is on Reglan right now to help his digestive system move a little faster because he was having too many large residuals after his feeds. His feeds are up to 35 mL now, and they are adding extra calories to his feeds to help him gain weight a little faster because he is burning up more energy breastfeeding and regulating his temp. Our big boy now weighs 4lbs and 1 oz. We cannot wait to get him home!! Spending all day every day at the hospital can be very draining and stressful. I didn't realize how tiring it can be, but when I get home every night I am ready to go to bed! It's all I can do to keep my eyes open long enough to eat a bite and spend a little time with Jeremy. Thank you everyone for the wonderful comments, beautiful gifts, and kind messages you have sent us! We appreciate everything!!! Everything is going very well, but we still have a ways to go. Please continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

whoops! i just realized that a few of these need to be rotated.........I'll come back and fix it later.....enjoy them sideways for now! :)





Thank you and God bless!

Brayson is one week old!!!

We are so proud of how Brayson has done over the past week! His feeds have increased every day. He lost 4 ounces the first couple of days, but he has gained all of it back plus some! He will probably get out from under the light today, so he won't have to wear that bothersome mask anymore. He's an active little bugger, but he almost never cries. The other morning the nurse said she walked by his isolette and he had pulled his mask down to his chin, kicked his diaper off to the bottom of the isolette, and was waving his feeding tube around in his hand! He has jerked it out several times now......makes me a nervous wreck! He graduated from the middle nursery in the NICU to the last one before he gets to come home! I call it "graduated" but Jeremy says it's more like prison overcrowding and getting out on early parole! haha! The ran out of room and chose a couple of the best babies to move up sooner than they would have, and Brayson was doing the best! We were there when they moved him. Jeremy got to help pull his equipment over and I took a couple of pictures. We are so proud and thankful. God is so good! He has blessed us tremendously this week. It's really hard having a baby in the NICU, but we have had so much support and prayer from family and friends this week! And all of my clients have been so understanding and patient. I thank you and love you all!!! I hope you enjoy these pictures!

Here are some more. We got to hold him!!

ROUND #1 OF PICTURES!

Here are some pics from this weekend. Brayson is doing well. He got his breathing tubes out yesterday, so we'll be posting some pics later where you can see his face better. He's been put under the billi-lite, which treats his jaundice. They tell us that most babies in the NICU get jaundice at least once during their stay. Things are progressing nicely!