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!