Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my Big Boy! Today Ryan turns 2!

Two years ago

One Year Ago

This Year

Journal Entries...From 2007
I've been wanting to put this on the blog for some time...for two reasons. One: so you'll know/remember the beginning. Two: for record keeping. So I am planning to put the journal entries from when Ryan was in the NICU. I'll put the entries up in the order in which I wrote them. One per day. When I was in the hospital I didn't have access to a computer and didn't feel like writing anyway, so my original journal didn't start until about the 16th or 17th of February. I'm going to start adding them today, so they won't end exactly when he came home. Ryan was in the NICU from February 11th to May 11th

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JOURNAL ENTRY

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Since this is the beginning of this special website (Carepages.com) for our very special little boy I will take some to time to recap all the events up to this point.

January 29, 2007
We went to the doctor to have some things checked out because I had become nervous about the health of the pregnancy. Unfortunately, to our surprise, the doctor found that my body was not holding the baby inside well at all, so he immediately admitted us to the hospital. That evening I had a "rescue cerclage" procedure to help hold the baby inside. We were absolutely blessed with the success of this procedure. The plan was to stay in the hospital from this point forward until our little Peanut was born. Our hopes were to remain for 10 weeks so our baby could reach 32 weeks gestation.

February 10, 2007
Everything has been going well overall. We have had some ups and downs physically, but emotionally we are doing quite well. Late in the evening I began to have some contractions and bleeding. The nurses gave me Brethine to stop the contractions and it worked.

February 11, 2007
The contractions and bleeding have continued. I have been given Brethine several times today, and the contractions stop for a while then start again. Finally early in the afternoon it was decided to move me to the labor and delivery floor and start Magnesium to put a stop to labor. Labor continued despite all efforts. At about 5:00 p.m. it was decided that our little baby was going to be born and a C-section was going to be the safest for him because an ultrasound revealed that he was breech.

At 5:31 p.m. our little Peanut came into the world. He weighed 1 pound 8 ounces and was 12 1/2 inches long. He was at 24 weeks gestation.

February 12, 2007
Peanut has made it through his first day of life. This is awesome. The doctors say he is extremely critical but stable, and we will have to take everything on an hour-by-hour basis.

February 14, 2007
Peanut is doing well. His ventilator settings are set at about 25% oxygen. He breathes above the ventilator at times, and rides the ventilator at other times. His blood gases have been looking good. We received news from the doctor that the ductus in his heart has closed. This is a great blessing since they were giving him medicine to close it, and if it didn't close surgery would be required.

February 15, 2007
Peanut has a real name now. His name is Ryan Andrew.

I have been discharged from the hospital today. It is terrifying to think of being 30 miles away from from my little boy instead of just a 5 minute walk.

February 16, 2007
I was able to spend the day at the hospital so I could be close to Ryan. He has had a good day. All of his statistics have remained within normal limits. He is still positional, meaning his oxygen levels tend to fall when he is repositioned. I was able to touch him during one of his position changes, and he tolerated the change well. I would like to believe my presence made a difference. He has still been losing weight and is now down to 1 pound 3 ounces. I talked to the doctor today, and she said that all babies including tiny premature babies lose up to 20% of their birth weight. She said she would be more concerned if he was actually gaining weight because it would probably indicate he was retaining fluids. We received more good news today. They did an ultrasound of his head yesterday to detect any bleeding in his brain. The results came back normal. Yea!

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY BOY!