update for today

Well, Kellen is showing his stubbornness. He heard the doctors say he was going home next week and decided he didn't so much like the thought of leaving his brother. So he has decided to not eat as well. :)  We all are pretty impressed with his ability to manipulate at such a young age... ha ha!! Really, he is doing great but hasn't been feeding as well since yesterday.  However, he still doesn't need his tube put back.

Carson is chilling and doing well. He had occupational and physical therapy today. He did well. He is using his pacifier more and it appears that he does have fairly symmetric suck from both his right and left side of his mouth. His tongue deviates a little to the left, but it is encouraging that he can still suck with both sides of his mouth. He also is doing better with swallowing his saliva rather than drooling all the time. :)  We are just pleased he is doing so well.

Again, we are all overwhelmed with everyone's generosity and kindness. Thank you and God bless you!

Posted by Sarah

update for today

December here we come! :)  The update is pretty short today. Kellen has done so well with his weight gain and feedings, he gets his NG tube taken out of his nose...YIPEEE!!!! He is going to be a happy little boy. The doctors said he will definitely be going home next week! YEAH!!!

Carson is up to 11 mLs per hour on his feeds and his IV nutrition is down to 4 mL/hour. This is really good b/c we would like to get him off his IV nutrition and on just breastmilk. All in good time. From the standpoint of ventilation, the doctors are giving him a week vacation and he gets to coast. After a week, he better be ready to roll because everyone is going to want to get back on the weaning band wagon. :)  He appears to be doing well from the standpoint of infection and will just be finishing his antibiotics.

Next Tuesday will be the one month birthdays and Preston and Liz plan to take a Christmas photo. Can't wait to see it! ;)

We hope all of you are doing well and getting ready to celebrate a fun weekend!!!

update for today

Thank you for your faithful prayers and support. We are so thankful! Please keep up your prayers, because we know Jesus is hearing and answering each and every one.

Kellen is doing great. They are going to let him exclusively breast feed unless he is too tired to eat and then they will supplement. This really is amazing considering how closely they have kept up on how many mLs he is getting and how much weight he is gaining. I know Liz is really excited and it is another step in the right direction of getting to leave the hospital.

We still need to pray for Carson. He has been a lot slower to wean off the ventilator than they thought in the beginning. They believe some of the high pressures used in the beginning b/c of his swelling may have set him back and created some damage in Carson's lungs. In addition, he is getting more fluid in his lungs again and that makes it harder. They have had to go up on his ventilator settings today. He didn't have any sign of infection in his blood or urine, but some mild staph infection on his trach. They will continue his antibiotics and restart a diuretic to help him get rid of some more fluid. His G-tube insertion area has also not healed as much as they hoped. Dr. Yang believes Carson just might not have enough energy to heal all the various places on his body he has suffered trauma. As a result, the next few days, we are not going to make any ventilator changes and just let him rest. On a happier note, Liz and Preston are getting to hold Carson more and it just makes us all happy to see him looking so good. His color is so much better and he even is sucking on his pacifier. Both boys are so precious.

Liz and Preston are doing great. Recently, they were on a mission to get more premie clothing b/c Mr. Kellen likes to poop through all his diapers and managed to go through about 15 outfits in 2 days. Looks like Liz and Preston have lots of laundry in their future. :)

Please continue to pray for healing for Carson: no infections, healing for his lungs and ability to wean off the ventilator eventually, protection over him and patience for Liz and Preston as they wait for total healing for Carson.

twice the fun

Goodness...what a precious little boy.  Can you believe this little sweetie?!

We love you too, little one!

little fella

Blog Moderator, Ahdra, here and just had to comment on this picture Liz just sent of Carson.  Wow.  It looks like he already knows all the answers, right?

We sure love you little buddy!

update for today

Thank you to all of you for your prayers!!! YEAH, the ultrasound was negative for any masses or abnormalities on his liver. He has a gallstone, which they believe to be fairly normal and are just going to watch. Tomorrow he will get a CTScan of his lungs to make sure there aren't any potential areas of question for metastasis from his mass. They are not expecting any, but just to be thorough and make sure, they will get the study tomorrow.

Carson did have an elevated white blood cell count (indicating infection), so they got cultures from his tracheostomy, blood, and urine to see if they could find a source of infection. They started him on antibiotics prophylactically, and we will just wait to see what the results from his lab work are. Let's just pray he gets over this quickly and doesn't have any bad infections. His ventilator is the same.

Exciting news, it was okayed with surgery that he can have a pacifier so he gets to start having some practice sucking! It makes me feel better too because when he gets mad, we can at least try to soothe him with his pacifier. Starting a bad habit maybe, but oh well, he will grow out of it. :) He also got to wear his first stocking cap today!

Kellen is doing great. He gets to start breastfeeding twice a day instead of once. Liz and Preston are doing excellent. And both boys now weigh over 5 lbs!!!!!

Thank you to all your prayers and keep up the prayers for healing of Carson's neck and ability to swallow, for Carson to be able to get off the ventilator, and so Carson does not develop any serious infections. 

Have a wonderful Tuesday!

Posted by Sarah

update on special prayer request

Carson has had his ultrasound of his liver completed. However, we won't know any results until tomorrow. Thank you so much for your prayers and as soon as we know anything, we will email the information out. I will say, the doctors do not seem to be very concerned. The tech didn't really talk very much and wasn't sure when the doctors would review the results.

On a positive note, Carson got to go down on his ventilator rate to 30, which means he is doing more of the work himself. His bilirubin is also down to 4.8 instead of 10 where it was a week or so ago. His color is so much better than it was. He is doing great with his feeds and is up to 7 ml/ hour. He continues to pee and poop like a champ. :) They are hoping to start allowing him to suck on a pacifier soon, but need to get the okay from surgery that his surgical wounds are healed up. So, we will just keep praying for healing until we find out what the study showed.

Kellen is doing fantastic and is up to 45 mL per hour on his feeding! We are changing him to taking a bottle every other feed so he can get some rest in between bottle feeding. That way he can grow and get stronger faster to where he will be able to take a bottle with every feed. The doctors believe he will go home in the next 7 to 10 days.  Wow.

Prayers:
1) Continued healing for Carson's liver, ability to wean off the ventilator, protect his airway with swallowing, and be able to eat and swallow instead of having to use the G-tube.
2) Thanksgiving: his agitation level and ability to move his neck have been fantastic the last few days.
3) Direction for Liz and Preston with where to stay once Kellen is discharged from the hospital. The Ronald McDonald house has been wonderful but there are a lot of sick children there so it is not the best place to have a premature baby.

Thank you for all the prayers everyone!!!

Posted by Sarah