My Little Miracle

I just got home from the hospital and have a few hours alone tonight. Sydney is at Disney on Ice with my mom, and Adam & my Dad went to a movie. I came home to try to get some rest and go to bed early. My life consists of pumping, sleeping, and being at the hospital, but as soon as I leave there, I want to go right back. I am madly in love with this baby. He is so unbelievably amazing and perfect. God blessed us with another baby who NEVER cries. He is a great sleeper already, too. He had his circumcision last night and he didn't even cry for that.

He is doing great. He finally gained weight and is above his birth weight. He is now 5 lbs 8.6 oz. He is now taking a bottle and eating about half of what the Dr's want him to. He is back on breast milk and is digesting it now. It has less calories than formula though, so they fortify it with other vitamins and minerals. As soon as he can finish all of his feedings for a full 24 hours, he can come home. Dr is guessing it will be about 2 weeks yet. I haven't had any luck with nursing yet. A lactation specialist is going to work with us tomorrow morning, so hopefully it will work.

Lots of pictures for you tonight. You can click on any picture to make it bigger if you want to take a closer look. :)

I can't wait to take some pictures without that feeding tube in.

He is now out of the incubator and in a regular crib!

Daddy and Sebastian. He is only awake when he's eating, but he already smiles and coos at us. So sweet!

Bath time!

Sydney's been a little left out lately due to all our time spent at the hospital without her. Although she's been greatly taken care of by Grandma, Adam and I wanted to take her on a date night. We asked where she wanted to go and she said Chucke Cheese of course, but just to play, not to eat. She wanted to eat at Olive Garden first. :) Here's a pic at the good ole' OG.

She also got to go to Disney on Ice tonight with Grandma. This is what she picked to wear. She already started arguing with me over picking out her own clothes. I thought it would be many years yet before this would happen!

Here's my prayer request for the night......We've met a lot of nice families in the NICU, but also some that my heart is breaking for. There are so many single, teen moms that have 1 and 2 lbs babies in there and aren't capable of taking care of themselves, let alone their babies. After listen to one young girl talk for about an hour, I asked the nurses what their policy is on sending babies home with these girls. She said it rarely happens where they don't send the babies home with the mothers. She said it is very hard to watch at times, but there is nothing they can do. I've left the NICU in tears many times for these innocent little babies who won't get a fair chance in life. Please pray for all these babies. I look at Sebastian in a room full of babies and think of how God chose him to have a loving family and 2 parents to take care of him. My heart breaks for some of the other ones.......

My Valentines

Happy Valentine's Day! Sydney woke up early this morning, excited to open her presents.

Then we headed to the hospital to give Sebastian his valentine's present. To my shock when I got there, someone had beaten me to it. Little Abigail from the crib next to him (or actually her mom) had already given him a Valentine. She passed out Valentine's to all the babies in the NICU. Very cute idea though. I wish I'd have thought of it. :)

He is doing great today. The formula feedings have been working and he is back up to 5 lbs 8 oz, his birth weight. He got his IV taken out today, so that is very nice having one less wire attached to him. The Dr is going to try to reintroduce breast milk to him tomorrow and see if he is able to digest it now. He is one week old today!

I had my one week follow up at the Dr today and got my stitches removed. All is well with me!

Adam and I went to dinner to Prime Quarter tonight and had our favorite waitress, Jodi. :) Then we went to visit Sebastian again.

Here's Sebastian and I. He was thrilled with his Valentine's presents, as you can tell. :)

Can't wait until Sydney can get in on the family pictures.

Going Home

Friday was my last day in the hospital. It was also a very busy day for labor and delivery. They had so many new patients come in, that there weren't enough rooms for everyone. They asked me to move since my baby wasn't at the same hospital. Adam and I got moved to the Pediatrics floor and he had ALOT of fun. As you can see above, they had Xbox in the room. We ordered Pizza Hut and had a game night.

We were the only people on the floor (the hallways were actually dark) so we were goofing around a bit. :) I was a little drugged up on Vicodin. :)

Here's a picture of Sebastian that my friend Julie took when she came to visit.

The above picture is Sebastian and the two pictures below are of Sydney when she was a newborn. They look like twins!

This one was taken when she was in the NICU.

Here's Sebastian's little house.

Now for an update on him. He had a rough day yesterday. The neonatologists told us that there would be good days and bad days, but it still is hard. He was born at 5 lbs 8 oz and now has lost weight. He was down to 4 lbs 13 oz and that was more of a drop than they would like to see. He's not been able to digest my breast milk for some reason, so yesterday they switched him to formula to see if that will make a difference. It can also be a sign of an intestinal infection, so we are praying that isn't the case and that he just doesn't like my milk for some reason.

He did start sucking on a bottle so that is good. They are going to try to have him take a bottle for his feedings and then if he can't or won't finish it all, they will put the rest through his feeding tube.

Please keep praying for him. Seeing what God has gotten us through already in these past 15 weeks, we know He will get us through this as well and bring Sebastian home safe and healthy.

Baby Update

Sebastian is doing so well. All his test results have come back showing good results. The only thing he has to work on is eating. He has a feeding tube in and is having a hard time keeping down my milk. Babies this young aren't really interested in sucking yet, so they just feed him through a tube in his nose. Once he can get the hang of eating and is gaining weight, we will be able to bring him home. We are hoping this will be only a few weeks away!

As you can see from the pictures, we've gotten to hold him quite a bit now.
I go to visit in the morning for his 10:00 feeding and then I get to hold him like this for about 2 hours. They call it "Kangaroo Care" and he lays under my shirt like a baby kangaroo. It's suppose to help premature babies with all different kinds of problems. Here's an article about it.

http://www.med.umich.edu/nicu/pdf/C.3KangarooCare.pdf

He looks very similar to Sydney when she was a baby.

5 lbs 8 oz sounded like a decent size to me, but he's so tiny. You can see here how little he really is.
Adam and I got Sydney a new book about being a big sister, as well as a new doll. She hasn't been able to see Sebastian yet. They don't allow anyone under 18 in the NICU. We've shown her pictures and video of him, but she doesn't quite get it yet. I keep having hospital stays, but she never sees a baby. :)
A family picture :)
Enjoying a cookie from my Dr.
Not many doctors send gifts...this was very nice of him. Very good cookies and very cute!

Welcome baby Sebastian!

He's here! Sebastian Robert Surber was born Monday, 2/7/11 at 9:53 am. He was 5 lbs 8 oz and 17 3/4 inches long. He was 33 weeks and 5 days gestation, but very good size for his age.

In my last post I wrote how I was back in the hospital, but they had stopped my labor by Sunday morning. I was suppose to go home on Monday morning, but I ended up going into labor again around 11pm Sunday night and it couldn't be stopped any longer. I was dilated all the way to 10cm by 9am Monday morning. So, technically I did "natural" labor with no drugs, until I got into the OR at 9am. :) I did it all, except for the pushing part!
I just got to visit him for the first time a few hours ago. We won't be able to hold him for a while yet, but we can touch him. He's breathing on his own already, so that is great. He probably won't be discharged until around my due date of 3/23, so keep us all in your prayers yet!
I'm doing really well, too. I'm unhooked from all the IV's and catheter already and pain from the c-section is very minimal. I even ended up getting a slight tummy tuck during my surgery! No pictures of that for a while yet, though. :)

Back in the hospital - 33 weeks

Things have been going well lately, up until Saturday morning when I landed myself back in the hospital again. I woke up Saturday with a lot of bleeding and contractions, so we called the Dr. and came in. Things have calmed down now, and they were able to stop my labor once again.

Adam and I are getting ready for our own little hospital room superbowl party. (There you go, Julie. These pics are for you!)

I'm 33 1/2weeks now, measuring exactly right, and gained 17 lbs. My c-section has officially been scheduled and is less than 5 weeks away! Just praying Sebastian will hold off until then!

Here's a pre-hospital pic at 31 weeks.Other happenings - Adam and I went out on a date night, which included dinner and grocery shopping. This is how we make our way around all the stores. I've never noticed before, but pretty much every store has wheelchairs at the front entrance. I wish I was brave enough to try out the motorized scooters, but I'm both embarrassed and afraid of crashing. Having Adam push me around is entertaining to everyone in the store though. He pushes so fast that I barely have a chance to look whats on the shelves, let alone grab what we need to buy. I think he's hoping if I don't see things, we'll get out of there quicker. :)
Sebastian's nursery is coming along. This was Sydney's crib (that she never slept in.)
We found a great deal on a very solid oak dresser on craigslist for $40. Adam sanded it and painted it black for me and then we got new knobs for it. I'm much smarter this time around, then I was with Sydney's dressers at $700 each!

A fully stocked closet and dresser thanks to the Oshkosh Outlets. I don't think I paid more than $100 for all of these. Also, thanks to my sister-in-law for the hangers!

Another little something I found and had Adam paint black for me.
I hope everyone is enjoying their superbowl parties tonight. I'll be in touch!

31 Weeks!

Today I am 31 weeks and doing great! Only 8 more to go now! With Christmas and all the holiday festivities, the days have been flying by. I can't believe January is almost over already. I was able to get out of the house quite a few times for Christmas and New Years parties, my Dad's birthday and even managed an overnight stay in Chicago.

Don't worry, my Dr gave me permission to go. We used a wheelchair at one hotel and then when it wasn't available, Adam pushed me on the luggage cart. :)
Sydney and Adam all ready for her photo shoot.

I'm hoping February flies by just as quickly as December and January did. It's a short month, so it should. I'm looking forward to Valentine's day and a little Door County getaway if all is still well at the end of the month.

I had a Dr's appointment on Monday and Sebastian was 3 lbs 12 oz. My cervix didn't change at all, so that is great. My Dr is going to schedule my c-section for 39 weeks if every remains the same. Otherwise, if any issues arise he will do an amnio to check for lung development and then deliver early if they are developed enough. Things are looking very good though!

My mom helped me get all of the new Christmas things put away and we are now almost finished with Sebastian's room. I have some clothes left to go through and put away and I have my eye on a few pieces of wall art for his room that I want to purchase.

Tonight Adam and Sydney are at church so I'm enjoying a few hours of quiet time. I know I won't have it for long!