Daddy First Day Missing Out Day 6

Today is the first day that Daddy was not able to be at the hospital with Calen. I had to go back to work. Mom went back with her sister and mother. Her sister was in charge of the camera, and she took my camera which was not a good idea because working it can be a tad difficult for someone who has never used a DSLR, so we are not posting any pictures from today, I did a training session with Susan tonight in order to prepare her for better pictures next time she is in charge of the camera. So in leu of this I am jumping back a few days to right before Calen was born. 

Well we experienced another small weight loss today. He is down to 1.3 pounds. I am sure actual weight gain is going to take a while but we are already getting pretty anxious about it though. He is still on TPN and Lipids through his PICC line and he is tolerating the small doses of breast milk that they have been giving him through the OG tube. They have officially starting to give him 1ml of breast milk in his OG tube every 3 hours now. They placed just a tad bit of milk in his mouth and they said that they are doing that so he starts to get used to the taste of his mommies milk. Holly was able to give him a bath today, this was her first time that she got to do the entire bath on her own. Calen will get full body baths every Monday and Thursday. 

 

This was on Saturday in the Perinatal Intensive Care. This was probably no more than 1 hour away from the c-section. Holly was feeling absolutely miserable and in order to keep anywhere near calm it required constant washing of her face with a cold wash rag. She was sick and was on magnesium to prevent seizures, and extremely scared so with all that together it made for a very difficult moment in the day. Most of our family was present at this point and with me beside her and all brothers and sisters also next to her we waited to get wheeled down the hall to the operating room. The room was extremely tense at this moment, everybody had the lingering feeling of the prognosis of our child, so we just had to be by her side to comfort Holly.

We are very goal oriented, so I was glad to see that Miami Valley Hospital invested in this awesome dry erase boards so I could get my goals written out, at the point of writing this, it was defiantly a "short" term goal at this point and it quickly became a "long" term goal. When I look at the situation now that Holly and I are out, I am actually very happy Calen is there because I am so overly pleased with the staff and care he is receiving at MVH, I would much rather see him grow in a proactive environment and be a healthy child then see him develop incorrectly, we must protect his future as much as possible, and we are so thankful to God and those he has appointed to ensure that happens. 

Daddy looking good prior to heading into the OR for Holly's C-Section. I had to sit in the recovery room and wait until they had her prepped and draped so I had some time to take a super cool self portrait. 

Thank you God for giving us individuals who are skilled to take care of us when we are sick, and safely bring into the world those are not ready too. Their steady hands save lives and have given us an amazing gift. 

 The doctors at work, I started taking a lot of pictures in the OR eventually cause Holly had a regional block and not general anesthesia but she still fell asleep. Holly soon awoke while still in surgery and she was very cold, which is just a normal side effect of being in a cold OR, and blood loss, and medications. The Nurse Anesthetist was very sweet and laid a warmed Lactated Ringers bag against her neck and face to help warm her up. Genius Idea.

I will be back to the NICU tomorrow night once I get off work. I will take more photographs as available. I know most of you just want to see that baby. Continue with your many prayers, the told us that the NICU is 2 good days and 1 bad, it's a roller coaster ride. We have had nothing but good day's since he has been out, and at this point seeing his progress I am not sure if Holly and I could handle a bad day. Thank you everyone.

There will very soon be a different way to help support Calen and our family finically. Team Calen tee shirts are being screen printed now, hope to see them next week. We will be selling them for $8 each. I will post a picture of them when they come in. Goodnight!!!