Eye update

Well, the eye exam didn't go quite as well as we had hoped. Zack's eyes got a little worse. He is now in the "Stage 2" category. I don't have many details this time because the eye doctor had already come and gone by the time we had gotten to the hospital, so I didn't get to hear what he thought.
So I turned to the internet to look up ROP (that is the term for what he has) and get more info on this. It helped a little, but I still just want to talk to the doctor and see how Zack's personal condition is... Anyway, if anyone is interested in looking more into it, the website I found is:

http://www.nei.nih.gov/health/rop/index.asp

Anyway, Zack will be getting another exam on Wednesday, so we will see how that one goes.

A little more progress

We have made some progress over the last few days. The biggest achievement is that Zack has hit the 3 pound mark! And it is showing. Many people that have seen some recent pictures have commented on his double chin!! I never thought I would be so happy to see that appear.

Then, we got to give him a bath tonight!! We had a rough start getting him in the bath because the nurse brought over the little tub of warm water, and as soon as we put him in it, he went to the bathroom. So, we took him out, replaced the water, put him back in, and he went again! He's a little stinker (literally!!). On the third round of clean water, he relaxed and really enjoyed the bath. It was so fun to give him the little bubble bath!

Also, we have been working on getting Zack to eat from a bottle once a day. It has been a slow process because he likes to choke and gag himself on it, but on Sunday, the nurse tried to feed him and he drank the whole bottle!! Since then, however, he only does half (or even less than half). But, we are getting there.

And finally, last Wednesday Zack had another eye exam. Unfortunately it didn't go as well as his first two exams went. Without going into too much detail (mainly because I can't remember the exact terms right now!) there are different "zones" and "stages" that the doctor looks for when he is checking his eyes. There are three "zones" in the eye and we are in zone two right now (which is good and normal)... we need to get to zone three. Then, you have three "stages" of the eye and we are in stage one. We don't want to progress in these stages because that would mean that Zack would need to get a laser surgery which would affect his eye sight. SO, we are scheduled for another exam tomorrow to see what progress Zack has made in the past week.
*So if you could send little prayers our way for his eyes, we would be so grateful!*

Blue vs. Red

Well it must be that time of year again when all you see in the state of Utah is either blue or red, and not much in between. If any of you know Jared and myself, you will know we wear BYU Blue, but the nurses in the NICU wear Utah Red. And there is one nurse, who will remain nameless, that seems to have "outdone" herself!! Not long ago, she put together a nice little scrapbook page for Zack, but it was done in red. When we got to the NICU and saw that sitting on Zack's bed, Jared was mid sentence and said "Whoa! What is this?" Needless to say, ALL the nurses started laughing. So that night on our way home, we started plotting our own revenge. So while this nurse was out of town, we colored diapers blue and made Zack a special name tag for his bed. He seemed to love them! As if that wasn't good enough, the day the nurse was back in town, we get to the hospital to see Zack, and there is a red Utah football sitting next to Zack along with some Utah socks on his feet!! Not good, right? Don't worry, we have yet another idea up our sleeve...
To Be Continued...

Don't be deceived by this picture... this nurse REALLY is a BYU fan!

8 weeks and counting!

WOW! We have made it 8 weeks now. I must say that when I look back to that time, it has gone by pretty fast in some aspects, and yet in others, it has been the longest 8 weeks of my life! To be honest, I think most of it is just a blur because it still hasn't completely set in that we actually have a baby!! However, we should be on the downside of this adventure in the NICU. If we do the calculations, we only have 6 weeks until our original due date, which was October 6th. When Zack was first born, the doctor told us to plan for him to stay in the hospital until at least his due date. So until we get told to bring in our car seat for the "car seat test" (That is where he will have to be in his car seat for 2 hours without dropping his oxygen and heart rate percentage for more than 3 minutes at a time in order to be released from the hospital...), we will be planning for the first week in October.

Now, to show you some of the funny and cute things that Zack is doing lately... He has got to be one of the most active babies I have ever seen when he sleeps! Here are some pictures of his favorite sleeping positions. He LOVES to sleep on his arm and to sleep face planted into his bed! *Also, you can see his scar from his heart surgery on his back in these pictures.*



And finally, today we got to start trying to get him to bottle feed. That is a huge step in his progress to come home. It was an eye-opener for me to see all that is involved in this process. What comes so simply for us, is very challenging for him. It consists of a combination of breathing, sucking, and swallowing all at the same time. He didn't do too well with it unfortunately for his first time, mainly because he was asleep and we couldn't get him to wake up!! We will continue to try once a day until he gets that down, and gradually that will increase until he is feeding from a bottle 100% of the time.

Big Day

Yesterday was a big day for Zack! But I must warn all of you before you read this, unless you have a baby in the NICU, you will be reading this and wondering what the big deal is. But trust me, these things are huge to us right now!!!

When I got to the NICU for the 3:00 feeding (everything is around the clock now), I went to change his diaper as usual, and he had on a preemie diaper. *Side note: The first diaper he was in was about the size of a band-aid (literally!). The second size he was in was about the size of a doll sized diaper, and finally the preemie diaper.* The nurse told me he has "graduated" to the preemie sized diaper because he keeps "blowing out" of the other ones! Which by the way, the preemie diapers are HUGE on him still!


Next, when we were holding him for our usual Wednesday time, the nurse was trying to put the lid down on his Giraffe (that's the name of the coolest incubator there is!) but it would only get about halfway down and get stuck. So they were going to switch the Giraffe's out and decided he was big enough to "graduate" to the next bed. *Another side note: There are three beds. First, the Giraffe, then the regular incubator (not sure if there is a specific name for this one), and the crib.* So this was another big deal for us!

And finally, Zack has decided to keep adding on the weight. He is now at 2 pounds 11 ounces, and probably as I am writing this, he has added another ounce to that! We have joked with our neighbors in the NICU (Avery's parents or also referred to as Zack's girlfriend's parents!) that the "normal" sized babies look fat compared to our babies, but Zack is well on his way to catching up!

Holding Zack

On Sunday's and Wednesday's we get to hold Zack for a few minutes. Needless to say, those are my favorite days of the week right now. Yesterday when I held him, I sat there and thought of how blessed I am to have him. I was able to hold him against my body (as you can see in the pictures) and I could feel him breathe and feel him moving, and it was the best feeling I have had in a long time! Jared was out of town, so I got to hold him even longer than usual, so that made this experience even better (not because Jared was out of town!!). I just can't wait until we get to hold him more often...

6 weeks old

It seems like a lot has happened in the last few days, but not much has! Zack is in the NICU at St. Mark's Hospital, and they have 3 levels of care. He has been in the 3rd level, or the most critical, level since he was born, but on Friday, he was moved into the 2nd room/level. Since then, it seems like he has doubled in size!! OK, that wouldn't be hard to do since his size was down to 1 pound 4 ounces at one point... but he has made it to 2 pounds 4 ounces now!!! So yeah for gaining a pound now!
Also, he has a little friend in the NICU that the nurses say is going to be his girlfriend someday! Their family has a very similar story to ours, so it's been very nice to carry each other through these hard times. We wish them luck with their little girl!!
6 weeks down now...