Renewed & Energized

Well despite earlier hopes, we won't be able to bring Liam home from the hospital until next week at the earliest. We thought this Friday would be discharge day, however, we forgot that Liam was on another medicine and would also need to be weaned off of that. So that was hard to swallow yesterday and today I awoke with a renewed sense of reassurance that despite the delay it would all be for the best. Looking at the positive side of things really helps me get through the let downs.

With that said we are so happy to say that little Liam is doing fantastic! His weaning is going just as planned and he just had his last dose of Morphine at noon today, so if all goes well over 48 hours they will then start weaning the other medicine, which the doctor said is a lot quicker process. So the doctor told us today, that if everything continues to go well we should be discharged in 6 days :), which for those of you counting, is next Tuesday! I am super excited and I just want to ask you all to continue to pray for our little guy, that he continues to get stronger, better, and comes home (well at least to the hotel) on Tuesday! Thank you.

Otherwise Liam is doing great! He is now eating 100% of his formula from the bottle and his muscular tone is doing great. His scores have been 3s, which is amazing and he is really a rather delightful baby. He loves to be swaddled, but he doesn't mine doing his muscle stretches that the Physical Therapist has recommended, he actually fell asleep with it, and he is just about the most beautiful baby I have ever seen! Things are going really well and we are just praying for a speedy process to bring us all back home to Ohio. Florida is just not my state. Way too hot and humid every day! Otherwise it's been a great trip considering everything we've been through. Please keep praying for Liam! Thank you all so much!

Bottle Time

An answer to our prayers! Sunday morning we went in and Liam had finally decided to eat from the bottle. I can honestly say that was something I was so worried about and I knew it was a gift from God, I had just asked you all to pray for Liam to please start eating on Friday! So Sunday morning we go in and Liam had ate 90 ml, 20 ml more than he was suppose to eat! I was so happy, I really had to restrain myself from jumping up and down. Then while we were feeding him he had the whole serving again. Over the last two days Liam has taken 90% of his formula from the bottle and they will probably take out the feeding tube tomorrow! 

Thank you all so much! We are really so happy and feel so blessed. Liam is doing very well, getting stronger, and we are starting to see his own little personality coming out each day. His scores have been ranging from 4-5 (a normal baby would range between 3 and 5), the doctor also lowered the frequency of his medicine to every 12 hours, which means that on Wednesday, if everything is good he could take all the medicine away and see how Liam does for another 48 hours. After 48 hours without a dose of medicine and with good numbers Liam will be released!!!

So naturally we are shooting for Friday to take him home from the hospital! We are so excited, yet guarded, and we just wanted to ask you all to continue to pray for little Liam for him to continue to get better and get out of the hospital by the weekend! We really can't wait to bring him home. I can't wait to hold him without worrying about ruining his scores or making him feel spoiled or asking to do this or that with my Son. Thank you all for your prayers and please continue on! Thank you!

Precious

Today I got to hold my son and watch him sleep, feel his soft little cheeks against mine, and watch him smile so wide; it was so precious. I think today it fully sunk in that I am a Mom, that Liam is my son, and together with my wonderful Husband we are a family of three+ our puppy Katey. Its just as wonderful as I thought it would be and I am so thankful to have these two men in my life.

Liam is doing really well and seems to improve daily. I think we are over the hill and hopefully heading back to Ohio sometime in the next two weeks. It's been a long road and we still have quite a ways to go, but I think for Liam the hard part is over. He is still having difficulty with eating, I think he has grown use to the tube doing all the work, but I am convinced he will just figure it out. He ate one ounce just before we left this evening, and the rest the tubed in. He is doing well as far as his scoring is concerned, and did really well with the decreased frequency of the morphine. He is such a strong little guy already. He has quite an attitude too. He looks at me with such an attitude sometimes and his smile is priceless. I have also come to the conclusion that not only are we adopting our dear little son, but also pooping machine. This baby does nothing but poop and sleep. That's it. We changed 4 poopy diapers during our visit today and wow is all I will say.

I still love the little guy. He is going to have his grandparents, Aunts, and Uncles wrapped around his tiny fingers very quickly. He is so sweet and has such a wonderful little personality already. Keith & I really want to thank you all for praying for little Liam so much lately, and though he is doing well now, we ask you to keep praying for him to continue to improve and get over the hurdles that he continues to climb. We are both rather worried about his lack of consistent eating and we would really appreciate if you could all pray particularly for this. Thank you all so much!

Moving Along

The good thing about this week, thus far, is that things seem to be getting better and better. According to Liam's doctor he is progressing right on schedule and doing really well. Liam's numbers were good enough the day before to start weening him off of the Morphine, which is fantastic. Over night though his numbers fluctuated between good and bad, so the doctors put him on another drug that is non-habit forming (non-addictive), which means weening him will not be a problem later, and he seemed to do better after the first dose.

Liam continued today in his progress of eating as well! He really seems to be getting the hang of it! We are so happy about this! He ate over half of his noon ration through the bottle for me today, 37 ml! His ration is 70 ml. So I was rather ecstatic and on the verge of tears, who knew I'd be so happy to see my baby eat. He is also spending more time awake and still sleeping rather soundly despite the weening, which we are so thankful for. He does seem to stay up right after his 6 o'clock feeding till his 9 o'clock feeding, which hurts his scores. Nevertheless, Keith and I agree this is just when he is most awake, otherwise he goes right to sleep, so we are not very concerned about this.

We feel so blessed to have all of you following our story and so thankful for all the prayers that have been going out for little Liam. I know his progress and every blessing has truly been through the power of prayer. We just ask that you continue to pray and ask God to heal him of this so we can get home and back to our families and friends that are  truly anxious to meet Liam. We just want our little boy to be strong and healthy, he has such a strong support system already, I know he is meant to have a great life ahead of him. Please keep praying and lifting him up in prayer. Thank you all for everything!!!

Prayer = Consistent Improvement

There is nothing like good news to set the tone for the day. We were pleasantly welcomed (as always) by our nurses in the NICU this morning bringing us fantastic news. The medicine seems to be working its magic on our little Liam and he is growing stronger all the time. Liam actually ate 20 ML of formula this morning for the nurse and ate 22 ML during his feeding with me. The rest of his ration was given to him through his feeding tube. He still seems genuinely tired, but more alert and less agitated, which is truly a blessing. Liam has also been able to sleep soundly for a few hours and not spend his time waking up and trying to sleep. This I am sure has caused a lot of upset and his tiredness overall. His scores were also consistently lower over the last 24 hours, at a 5, a 7, then another 5 and 7 over night. This is fantastic! We also learned that Liam did gain some of his weight back over the last two days, weighing in at 7 lbs 1 oz. He lost a full pound after birth till now. So we are so happy with this progress. Slow and steady is always a good thing.

We were over joyed to hear of his progress and we give all the credit to all the prayers I know have been going out. Liam seems to be doing good, though still scoring close to the danger zone, the medicine seems to be keeping him content. Over the next few days the doctors will determine how next to proceed. So please keep praying that he continues to get better and increase his feeding and coordination to eat on his own through the bottle. Thanks so much for all your prayers and keep them coming!

 

PRAY*Please*PRAY*Please*PRAY*Please*PRAY*

 

 

Finally: Progress...A little, but we'll take it!

So the last few days have been terrifying at times and heart breaking at others, but today at last we can see little Liam is doing remarkably better. The weekend was really up and down and Monday was just awful. On Saturday the nurses moved Liam into his Isolate crib, which seemed to really help. However, shortly after we left Liam was inconsolable, part of the withdrawal. Sunday was up and down, it was very hard to leave him, but at the same time we knew it just wasn't in his best interest for us to hold him all the time. If we hold him to long he could get use to that comfort and in a way become spoiled to where it would be difficult for the nurses to understand if he is crying because he just wants to be held all the time or if he is suffering from the affects of the withdrawal.

By Monday afternoon it became apparent to the Doctor that Liam needed help to get through this based on his continued high Finnegan Scale Scores, the highest reaching up to 13. The doctor then ordered to start Liam on a Morphine regiment. This left us a bit anxious and worried, but this morning when we went to see him he slept for about two hours before we had to wake him for lunch. He was a lot calmer overall, but still obviously going through the withdrawal. The Nurses explained that the Morphine simply dulls the pain, or takes the edge off, the pain. Babies going through withdrawal experience the same symptoms an adult would, the high fevers, jitteriness, stomach cramps, head aches, muscle spasms, and even seizures.

Though we are not out of the woods yet, Liam is finally making progress. He still has a long way to go, but we will get there. He needs to start feeding. He still hasn't began feeding yet. Liam's just not putting the sucking and swallowing together. Please pray for Liam to keep making progress and start to feed. I know all your prayers have really helped us this far, so please keep praying for our little guy. Thank you!

Continued Prayers

We had a much better day today. The nurses decided to put little Liam in an Isolation crib, a little plastic cacoon of sorts, to decrease the amount of noise stimulus from affecting his fragile temperament. The affect was immediate, Liam slept for at least three hours straight. This is amazing!

In the NICU Step 2 for withdrawal each baby is monitored through the Finnegan Scale, this helps the physicians determine if the baby needs more aggressive treatment or not. Liam was at a 6 in the nursery and the first day in the NICU he was about 7's. Then Thursday night into Friday he got an eleven, which is bad, and yesterday and last night two 7's and one 9. So when we arrived this morning we weren't exactally optimistic. The first few hours this morning were rough, the ward was rather nosiy, which made it hard for Liam to rest very long at all.

Then once Liam was in the isolation crib he slept so well! It was a complete change from earlier. He slept for at least three hours following his noon feeding. His score following lunch was a 5, his lowest score yet! We were so excited.

It looks like this is an answer to our prayers. The only thing holding Liam back now is his feeding. I feel like he will get it once he catches up on his sleep, but time will only tell. Please keep Liam in your prayers, that he recovers soon, and learns to feed properly. Thank you and keep praying!!!!

Baby Steps

After yesterdays progress, today was a bit hard to swallow. We were met by our trusting nurse and found Liam to be doing fine looking around under his little canopy. Then we were met by the staff physical therepist who lets just say scared me half to death. She kept saying that Liam needed to now be put on Morphine for the withdrawal and that if it was her decision she would do so. Thank God she is not. This made our morning very difficult and when we finally went to Lunch at 2ish, Keith and I were both worried.

Liam didn't seem to be having any more tremors than normal, in fact they seemed to be further in between. We discussed this at length. There was then the issue of feeding our little guy. He hasn't been eatting very well at all since birth. He ate just enough in the Nursery, but since being transfered to the NICU Step Down he seemed to be getting worse on his feeding. After lunch Liam's doctor met with us again, he said that his prime concern was getting Liam through the withdrawal process as soon as possible, and that if he didn't have to he wouldn't use medication, but he did want to put a feeding tube in. This was hard to swallow as I'm sure you can imagine. But our Doctor took the time to explain his diagnosis. The importance of getting the callories in Liam is essential to his recovery and this may even speed up the process. Once he is done withdrawling then hopefully he will be feeding better.

So the nurse placed the feeding tube down his nose and into his little tummy. The effects were rather immediate. Liam was less agitated and finally went into a peaceful slumber. Sometimes we rather not make the situation worse, but sometimes action needs to be taken. We are so thankful for his continued progress and strength. We just keep praying for God to lift this burden from him and let him just be a baby. I'm sure that day is coming! Thank you all so much for following Liam's progress and lifting Liam and ourselves up in prayer. Please keep praying!

Liam's Journey Begins

We had an amazing day today with our son. Things are looking less bleak and we are starting to get more comfortable with the hospital setting. 

Liam was born on July 9th, weighing 7lbs and 15.6 oz and 19.5 inches long. He's a beautiful little boy with adorable and chubby cheeks.  We were able to meet him the day after his birth and spent all morning and afternoon with him. That was an amazing experience. On his third day of Liam's life our day was a bit hectic. We were able to spend the morning with him and part of the afternoon, feeding, changing and just cuddling with him. Then our birth mother's lawyer arrived to finalize the adoption placement and grant us guardianship over Liam. That was a wonderful moment, but a little nerve racking as Keith and I had no idea what to expect. Once they left we were told by the nurses in the Nursery that it was time to transfer Liam to the NICU Step 2 ward.

This was not a shock to us as the doctor had explained all this on day one. You see Liam's birth mother had been taking a prescription drug throughout her pregnancy. This we were made aware of at the very beginning of the process. We understood the possibilities this would have on the baby, but thankfully no lasting effects.

So when Liam was born it was explained to us by his doctor that he would be held on a 7 day observation period to make sure that he is healthy and ready to go home before being released. On day two we really started to notice symptoms of withdrawal in his muscle tone and a bit of jitteriness. Then day three (7/11) we really noticed the shaking and his tightness. That was really scary and the difficult timing of the lawyer and the transfer to the NICU made the day all that much more difficult to deal with. Though we got through it and Keith was able to hold strong for me, somehow we got through the day.

After a good night sleep we returned to the hospital. The NICU Step 2 is much more ridged than the nursery, they are very good, and they have many rules. This made my morning a little unnerving. I have been fortunate to not have an experience of being a patient in a hospital (yet...knock on wood) and so seeing our little son in that little crib, hooked up to wires, and alarms going off was a little horrifying. But our wonderful nurse, Mandy, really took us through what was going on, answered all our questions the best she could, and if she didn't know something she found out for us in a timely manner. All those nurses in there are truly angels to all the parents in there.

Liam's little area is in the back of the ward tucked away in the a little closet that is quieter and darker than most spots. We found Liam wide awake this morning, just looking around and content. He likes to look around with a look of "what are you doing?" He loves to cuddle and sleep. Sleep is his favorite. We are working on getting him to eat more, he's having trouble putting the sucking and swallowing together, but Mandy says that is normal, we just have to keep pushing him.  His withdrawal symptoms seemed to be okay today and less and less as the day went on. By the time we left we had managed to get him to eat quite a bit and also put him back to sleep. Overall it was a great day! I will take any progress over none.

Keith and I would really appreciate your continued prayers! We just want to get our boy home, but healthy is our prime concern right now. We really want him home, but we want him healthy more than anything. Please keep praying for him and us! God Bless!!!

38 Weeks...

Wow...we are in the home stretch. I am completely overcome by anxiety and anticipation. Not so much the adoption, but the logistics to finally getting to hold my son. It is the strangest thing to know that in less than a week you'll be a Mom, but utterly wonderful at the same time. We are nervous about the travel and everything else that comes with adoption, but all that is overshadowed by our excitement to meet our son and Birth Mother. Over the past few months we have been exchanging letters and trying our best to define ourselves through letters. This is not easily done, but its been so nice to hear from her and know that she is real.

So in the anticipation of the moment and our impending departure steadily moving closer, we have been trying our best to get everything done and ready. There seems to be so much to do that it makes me wonder if we'll get everything completed in this period of time. I can't wait, though I must cut this post short. The laundry is calling and an empty suitcase needs to be filled. Lots to do and I am convinced I am forgetting something, if only I could remember. :-/

Motion and Interventions

Everything is in full motion with us here lately. We have a lot going on and so much to look forward to. We are so thankful for the opportunity to be parents and the blessings that brings. I finished up my final class before Liam's arrival with an A+, we started to pack, and the AC went out on our house. So it has been truly busy. God continues to amaze me and the amount of things we can handle through all of this really truly shocks me. I know that without God we would never be able to afford to get a new Furnace and AC and some how God's really provided for us. It is a real blessing to know that we are not in control of anything, but how we act and react to what life brings us. When I came home and the AC was not working, naturally I was like, oh it just needs a break. When it wouldn't come back on the next day we knew something was up and so Keith went to work and I spent the better part of my day trying to call people to come out and have a look. Naturally this was on a Saturday, right after a big storm had swept through the state, and we were all trying to deal with the uncomfortable heat wave that was making its way through.

After calling half a dozen places a guy came out to see what he could do. He seemed optimistic as he looked over our fifty year old furnace and forty year old air conditioner. Yes, it is that old and until Friday had been working perfectly, we knew we would have to replace it soon, but we hoped it would be later rather than sooner. Sadly, the guy said it was not worth repairing and that since the furnace was so old we would need a new furnace to match up with a new air conditioner. He gave us a price and that was a shocker. I told the guy about the adoption coming up and he shaved as much off his estimate as he could. Then later after consulting with Keith, then my parents we decided it would be best to get a second opinion. We called a more established company and had them come out. The guy was really nice and confirmed what the other guy said. As he was writing up the estimate we told him that money was tight and that we were adopting. He smiled and told us that his wife was also adopted and what a blessing adoption is. So he threw in an extra $1.3k off the estimate and helped us come up with a financing option that would work well for us.

Sometimes when your down it is hard to see God threw the despair, but then God sends you someone that understands your situation and goes the extra mile for you and your family, and that is when you know he has your back.

In a few short days, not weeks, not months, but days, we will finally meet our son! We are so excited and so blessed to have this opportunity. We would really appreciate it if you all could keep us in your prayers! Have a great day and I'll be posting photos of our trip to Florida!