lectroid.net

When my son, Ryan, was born 3 months early back in 1999 I “blogged” the near daily updates. I kept the site live, frozen in time, on my various web servers over the years until recently, when I got the wild hair to update it to the 2007 blogging world.

Old school meets new school.

Back then I shot some photos with my employer’s 1.2 megapixel Kodak DC120 camera. I wrote a quick and dirty “gallery” page, but that’s not 2007. A few days ago I uploaded them all to Flickr.

I also shot some video and posted it in the then state-of-the-art Real Media format. Well no one uses Real today if they can avoid it. Converting that format to something more mainstream was a huge pain but I finally prevailed and got the small video snippets I shot way-back-then uploaded to the way-now YouTube.

And finally, I moved all the daily posts into my WordPress blog, back dated them and here we are.

More photos…

Ryan passed his ROP eye test and he’s almost exactly 5 lbs., and after 7 weeks (ok, 6 weeks, 6 days) he is finally home where he belongs!

With that I’ll be closing this site. I’ll keep it online and at this address indefinitely but it’s time to move on to other things (like real midnight feedings).

In parting Lisa and I would like to thank the many, many people who touched our lives through all this:

The Parents
RushPaul (delivered JJ at 29 weeks) - who gave us someone to catch up to (she came in the hospital 5 days before Lisa and delivered 6 days before Lisa)
Kim (delivered triplets at 21 weeks, none survived) - who kept Lisa smiling from the other bed.
Kevin & Vanessa (delivered twins at 32 weeks) - whose twins showed that this can be done.
Jerry & Lisa (delivered a boy at 35 weeks) - who kept Marc sane.
Cameron’s parents (delivered Cameron at 23 weeks) - who showed us hope with their 4-year-old 28 weeker that made it, and showed us sadness with their 23 weeker that didn’t
Emily & Erin’s parents (delivered twins at ?? weeks) - who showed us that even the worst cases can end with heathy, happy babies.
Carlos and Marie (and their whole family) (delivered girl at term, comatose) - who showed us what family support should be like for everyone.
Katherina’s mom (delivered twins at 23 weeks, one survived) - who showed us grace.

The Doctors
Dr. Henderschott - who took care of Lisa
Dr. Singh - who also took care of Lisa
Dr. Seavers - who actually delivered Ryan. Famous last words, “Hand me the knife.”
Dr. Woo - Ryan’s first doctor

The Nurses (perenatal)
Barbara
Crissanta
Olfelia
MaryBeth
Kelly
Stephanie
Barb
Maija

The Nurses (ICN)
Jay
Harry (and his evil triplets Barry and Larry)
Marina
Earl
Jill
Carol
Julie
Wes
Rena
Maija (again)

The Nurses (Intermediate)
PJ
Leslie
Cindy
Maija (yes, it the same one, again)

Friends
Don & Beth - For visiting, talking and feeding Marc
Beth - For visiting, talking and jinksing Lisa
Gary - For taking our dog, Blizzard, for a few weeks

…and especially…
Ryan’s Grandma - who did so much. She gave up a month and a half of her life to stay near Lisa and to comfort her when she needed it and to hide things around the house that Marc was looking for.

Thank You all

Well, yes, I’ve been kinda lax about updating. Not much to say ‘cept he’s just growing like he’s supposed to.

We’re still on for Wednesday, and yes we’re getting excited. The crib is now actually in the nursery and all the boxes are out. Just don’t ask me about our living room.

Last night when I went in to feed him his O2 was essentially off and he didn’t need hardly any for most of his feeding. I think he’s on as little O2 as he can be. He may shake it by the time he goes home but at this point we don’t mind either way, it’ll just be nice to have him home.

He’s taking his feedings much better, less on his shirts and more inside him. No, I don’t know his weight off hand so I going with 4 lbs., a bunch of ounces, (grin).

Wednesday.

That’s when he’s a comin’ home. (yaaaay)

Man, there’s a lot to do by then. Of course we haven’t done anything to prepare for this (doh!). Well, we do have a crib, stroller, car seat and all that but there are old boxes and dead computers still littering the “nursery”. Gonna be a long weekend I guess.

Unless he surprises us, he’ll be bringing home an O2 tank and an apnea monitor. Because of this one of us has to “room in” (aka “spend the night”) with him before he leaves to show that we know what were doing with all this high tech equipment. Lisa’s signed up for that job on Monday.

He’s up to 4 lbs., 9.4 ounces. I’m betting he’ll be over 5 pounds when we bring him home.

He’s 6 weeks old today.

Still growin’.

He’s up to 4 lbs. 8.6 ounces and eating more and more by bottle. He’s taking “normal” formula now and takes a “minimum” of 38 cc’s (though he usually goes for the mid 40’s).

He still desats a bit when he eats so his O2 usually gets turned up while he’s feeding but after that it still stays around .25 cc/m.

There are all sorts of babies heading home soon from the Intermediate Nursery. Several were in the ICN with Ryan, so it’s neat to see.

Katherina, was born at 23 weeks and she’s been there for 12 weeks (we’ve been there 6 weeks). She’s a real miracle baby, the odds aren’t good at 23 weeks (her twin brother didn’t survive), but she beat ‘em. She’s heading home tomorrow (and also on O2).

Emily and Erin are two twins that have had a real roller coaster ride during their stay. When we first saw Emily she’d been there over 2 months and was not doing well at all. Now they’re both going home on Saturday.

Pretty neat, huh.

We got our first hint of going home today. It’s looking like it might be sometime next week.

He’s up to 4 lbs. 7.1 ounces and is taking most of his feedings by bottle (although I could still argue that his shirts are taking most of the feedings).

He’s still on O2 and it’s starting to look like he may be coming home with it. That would suck, but we’re still OK with it, since well, he’ll be home.

Our next big hurdle is Retinopathy of Prematurity or ROP. That’s where the blood vessels in the eyes get messed up usually due to exposure to too much O2 during development. Yes, in extreme cases ROP can be a Bad Thing, but not usually. Just another hurdle.

Yep, sometime next week…

Well, he didn’t take all his feedings by bottle today, just most of ‘em.

He’s up to 4 lbs. 6.3 ounces.

Just eatin’ and growin’

Ryan took all of his feedings by bottle yesterday… and today! (yaaaay)

He’s slowly getting that suck, swallow and breathe thing down. His main problem is that he likes to try and gulp his food and then forgets that he needs to well, breathe.

So he basically eats like my older brother.

Eventually the feeding process does work although we’re going through a lot more shirts now.

Also, Ryan’s last recorded A & B was on the 30th (they don’t count A & Bs where he catches himself nor ones where he’s being fed) so that checkbox on the List has been filled. (yaaaay)

The last hurdle is the O2. He’s normally down below .25 cc/m which is really, really low but they have to jack it up during his feedings. They tell us that kids get off O2 pretty quickly so he could drop it at any time. Any time would be fine with me.

Doh! Uh, oops. Kinda forgot yesterday. Aw well: “Ryan gained weight” There’s the executive summary for yesterday :).

Well, that and he turned five weeks old. That put him at 33 weeks gestational age.

Today Ryan’s took four bottles. Dad even got to feed him (though it could be argued that Dad got most of the formula on Ryan instead of in Ryan). He’s up to 4 lbs., 4.2 ounces now, he’s even startin’ to get chubby.

He’s got a new neighbor, another baby that was next to him when he was in the ICN. It’s good to see old friends :).

Speaking of old friends. Remember how I said the really experienced nurses have moved on to tougher cases? Well things must be really quiet in the ICN because for the last two days we’ve had a nurse that took care of Ryan when he was a tough case. Like I said, it’s good to see old friends (and it’s good when it’s quiet in the ICN).

FOUR POUNDS!!!

Yep, Ryan’s broke four pounds for 4 lbs., 1.1 ounces. (now you can say it: yaaaay)

That’s another one off the List so we’re getting closer.

Ryan took at least 1 and a half bottles today and there’s more feedings later so we’re on our way there.

One of Ryan’s friends, a boy named JJ, went home today. JJ is kinda special to us because his mom was in almost the exact situation as Lisa during roughly the same time frame. Lisa and JJ’s mom communicated with messages passed through nurses. We wish them well.