Ryan is doing great! I talked with the pedi on call at the hospital and she ordered the MRI for Monday and possibly the repeat LP on Monday too but probably they will do that on Tuesday. Provided that both of those tests are good then he will be coming home on Wednesday! Here are some pictures:

Ryan is 3 weeks old today and is now 8lbs 13.6oz- he has gained 1 lb since he was born. No other news to report other than they will get the MRI on Monday and then the repeat spinal tap on Tuesday. Here are some pictures from this evening:

Ok- so I know that Im doing this post on Saturday but this is information from Friday. Ryan is doing well! All of the nurses say he is a great baby! He is up to 8lbs 9.2oz and it still eating like a little piglet! He nursed for 20 minutes and then took 3 1/2 oz from a bottle afterwards. His umbilical cord stump fell off yesterday while I was there- quite gross! The pediatrician did put in her notes that he has a slight heart murmur but said that its just probably because the blood vessels are so tiny and the blood going through is just pushing a little harder than normal and that is why she was hearing the sound. Should clear up by 6 months and nothing to worry about right now.

As it stands now, he is due to be released on Wednesday! He finishes his last dose of antibiotics on Tuesday evening and they will also be getting the repeat spinal tap and the MRI done on Tuesday. So now the countdown begins!

Not much to report- he is just hanging out, eating, pooping, and getting bigger and bigger! Last night when they weighed him he was up to 8lbs 6.3oz and he is now 50cm long. I talked with the neonatologist today and she said that he should be coming home on Wednesday- he has to complete his treatment on Tuesday and I think his last dose of anti-biotics will be given that night. So on Tuesday they will do the repeat spinal and then do the MRI and then we get to bring him home on Wednesday. The only other thing going on with him right now is he has some sores on his bottom from the anti-biotics which is causing him to poop alot and is just keeping things irritated down there. The neo says that once the anti-biotics are stopped and he is not pooping so much then those places will have a chance to heal.

Sorry I didnt get new pictures up this weekend. Mom and dad were here and it was a busy weekend for us.

Pictures from 4/21

Pictures from 04/22

Pictures from 04/23

Not much to report today. Ryan did get the central line, although he needed to be sedated and it took an hour or so to complete the procedure, so he’s a little worn out and crabby today. In the end, though, this will make him feel a lot better and less of a pincushion. The doctor also called and left a message saying that she was prescribing some special diaper rash cream because his bottom is really raw from all of the anti-biotics he is on and the Desitin is not working. Poor guy.

Also, they weighed him last night and he now weighs 8 pounds (even)!

Bebe and Ra-Ra are going to finally get a chance to see him tonight, so I know everyone’s looking forward to that!

Hi, folks,

Not much to update on Ryan today. He is still doing perfectly well, all signs of infection are gone, and we’re pretty much just waiting the days until the antibiotic treatments are over. The one change is that they decided to give him a central line today instead of having to give him new IV needles every couple of days, purely to stop poking him so much. So that’s good.

Amber continues to do well. By the way, in case you missed it a few days ago, her fever/infection has been gone, we’ve been visiting the NICU every day, and visitors and callers are welcome. It sounds like not everyone got that message. Also we aren’t planning on sending emails to everyone regularly like we did with Drew simply because this site is easier to keep up-to-date and we can post more pictures this way. Plus we save you from the dozens of emails

That’s all for tonight! We’ll post if anything changes!

Peter

Not much to update at this time- I went up there at 11:00 am today and the doctor had not seen him yet. But I did manage to get some really CUTE pictures of him smiling- and I KNOW it wasn’t gas!

Well, there is not much to report on Ryan today. He is back to his original birth weight and they have discontinued one of his antibiotics. He was also moved to a “suite” in one of the bays. Normally its an isolation room for really sick babies but do not fear- that is not the reason why he was moved there. Its just they needed the space out in the open for some new babies that they were getting and since Ryan is the most transportable then he got bumped. Its a nice room with a great view- too bad he wont appreciate it. But its awful lonely back there- so Im going to take a radio up there tomorrow and play some music for him. They also put on some newborn onesies on him and they were too big! So Im going to take up some of his own clothes up there for him to wear.

Here are some cute pictures:

Look at how advanced he is- he is already holding his own bottle!

Oh man- he is just so cuddly!

First of all- HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLAKE!!!!!

Second- I got to go up to the hospital to see Ryan today! YAY! I was going crazy not being able to see him. I will let Peter update you on any medical reports- my job is to post the pics!

Peter: Medical update? Well, we talked to Dr. Cho while we were up there. He confirmed what we had gathered the last couple of days – Ryan is doing much better, no fever the last couple of days, white blood cell counts (sign of infection) dropping rapidly, etc. From hearing Dr. Cho, I think he basically agrees with Dr. D’s guess about the infection that almost went away when he was first born. Unfortunately (well, fortunately, from a different point of view) Dr. Cho would like to be conservative in this matter since they never definitively figured out what bug was causing the infection and Ryan will likely have to stay in the NICU the full 21 days, meaning he’d be coming home around May 1 or 2. And they still have to do the MRI to make sure the bug didn’t cause any damage in his brain (which there are no indications of so far), probably towards the end of the month. And they will need to do one more spinal tap at the end of the treatment to make sure everything is gone. Overall really great status update except for the 21 days thing

Additonal stuff: he is almost back up to his birth weight- he now weighs 7lbs 11oz and is 19 1/4 inches long.

Peter was bored!

So if you are needing your Drew fix then here are some cute pictures that Peter took of him at the playground today:

Hi,

10:30 am:

No changes since last update. Ryan is still doing pretty well, and isn’t running a fever. Mom is feeling a little better and might be able to go see Ryan tomorrow…

11:30 am:

Heard from Dr. Cho. Not much of an update. They did take him off the antiviral medication but added an anti-fungal (just so he doesn’t get thrush or some other yeast infection being on antibiotics so long). He currently expects him to stay on the antibiotics for a total of 10-14 days (rather than the 14-21 days he first thought), so that’s good.

5:45 pm:

Peter just got back from the NICU and here are some cute pictures for your viewing pleasure:

His red baby rash appears to be gone!

Hi,

2:30 pm:

I talked to Dr. Dekowski last night (remember him? Drew’s primary?) when I went up to visit Ryan. Ryan continues to do very well – most of the time his fever has been gone but he has had a couple little episodes (99.5, 100.4) kind of like his mom. They did another LP to check to see if the meningitis is gone/going away…no results yet but should be soon. Dr. D’s best guess at this point is that he had some sort of mild meningitis when he was born but the first round of antibiotics almost got rid of it, explaining why the CSF culture didn’t grow anything. So he thinks that the current round of antibiotics (the normal course is 14 days) would get rid of what was left over and he’ll be fine. His second guess is that its some sort of viral meningitis (which is usually not a big deal) and so they are also going to grow a viral culture from today’s LP sample but it takes about 5 days to complete. He continues to eat well (last feeding he ate 90cc) and act normally, just still the pesky fever on and off and that’s it.

Mommy still has the fever on and off again. I don’t think she’s had a fever since noon today so hopefully (if she keeps it up) she’ll be able to go see Ryan tomorrow afternoon. She’s still feeling pretty miserable with all the coughing.

10:30 pm:

Ryan’s fever is gone again but Amber’s came back this evening, so she won’t be able to see Ryan until Monday at least, now

Ryan’s latest LP test results came back and only showed “rare” white blood cells (i.e. less than the previous test), which is a good sign…hopefully Dr. D’s guess is actually correct. Also, none of his cultures have grown anything, so far, which is also a good sign.

Also, I forgot to post yesterday that his weight is currently 7 pounds 8 ounces, which is normal (newborn babies tend to lose a little weight the first week or so).

That’s all for today!

I will update the blog again when we hear the results of the LP white blood cell test (which will hopefully show the infection is going away).

11:30 am:
Ryan has not run a fever at all since the last update and has been cleared to resume normal feeding (i.e. as much milk as he wants, whenever he wants it). So for all appearences he is acting totally healthy again. The cultures are not back yet – hopefully we’ll get some preliminary results later this afternoon.

Amber made it 23 hours and 45 minutes without a fever…then scored a really low temperature in the 99′s. So we don’t think she can go see Ryan again today, but she’s going to ask the doctor when he/she calls later.

11:22pm 

Peter went to the NICU tonight and spent some time with Ryan. I will let him update with all of the info from the doctor but here are some pictures. Oh- you probably notice the red rash on his face and arms- the nurses told Peter that its normal newborn rash and nothing to be concerned with.

Hi, all,

(Edited at 12:30 pm with some corrections from Dr. Cho and an update on Amber)

Just finished talking to Dr. Cho at the NICU. Ryan’s temperature has returned to normal and they put him back on regular “food” again. His belly isn’t swollen anymore (meaning it was probably gas from being agitated, nothing serious). None of Ryan’s cultures are back yet (as expected) but they did do a spinal tap last night to check for signs of meningitis.

While the fluid was clear (a good sign) there were signs of current or recent infection. More often than not, this meningitis does not have any kind of lasting effects once the infection is gone, but there is a small chance that it could. In a few days they will do another spinal tap to make sure the signs of inflamation are all gone and they will also do a MRI to check for any kind of brain issues.

They are still giving him three different antibiotics and an antiviral to cover all the bases, including both of the infections that were found in Amber after delivery. Once the cultures come back over the next couple of days (preliminary results later today) they will fine-tune his medications for only what he actually has. We’ll also have a better idea what affects the meningitis could have once we know what bug was in there.

Even if his fever doesn’t come back, he will likely have to stay in the NICU for another two or three weeks (to be safe, they’ll want to complete the course of antibiotics, which take that long and require an IV).

Finally, Amber’s fever is gone as of this morning. She cannot visit Ryan for at least 24 hours after the last sign of fever, so let’s hope that it is gone for good. She’s still really tired and coughing a lot.

That’s all for now…we’ll add more if we find out anything.

(Updated at 9:00pm) NICU reports no changes since we talked to Dr. Cho earlier today. He has not been running a fever and continues to transition off IV nutrition back to milk/formula. Also, he is acting normally, which is a good sign. No results from the cultures yet…should start getting some results tomorrow.

Thanks,
Peter

We got a call from the NICU- Ryan is doing well clinically. He is very alert and suckling but his belly is a little distended with air and they said its just probably due to agitation from the fever and everything. He has pulled him off of feeds for now to see if his intestines will settle down. He didnt think this was NEC- he is too old to really be getting that.

The doctor looked at my culture reports and he said it showed 1 organism in my urine and 2 organisms in my placenta so that is where my infection is coming from. He was surprised I was released from the hospital and suggested when I go see my OB tomorrow that I ask him to put me on a different antibiotic.

But since the doctor could tell what was going on with me it makes it a little easier to treat Ryan but they are still going to have to do a spinal tap this evening to make sure it hasnt gotten into his spinal canal. He is on a different antibiotic too and then we will just wait for the results of his blood work and spinal tap before deciding where to go from here.

I think that is all- at least that I can remember. Peter may have some more to add to this. More details later.

Peter: Just that the doctor agreed that this is not a dire situation. It’s an infection and it needs to be treated (like any other) and as soon as it clears up he should be fine and ready to come home. Don’t know how long that will take, though.

I know- you are probably mad that we havent posted new pictures but at least its better late than never.

This was Sunday on Easter. We took a trip to the NICU to visit Ryan.

Cutest little bunny ever!

After all those months of looking at the montiors with Drew and his levels were always so iffy- THIS is what a monitor is supposed to look like! Oxygen levels were at 100% since he is breathing on his own!

I think Ryan might be bored with Da-da already

My handsome guys

Monday pictures:

Ryan and cousin Taylor. Look how fat and chubby his cheeks are compared to Taylor’s! Ryan is a little jaundiced in this picture but his levels are not in any danger zone so they havent treated him for it.

Tuesday pictures:

Ryan in his crib in the newborn nursery. But if you ask Ashleigh (my cousin Jamie’s little girl) Ryan was in his cage! Ashleigh went to see all of the babies in their cages when she came up with Leigh on Saturday.

Drew looking at baby brudder!

Drew eating an Oreo- I think he learned the word chocolate when he was with Matt and Alisha this weekend. He saw the cookie and said “I eat chocolate”. Oh, and yes his eye looks bad- he fell on his face on the carpet at the hospital but its getting better.

Drew saying bye-bye to baby brudder! He actually says baby brudder. Its too cute!

Amber’s being discharged today (on antibiotics) as her fever has been low for more than 24 hours, and she hasn’t had one at all since last evening.

However, Ryan’s running a fever now so they are (probably) going to move him back to the NICU so he can get IV antibiotics and be more closely watched. It shouldn’t be a big deal (for Ryan) but of course it’s really hard on us since we won’t be able to take him home when Amber leaves.

Edited at 5:30pm

Amber is at home but still has some fever, so she doesn’t really feel like visiting or talking much. Last report from the NICU was that all of the fast test results were normal; the longer tests (blood cultures and so on) won’t be back until tomorrow afternoon at the earliest. However, Ryan is doing relatively well and his fever is easing back a little bit (now at 100.6 — although 100.5 and above is considered worrisome for a newborn). He’s still eating and sleeping like usual.

Well, Im still in the hospital. My fever doesnt seem to want to go away and the doctor is still not sure what is causing the fever. The blood cultures will take a few days to get back so in the meantime, as long as Im running fever I will be in the hospital.

I had a pretty bad day yesterday. It was grand central station in my room and with the telephone ringing and I was getting stressed out so the nurse but a no visitor sign up. I met with lactation and Ryan nursed really well but then the next time I tried it didnt work out so well because my fever was starting to go up and I was shaking so bad because I was freezing and nursing just wasnt going to happen. The next time I tried, i was burning up hot and Im sure Ryan didnt like being up against me. So I just gave him formula and sent him back to the nursery about 8 pm.

I had a pretty horrible experience with my 3-11 shift nurse and student yesterday. Everytime I would tell them that I was shivering cold or burning up hot they acted like they didnt believe me and would blame it on the temperature of the room. Or the student actually had the nerve to tell me that it wasnt because I wasnt getting up enough to pee. What did she think I was doing- laying in my bed peeing on myself or holding it in? yeah right- up that actually hurts to have a full bladder. Last night about 10pm they did my vitals and took my temp and it was 101.5. The nurse wasnt pleased with that and took it again with another machine- 101.4. Still not satisified she took it again with another machine and it was 101.4. She said that my fever should be going down since im on IV antibiotics but even a moron could figure out that maybe the antibiotics havent had time to work or we need another antibiotic. I was so upset about the whole thing that I talked with the charge nurse and neither of them will be assigned to me today and if they show up in my room then they will not touch me- I will call the charge nurse immediately.

But the good news is that Ryan was discharged from the NICU yesterday to the newborn nursery. He had his hearing test today and passed in 1 ear but not the other so they will retest tomorrow. Its not uncommon for this to happen- in fact it happened with Drew. We also talked with the pediatrician and he had written Ryan’s discharge orders until he realized that I wasnt going home today. So Ryan is doing so well and would be home if I wasnt stuck in this place. so thats all for now.

So those of you who saw the blog pictures yesterday might notice a missing picture- no mistake about that missing picture. Peter is in alot of trouble for posting that.

Ryan is doing well today. We went to see him in the NICU because they built a new spiffy NICU that we never got to see because Drew was released right before they moved everything over there. Its really big and nice! It was wierd to see Ryan hooked up to the monitor and the oxygen saturation level at 100% most of the time since he is breathing on his own. We just had to get a picture of that!

Ryan has been in the room with me since 3:30 this afternoon. He has nursed 3 times and is getting better with each attempt although he still does take some formula after he gets done nursing. He peed on Peter this evening- Peter is just too slow getting that new diaper on him! Its 11:00 and we are just waiting on the NICU nurse to come and get him and they will feed him again, give him a bath, and weigh him.

On another note, I started running fever again tonight. I have been fever free since the section but it figures when they take out the IV and discontinue the anti-biotic then my fever goes back up. It was 100.2 but its breaking after taking motrin. I got my catheter out and my bandages off my incision so I was able to take a shower today which felt soo good. Im still not sure when I will be released and Im just praying we both get released at the same time.

I do have pictures but since Im on dialup here at the hospital, those will have to wait until tomorrow because Peter didnt take the camera home with him. Sorry guys. More updates tomorrow!