Slowly Growing!!!!!

Nathan is doing great and gaining weight!! He now weighs 8lbs 1oz! He got his first set of immunizations today so he is not feeling well tonight. We saw his cardiologist last week and he states the hole in his heart appears to be larger and he doesn't believe it will close on its own. At some point they will have to do another surgery but when all depends on Nathan. As long as he can continue to gain weight and do well we can put it off. All we can do is pray that he can manage for at least six months to a year as he is. Of course we are praying for the miracle that it will just close on its own!!!

Austin is doing well...He must be the proudest big brother I've ever seen! He is going to be SO proctective of Nathan. He already is. Nathan loves to watch Austin. Austin is going to have a lot of fun when Nathan starts crawling on playing! We all will!

Update

Hello Everyone! Nathan is still doing really well! He went to the doctor last week and weighed 7lbs 4oz. He had lost a couple of ounces from the previous week but that was to be expected due to the change in his meds. Hopefully he will begin to gain now. He is having a little trouble with tollerating his feeds. We are trying to increase the volume of feeds but he just doesn't seem to be able to handle it right now. It is just going to be a slow process but we have to go at his pace!
We are going to have them change out the feeding tube button on March 27th. Right now he has what is called a Bard button and he keeps pulling it out. Everynight I wake up and find that he has pulled his tube out and formula is leaking all over his bed!!! They will put in a "mickey button" which has a locking device so he won't be able to pull it out. It is a simple procedure and will be done at OLOL in Baton Rouge.
I will update after our next doctor visit later this week!

update

Nathan has been doing really well this past week. We took him to the cardiologist on Monday. He has gained weight and now weighs 7lbs 7oz! They did an echo and the Coarc looks good. The battle he has to fight is with the ASD (hole in heart). There is too much blood flow through the hole which is causing the bottom right side of his heart to swell or "balloon out". His doctor added a new med and changed some scheduling times of the other meds. He wants to begin bottle feeding soon!! He seems to think it won't be long until we can attempt to give him a bottle. We will keep our fingers crossed on that one.

We know how anxious everyone is to see Nathan but we must ask everyone for patience. He still is unable to have any visitors for at least another 3 or 4 weeks. He has been through so much and we cannot risk ANY infection. We will let everyone know as soon as we can have company. Beleive me, I would love to see everyone as well. Being that Nathan is in isolation I am too! We truly appreiciate everyone's concern and all the prayers and support and we can't wait to have people come see and play with our little man but we have to wait until the time is right for him!

Now that we are home I will probaly only update once or twice a week. I will post some more recent pics in the next few days !! THANKS TO ALL! Everyone's prayers are working!

Nathan at home in his OWN CRIB!!

Austin and cousins Madison n Brooke playing doctor!

Pics

HOME SWEET HOME!

Hello to all! I'm sorry it has taken so long to post an update but as you can imange we have been pretty busy!There are no words to decribe how happy we are to be home.
Nathan is doing fine, even sleeping most of the night. He wakes up just to get his pacifier back in his mouth then he is out again. It has been quite an adjustment for us. Until Wednesday we were always in the same room or down the hall from nurses and doctors. It was a strange, but good, feeling when we got him home to know that it is just us and that we are taking full and total care of him finally.
When we left the hospital Nathan weighed 6lbs 9oz. We bring him to the doctor Monday and will see if he has gained more. He is still newborn size. Actually all of his clothes are too big for him still! He will grow into them!
Austin is excited to have his baby brother home. I think he is still amazed at how small he is. Austin thought the baby would come walking and talking!!! He is excited though. Wants to help with EVERYTHING!!!!
We are very blessed to have our family together again!

I will post some pics this afternoon!!

GOING HOME!!!!!!!!

We are going home today!!!! Nathan is doing great and his doctors say he is ready to go home! We will be discharged sometime this afternoon!
I will keep updating the blog from home and will post more pics soon. Nathan will not be allowed any visitors for a while still. We cannot risk ANY infection at this point!!!
It will be so nice to have everyone home!!!!!