Resurrection Day!

This is my second Easter. It's kinda funny how I got to celebrate two Easters before my first birthday, but I'm not complaining. We went to Grandma's house on Saturday. She had lots of eggs and all this funny colored water to dip them in. My cousin, Dylan, thought he had to use his hand to dip the eggs in the water, so his hand looked like Blue's paw (from Blue's Clues, of course).




























Mom made me an egg with my name on it. It was pretty cute until she dropped it, and it cracked into a million pieces!



I didn't really care about that stuff, so I just took a nap. The next morning when I woke up, there was this basket with lots of neat stuff in it sitting in our living room. Mommy and Daddy kept talking about some Easter Bunny character, but I'm not sure what they meant. Anyway, I got some new summer clothes (boring!), some candy (not boring), some bubbles, and a few other things.







Then we got dressed in our Sunday best, and headed off to church. My aunt Ninna, Uncle Jesse, Aunt Cam, and Uncle Nate came to visit our church. After that we headed outside to get our pictures made by the flowered cross. It was really pretty.











Then we headed over to Grandma's house. We took lots of pictures. After all that excitement, it was time for my nap! While all the adults ate their turkey, dressing, green beans, and macaroni, I dreamed of chocolate marshmallow bunnies.







Around 5:00 that afternoon, we headed over to Aunt Kristi and Uncle Jeff's house. It was time for more food! I pretended not to like my baby food much, so Mommy fed me some of her food. Boy, she's easy to fool! I played with Trenton and Hollie for a little while, before finally heading home to my comfy bed! What a fun day!

Almost one!

I have been terrible at keeping up Jaxson's blog. My myspace page is usually updated, but it's hard to keep the blogs and all Shutterfly and all the other things updated. Anyway, I promise I'll get better! Here are pictures from this past Saturday with my friend Jason. Jaxson had a blast! He sat patiently in the car from our house to Hayden and was in a great mood when we got there.

We are getting ready for his first birthday. I can't believe he's almost a year old! I took him for his Synagis shot on Monday and he weighed 16 lbs 5 oz. Hopefully, that will be his last Synagis shot for the year. I'll post more pictures next week from Easter.

Thank you all for your continued prayers! God has continued to pour out his blessing on our family!

 

Yummy to my Tummy!

Jaxson has had lots of fun experiences since my last post. He had a sleep study done on August 21, which went really well. The staff at Children's Hospital was wonderful, and the doctor said everything looked great! He got to watch his first Auburn game, and he loves football! We had his baby dedication at church September 16. He was so good! He has had several follow-up appointments with his doctors. He saw Dr. Lytle, his pediatrician, last Monday. Dr. Lytle decided to go ahead and start him on baby food. His favorite is sweet potatoes. I don't blame him. I've tried the same ones he has, and sweet potatoes are, by far, the best. He followed up with Dr. Cavender, his GI doc, last Tuesday. He decided to start weening him off the medicines for reflux, since that's not an issue he has anymore. Last Wednesday, he followed up with his physical therapist, and she said he still shows a little tension in his neck. She gave us a few more exercises to do. He weighed 12 lbs 4 oz at his 6 month check-up! It's hard to believe he was down to 1 lb 15 oz just 6 months ago!!!

Finally, an update!

It's been a while since I posted, because we are still living in the dark ages with no internet at home! Anyway, Jaxson came home July 1, and he is doing great! We are so excited to have him home. He sleeps so good at night. He usually has his last bottle around 10:30 and wakes up between 4:30 and 5:00 in the morning. We changed his GI doctor and are now using Dr. Cavendar and love him! He allowed us to start giving Jaxson breastmilk! He also told us we could give him rice cereal too!

He has seen Dr. Lytle (his pediatrician) several times since he's been home for check-ups and to get his 4 month shots. The home health nurse was still coming out to check his weight, but yesterday was her last visit. He weighed 9 lbs 14 oz! I'm surprised he doesn't weigh more than that, considering he ate 32 oz Wednesday! That's right 2 lbs of food! That would be the equivalent of me eating like 35 lbs of food in one day!

Jaxson loves his swing and he loves his tummy time. He has also began to enjoy his bathtime, even though he doesn't like getting lotioned up afterwards. He is definitely turning into a camera ham too. He usually looks right at me when I'm trying to take his picture.

We've did a 5k a few weeks ago, and I discovered that Jaxson loves riding in his stroller outside. We are trying to run a couple of days a week now! He has also visited the library since he loves reading stories with Mom and Dad. His most unfavorite place is Wal-Mart. I don't blame him though. He usually screams the entire time we're in the store, but hushes as soon as we leave... Smart kid!

Please continue to keep us in your prayers!

By the way, Annaleece and Baxter (Jaxson's old podmates) are home now too!

Love,

Lisa, Eric, and Jaxson

Happy 3 Month Birthday

Jaxson turned 3 months old yesterday! He weighed 8 lb 1 oz. He is getting so big! We were looking at some pictures from when he was first born, and it's amazing how much he's changed! We took him a balloon and a little poster to decorate his "room" for his party, and I made some yummy cupcakes for the nurses. He's such a party pooper! Literally, he slept and pooped through his whole party! Little stinker!

He passed his hearing test and finished getting his vaccines yesterday. They also swapped him back to Alimentum. We didn't want him to go home on the EleCare, since it was going to cost us so much. They're planning to keep him on the Alimentum for a couple more days and try him on NeoSure. Then, (fingers crossed) they'll try him on breastmilk. Dr. Bruce told me today that if they put him on breastmilk, we'll have to add breastmilk fortifier to it which costs $1 per ounce! We will pay for it up front, and insurance will reimburse us at 80%. It's a lot better than the EleCare!

His head ultrasound came back clear today, so that's definitely positive. He is not showing any signs of cerebral palsy! Other big news this week is his platelets. They are 138k! That's so awesome! His c. diff is also back to normal. Dr. Brasfield, his pulmonologist, saw him today and doesn't want to make any changes to his oxygen.

He is on track to go home this weekend. Eric and I have to spend the night at the hospital Friday and Saturday night, and Jaxson gets to come home Sunday!!! He will be on oxygen for at least a few weeks, as well as Actigall (for his liver and to help lower his biliruben), Reglan (for gastroesophogeal reflux), and Poly-Vi-Sol (iron drops).

He loves swingin' in the little swing in the NICU. It's so funny to walk in and see him sitting there in his little swing in the floor!

We are so excited for him to finally be coming home! Once he comes home, I will be off work for several weeks and won't be able to post as often because we don't have internet at home. I'm going to try to go somewhere and post updates with pictures of him at home! YAY!!! I know he's going to miss all of his fellow podmates at the NICU, and we will continue to pray for them once he comes home! Jaxson asked me to give a special shout out to Annaleece and Baxter!

Thanks for continuing to pray for us!!!

The Best News!!!

This weekend Jaxson made some huge improvements! He hit the 8lb mark on Saturday, got his PICC line removed Sunday, and moved to a crib! He is eating 3 oz per feeding from a bottle! We are so proud of him for doing so good with everything! Dr. Bierd said the goal is for him to come home next Friday!!! We're a little nervous because she wants to send him home on oxygen. He hasn't had any A's or B's in a long time, but she wants to be sure. He's also going home on Albuterol, EleCare, Vitamin D, an oral version of Sincalide, and Reglan. I'm going to have to come up with some kind of system to help me keep up with it all! Hopefully, he'll be able to come off the EleCare soon and swap to breastmilk. We have around 900 bags stored, and I've been dumping it out for the last 3 weeks since we are out of storage space!!!

We are so excited that our little buddy gets to come home soon! He is getting to wear clothes now, so I've posted some pictures of him. He is such a big boy! It's not only been an exciting time for us, but many of our family and friends! Everyone is excited to finally be able to hold that little cutie!

We also celebrated Eric's first Father's Day this weekend. We went out to eat after church Sunday. Jaxson and I got Eric an Auburn diaper bag, a sweet picture of the two of them together, Rick and Bubba's new book, and a huge tub of bubble gum. It was a wonderful weekend.

Thanks to all of you who are continuing to pray for us! We are so pumped up! It's starting to feel like we're really parents now! Especially, with all the clothes we've been washing lately!

Love,
The soon-to-be-sleeping-under-the-same-roof Grays!

A whole ounce!

Jaxson is still eating! He is up to 1 oz every 3 hours! YAY! That's the most he's ever been up to. He is still eating from a bottle when his breathing is slow enough. His nurses say he loves his bottle. He sucks his food down so fast! His platelets are still in the 70's. They are supposed to be between 100-130, but we are happy they're up to the 70's. They were in the 30's for almost 2 months! They also decreased the amount of IV fluid he gets, since he's eating more. He gets his last dose of antibiotics at 2:00 in the morning.

It really seems like he should be getting closer to coming home soon... The doctors say it will still be 6 weeks or so. It's hard to see him doing so good, and think he's still going to be there for that much longer! We were hoping he would be home for Easter, then Mother's Day, then Memorial Day, then Father's Day, then his due date, then 4th of July, then Eric's birthday... Now we're just hoping he'll be home for our anniversary the first week in August. He already weighs 7 lb 12 oz! He is going to be so big when he finally comes home! My stepdad said we should tell his nurses to call us when they get him potty-trained and we'll come pick him up!
We treasure the things many people take for granted, like hearing him cry. It's so sweet! We are sad that we haven't gotten to do the things most parents get to do, like giving their baby his first bath, taking him on outings, and rocking him to sleep at night. We know 6 weeks isn't that long, but it feels like forever! We try so hard to be strong, but it's so tough sometimes! Thank you all for continuing to pray for the 3 of us. I don't know what we'd do without you!

We love you all!
Lisa, Eric, and Jaxson