Gunner Day 6

Well 4 steps forward 1 step back...that is still the right direction. Gunner had his feeding tube put back in today. He is not strong enough to nurse long enough to get what he needs. He is improving on the length of time he is nursing today and since his feeding tube is in his nose it does not interfere as much as it did when it was in his mouth.

This is just the next thing he needs to learn and since he so good at latching on they thought they would just see how he did.

He still has his lights and actually his levels went up, so we are farther away from him getting off the lights, but everything else is good, so they think this will resolve, it will just take time.

He is not on his way out of here yet, but he is still progressing in the right direction. Thank you for your prayers.

Day 5 (Version 2)

Ok before I (Scott) head home from the hospital tonight. I wanted to post a few pictures. I got to hold Gunner for the first time. Becky got him to latch again tonight and he ate 12ml from her, and another 10ml from the bottle. not quite up to his 35ml he is supposed to have, but this is a great start and everyone is encouraged by it. :) The picture of Gunner, he is really trying to open his eyes, but was also way comfy on dad after eating! He kinda has a funny face on, but it is a tubeless face!!!:)

Gunner Day 5

A great day 5 it was! All last night Gunner kept pulling out his nose piece to his cpap machine so therefore the nurse just let him go without it most the night. In the morning he officially got it removed!!!

For the first time since birth, Gunner is breathing on his own with no help!!! Woo Hoo!

He still has both lights and a feeding tube, but despite that he still managed to latch on to Becky today twice and eat like a "normal" baby would. Now he needs to build his strength up to eat all he needs from Becky. Right now he goes good for a while and tires out. This is normal and actually his nurse today said she has never seen a 34 week baby latch on like he did.

BREAKING NEWS!!! As I was literally typing this update the Doctor came and said we are removing the feeding tube and he will just be fed when he wants it or every three hours what ever comes first. He will do both mommy and bottle, as the bottle takes less effort, and might mean the difference of not having to put the tube back in.

This means he has nothing on him anymore except the normal things that monitor heart rate, breathing and oxygen. NO MORE TUBES IN HIM AT ALL!!!

His next task will be learning to eat all he needs and not falling asleep to soon and getting the UV lights off of him, which might be in the morning, but we have thought that before...

This last 24 hours was amazing, and even the nurses are a little surprised at how fast he has progessed. Praise God!

As far as coming home...we dont really know, but at this rate probably sooner than later. Maybe this weekend!

Thank you for your prayers!

Gunner day 4

I am happy to send this update because it is all good!

At this moment Gunner has not needed and extra oxygen for 4 hours and they turned his cpap down a level. Not to mention a very excited big brother got to see Gunner for the first time today.

He is still keeping his food down, he gained back an ounce and he opened both eyes today.

The one downer is that his jaundice is not subsiding as quickly as we thought so he is still on the lights.

He is a real strong little guy, he actually rolled over from his tummy to his back last night and he picks up his head a lot. He has ripped his cpap out of his nose about 8 times - 5 in the last hour. I think he is trying tell tell us he is done, but we will see if the docs agree tonight or in the morning.

Thank you all for you continued support and prayers - we are not done with this yet, but things are moving in the right direction. the last 12 hours have been the best progress yet

To answer the most common question - "When is he coming home?" The best guess we have is no more than a week from now if all goes well.

A big thank you to everyone who has taken the time to pray. God is working

Gunner day 3

Thank you everyone for your kind words, generosity and continued prayers. I have some GOOD news!

Gunner started to rip out his IV again, and they were going to reset it. I said to the nurse, do you really have to since he is keeping all his food and getting a lot? He was going to have it out tomorrow anyway. So she called the doc and he agreed with me.

So no more IV - check that off the list!!!

He is very close to not needing any extra oxygen...when that happens he can get his cpap pressure lowered which would be a step in the right direction.

More GREAT news is, Becky has got more than enough milk at this point to supply all he needs. Even though it is through a feeding tube, at least it is all mommy milk!

We are hopeful that tomorrow he will lose the lights, but we will wait and see.

Gunner Day 2

Well day two has started. There is some good and bad news to update you with.

The Bad: he managed to rip out his IV, which required them to redo it, and after quite sometime of trying they got it. He is not breathing any better and has actually made a slight turn for the worst. He is requiring more oxygen and higher pressure from his cpap machine. This can be normal but if he does not get off the oxygen to day they will do a chest xray to see if he has anything going on in his ling as far as infection. They also would have to administer a medication into his lungs through a breathing tube, which would just be one more thing added to him. He has jaundice which is requiring him to be laying on a light blanket and have a light over him. This limits him to being held only 1 hour a day. hopefully that will only last 2 days. 

The Good:

Becky has got a little milk coming in and he is getting that through a feeding tube. He seems to be digesting all of his food just fine. 

We are confident he will improve and confident in Christ to sustain us through this difficult time. We both have a peace about this and will just move on one day at a time. Your continued prayers on his breathing and lung development are so much appreciated.