Loving Life In the NICU

I am going to keep this post short because I need to get out of the hospital for a little bit and get something to eat. Today has been a really rough day and I wanted to give everyone an update since I know I mentioned to some of you that Ethan might come home today. Well, he is not and I am beginning to think that he is never coming home and that he loves being in the NICU. As of yesterday, Ethan had gone 4 days without a Brady (his last one was on Saturday). The Dr.'s, along with Matt and I, began preparing for Ethan's homecoming, only to be let down, again. Sure enough, he had a Brady last night around 10:30. I received the call from the Dr. this morning letting me know about this episode so I didn't rush over to the hospital in hopes of bringing him home today. So the countdown begins again for what feels like the 100th time. I know he will be home soon and I know he is in the best place right now...I know, I know. To me, right now, the best place for him is at home!!

Sorry to be a Debbie downer, but like I said, I am having a rough day. I have a couple more albums to post and will do that tonight. I am off to get some lunch and do a little shopping, maybe that will make me feel better!!!

New Babies

On Monday July 21, we welcomed 2 new babies into this world. Kagan Denis Joyce was born at 2:19 a.m. weighing 6 lbs. 7 oz. and was 19 inches long. Unfortunately, I was not able to visit Stacey, Kevin, and Kagan while they were at Prentice, but from what I hear they are doing great and loving every minute with Kagan. Visit The Nickoloff's blog to see pictures of Kagan, he is a cutie!!!

Also born on Monday, at 1:19 p.m. was Jack James Rice. Born at 34 weeks, Jack weighed 4 lbs. 12 oz. and was 18.5 inches long. Since Jack was in the NICU with Ethan, we were able to visit him and spend some time with Katie and Dana. Katie and I have really developed a strong friendship over the past couple of months as we shared pregnancy stories and similar experiences with delivering preemies. I am not sure we could have made it through pregnancy, bed rest, and preemies without each other. The great news is that Jack only had to spend a week in the NICU and is now at home with his wonderful parents. I know Katie and Dana are just thrilled to have Jack out of the NICU and at home with them.

Jack James Rice

New Mommies

NICU Double Date

Congratulations to the Joyce and Rice families. We couldn't be happier for all of you and can't wait to introduce Ethan to Kagan and Jack. Enjoy every minute with your little guys, they are both too precious!

Golf Stats

I am a bit tired, a bit sore, but overall, feeling good. Thanks to everyone that helped out the Alpine Children's Charity through the golf marathon yesterday. I have not received the total money raised, but I can pass along that I beat my personal goal and raised $3257.

I want to send a special thanks to my caddies Bob and Ben who were there to cart me around, rake bunkers and find all of my errant tee shots.

On to the stats:

I shot a 484.

I had 3 birdies, 33 pars, 39 bogies and way too many "others" - 25.

I hit 18/72 fairways.

17/100 greens.

I had four 3-putts.

167 total putts.

11 hours and 20 minutes to complete five 18's, one 9 and one extra hole.

Overall I played ok - I wish I had a few more practice rounds. I couldn't keep my drives straight and had to punch out of the trees way too often - hence the low GIR number. My putting was good, despite the high number of putts. The low number of 3-putts is great.

Ali took some pictures, we will try to get a few up this week.

I am already looking forward to next year and raising over $3500. If anyone wants information on playing with me and raising your own money, let me know.

The Ethan update goes like this - he is up to 4lb 13oz. One full pound on his one-month birthday (yesterday.) No brady's in two days. They are trying to figure out what is causing the brady's - it could be something as simple as acid reflux, or it could be more serious. Hopefully they will disprove and/or prove some more theories this week. He is still eating like a horse. He is usually wide awake for almost a full day and then sleeps for two. Maybe he will be a doctor. Ali and I hope we will bring him home soon, but understand that he is better off in the hospital for the time being. Another good development is that one of Ethan's NICU doctors is leaving the hospital and going into private a pediatrician practice - the same one we were planning on using. So now, she will be his pediatrician whenever they decide to release him. It's nice knowing that his doctor will know his entire background instead of just reading it off the medical history (although I am sure the other doctors would do a fine job.)

The really big news from the weekend is that I received and hung our new plasma tv over the fireplace. It's looking good, only needs a color calibration and remote control consolidation. Only a few more things to get done at home before E-man gets there. If you know anyone that needs a 250lb Sony 36" high def tube tv, let me know, I have one cheap - if you move it.

5 More Days

I know it has been a couple days since we posted and I apologize to our loyal fans out there, but it seems as though the last week has come and gone like the snap of a finger. Lots of things to talk about in this post....Ethan's homecoming, nursery furniture, Batman, new babies and golf outings so, without further ado....Ethan's homecoming (or lack there 0f).

I will have to admit that it has been an emotional week for me as we have gotten close to Ethan's homecoming a couple of times. As some of you know, in order for Ethan to come home he has to go 5 days without a "brady." Brady is short for bradycarida, which is the slowing of a premature baby's heartbeat to less than 80 beats per minute. In the beginning of his stay in the NICU, he was experiencing these drops about 2-3 times each day. This number has gradually begun to decrease as he matured and his brain developed more. He is now having about 1 every 3-4 days. Last Friday, the nurses told us to start getting ready because we would be able to take Ethan home on Sunday. What? After the shock of hearing the news and feeling totally unprepared, we were thrilled. Sure enough, early Saturday morning he had another brady which started the 5 day countdown all over again. The same thing happened Wednesday night. After the first glimpse of false hope, I told myself not to get my hopes up again, but do you know how hard that is? Everyday we receive an update on him and they tell us if he had a spell overnight so it is pretty difficult not to count. I know that he is better off at the hospital while this goes on, but I just want him home with us. Honestly, the back and forth between home and the hospital and topped with not so good news is really starting to get difficult. The only thing I love about going to the hospital is that I get to see my sweet little boy. I know he will be home soon, but not soon enough!

In good news, Ethan does continue to get stronger and mature, he is up to 4 lbs. 9 oz. and passed his car seat test on Wednesday. He is now an on demand feeder, which means he can basically eat whenever he wants, as a full term baby would. On average, he is taking about 2 oz. every four hours, which isn't too shabby!! All in all, he is doing great! We will post some new pictures after we visit this weekend.

Golf Marathon

I know that its the top thing on everyone's mind, including mine, so I will go ahead and give an update...I am still doing the 100 holes of golf marathon event for the Alpine Children's Charity. The marathon takes place one week from yesterday. I am rapidly approaching my goal of raising $3000. I thank each and everyone who has donated thus far.

If you still want to donate, make a check out to Alpine Children's Charity and send it to me so that it arrives before Saturday. Or, let me know approximately what you want to donate and we will do a performance based donation.

If you want to be kept up to date on my progress during the marathon (most likely every 9-18 holes,) let me know and I will put you on my email list.

Check out the website I built for the event.

New Photo Albums

Hi everyone ~ I am getting ready to head to the hospital to see the little guy, but I wanted to let everyone know that 3 new photo albums have been posted. Or you can click here, here, and here to see them.

I will post an update from the weekend tonight when we get home from the hospital. Hope everyone is having a great day!

Ethan Practicing for the 2028 Olympic Swimming Events

Ethan The Stud?

Went in this morning for my daily milk run/check-up and Ethan gained a whopping 2 ounces. The nurse said this is most likely due to the fact that he took two huge poo's after being weighed. So, he may have been up to 4lb, 3oz, but he didn't stay there for long.

The other point the nurse (one that I had not met before) made sure I knew was how cute Ethan is. I understand that parents always think their babies are cute, but for some reason the nurses are always telling us this. I am not trying to proclaim that I have the cutest baby in the world, but rather I am wondering if they tell all parents in the NICU the same thing in an attempt to shed some levity and happiness into the standard daily NICU visit. It would seem entirely possible that the first thing you learn in baby nursing school is that "every baby you encounter is the cutest baby you have ever seen."

So with my wonderment stated, the nurse also told me this morning that all night long random nurses would stop in to see Ethan (nurses that have taken care of him before.) This leads me to two possible explanations - either Ethan is a modern medical wonderment that all persons in the medical field want to see, or, he is a stud. The ladies love Ethan. LL Cool E? (Note - there will be no comments on the two male nurses and their love for Ethan.)

We will do a photoshoot with the good camera this weekend and get some decent pictures up. I am also going to (hopefully) purchase a new TV tomorrow so that E and I can watch sports in high def when he gets out of the hospital. He is very interested to see if the Tigers can make a run in the 2nd half.

Getting Into A Routine

I can't believe it has been nearly 2 and a half weeks since Ethan's birth and we are finally getting into a routine. Days fly by as I am trying to spend as much time at the hospital as possible, but still trying to get things done around the house. Matt continues to visit Ethan before and after work, which I know is a lot for him, but something he really enjoys. Although we still do not have a crib or changing table, I am finally starting to feel like we are ready for Ethan's homecoming. Clothes and blankets have been washed, the 2nd bedroom is somewhat cleaned out, and I actually think I know what I want to do for bedding! All things that seem fairly unimportant considering our sweet little boy is still in the NICU. It is still really hard for me to leave him each day, but I know that he is in great hands and can get the rest he needs while in the NICU. Ethan continues to do really well, he is gaining weight on a consistent basis and is taking all his feeding by bottle. We even did a little breastfeeding today, which was great. He still has 2 or 3 apnea spells each day, but the doctors ensure us that he will outgrow this in the next week or 2. We hope this happens sooner or later, as that is the only thing keeping in the NICU right now. Thank you everyone for your kind notes, thoughts, and prayers. We are doing really well and are anxiously awaiting Ethan's arrival at home.

Quick Update

Ethan is doing well and finally hit the 4 pound mark as of this morning. Still having the breathing/heart rate spells, so until that comes under control, he will be a resident of the NICU. He ate 2 ounces of food twice last night, so he continues to eat very well.

We will attempt to post some pictures soon as we have none with all of the tubing out and his cleared up skin.

Also some pictures of Ethan's room are in order as it is coming around with new paint. The furniture should be delivered this week.

Semi-Big News

No its not the BIG news, of when Ethan will come home, but there has been some big developments in the last 24 hours. In the middle of the night, they decided to take Ethan out of the incubator. They actually took the incubator out of his room at lunch today. He is doing very well at maintaining his body temperature, so they are optimistic that he won't have to go back in.

The other big news stems from this morning, they took out the feeding tube. This means Ethan is chowing down on the bottle and is getting enough that they do not need to dump milk straight into his stomach. He is currently getting 40-45cc's every three hours (about an ounce and a third) and he has to take 30, but is allowed to take as much as he wants. From what the nurses say, he is an over-indulger, just like his daddy. He goes for milk, I go for sweets. Ethan is currently weighing at exactly his birth weight, 1740 grams.

So, that's the semi-big news. As far as home life goes, we finally got a car seat yesterday, so now we are ready for him to come home. Furniture should arrive next week, the painter showed up today to erase all remnants of "the hole," and the new laptop arrived today. It's starting to get busy. From what everyone says, that "busy" will last the next 25 or so years.

Feelin' Crummy

I apologize for being MIA for the past couple of days....not returning phone calls, e-mails, etc. To be quite frank, I have felt like absolute crap since Saturday. One second I am sweating and the next second I can't wear enough clothes to stay warm and all I want to do is sleep. Well, I finally went to the Dr. yesterday and found out that I have a pretty bad UTI that was gradually moving to my kidneys. Lovely! The Dr. gave me some pretty strong antibiotics so I am hoping they start to really kick in and I will start feeling normal again. I swear, this is worse than labor.

Anyway, besides the UTI hiccup, we are doing well. Matt went back to work yesterday and has his routine down of heading to the hospital before work for a quick check on Ethan and then another stop after work for a little longer visit. Ethan is doing great.....he is still having apnea spells, but as Matt mentioned before, they are not a concern as it will just take some time for him to learn how to multitask. He is taking several feedings from a bottle on a daily basis, but sometimes he gets lazy and would just rather have his feeding through the tube. The nurses assure us this is not such a bad thing because it helps him conserve the calories that he needs. He is back up to his birth weight and yesterday the nurses began turning down the temperature in his incubator in hopes that he can start to maintain his body temperature on his own. This will eventually allow him to be in an open air crib. So, all in all our little guy is doing great. I have not been able to spend as much time at the hospital as I would like because I have been feeling so bad, but I love being there when I can.

We will keep everyone posted on any new developments, but for now, things are going better than expected with Ethan. Let's hope and pray that he will be home by the end of the month!! I can't wait for that day!!

Ethan's First Fourth

Surprise, Ethan spent his first 4th of July in the hospital. It's a much more calm atmosphere than little Beirut (as Gibson called it) in our neighborhood. For three straight nights we have had fireworks going off from 9pm until the early morning. Ali said she heard them going off at 5am this morning when she was up. It's a fair bit ridiculous, yet awesome at the same time.

I guess I should apologize for not posting for a few days, but there hasn't really been anything to post until today. Which is a good thing of course.

Ethan had his Grandma and Grandpa Hunt up yesterday and met his Aunt Kelly for the first time. He was very active around 10:30am yesterday before his 11am feeding, but he was a little more subdued for his family members in the afternoon.



Bob, Heather and Keegan also stopped by the hospital for a visit. Keegan was small, but not this small. Pretty fun watching Keegan scoot around crawling everywhere. Before we know it, Ethan will be doing the same.

Grandma and Grandpa Konneker went to see Ethan today and to all of our surprise, he had his IV out. Having the IV out is a big step as it means he is eating enough to keep his fluid levels up. He is currently at 32cc's (or just over an ounce) every three hours. The amount has shot up from roughly 8cc's only three days ago. He is definitely an eater, normally taking from a bottle. (Although he just wouldn't take the bottle this morning, so we went with the feeding tube, to put it directly in his stomach.) Also to our surprise, he was out from under the lights. No more jaundice - at least for now.



Ethan is still forgetting to breathe every now and then, and to Ali and I, the episodes seemed to pick up this weekend, happening more than we have seen previously. This causes his heart rate to drop and the alarms to go off. He always figures it out and comes out of the apnea himself, and that is really what the doctors are caring about. They say its normal for him to have the episodes and if they had to intervene, then they would worry.

Still no timetable for a trip home - but that's ok, we still don't have a car seat anyway. (It should be delivered on Monday.) We are still hoping to get Ethan home by the end of the month, but we know that he is better off there for now than at home.

In other news, we bought a new laptop today, it should also be delivered this week. Once I get it hooked up, Ali will be able to take the computer to the hospital as well as use it all over the house. I have one more day at home before I return to work. I am anxious to see what type of schedule I work out for myself, going to the hospital in the morning and at night. The hospital is not close enough to my office to run over at lunch - unless I want to pay for cabs both ways. I am still studying to take the next part of the CPA, I rescheduled a test I was supposed to take last Tuesday to later in the month, so I need to get back on that track as well.

I put a new album up - scroll down on the left.

I Finally Got My Hair Cut

I've needed a haircut for about two weeks. It finally happened yesterday afternoon. Just another reason Ethan is grounded when he gets home.

He's doing well, although back under the lights today. They will re-evaluate his bilirubin tomorrow morning and maybe he will be back out from under the lights. The good sign is that they did not wheel the big light into his bay, they are only using the small light attached to the incubator.

The big happenings this morning is that we were able to take him out from the incubator for Ali to feed him a bottle. A pretty awesome sight. He takes one or two bottles a day, then they use the feeding tube for the other meals. He is up to 12 cc's of fluid for every meal and will go up to 16 cc's tonight. That's about half an ounce for all of you non-metric system people out there.

Oh he's down to 1650 grams. Err, I mean roughly 3 lbs, 10 oz. Just like all babies, he will continue to lose weight for a few more days and will then start moving back up.

We are just starting to get into a routine at home - at least for this week. We come to the hospital mid-morning, then back at night. The middle is filled with running errands and the sort, trying to get the house figured out. I think we are spending some extra time with him now, as we aren't planning to come back tonight. Since we can't take him out of the light for extended periods, we figure he won't mind if we skip one night. We will use the time to rest and continue putting the house together.

That's about it for now.

-Matt

Tuesday Morning

Ethan is doing well. Ali and I are here with Ali's mom. He is eating well, actually took a bottle last night. He dropped another 35 grams and is now at 3 lbs 11 oz. The dropping of weight, just like every baby is to be expected.

He is back to being a little jaundice, so they will put him back under the light this afternoon. We spoke to the docs when they were doing their rounds and they say everything looks normal.