A Day of Surprises!

 
FROM KATY:
Oct 30, 2011 -It was an amazing day.  We believe the power of everyone's prayer has had an act in all of Jacob's wondrous milestones! In most CDH stories, parents are unable to touch and an especially hold their babies for weeks and weeks.  Today, just 4 days old, our prayers were answered and we got to hold Jacob!  I don't think our nurse, Jenn, was even able to complete her question when she asked if we wanted to hold him. Even though he had to stay on his little soft palette, it was an absolute gift from GOD! Andy and I were both able to hold time for quite some time, however it was not as long as we would have liked.  I'm dying for the day when I can have skin to skin contact!

One thing we haven't told everyone is there was one hiccup in the surgery.  During the surgery, when placing the bowels aside a section became kinked, cutting off circulation.  The doctors identified the issue when they noticed the severe discoloring of his bowels.  When it was unkinked it pinked up immediately.  Doctors warned us of the possible complications. They fully expected Jacob to be sicker than normal. His bowel functions were in question as well.  Much to our surprise and joy, Jacob hasn't seemed sicker. In fact after holding him, I had the chance to change Jacob's diaper again. He had a diaper full of poo! When I asked the nurse, "Is this good news?" she replied, "This is very good news!" We hope that this is a sign that his bowels have had no effect of the surgical mishap.

He had a chance to see his big brother and meet his big sister. Hazel has always called her pacifier a 'bite'.  She has been seeing pictures of Baby Jacob, and when she points to his breathing tube she says, "Baby bite?" After seeing Jacob, Hazel kept talking about her 'baby buh buh' (brother) and his 'baby bite'.

Landon also adores his little brother. He loves to examine, touch, and talk to Jacob. They spent a lot of time together, and even had a bonding moment when Jacob opened his eyes.  Landon was so cute as he said, "Baby Jacob, open your eyes, wake up.  Come on little guy, open your eyes, it's your big brother." We can tell Landon is going to protect his little brother forever.

This morning the pain management team discontinued Jacob's epidural, as it had a small leak.  We knew this was common among baby epidurals as the line was smaller than the needle to insert it. After a while, the surgery team thought it was best to continue the epidural even if it wasn't doing 100%.  Jacob seems to be in little or no pain today.

All day Jacob's Nitric Oxide (NO) level was being weaned. NO is a vasodilator that widens and relaxes the vessels increasing the amount of oxygen and blood through them. When he entered the NICU, his rating was at 20.  We are hoping by early tomorrow morning he will be completely weaned from NO.

After all of today's miracles and milestones, we hope Jacob continues progressing so we can take him home where he belongs!