Breckin meet Maya

After many months of hearing about Breckin, Maya finally got to see who this person is that we kept mentioning. She already knew where his room was and could lead anyone there if they asked her. Maya is doing great with him. She even welcomed him home with a big lick to his head. Overall she pretty much ignores him. Here are some fun pics.

We're home!!!!

Breckin is home!!!!!!!!! Brooke and I were waiting with anticipation all morning to get permission to leave the NICU. They decided since he has been eating more and hasn't had any more apneic episodes he could go home a day early. We owe a lot of thanks to Nurse Mandy who pushed the doctors to let him go!

Just before leaving the NICU. It was so good to hold him without wires connected.

Our little man ready for his first car ride on the outside world.

Mommy holding him in his nursery.

Breckin likes the boob

Never before did I think I would be so excited to say that my son likes the boob. In a few years I'll be having to teach him that they are for married men only, but for now we'll let him like them. I guess he just decided that Brooke's milk was the best thing in the world. He ate for about 35 minutes, which is a huge improvement over his previous 25 minute record. And like the biggest baby in the NICU should, he ate another two ounces from the bottle. Breckin is finally eating like he is the biggest kid in the NICU (the other two are only half his size).

What makes things even better is that everyone here is pulling for Breckin, Brooke and me. Dr. Ehmer, Brooke's OB, contacted the Director of the Women's Services and got us a room for the night even though Brooke has been discharged. I guess that just goes to show how much of caring, Christian man he is.

That's not it though! One of Breckin's nurses, who has a crush on him, realized how much he doesn't belong here any longer and went to bat for him. After discussing with the pediatrician all of the improvements he has been making and not regressing, they decided he can go home on Saturday!!!!! We were super excited to hear that he gets to go home a day early. We can't wait to show the outside world to Breckin. Watch out world, here he comes!

Bad news and Good news

The bad news is I won't be having my first beer in nine months tonight. The good news is I'm not having that beer because we are staying at the hospital tonight. Dr. Ehmer, our OB, is keeping Brooke another night. Not that they are concerned about anything, but the doctor wants to observe her for another night with her past blood clotting problems. This is welcomed because Breckin has to stay too.

Our doctor is also working on getting us a room to stay at the hospital on Friday and Saturday night since Breckin will still be in the NICU. Dr. Ehmer is such an amazing man, he has even offered to let us use his house, which is about 30 minutes closer to the hospital than our house. We have been so blessed to be connected with such great Christian people in Dallas. We give God the glory for all he has done for us down here.

Daddy's Pride and Joy

Breckin continues to do well. He's been eating his required two ounces with each feeding, his sugar levels are staying high, and his temperature is staying down. Unfortunately, we just learned that on Tuesday he made a five day reservation in the NICU. While sleeping in his crib, he decided to stop breathing, turned blue, and needed oxygen. That earned him his five day stay. So now he won't be able to go home until Sunday. That is going to be difficult for Brooke and I since we are being discharged today. In our minds we know it is best for him to stay, but our hearts hate it.

It didn't take him long to fall asleep.

He was sound asleep!

Good progress!!!

We just got done from giving Breckin his 11:00 p.m. feeding and he is showing good progress. They took him off of his sugar IV around 9:00 and his sugars stayed up! His sugar count was actually one of the highest of the day. He also ate 50 ccs of formula today, the most he has eaten since he has been here. Yes, it has been less than two days; however, he has had about 12 feedings. We're happy with this progress and just hope he continues to improve.

God has definitely been working with Breckin and getting him better. We know that our God is the almighty God and has the miraculous powers to get Breckin where he needs to be in order to go home. We thank Him for always being faithful to us, no matter the circumstances.

Crying Video - now works

Here is some more video of Breckin. Don't worry about the beeping in the background. The monitors that are on him are very sensitive, so sometimes when he squirms around in our arms it thinks the probes have become disconnected. We have learned when to worry and when not to worry. This time was a time not to worry.

Look at me smile!!!!

So I was finally able to trim down some of the video and get this uploaded. Here is a quick 25 second clip. I'll work on getting more as I have more time.

More

More photos. I'm trying to get some video loaded, but blogger is cooperating. I'll keep trying though.

Did she really just give birth 36 hours ago?

The biggest kid in the NICU, but not yet the best eater.

The look only a mother can give.

Breckin's improvement

Thank you to everyone for your prayers and support over the last 36 hours. It's crazy to think that Breckin is just over a day and a half old. We feel like it has been several days. I guess that's what happens when you are sleep deprived and concerned about your new son. Your e-mails and comments of love, prayers and encouragement have been very appreciated. It helps us to keep going.

Breckin is making great progress today. Early today the nurses took the oxygen saturation monitor off of him, which means we aren't concerned about him holding his breath. He has made great improvements realizing he needs to breath in order to live.

He is also being weaned from his sugar IV. Last night he was at 18 ccs per hour. This morning he was at 10 ccs and it is lowered 2 ccs every three hours as long as his sugar levels are high enough. Right now he is down to 6 ccs. His blood draws came back negative, giving good indication that he doesn't have an infection. We're waiting on his blood cultures to come back tomorrow to confirm that.

We're hoping he will get to go home Friday or Saturday. Brooke and I are getting kicked out of the hospital tomorrow. I guess we could stay if we wanted to pay for it, but this is a pretty expensive hotel, so we'll go home. We just can't wait to have the little guy at home with us and Maya.

I'll post some video and pics a little later tonight. It's feeding time now.

Prayers for our family

Life for Breckin continues to be stressful as he is still in the NICU. He's had a day of ups and downs and so have Mom and Dad. His sugar level has gone up, which is good, then down, then up, then down. Right now his sugars are up, but they also increased his Sugar IV as well. We hope it will continue to stay up and they can start to take him off of the IV in the next day or two.

His apneic epsiodes, (which is when he holds his breath), come and go. He seems to do it more when we are holding him, which makes it hard on us. The nurses tell us all babies do it, just not all babies are on monitors so that we know they do it. Nor is it as bad as his have been. It still is tough to hear this machine beeping at you, seeing the oxygen level drop, and not getting any relief. Finally he takes a breath and he starts to breath again. The good thing is that his heart rate is not dropping. We're not sure why he is doing it, but at this time it isn't a major concern. But to us, it is a big drain on emotions.

He has had a roller coaster of 30 hours or so, once you consider the contractions he was experiencing in utero. It has also been a roller coaster for us. We know that he has this whole life outside the uterus thing to figure out. We have to figure him out, and he'll be ok in several days. It's just hard not to be able to hold our son when we want. It aches to see other mom and dads walking their babies down the hall.

Brooke is doing ok for the most part. She is pretty sore from pushing out a 9 1/2 pound kid. He was coming out face up, which is opposite from what we like. That made the pushing harder. She pushed like a champ, but is in quite a bit of pain.

We ask for your prayers for Breckin that God will help to strengthen him and to protect him. For the doctors and nurses that they will have the knowledge to help Breckin get better. And for Brooke and I, that we will have patience and give our worries, concerns, and fears up to God.

More Pics

Look at my muscles! I can flex already.

Dr. Ehmer is the best OB, doesn't hurt he is a strong Christian and not afraid to show it in his practice. Thanks for the recommendation Jason and Patti!

Mom and Breckin after first feeding from Mom!





Dad and Breckin ater first feeding!

9 hours of life

Well Breckin has had a pretty rough start to life. He is in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit right now and will be there until he goes home. While going through labor, the umbilical cord got wrapped around his neck making him struggle each time there was a contraction. This struggle and fighting caused him to use a lot of his sugar storage. He was born with abnormally low sugar levels and he was running a temperature. For that he has earned himself a stay in the NICU. They did a blood culture to test for any infections, but we won't have results from that for two days. Also, he has had a couple of episodes where he has decided to hold his breath causing his oxygen levels to get really low. He did this once while Brooke was feeding him. We hope it has only been because of how he was positioned while feeding. Breckin can use some extra prayers and so can Brooke and I. It's hard to have your son in a different room from you.

Here are some fun pictures and video to share though.

Welcome Breckin!!!!

Breckin has arrived. He was born at 3:40 a.m. weighs 9 lbs 9 0z and is 21inches long. And that is two weeks early. On Wednesday at our last ultrasound the estimated him at 8.5 pounds. Brooke did great!!! I'm so proud of her.

Breckin has been in the nursery since 4:30 (it's now 7:15 am) because his sugars were too low. We haven't heard any updates on how he is doing besides they were still low after one feeding. They tell us he is a great sucker though :) We should be talking to a nurse any minute.

Here are a few pics. We'll updated more later when I haven't been awake for 24 hours.

Breckin Update #2

So it's 2:30 a.m. now and Brooke is doing great. Our pain doctor Keith has been our best friend. Breckin is is about ready to come meet us. I've had two cups of coffee and a package of oreos. Nothing better than that. We can't wait to meet Breckin!!!!

Breckin Update #1

It's 12:30 am and finally things are going well. Brooke had a rough start and a lot of pain. The contractions decided to come frequently and give no break to either her or Breckin. Around 11:00 p.m. she was able to get the epideral. Once contractions got straightened out, she quickly went from 5cm to 7cm. Brooke is now trying to nap and I'm watchin Sportscenter. We're hoping that by the time anyone really reads he blogs in the morning that we'll have a little boy.

Breckin Watch 2008

We've made it to the hospital. The prostaglandin has been started and we're hoping that will get the cervix dilated and get the labor going. We're pretty excited and a little nervous. I think Brooke's mom is the most anxious. Dad said she has been out pacing in the lobby until they could come back into the L&D room. Surprisingly I am doing well. It's a good feeling to be at the hospital for a good reason.

Make sure you check back for updates. I'll try to keep them going throughout the night and morning. I love being in a hosptial with wireless internet and free range use of cell phones.

Just before we left the house.

The Last Preview

Wednesday was our last OB appointment before we get to see Breckin face-to-face. We are filled with excitment and Brooke is ready for this to all be done. She continues to be more and more uncomfortable as each day passes. Heck, I would be too with an 8.5 pound baby inside me. Yup, he's gained another pound in two weeks and we expect him to be about 9 pounds by the time he comes out on Tuesday.

We'll be going to Baylor Hospital at Frisco on Monday evening, where they will give Brooke medicine to start the induction. Because she is already dilated to 4.5cm, Dr. Ehmer thinks Breckin will be here early Tuesday morning. We are so excited to meet him and can't wait to introduce him to all of you! Here's the last picture of him on the inside and a little video of him moving.

The most obese people in the world don't even have this much fat on their forehead.

You can see something protruding from the top of Brooke's belly right before she touches it. (We are not responsible for what you might hear).

Farewell Keefers

It's amazing how God works! About a year and a half ago Brooke and I were led by God to move to Dallas. Little did we know we were going to meet such a fun loving couple who lived only twenty minutes from where we were from in Indianapolis.

Once we moved into our new apartment, we quickly noticed a couple of cars from Indiana in the same area as ours. One day we saw Joe out in his car, so we introduced ourselves, exchanged phone numbers, and decided to hang out. Little did we know they would become our first and some of our closest friends in Texas.

It was great to have Joe and Stephanie live in the same apartment building on the floor below us. Easy to walk home after a night of good beverages and guys versus girls games. Even though they are Bears and Cowboys fans, we spent many Sunday afternoons watching football together.

We also have had the privilege of them joining our Life Group at Firewheel and watching them each grow in their faith. They got to see us along in our pregnancy, and we have been able to see them along in the beginning of theirs. With baby Keefer on the way, it was time for them to head back to Indiana to be close to family.

We will miss you Keefers, but are excited to see you when we travel back to Indy. God truly has enriched our lives by bringing you two into it.

Because you asked for it.....

36 Weeks and I feel like I'm ready to pop!

Maya's Fight

Ok, so this is my first attempt at our new video camera and Windows Movie Maker. We recently got our video camera and I need to try out all the different functions and how to incorporate them with Blogspot so that when Breckin comes you all get the best.

This is Maya and her good friend Ginger wrestling last weekend. I know the lighting isn't good, but hey at least O.A.R is good.

Breckin Watch 2008

For those of you who are following along with this pregnancy I figured it was time to bring you up to speed. We went to the doctor yesterday for our regular weekly visit. Breckin is still growing like a weed - up to an estimated 7 lbs 6 oz now. The exciting news was that I am 3 1/2 cm dilated! While this does increase the potential for me to go into labor before our induction date of July 22, the most exciting thing to me is that Dr. Ehmer thinks that if we do make it until the 22nd, we won't have to use Pitocin! He is hopeful that just using prostaglandins will stimulate labor. From the horror stories I hear about Pitocin this is really good news!
Of course the girls at the office are convinced Breckin will be making his grand entrance to this world before the 22nd, in fact I believe they have little pool going on betting on what day he'll arrive. If you want in, I believe the 4th, 6th, 8th and 14th are already taken.......