Robles boy who doesn't like to eat????

Yesterday Jacob started feeding through the bottle! It has been a big day for him. He is having some trouble with it though, as was expected. He only will intake between 5-15 mil. at a time, but according to his weight they want him to consume 60 mil. every 3 hours. That's 3 oz!! Seems like a lot to me for such a little guy.... But the nurses insist that is what he needs. So whatever is not taken orally is put in his NG tube (through his nose to his stomach).

So he is having some problems with gagging, and obviously is having trouble eating orally as much as he should. I can't believe one of my babies doesn't like to eat......yet, that is. I know soon he will be just as chunky as the others when they were small. :) For now they think his problems sucking has a lot to do with his fast breathing. No one can swallow and breathe at the exact same time. Plus his first time ever having something orally is at 10 days old, so it will take a while for him to get used to it.

My mom wants me to tell you the story of how she saved a little boy's life last night. Across the hall in room 3 there is a little 18 month old boy who has been in the hospital since birth. :( In the middle of the night, alarms started beeping and the nurses were ignoring it as if it was nothing. mom looks outside our rainbow curtain to notice the poor little boy laying sideways across his bed, kicking his feet. "Excuse me," she says to our nurse. "I think that little boy is in trouble!" As our nurse rolls her eyes, she heads over there just to take a look. To her surprise, the little boy had pulled off his oxygen mask and tubes!! He couldn't breathe!! Nurses than went running to save that little boy's life. The nurse eventually came back and thanked my mom. Thanks mom for saving a life today!

more progress

Today again went well. I am trying not to get my hopes up, but the doctor said we should be out of the ICU tomorrow!!! Happy Day! Now on to the next big step of getting Jacob to eat.... they say this part is what usually takes the longest with heart babies. I am hoping he'll have his brother's love for food and we won't have a problem.

We left Jacob alone for the first time ever today for about 2 hours when we all attended the memorial together. I so wished to be back home to my congregation with Jacob by this time. I miss home. But the congregation here is so very loving. And we have lots of new friends. It just would have been nice to have had my whole family home by now.... hopefully soon.

more pictures....

These pictures are not in order, but on top is our first family picture ever!!! Below is Isaac and Nico with their brother... being able to touch him and talk to him for the first time. The kids are technically not allowed in the ICU, but the nurse made an exception for today! The boys were so excited. And Jacob loved them being there also. Normally, Jacob breathes way too fast and deep, but when his brothers were their talking to him and sticking toys in his face, he was very content. And his breathing was consistently at the rate the doctors want it to be at. See, as I have been saying, Jacob just wants to get into normal life with his family!

Below is right after the nurses took off his lights for jaundice earlier today and I got to hold my baby!

This is what Jacob looked like under the jaundice lights and with his breathing mask on. Alex called it "the elephant mask." Jacob hated it! Of course! This is what he looked like yesterday.

And this is what he looked like this morning still under the jaundice lights, but no "elephant mask".

dark night to a brighter morning

 So last night was a tough one.  Baby Jacob was crying and crying and crying, so they took him off of feeding (they started him on breast milk through a tube).  Since they figured that was all that was done differently from the day before.  They thought that he was having stomach problems with digesting that was causing him so much pain and discomfort.  :(   So they were going take an x-ray in the morning to see what was going on in there.  

Than his jaundice levels were increasing!  AND he got a high fever, so the doctors were taking lots of blood tests to figure out what was going on in his little body.  He was started on 3 antibiotics.  

So I spent my night crying and worrying and praying.  Sometimes I just feel like all the little things have been going wrong and how in the world will we ever be able to go home as a family?

Thankfully the morning came and with his first morning blood test, we were told his jaundice number went down drastically, so he is now off of the jaundice lights!!  Yeah!  Just taking off his lights and the shades that covered his eyes made him a much happier baby.  After that the x-ray of the stomach looked good.  So they are planning on very gradually starting him on food again, hopefully later today.  (The bad news is, I lost most of my colostrum, because they thawed it out yesterday thinking they were going to use it all, but now it is spoiled!) :(   The results of if he has a virus has not come back, but his fever is gone!  And they are planning on removing all his little IVs, and making just one central line where everything can go through.  

The best part of today was when they moved him to a big boy bed... and were transferring all his stuff, I GOT TO HOLD MY BABY!  It was the best feeling in the world.  I so want to take him home now more than ever.   It will still be some days in the ICU, but just being able to hold him gave me strength to continue on.  

I will post pictures, hopefully later when Alex comes, because I am having problems uploading the news ones.  

little update

Things are VERY slowly getting better and better. The doctors are gradually getting Jacob used to not having any additional oxygen. And once that is done, he can begin to eat my milk! :) So they say that will help him improve in all areas. Maybe tonight, if all goes well for the rest of the day. He is still under the jaundice light, but his numbers are getting lower.

We just pray for no more set backs, so we can be out of the ICU by the end of the week.

Please continue with all the prayers... thank you for your love and support again. :)

Baby is crying at last!

Sorry for not posting yesterday, it was a busy day and I was in a lot of pain last night with my incision.  We had lots of wonderful visitors yesterday.  Thank you to everyone for coming!  Today is the first night that I am spending at the hospital (with mom).  Lately Alex has been taking the night shifts.  

Things have been gradually getting better.  Jacob no longer has the breathing tube down his throat!  So now I can hear my baby cry.... crying never sounded so sweet!  Yet, he still has some oxygen strapped around his head and going in his nose.  Which he does not like at all.  They had to put a mitten on his hand because he keeps trying to pull it off.. along with other wires.  He wants to go home too!  Also his urine catheter is gone.  

This morning he had some mucus in his lungs and were afraid it was pneumonia, but the results came back ok.  They just had to clean out his lungs of the mucus, which can accumulate from having the breathing tube down your throat for so long.  

Bad news is that he has jaundice now.  He is sleeping under the lights, as I type.  Poor baby.  

Oh, the results of the brain scan came back good.. so they are thinking that maybe his holding of the breath was related to stress of the surgery or pain once again.  

Hopefully things will go good tonight and tomorrow and we can get out of the intensive care unit soon.  

Below is pictures of Jacob when he had in his breathing tube ~

Day 2 & 3 of Jacob's life

Here are some pictures from before Baby Jacob's surgery and the bottom two are from right when he came out of surgery.  The bottom picture was the first time I ever saw him with both his eyes open.  

The blog won't let me put up any more pictures on this page, so I will post a couple more and give you all an update on the next one.