One Month Old and 5lbs 5.5oz!!!

Today Nicholas is One Month Old!! Woo Hoo! What a long way we’ve come, but on the other hand…..HE SHOULD STILL BE INSIDE ME! LOL! He is technically 36.5 weeks gestation, but has become a big part of the world outside and is adjusting well. We’ve hit a point right now though where he’s got a stuffy nose, little cough, and sneezing, so I’m a little nervous about that. I’m taking him in to see the doctor just to be safe. Madi has a runny nose and most of you know how difficult it is to keep a 2 year old away from her little brother who she absolutely loves to death. On another GREAT note: Nicholas was weighed yesterday and is now 5lbs 5.5oz!!! How exciting! I didn’t expect it to be that high, but he’s gained 11oz in just 6 days. Go buddy Go!! On the Mommy side of things I feel I’ve lost some control of Madi. Boy has she hit the Terrible Twos. On top of that she’s been used to being at daycare every day and not being under the rules of her home 24/7. She also didn’t have mom around for three weeks while I was in the hospital so she’s forgotten that I’m not a pushover. We are butting heads right now, but trying to do all of the discipline in as much love as possible. There are many tears these days followed by hugs and I Love Yous as we discuss why we can’t act certain ways and why listening to mom and dad is the right thing to do. Somehow her vocabulary consists of ‘No’ as the answer to every question or demand by mom or dad. Dave and I are so sick of hearing No we could scream (but we’re not just yet…he he). We are slowly teaching her that responses are Yes Mommy or Yes Daddy. She doesn’t get what she wants until we hear these responses. Fun times in the Parenting World. I’m beginning to see where the What Comes Around Goes Around phrase came from. Sorry Mom and Dad!!! If I had known then what I know now I would have made life much easier for you guys. Love you!!! Or maybe I was the good kid and it was Dave…..thanks a lot Dave!! He he!! I’m sure it was both of us.

4 Weeks Old

Not really a whole ton to report. Things are beginning to pick up here as Dave goes back to doing some farm work and I learn how to juggle both kids. Aye Aye Aye…there have been some fun times as I learn to schedule things just right (HA, that’s a joke with a toddler and an infant) so that I don’t run into a bind. For example, the other day I got Madi up from her nap and put her in a high chair to color while I fed Nicholas. This worked great. I put Nicholas down for a nap, got Madi down and decided to pump real quick while Madi played. In the middle of pumping Madi locked herself in the bathroom, started crying, then started going #2 and got scared. I had to get up from pumping, try to find the key to unlock the bathroom (realizing 5 mins later I could just go through our bedroom in the other door) and got Madi out completely terrified with a diaper full and ready to be changed. Pumping didn’t get finished.... More stories to come as I figure all this out…LOL! Nicholas will be 1 month old tomorrow! How time is flying already. I guess when you spent three weeks of that time in the hospital it will fly by now that you are home. Nicholas got his first real bath yesterday at home. He actually loved it! I was really happy about that. He seems so relaxed and enjoyed just laying in the water. The weather here has hit FALL!! I would almost say it might be winter really soon. It was just VERY windy, wet, and cold yesterday. We really aren’t ready for cold weather yet, but I don’t think we have a choice. Winter here we come!! The good news is by the end of winter we will be able to go out and about as a normal family with Nicholas. Yeah!

He's Gaining!!! 4lbs 10oz!!

Well, I definitely have less time to keep up with the blog since leaving the hospital. It’s been wonderful being home. It’s also been very busy getting things situated at home and ready for baby and Mommy to be home for good now. Dave has taken off the next month and we’ve been tackling room by room here at the house. Nicholas had his first doctor appointment outside the hospital with our Pediatrician and he now weighs 4lbs 10oz!!! That’s a 4oz gain since leaving the hospital and in just 4 days!! Nicholas still easily fits into preemie clothes and diapers so he still seems so tiny to us. We’ve had fun taking pictures of him next to different things around the house especially baby dolls and other toys just to have a memory of how tiny he is. We just know one day he’ll be a very big Follmuth boy and it’ll be hard to remember how little he was. Madi is still loving her little brother. He’s the first thing she asks about when she wakes up and is sure to give him a kiss and tell him “Jesus bless you Nee-Kee” at the end of each day. She is a wonderful big sister and we haven’t had to deal with any jealousy yet. She’d actually prefer to take over Nicholas and do everything he needs. She is right at his side for diaper changes and holds the bottle during some of his feedings. If he cries or is fussing she is quick to tell him “It’s okay, It’s okay” and make a “shhh-shhh” sound to comfort him. So all is well here in North Dakota! We’ll continue to keep the updates coming as we have them.

The Follmuth Family of Four Finally Together!!!

It’s been a few days since I’ve had a chance to update all of you on where we are. Those that are on Facebook too know what’s been going on. Friday, Sept 18th Dave and I happily took our little boy home. We were so happy to be packing our stuff up and heading home after three weeks in the hospital for Nicholas and Mommy. Home has been wonderful! Madi is so excited about her little brother. Dave and I both thought there might be some issues with her being jealous, but she hasn’t had any problems with that at all. She just wants to help, hold, and love on her little brother Nicky. The first night wasn’t too successful as far as Mommy getting much sleep, but once we got the swing out Nicholas had a much better second night. Last night wasn’t great, but we’ll have good and bad nights. I definitely remember that! Dave has off for the next month so that’s helping with getting things situated around the house and helping me to teach Madi what she can and can’t do. She doesn’t quite understand that Nicholas is not as tough as her baby dolls even though he is the same size. So, life is getting back to “normal” at least with all of us being home, but its definitely a change having two kids and one that is so tiny and fragile. We look forward to when he’s outside of the window of getting sick. It’s a lot to worry about, but we just trust that the Lord is protecting our little boy and helping us to do the best we can for him.

Day 20 - Nicholas Moves In With Mom!!

So today started out pretty fast and furious with feedings for Nicholas and going through all the discharge steps with the NICU. I woke up this morning thinking I would have him in my room after the morning feeding, but one thing after another led to him not getting to my new room at the hospital until 2pm. But finally I had my little boy all to myself in my room where I could watch him when I wanted, hold him when I wanted and just get to know him more and more. Unfortunately it didn’t go as smooth as I had planned in my head. In the first three hours he had three very runny dirty diapers and lots of gas. Probably something I ate that was causing that. He couldn’t keep his temperature in the normal range so we couldn’t do a both again tonight which is the third night in a row he hadn’t had one. So I wrapped him in more blankets and the nurse added a warm pack to his Halo to help warm him up some so hopefully that will improve. I breastfed Nicholas all day (tonight will be the first night he will have to have formula, not enough reserves for his bottle feedings) and then his first bottle feeding for the day was quite scary. He was very hungry and just started gulping it down and forgot to breathe. I took the bottle out of his mouth as quick as possible to get him to breathe. He turned blue around his mouth, I blew air in his face and slowly, but surely he started to breathe again on his own. Good think Dave and I had Infant CPR training this week. I was going through the steps in my head ready to that if necessary. Thankfully it didn’t come to that, but it was pretty much the final sign I needed to say I’m not quite ready to take him home yet. The nurse took him for the next feeding and he was close to doing the same thing again so she is going to switch out the nipple to a slower flowing one and see if that helps. So hopefully the overnight feedings will go a little smoother. I’m quite tired today with so much going on and a bit of stress here and there, so I’m looking forward to heading off to bed now. I have some pictures to post from the day today, but I will get those out later tonight or tomorrow. Just too tired right now and he’ll be up in an hour to eat again anyways. =o) Thank you all again for all your thoughts, prayers, and the wonderful things that so many of you are doing for us! We greatly appreciate it all!

Day 19

And things continue to move fast and furious! When I went down to the NICU this morning for Nicholas’s feeding the nurse asked me if I was ready to “room-in” with him. This means that they unhook him from all the machines and send him down to my room for a 24 hour trial period where I get to do everything with him and nurses and doctors are close by if I have any problems or questions. I have been so ready to have Nicholas with me all the time and anxiously told them “Yes.” I’m so ready to be home and I think Nicholas is getting to the point too. I got the car seat to the technician in the evening and they put Nicholas in it for a few hours to observe how he does and he passed with flying colors. I’ve been running all day today just to get everything done between getting clothes washed (Thanks Lindsey!) to having a friend (Thanks Melissa!) bring me the car seat from home to running errands and accomplishing eye appts so that there is less to do once I am home. I am still having problems with keeping up my milk production with Nicholas’s feedings. I’m getting just about an ounce each time and he’s eating 2 oz at a feeding. We still haven’t had to go to full formula feedings, but we are pretty close. The next step after trying the Fenugreek is to possibly go on a prescription medication to help out. I would literally try anything! Nicholas is also gaining over 20 grams a day over the last two days. He is now at 4lbs 4.8oz!! If everything goes well with our “room-in” session tomorrow and tomorrow night then we could be taking Nicholas home by Friday!

Day 18

Well things are beginning to move much faster now. Our car seat arrived today so tomorrow I’ll make a trip home at some point to get that and bring it back to the hospital. The NICU nurses will inspect it and get it set up for Nicholas. Then they put him in it and see how he does as far as his breathing and heart rate to make sure that riding in an infant car seat is safe for him. The doctor said today that Nicholas is not gaining weight at the rate they would like to see him gaining. So they have taken away one breastfeeding session and will increase the bottle feedings with the additional calories in it to help him gain weight a little faster. Then they decided that we should do “on demand” feeding which means that when he wakes up and is hungry they call me and I come feed him. If this is one hour or four hours it doesn’t matter. At first I thought that would be a great idea and its supposed to help my milk to come in more. Well after the day was over I was pooped and stressed. I don’t do well without a schedule and my kids have to be on a schedule or they will have one frazzled Mama!! So my plan is to talk to the nurses and see if we can’t do somewhat of a schedule. I’ll also try feeding him longer to make sure he gets plenty so the chances of me going back in an hour are slim. So the first feeding I tried that on lasted about an hour. Holy cow!! This is going to be one time consuming child. Hopefully that gets better as he gets older. =o)

Day 17

Some good and not so great news today…We’ll start with the good news. Nicholas is out of his isolette and in a big boy bed now!! He moved to his open air bed around 6:30 this evening. He’s been eating well with breastfeeding and some bottle feeding. He’s also been maintaining his temperature pretty well so they decided it was time to move him up. Some other good news is they’ve decided to just let him sleep and wake up on his own when he’s hungry. I was happy about this decision because I think he’ll sleep longer than 2.5 hours between feedings. So after the 2pm feeding they let him sleep (not exceeding four hours between feedings) and he pretty much went 4 hours. So we fed him at 6pm and then he was ready to eat again at 9:30. Not too bad! This will be kind of fun to do now just to see what our schedule might be like at home. If after 24 hours he’s really sporadic with the times I’ll probably ask if we can stick to a schedule because I’m a huge believer in that fact that a mom can put her baby on a schedule if you stick with it and I like having a schedule (mostly because then I know when I can sleep…a little selfish, I know). Madi also had a great day with her baby brother. She gets so excited to go to the NICU and visit him. She tells all the nurses when we get in there where Nee-Kee is and that he is hers. She is very proud of her little brother and she was able to give him some kisses and hugs today which made her much happier. It’s absolutely driving her nuts that she can’t hold him. I don’t blame her though. =o) So there were definitely lots of good news today, but also an important area that needs specific prayer. Nicholas’s heart rate was increased again today reaching 220 at times. When the doctor came around I asked him what his thoughts were on this. He said they really hadn’t said anything about it yet because they are still monitoring it and trying to figure out what it could be. I guess there are a few different issues that could be happening, to include the possibility that its just something he will grow out of. I’m liking the latter “issue.” The doctor told me the three possibilities and also described them and for the life of me I couldn’t reiterate what he said. With all the other steps that Nicholas is reaching we could possibly be home by the end of this week, but I don’t want to go home until I know what’s going on with his heart. So hopefully we can get an answer soon…and my faith stands on the fact that this is all nothing and he will grow out of it. If you would, please pray for this to be absolutely nothing and that all “issues” are ruled out and he can come home completely healthy with a very strong heart…a strong heart for the Lord!!

Day 16 - 13 Sep 09 (a little late)

I’m a little late getting this entry in. Day 16 (13 Sep) was a busy day with me going home during the day to spend time with Dave and Madi and get things done around the house preparing for Nicholas’s arrival in possible the next week! Nicholas made it to the Halo (thick swaddler) and was actually too hot in his isolette so by the end of this day his isolette was down to 29 degrees Celsius and it has to be 28 before he gets moved. I told one of the nurses that I didn’t want to miss his “graduation” from the isolette so there is a note on Nicholas’s bed saying that Mom needs to be present for the move because she wants to capture the moment. =o) In the evening Nicholas’s heart rate got really high again. It was up in the 180s to 220. Dave and I were pretty worried about this, but again (like last week) he was perfectly calm and even sleeping. This seemed to start around 5pm or so and by the time I went down for the 11pm feeding his heart rate was normal again. They’ve let the doctor know and he’ll be taking a look at him in the morning to determine if Nicholas might have something going on with his heart or not. We’re praying, of course, for nothing at all. He’s just doing so well, I can’t imagine there being anything wrong at all. Nicholas has also done awesome with feeding over the last 24 hours. They took out his nose tube for feeding. Well, Nicholas actually kept pulling on it and they HAD to take it out, but they thought they would see how he did with feeding and they aren’t going to put another one in unless he doesn’t finish a feeding and needs it to be fed. So far he still has NO nose tube! Yeah!!! He’s feeding like a champion! So the goal for Monday is for him to be in an open air bed. I’m actually getting nervous that his car seat won’t get here before he goes home…but that’s good because it means we will hopefully have less than a week left of this.

2 Weeks Old!!

Wow! I can’t believe it’s been 2 weeks already. We have come such a long way and we are definitely ready to get home soon. I’m really missing Dave and Madi. It’s just not the same getting to see them for a few hours a week and then having to say good-bye to each other. I went home for a few hours last night and it just felt weird to be leaving my own home at 9:30 at night knowing I wasn’t going to be returning to sleep there. We have had enough of having to say good-bye every time we get together and also having to plan our visits with each other. Nicholas is doing great!! They have officially started the weaning process from the isolette to an open air bed/crib. The first step is to put on a onesie and lower the temperature in the isolette to see how he handles that. If he does well with that then we put a sleeper on him and lower the temperature again. If he does well with that the final step is to put him in a Halo (thick fleece swaddler) and lower the temperature in the isolette to room temperature. Once he adjusts to that then he will be moved to the open air bed. The nurses say it will probably take about 24-36 hours for this process. Dave and I have an infant CPR class we have to take tomorrow night so I’m hoping that we both can be there for Nicholas’s graduation from the isolette!!

Day 14 - Big Decisions

Today was just another typical day here at the hospital except that the nurses are letting me be more and more independent with Nicholas now. This afternoon I gave him another bath, only on my own this time. I am now able to do just about everything for him like taking his temperature, getting him in and out of his isolette, changing his diaper, swaddling him, holding him, breastfeeding, etc. The only thing I don’t do for him is do his assessments they do at every feeding time where they listen to his heart, lungs, and stomach. He is continuing to do great. We’ve had 6 successful breastfeeding sessions in a row until this evening, but he’s been quite busy today with bottle feedings and a bath. Its amazing how just those simple tasks really wear him out. Dave and I went to a follow-up doctor appointment today. We knew Dr. Trottier was probably going to talk to us about the possibility of having more kids so I was looking forward to what he might say, but was a little scared of what he might say too. He was very sincere and knew it wasn’t something that was going to be easy to hear. He hasn’t had to tell too many people that they would be best off not trying to get pregnant anymore. Between me having a blood disorder which causes my blood to over-clot, the placenta growing into my uterine wall in this pregnancy, scar tissue and other issues with my uterus, and the fact that with each pregnancy it looks like my uterus is adhering more and more into my bowels….it would not be in our best interest for my own health for us to get pregnant again. Dr. Trottier doesn’t suggest any permanent birth control procedures, but that we should really consider that Madison and Nicholas will be our only children. How do we feel about this? It’s a whirlwind for us right now. Dave and I have always talked about having four kids. We even have all the names picked out. But when all is said and done…its not OUR plan its God’s plan. Dave and I want nothing more than to follow God’s plan for our lives as individuals and as a married couple and family. If this is where God has asked us to be then we are happy as a family of four. We can’t really ask for much more as we have one girl and one boy and they are both happy and healthy! Thank you Lord for that! We may discuss adoption in the future, but for now we are enjoying every moment with our son and daughter and the future will take care of itself. I have my ups and downs with this decision, but I always come back to the fact that God is in control, He doesn’t give you more than you can handle, and it’s all about Him. We are not put on this Earth to be remembered for all that we can succeed at, accomplish, and do. We are put here to prepare for Eternity by following the life that God has planned for us to the best of our ability as we prepare to spend Eternity with Him in Heaven. In the meantime I am simply enjoying each and every moment with each of my children and my husband as I am truly blessed to have each of them in my life.

Day 13 - 4lbs!!!

Nicholas has hit the 4lb mark!!! Last night before giving him his bath we weighed him and he was 4lbs .6oz. I was so excited! He has gained 3oz in just 3 days. So he’s eating well and gaining weight. The nurse practitioner has agreed to let me add one more breastfeeding session a day so we are up to 5 out of 8 feedings. It seems that Nicholas is getting enough when we do the breastfeeding, but it take two pumping sessions for me to get one feeding for him. This will also hopefully help my milk to increase or pumping just might not be for me. Nicholas’s heart rate continues to be great remaining steady in the 130s and 140s! No more issues with his heart. I am still hoping to see them move him to an open air bed soon. They were thinking maybe sometime this week, but we are already through Thursday and he’s still in his isolette. I’m not sure why they haven’t moved him yet, it may be because of his temperature. I plan to ask the doctor tomorrow if I remember. Nicholas is becoming a lot more active now with being awake a little bit after feedings and really looking around and trying to focus on things. He listens to me just talking to him and many times I get smiles and smirks out of him. He just seems to be a very happy and content baby and is starting to act a little more like a newborn and doesn’t just eat and sleep.

Day 12

Well, he’s done way better than expected with breastfeeding today. Out of the three sessions so far he’s fully completed two of them and one was close to finishing. Thankfully I am still making enough milk to feed him, but I’m not making to much extra right now and hoping that it goes back up again. I was at 40-50 mL per pumping and now I’m just about at 15-20 mL. I’m pumping every 2-3 hrs and breastfeeding too so sleep is really lacking, but it’ll get better I’m sure and it’ll be worth the effort if I can stick with it. The landmarks that Nicholas has made today include reaching 3lbs 15oz!!! And he’s consistently gaining weight at .5-1 oz per day. He lost his umbilical cord stump also today and I was actually there for it. Yeah!! It’s so nice to know I’m not missing too much with him being here at the hospital. I am thankfully still here at the hospital, but had to move rooms today. I was in the Pediatrics area, but they had an influx of patients over night and this morning (4 rooms were full yesterday and now almost all 16 are full) and they had to have me move back to the OB area. I’ll move every day if I have to in order to be able to stay here with Nicholas. I told them I’d even move to a different floor if they needed me too. =o) It is actually benefitting us that we live out at the Air Force Base because I live further away than most of the other moms here so I get first dibs on an open room if there aren’t enough open for all of us. I thought maybe it would have to do with the amount of time we’ve been here, but they determine who stays by the amount of time they have to travel to get here. So, all in all, another very successful day. Tonight I get to go down and give Nicholas a bath for the first time. He’s had other baths, but this is the first one that I get to give him so I’m really looking forward to that. Thank you all again for thinking of us and praying for our family and most importantly for Nicholas.

Day 11

Today has been another really good day! Nicholas has been pretty successful at breastfeeding…he’s been able to go 10-15 mins before pooping out and having to be supplemented with the rest of the feeding through his feeding tube in his nose. The doctor has decided he is ready for the additional supplement (called Human Milk Fortifier) to be added to his feedings between the four breastfeeding sessions. This means that he gets a bottle of breastmilk with a supplement that contains additional calories for calcium, phosphorous, iron, and other nutrients that he missed out on getting the last 8 weeks he would have been in the womb. These will help his bones and muscles to form correctly. Bottle feeding will wear him out just like the breastfeeding so it might be a few days of him getting used to this. I spoke with the nurse practitioner today and she said that Nicholas is a “Champion”! Who’d have thought his name would be an true example of who he is so early in his life. Nicholas means Victorious and that he is!! She said that he is doing very well and that he may be moved to an open air crib as early as this week! That would be wonderful and I’m looking forward to him graduating from the isolette into an open air crib where he’ll also get to start wearing clothes. How fun!! And all this means is that we are closer and closer to getting home as Nicholas accomplishes each of these steps. Thank you for keeping him in your prayers!!

Day 10

Today has been a pretty good day for Nicholas. All is well with him as far as his health, but we only have one of four successful breastfeeding sessions. He needs to complete 20 minutes to make it a full feeding session with no additional supplementation. He only did 10 mins or less on three of them. My concern is that I think my milk production has decreased so I need to figure out what I might be doing wrong. This might be making him work too hard and he tuckers out before he is done. This doesn’t hurt him much right now because he has the ability to get a supplement, but when we get home we won’t have that luxury unless we go to formula. Dave and Madi got to spend most of the day here today. This was really nice because Dave heads back to work on Wed which means there will be few and far between visits by either one of them. I’m missing be at home with my husband and my little girl, but I wouldn’t be able to function much knowing my little guy is back here and he needs me. This won’t last forever. Soon we will all be home together. Please pray for successful feedings for Nicholas. He also is being given additional calories in his feedings between the breastfeeding sessions. This is another step towards him getting home to see if he can tolerate these feedings and hopefully these feedings will help him to start gaining some weight.

Day 9

All good news to report today! Nicholas completed two of three breastfeeding sessions completely with no need for additional supplementation. The nurses said he's growing leaps and bounds for only being 33.5 weeks gestational age and just 1 week old.

Daddy got to spend some time with Nicholas today and I wish I had a video camera. I just haven't bought DVDs for our video camera and really should have done that. Nicholas was completely asleep in my arms after feeding and Daddy came in and said just a few words and Nicholas opened his eyes looking towards the sound of Dave's voice. I got up and gave Nicky to Dave and as Daddy began talking to him Nicky was all smiles and smirks. It was like they already have a relationship just between the two of them. It just made my heart smile to see this because Dave's spending so much time with Madi and taking care of everything with her and the house that he doesn't get much time to spend with Nicky. But Nicky definitely knows who his Daddy is and absolutely loved hearing Daddy tell him stories of what they are going to do together as he grows.

Nicholas's heartrate remained in the 150s all day today. His weight is up to 3lbs 13.7oz which is .6 oz more than his birth weight. So he is gaining weight and is feeding well on his own. I'm thinking we might be making another step soon towards getting closer to us going home. I'm not sure what the next step is, but we're not far off now.

Thank you all for your continued prayers!

Nicholas David - 1 week old

Today started out a little rough. When I went down for Nicholas’s 5am feeding I noticed his heart rate was in the 190s and even reached 210 (they like to see the heart rate in the 140s and 150s). Nicholas’s heart rate had been running a little high, but that was kind of “normal” for him. It was typically in the 160s and 170s. So I asked the nurse (Becky Dafoe for those that know her!! She’s awesome!) about it and she said that it had been running high through the night and that she was making note of it and would talk to the doctor about what they think about it. Doctor rounds are around 8am so after the 5am feeding I immediately came back to my hospital room to get word out for prayer specifically for his heart rate. I was quite nervous about it. He would just be there sleeping peacefully yet his heart rate was registering 200. I got to go home for the first time today. My sister drove up here from Fargo early in the morning because my longest period of free time is 630-1000. So she helped me grab a few things and head home. This was way more emotional than I thought it might be. I gathered some things I wanted and dropped of some things I no longer needed. Madi woke up a little bit after I got home so I got to go down and surprise her. I miss getting her up in the mornings, dressing her, reading books, and playing. I really enjoyed that time we had this morning and it was hard to leave, but I knew I was needed much more back here at the hospital. So after an emotional departure I headed back to the hospital to hopefully get a report from the doctors about Nicholas’s heart rate. The report was good as far as I could tell. They wanted to just continue to monitor him. He’s eating well, is VERY content and happy, and sleeping soundly. They don’t see any reason to be concerned and it could very easily resolve itself because his heart isn’t completely formed yet. There are some “valves” that are open during gestation and close shortly after birth. Nicholas’s heart is still at a gestational age so these are things we watch for. After TONS of prayer from friends and family….and lots of holding by Dave and I with prayer and singing (Nicholas’s favorite song right now is Holy Is The Lord or Jesus Loves Me) his heart rate tonight is actually in the 150s. EVEN BETTER THAN BEFORE ALL THIS!!!! We are just overwhelmed with joy! Along with this event today Nicholas also had his venous line taken out which was used to give him fluids, vitamins, and fats. He no longer needs any of this anymore and is therefore only left with a feeding tube in his nose and the leads that are monitoring his heart rate, oxygen levels, and a other important functions. Overnight Nicholas will get to put on a sleeper for his Altru Nursery internet picture after having a bath. We are looking forward to this little event as he continues to make huge strides towards being on his own and able to come home. So in a day or so check out http://www.altru.org/ and click on nursery to see Nicholas David there.

Day 7

Today has been another good day. Nicholas is now breastfeeding three times a day and we had good success 2 out of 3 times. He likes to just fall asleep when Mommy’s holding him and Mommy has to get a little tougher when we need to force him to wake up. I just love seeing him sleep and want him to get as much rest as possible, but I’m sure the nurses here know more than me. Actually, I KNOW they do. I couldn’t ask for a better group of ladies to be taking care of our baby boy. They are truly a God sent to our family and many others!! I got to work more with the OT today and I have a program that I can do with Nicholas once a day all by myself. I’m slowly beginning to do many of the things he needs by myself now. I am feeding him three times out of the eight times a day he eats. I do his temperature, change his diapers (he’s got good output there, ugh!), I’m able hook up his lines backup when needed, and I can turn him over and place him back in the isolette when he’s out. Some of these things may sound so minor, but with a baby as small as Nicholas they are each very important steps to him being able to go home one day. Things here at the hospital are beginning to flow much better with mine and Nicholas’s schedules. I’m finding more time in my day to be able to have visitors. I’m also trying to find times during the day that I can even leave here and visit with people or run some errands. Even go out to eat. I’m not able to drive for another 4 weeks or more so I may be looking for some friends who have to run errands of their own to take me along with them once in a while. =o) Nicholas dropped some weight overnight. He’s now at 3lbs 9oz, down from 3lbs 11oz yesterday. So they are going to do one more day of giving him lipids (fats) and his vitamins before taking out his venous line. He’s still WAY ahead of the power curve in his development and abilities so this isn’t discouraging to us in any way. Madi got to visit her little brother today and she is just in love with him. She came to my hospital room first and I have a picture of Nicholas on my computer’s background. She climbed up on the bed and leaned over to the computer screen and gave him a kiss. A perfect picture moment that I missed this time, but will hopefully catch later. She then took her hand and gently tickled the picture of her baby brother. She loves her little “Bee-Bee Nee-Kee”. We then took her down to the NICU to visit with him and she was SO good. She was quiet and gentle and told all the nurses she was seeing her “Bee-Bee Nee-Kee”. She wanted to hold him and give him his paci, but was very understanding that she could only look at him through the arm holes and through the plastic. She told him she loved him and said “Jesus Bless You”. Just the sweetest moments in two parents’ lives. So overall today was a great day. I have received more information from some of the nurses about what life will be like when we get home and there’s a lot to prepare for there. If anyone reading this had a premature baby between 32 and 36 weeks gestation please shoot me an email with how old your baby was at birth, weight, and time in NICU if you are willing to tell me all this. I have a lot of questions for you about life after leaving the NICU, especially those living in North Dakota because of our harsh winters and that’s what I’m going to have to deal with. I’m in my gathering mode of getting all the information I can about how life might be different for us just so I’m prepared. I can’t thank all of you enough for your continued prayers over Nicholas’s healing and growing.

6 Days Old

Today was all around a great day! Nicholas is beginning to breastfeed…or at least try. I give him a lot of credit for trying. There’s still a ways to go for him to be completely dependent on me for feeding, but we are spending a good 4 mins for every 15 mins feeding well. He is up to getting about 20mL of breast milk at a feeding and is still being fed through the tube in his nose. This tube goes through the back of his throat and into his tummy. So he gets a full tummy but is not having to use bottles yet. His weight as of today was 3lbs 11oz. I am not sure how low his weight got, but he started out at 3lbs 13oz and dropped in the first few days. By Day 4 he was 3lbs 8oz, and Day 6 he was 3lbs 11oz. Once he continues to put on weight he will be taken off the lipids and vitamin supplement and be getting all of his nutrition through the breast milk. He will still have to have a calorie increasing supplement that can be added to the breast milk because he is premature and needs the additional calories to quickly get up to full term weight. So weight increase is one step towards getting off the tubes and wires and into an open air crib. Nicholas’s heart rate is doing very well. They want his heart rate to stay in the 140s and 150s. It tends to go up to the 180s and 190s at times and then, when they are this young, their heart rate can drop below even 100 which isn’t good either. They can forget to breathe and this is what happens to Nicholas once in a while so we are hoping that he can maintain a good heart rate throughout. Regulation of body temperature is also a major hurdle to overcome. One of the major reasons he is in an isolette is because he can’t maintain the necessary body temperature between 36.5 and 37.5 degrees Celsius. While in the isolette he did have some trouble with his temperature being too low so they had to hold back on him being held and even getting a bath. As of this evening he is doing better and will be getting a bath during the night. The nurses are estimating that Nicholas will be off his venous line (feeding him the lipids, vitamins, and fluids) by Saturday if he keep doing well with the feedings. He is tolerating his food very well and is having at least two bowel movements a day…what fun that is to clean up on such a tiny little bum. The Occupations Therapists (OTs) and nurses have started giving me some things to do with him in order to learn how to take care of Nicholas on my own. Having a premature baby is a whole new ball game in the mothering (and fathering) department. I am changing his diapers, taking his temperature, turning him over as needed, and starting a program to help his bones and muscles develop comfortably and properly. For example, changing Nicholas’s diaper is different than changing a full term babies diaper. You can’t just pick up his bottom by pulling up his legs. I have to ensure that his legs go into the fetal position by placing my hands on the bottoms of his feet and slowing guiding his feet and legs back. Then I have to hold his feet with the palm of my hand and get my four fingers under his bottom to lift it all up together and place the new diaper underneath. All of this while also working around the wires and tubes. That’s just an example of how different it is to do even the every day things with a premature baby. Anyways, this is probably enough for a daily entry. Each day is full of learning new things and watching our little boy get closer and closer to being brought home. Please pray for continued weight gain and self-regulation of his temperature and heart rate. Thank you all so much!! Until tomorrow…..

Synopsis of Days 1-5

Days 1-5 I hope you all don't mind, but instead of trying to remember what happened on each day I'll kind of give a synopsis of how everything has gone thus far and then I hope to get updates and pictures on here daily so that we can be asking for specific prayer requests and we all can see how God has and will continue to answer our prayers as our little peanut begins to grow and grow. We look forward to the day we get to bring him home! So after the delivery Nicholas was crying nice and loud. That just brought tears to my eyes knowing that he must have pretty well developed lungs if he could cry like that. I got to see him for just a short period of time before they took him off to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Daddy went with Nicholas and was able to spend a good deal of time in the NICU with him as they checked him over and got him hooked up to different machines and such. Dr. Trottier finished up the C-section and I went into the recovery room. I felt ten times better than the last time I went into the recovery room after having Madison. For those that don’t know that story, I’ll try to blog about that at a later time. Once I was done in recovery which was around 7:30am they wheeled me down to my room and David was with me by then. Dave said the NICU nurses thought we should get to see Nicholas around 7:30am. Hours went by and we were still waiting for them to let us go down and see him. I think David was even more worried than I was. We asked the nurses if everything was okay and they said they had to put a venous and arterial central line in through his umbilical cord and that takes a good deal of time. It had to be a sterile environment and no one could be in there. We waited and waited and finally around 10:30am they said we could go down and see him. He was on a CPAP to help him breathe because the lungs were still quite immature. This was the 2nd of three stages of breathing assistance. The most critical is a breathing tube down the throat. The nurses said he didn’t necessarily need the CPAP, but he was kind of borderline between the CPAP and just the nasal canella so they were doing it as a precaution. By 8pm they had taken Nicholas off the CPAP and put him on the nasal canella. A huge step in the right direction! We were so happy and just knew that all the prayers were helping him to make positive strides to breathing on his own. The doctors and nurses were amazed by his progress. The hardest part at this point was not being able to hold him or even stroke his skin or hair. On Day 2, Nicholas’s arterial line was also removed which meant he was down to just the venous line and the nasal canula. This also meant that he could be moved to an isolette where he could begin moving towards doing everything on his own. We then found out that we would be able to possibly hold him by the end of the day. That’s amazing news because most people don’t get to hold their babies for a week or more when they are this early. The proud big sister, Madison, was able to go and visit Nicholas too. He opened his eyes for the first time when he heard her voice. She held her hands out and said “I hold him”. She wanted to just carefully hold him and take care of him. She was so sad when she heard we couldn’t hold you and that the doctors and nurses were fixing his owies right now. She was okay with that. She had a look of worry, but wonder on her face at who he was and how he was doing. It was one of the most memorable moments of the first few days of Nicholas’s life. One of the nurses also came up to us this day and said that he tried turning himself over by pushing up on one of his arms and legs and turning his head. She just had this look of amazement on her face because most babies in the NICU can’t do anything like that. He IS a MIRACLE!! My sister, better known to our children as Aunt Ree Ree came to visit. We got to see them give Nicholas his first bath and also do his footprints. That was really special for both of us to see. After his bath I was able to hold my baby for the first time. What a special moment. He was swaddled so tightly and seemed so content finally being in his momma’s arms. At one point during this few days Nicholas took a few steps back when he couldn’t keep his heart rate steady and it was staying up in the 170s and 180s. They did some blood tests and found that his carbon dioxide levels were raised and his bilirubin was high. So they put him back on the nasal canella and under the bili-light with a blindfold on. The bili-light was on for about 48 hours and the nasal canella was on for about 24 hours before all was better. Nicholas is now breathing on his own and even smiling on his own. He is so very smiley and a mom and dad couldn’t be more content knowing that he is comfortable and happy. Sometimes he smiles so big you almost think he’s going to giggle. We are able to hold him through all of his feedings for no more than 30 minutes at a time. He still has trouble maintaining a good body temperature so he will remain in the isolette until he can do this on his own and also establishes breastfeeding. Once he is able to tolerate all of his feedings whether through the tube in his nose or by breastfeeding then they will be able to take the venous line out of his belly button and take him off some of the wires and feeding tubes. Then he will be put in an open-air bed. Mom and Nicholas have been given the okay to attempt breastfeeding up to three times a day now so we are working on this while also working with an occupational therapist (OT) learning different ways we can touch, hold, move, and handle you. There are a number of things that are completely different with a premature baby and mom is taking all the time possible to learn everything she needs to know. Well, that should pretty much sum up what we’ve been up to over the last 5 or 6 days. Tomorrow is a brand new day and I look forward to the signs and miracles God has in store for all of us, especially our little Nicholas.

Surprise! Nicholas Follmuth Has Arrived

Hello Friends and Family! We are starting our own little blog to make it easier for everyone to keep up to date with all we have going on in our lives right now. Nicholas David was scheduled to arrive on October 15th, but God had a different plan in store for us. On Friday, August 28th I spent the day grocery shopping and preparing freezer meals to have after our new arrival….in October! So after spending 7 or 8 hours preparing 15 meals that day I was ready to put my feet up with some ice packs for a little swelling in my feet and ankles and just enjoy some time with David. I sat with David until about 11pm and then headed off to bed. Around 3am I heard Madi fussing on the monitor so I went down to tuck her back in. I was back in bed within 5 mins. Around 3:45am I woke up to find myself rather wet. I thought I had peed the bed and checked to make sure I didn’t get anything on David’s side of the bed. The entire bed was completely dry. So I went the bathroom and realized I was probably leaking amniotic fluid. I checked some things on the internet about leaking amniotic fluid and decided I should call the doctor. I called Labor and Delivery at Altru Hospital and they thought it would be a good idea if I came in. I continued to leak fluid slowly, but told Dave not to bother getting Madi up. I didn’t want to get her up in the middle of the night to hang out in a hospital just to have them stop the leaking and probably give me bedrest orders. I got to the hospital around 4:30. The nurse checked the fluid and it was definitely amniotic fluid. She checked me and I was 2cm dilated. Not a big deal really. I was 3cm dilated for over a month with Madi. The nurse said she was going to go call Dr. Trottier and see what he wanted to do. She returned a few minutes later and said “Call your husband; we are preparing you to go in for a C-section.” It was then that I began to slightly panic. I was shaking from all the adrenaline just worried about how this C-section would go (if you know anything about my last one, that was a trip and a half!) and if Nicholas would be okay being born at 32 weeks gestation. Our good friend Jennifer Walker took Madi at 5am and Dave headed on into the hospital. He arrived at the hospital about 5 minutes before they were ready to start. So good thing was…he didn’t miss the birth. All went well with the C-section and Nicholas David was born, crying a beautiful cry, at 5:58am on August 29th, 2009. He weighed 3lbs 13oz and was 16.5 inches long. Dave left the C-section room with Nicholas and spent the next hour with him in the NICU. Initial thoughts were he was doing pretty good considering his age. Dr. Trottier completed the C-section and sent me into the recovery room with a few things to think about. There seems to be some issues with how the placenta grows during my pregnancies and how my uterus is positioned in my abdomen as well. There is a good chance we will not be able to have any more children. That saddens Dave and I in one way, but we also realize that the Lord has blessed us with one girl and one boy. What more could a husband and wife ask for!? The future is in the Lord’s hands and for now we are focused on getting Nicholas home safe and sound. So that is the story of Nicholas’s surprising and miraculous birth! I will continue to put entries here in our blog with his progress over time.