Matt update

This pic was taken just after Matt was weighed, bathed and fed. When the nurse was feeding him and he wouldnt take his eyes off her, so now he has a full tummy and looking up at me. I just love those eyes wide awake and very alert. We can just sit there for ages just looking at him, well i do most days anyway. The nurses are preparing us that he might be moving bays soon. Matt is the 2nd wellest baby in our room so he will be moving bays soon if they need a bed for any reason. He is wearing clothes now and 5 zero's are still too big but i think we will get good value for money as he will be able to wear them for a little while longer still.
I think gets weighed and bathed now every 2 days which will be good. He got weighed today and lost about 10g but he does have to work harder now.

First Bath !!!!

Matt had his first bath yesterday he seemed to like it, just floating around in the water. He looks so big and like a normal baby now not a preemie which is nice. His hair is getting darker and more of it we don't get to see it that much now cos he is wearing a hat most of the time.

Dad's first hold!!!!

This was Darryl's first hold of his son, i think father and son are very happy. I have another picture of Matt just looking at his dad while he was holding him very cute indeed. It was so nice to finally see my two favourite boys together for the first time and there will be many more to come.

PHOTOS"S

Matt Update

Matt has progressed to an open cot. He got weighed on Monday and is 1698g. You are supposed to be over 1800g to go into an open cot but Matt likes to be swaddled and you cant do that in an isolette so we made the decision to put him in a cot and he is keeping his temperature nicely so well that now he doesn't even have a warmer going and doesn't have many blankets on just a swaddle and 1 blanket and just a singlet. He did have a jumpsuit on but a new nurse took that off instead of turning the bed warmer down but he is coping well. He looks so small in his bed but so cute i have been trying to upload a photo but it is hard on the laptop wireless so when i go home on Thursday i will try to upload as many as i can from home.

Cuddles, i have had my first really long cuddle and loved it and so did Matt he coped so well on Monday. I had some tears but the wait was really worth it. It was a shame that Darryl wasn't here but he had to work. A nurse got all excited with our new camera and took some lovely shots of me and Matt and then i took some of him in his new bed with clothes on. Darryl will be back on Friday so hopefully we will get some nice shots of Father and Son it will be nice to see my two favourite boys together.

Matt is coping well on CPAP IMV he was breathing too fast for the first few days but i think he has slowed down a bit now and is being really good. They are even thinking of trialling him on full cpap. The machines go off all the time cos he needs to close his mouth so he doesn't loose pressure with machine so i am constantly putting his dummy in his mouth.

He has a dummy now and likes it we are even putting milk on his dummy when it is feed time if he is awake and he loves it, we first did it on Monday when i was having my cuddle it was so nice he is becoming a real baby and not a preemie now.

We are on CPAP

Yesterday our little boy graduated to CPAP IMV. Breathing with nasal prongs and so far he is coping very well. His oxygen levels have been coming down but it is still early days just hope he doesnt get too tired. Normally they need more oxgen then they did on the othe machine but so far Matt is coping with the same or less. The nurses took some pictures with our disposable camera so we will have to wait till its all finished to see what he looks like when they did it. I think he was giving them a helping hand on taking it out.

We got back yesterday just after he had the tube out he was a little distressed but i managed to calm him down he is now getting wrapped in a muslin wrap and i think he likes it cos he slept all afternoon and only made his little lamb cry when he got his temp taken. Yes he has a little voice at the moment but im sure it will get louder soon. Dad was the first hear his little voice.

I think we are getting him weighed today hopefully upto open cot as now he likes to be wrapped he gets too hot in the isolette but he will loose tummy time in the open cot. He will be able to wear clothes.

Matt's way of getting attention

Matt is back in his isolette for now he will be back out when he is over 1.8kg i think. He looked nice and cosy today in there and he is doing so well on his ventalaitor settings that they are thinking of taking his tube out tomorrow and putting him onto cpap. Then all the hard work will start for him but i think he will be ok cos he is breathing on his own a lot now anyway. Its amazing the amount of difference we can see from last week we have have one fiesty boy now ready to start breathing on his own.

How to get our attention!!!....... lay there nice and cosy and pretend you are just sleeping.......then mum notices lots of blood near his foot...... our sweet innocent boy had pulled his canuala out of his foot and there was blood everywhere poor baby needed to have another one put in his arm this time. When we left this afternoon he was back asleep hopefully not working up more ways to scare us. Its lucky he is so cute that he gets away with it at the moment......

Open cot !!!!

Matt is still in an open cot, which i am loving i get really close to him and cradle him. Yesterday i spent hours there just looking at him and didnt even notice the time ticking away one minute it was 4pm feed then 6pm feed. Not sure when he might go back into an isolette as the machine he is on is harder to work around and he is nearly upto open cot size anyway. They maybe waiting until he moves onto the next machine but of course im not complaining this has been the most contact i have had with him since he has been born and he is coping well with the extra noise as when he is unsettled they play the music and he goes back to sleep. His settings are coming down on his machine as well at one stage after an xray they relised they were over inflating his lung, but so far all is looking good and i can see he is taking more breaths on his own now. He can become a little fiesty sometimes and pulls on his tube and then he wears himself out.

Pics of Matt from 12th March 2009

These pics were taken yesterday while the nurses were changing his sheets every one comments on how alert he is and the way he lays when he is asleep. So cute

Thanks

We would just like to say thanks for all the comments and emails that we receive it is really appreciated. We just cant wait to take him home and introduce him to everyone. We are planning a meet Matt day when we get home and settled a little and everyone will be welcome to come over to our house.

Matts Surgery update

Well Matt had his surgery on Sunday morning, that was one of the hardest days waiting to see how the surgery went. It started at 10.30 and finished at about 11 it went well the Dr told us he had a large PDA so he put 2 clips on it. We went and saw Matt and he looked good, they were watching his blood pressure as now his body has to re root the way the body pumped the blood he was on morphine and blood pressure meds and it is working well as now he is only on morphine and that has been decreased and he is back to feeding 5mls every 2 hrs they will slowly increase back to full feeds.

He also got weighed and now 1627g so he is getting bigger. We spent the afternoon and night with him on Sunday making the most of the open cot i can get more contact with him. We were expecting him to be asleep but no he was awake and got some nice photos of him hopefully i will get to load them here. I held him while the nurse changed his bedding, not the hold where he is close to me but boy he is getting heavier, so cute he is. The way you comfort a preemie is cup his head so i was able to do that more and he played with my finger was nice not long now till we can have proper cuddles and into an open cot. All the wait will be worth it. As i say to Darryl this long road is coming to an end and a new journey will be here soon. Its hard to imagine it will be 4 yrs this week that i first found out i was pregnant 4 pregnancy's in 4 yrs and finally we are getting to keep this little one. All the wait is worth it cos Matt is a miracle and so beautiful to watch just watching his expressions we get to see his personality which is so cute.

We can already see some improvement from the surgery he is desating a lot less which is good so hopefully we can say the surgery is a success now all we have to do is let him recover and see the settings go down on the ventilator and move forward onto cpap then we will be closer to coming home. We go to Traralgon hospital before we come home completely but it will be nice to be living in our own house, i havent lived there properly since October 7th last year. When i go home these days its only for 1 or 2 nights and it doesnt feel like home cos something is missing MATT is and it will be fantastic when we are all home together.

Matt's surgery

Matt will be having his pda surgery either this weekend or monday. I am so hoping it goes well and fixes the problem so he can get off the ventalaiter. Its all very scary but we know its the best thing for him.

Also Matt had music therapy today and he coped very well so now he has his own ipod hooked up to his crib. Party at his place ;) He was very laid back its dreaming music which is supposed to help them if they are upset or need settling.

Today when he was getting suctioned just after mum and i saw a tear coming froming his eye it nearly made us cry but it was sooo cute, i know Darryl had seen him cry before but i hadnt.

Well id better go as i am in Moe and am heading back to Clatyon now

Matt update

Just a small update on Matt, he got weighed on Wednesday and he lost 4g, he is on diaretics to help get rid of fluid on his lungs so they were expecting him to loose some weight but i was happy with only 4g. At the moment he is infection free he has had 2 infections in the last month so it feels like we havent moved forward off the ventalators but they are now starting to wean him off them and he is going ok but still desating his oxygen levels going up and down. This is due to him having immature lungs and his pda duct. I hope i will find out today what is going to happen with his pda duct i think he will need surgery to fix it since the medication didnt fix it and it is effecting him from moving on. So hopefully we will know today.

New weight

On Saturday the nurses weighed Matt and he is now officially 1574g and on full milk feeds of 17mls every 2 hrs of my milk. The nurses said when they weighed him he was so relaxed and laid back and wished they had a camera to take his pic he was very similar to the following pic.

He is starting to be awake more often and really alert as you can see from the pics below a few of them have been taken at night time when we arent usually there so it was nice to get the pics and of course when i brought over all the good camera gear he was fast asleep luckily i have a small camera that i take in my hand bag but it doest give the same quailty as our digital slr.

Pictures finally!!!!