The generosity of strangers (and those we know)

Hi everyone! Thank you for your patience (or for not expressing your impatience) in waiting for a new post on our blog. I'm happy to report that we have a lot of good news to share in this update. Unfortunately, I left the camera at the hospital last night, so I don't have any new pictures to include today. Hopefully tomorrow.

Joey is recovering wonderfully from his MRSA abscess. His incision is healing nicely and he's been eating like a champ. He's down to 2.5 liters on his high flow cannula and not too high on his oxygen requirements. Joe is a whopping 4 lbs 6 oz and 16 1/4" long. He's the smallest of the gang, believe it or not!

Tom was put back on CPAP last Friday night, but has since been put back on high-flow cannula. Tim and I are thrilled about that - but I think Tom is even happier. He really didn't seem to like it at all. He's still pretty high on his airflow/oxygen requirements (5 liters & 50-50% oxygen) and is getting breathing treatments. We thought he might have pneumonia, but now it looks like he's got chronic lung disease. He's got a fairly long road ahead of him (3-4 more weeks at least). He's a little behind the other boys with respect to bottle feedings because when the others first had their bottles, he wasn't eating due to his urinary tract infection. Then he was taken off bottles again while on CPAP. Hopefully we'll start him back on bottles in the next couple days, but but since his oxygen requirements are higher, bottle feeding may be tougher for him than the other guys. Tom will most likely be the last to come home from the NICU - and is expected to come home on oxygen. But we'll cross those bridges when we get there. Tom weighs in at 4 lbs 12 oz and measures 16 1/2" long.

Sam has had a good week - not much to report (and in this case, no news is good news). He's still off the high-flow air and on minimal oxygen support (75-100 cc's). Sam does really well (most of the time) with his feedings - eating his entire feeding a lot of the time. He may be the first to come home - in 10-14 days. He and Henry are running neck & neck. Sam weighs in at 5 lbs 1 oz and 17 1/2" long. We tested Sam in a car seat this week. (I've got great photos of that.) His shoulders are just below the height of the straps, so hopefully he'll grow just enough in the next couple weeks to come home in the car seats we've already got.

Henry has been a bit of a yo-yo with respect to his oxygen and airflow support. Last Friday, he went down to 1 liter of flow, but had to come back up to 2 liters a couple days later. Fortunately, he's gotten back down to 1 liter again - just on Thursday - and so far he's doing pretty well. If he continues to do well, we'll take him off the high flow support next week and put him on the same oxygen system as Sam (which is one step closer to going home). Henry is also very good with his feedinigs and has finished all bottles in a 24-hour period. Most of the time he's a little more hit-or-miss, but just as good as Sam. He may be able to go home with Sam in 10-14 days.

The breast milk saga continues...but thankfully with a very happy ending. I contacted the milk bank in Kalamazoo (where South Bend Memorial gets their donor breast milk) to see if they could pasteurize my MRSA-positive milk. They can do it - but the prices they quoted me were cost-prohibitive. One of the many reasons I'm such an advocate of breast feeding is because it's FREE. Its hard to rationalize spending hundreds of dollars to use the approx 11 gallons of milk we have stored. I spoke with Dr. Vitale about it earlier this week and he suggested finding a "sponsor" to cover the costs for us. Before I could make any calls to places like the South Bend Tribune, he made some calls at Memorial. I'm not sure who he sweet-talked or what he said, but he was able to secure funding from the hospital to cover the cost for pasturizing my milk!! (THANK YOU VITALE!!) Someone that we'd never met was generous and kind enough to help us. That was, of course, wonderful news that we certainly didn't expect.

Vitale also spoke with Cindy, the manager of the milk bank. We've got it set up for her to pick up the milk from our house tomorrow. As luck would have it, she'll be in the area to visit family. She offered to bring coolers with her and pick up all our milk on her way back to Kalamazoo. We certainly could have driven the milk to K-zoo ourselves, but Cindy was generous enough to offer to do this herself. Amazingly generous.

Thursday, the results came back on the 2nd culture of my breast milk: NEGATIVE!!! That afternoon, the boys were off formula and back on breast milk. Yippee!! At the NICU, a couple visitors came to see us: the pastor and his wife from Michiana Community Church of God. We've never been to the church and probably don't know any of its members - but someone at the church saw our story in the paper and "just wanted to do something nice" for us. They came bearing gifts: diapers, clothes, crib sheets, etc. What a wonderful - and completely unexpected - surprise. Thank you!

Later that day, the boys had their bi-weekly eye exams. All are still immature with no issues evident yet. (That's exactly the result we wanted to get.)

On Friday, we got the 2nd culture results on the boys: NEGATIVE for MRSA! Fabulous news! If we get another negative result next week, they'll be able to stop the isolation procedures in the NICU (gowns, gloves, etc.).

Obviously, our lives are on quite a roller coaster ride. The issues that came up last week have all changed and progressed and we're on to more issues already. The staff at the NICU - the nurses (Kiam, the boys' primary nurses: Valisa, Jugenia, Gretchen, Robyn and Kathy...who am I forgetting?), Karen the social worker, Bonnie the parent relations person and of course Dr. Vitale - have been incredibly supportive. In addition to the spectacular care they provide 24-7 for the boys, they've also taken care of us. Thank you to all of you for going above and beyond! Seven weeks (and more) in the NICU is an incredibly intense and stressful experience for any parent. We can't thank you guys enough for doing all you do to make it as smooth and easy for us as possible. Thank you to all our friends and family for all your love and support. The events last week were definitely the proverbial straw that broke our back - and I'm sure that will happen again before all the boys come home. We find comfort in knowing that you'll all be there to support us when that happens. We're sending big hugs to all of you!!!

Lots of love,
Tim, Kristin, Sam, Henry, Tom & Joe