His wife had left him at home with his boys so she could enjoy some much deserved time watching her nephew play football.
America’s Top Dad (ATD) was excited to have some more time with just him and his boys and mixed up the formula for their noon-time feedings.
Hayden took his bottle with very little trouble, while his brother Ian waited anxiously nearby.
Knowing full well that his boys have a tendency to launch a spit-up attack at moment’s notice, ATD took care not to jostle Hayden after feeding him and keep him as upright as possible. After his feeding and a good 10-15 minutes of holding, ATD felt confident that he had avoided any spit-up attack from Hayden. Continue reading Adventures in Fatherhood – A surprise attack
While my reading time has diminished quite a bit over the last two weeks, the books on my nightstand (and/or dresser) continue to grow in number.
I’m currently reading:
The Art of Non-Conformity – by Chris Guillebeau
While some of the ideas in this book aren’t new (if you read Chris’ blog), reading the nuggets from his own story have been great. Chris was actually in town on Oct. 22, the day after the boys were born, and I was sorry to miss his book signing/event. But this is a great book showing that “You don’t have to live your life the way other people expect you to.”
Lots of inspiring nuggets of truth throughout the book so far.
Eat This, Not That! 2011
This is a great little book that blows open some of the misconceptions about the food we eat on a regular basis. It’s amazed me how so much of the food I’d usually consider as “healthy” is actually worse for us than the other food on the menu.
Cook This, Not That! Easy & Awesome 350-Calorie Meals
A companion to the book above. I haven’t cooked anything from this book yet, but the recipes are simple alternatives to meals we typically spend far too much on from many chain restaurants. The vast majority of the recipes are also under the 350 calorie mark so not only are you saving money – but calories too. Continue reading Books on my nightstand
Just a few minutes after their one week birthday we pulled into our driveway with Mr Hayden. No more trips to the NICU. The whole family is home together at last!
See the world in green and blue
See China right in front of you
See the canyons broken by cloud
See the tuna fleets clearing the sea out
See the Bedouin fires at night
See the oil fields at first light
And see the bird with a leaf in her mouth
After the flood all the colors came out
It is a beautiful day
Don’t let it get away
Beautiful day
Touch me
Take me to that other place
Reach me
I know I’m not a hopeless case
For those of you following on Facebook, Twitter and the like you probably know the boys were born at 2:36 on Thursday afternoon.
H-Diddy weighed in at 4 lbs 14 oz, 18.25″ and I-Diddy weighed in at 4 lbs 11 oz, 18″.
They were both taken immediately to the newborn nursery for observation — so our time with them was uber-limited.
And even after Laurie made it out of recovery and to her new room — she couldn’t even get out to see them through the nursery window like I could.
It was determined right away that both of them were struggling with the transition from the womb to the real world. Essentially they both still had amniotic fluid in their lungs and were working to get it out.
H-Diddy was stuggling a bit more than I-Diddy and so they decided it was best to take him to the NICU for closer observation.
We were able to spend about 5 minutes with him before they carried him away. I was able to see him along with his grandparents but Laurie was still left out as she was left to recover in her room.
And it wasn’t until 10 or 11 pm that night that I-Diddy overcame the transition and was released from the close observation he was under. They brought him into the room and we were both able to spend 30 minutes or so before we let him go back to the nursery so we could all get some needed sleep.
Throughout the day Friday Laurie continued to recover enough to get up out of bed and make her way down to the NICU to see Hayden before lunch. They had taken him off oxygen but he was back on oxygen by the end of the day.
Saturday morning he took a turn for the worse and they had to increase his oxygen levels and discovered he had pneumothorax on each sides of his lungs. They did a needle aspiration on his left side to remove the air on his left side and put him in an oxygen hoodie (think astronaut helmet) with 100% oxygen throughout the day.
They did another X-ray at 5 p.m. and decided while he had improved, he should remain on the same treatment.
And beyond what I discuss in the video, he has sense had another X-ray this morning and they’ve reduced the oxygen to 40% and upped his feeding to 20 mL. They’re still feeding him by a feeding tube and waiting until his respiration rate stays below 60 or 70 respirations per minute. They plan to continue on the oxygen treatment and we hope this will help him recover/heal on his own. Otherwise he seems to be doing really well.
I-Daddy is also doing extremely well, eating between 30-50 mL every few hours and doing everything a boy his age should do.
There’s no real timeline on how long before H-Diddy will be released from the NICU and ready to come home with us — but we’re hoping it won’t be much longer.
The last two years have often sucked as we’ve struggled with our infertility — but all of that pales in comparison to seeing your newborn boy hooked to monitors and various machines and knowing you can’t hold him and comfort him like you want to.
We’re so blessed to have both of them now — and to know that H-Diddy is on the road to recovery. Things could be so much worse — but I’d be lying if I didn’t say it hurts like hell.
Thanks so much for all the prayers, comments and encouragement we’ve received across the Interwebs (and from around the world). Please keep H-Diddy in your prayers – and pray for Laurie and I as we struggle to wait patiently for his recovery and full release.
