Since our life seems to be a bit crazy here lately, it's been so hard to be able to keep in contact with everyone and keep them up to date with things. I decided to start keeping a blog with updates and photos! So be sure to check back every once in awhile! I'll try to update as much as I can on my off time (probably on the hour car rides to and from the hospital!).
We love you all,
Michael, Amanda, Ilana, and Aydan
*To view updates, just click on the links to the left! :)
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
1/25/09
Just wanted to update you all really quick! Aydan has been home with us for over a week now! Things are going fabulous!!! I thought life with two children would be a little difficult, but surprisingly it's not any harder than with one (yet, anyway! ;o) )! Aydan is doing amazing! He was 6 pounds 2 ounces at his dr's appt. on Monday (the 19), so I'm sure he's at least 6 1/2 pounds by now! Yay! We have had absolutely no problems with him! He's been a very easy baby, like his sister was, and hardly ever cries, although that could change when he gets bigger, but we're hoping not, haha!
Ilana is doing fabulous with the change, too! She wakes up every morning excited to see her brother. She absolutely loves and adores little Aydan and is Mommy's little helper. So far she's had no jealousy issues at all! We've been doing our best at keeping her involved with Aydan and also allowing her lots of one on one time with Mommy and Daddy, too, which I think has helped a lot.
We got our first "big" snow this past week! This is the only time in the 3 1/2 years that we've lived here where we've gotten snow that was more than a few snowflakes! We got a whopping 4 inches of snow here at our house! And guess what! They closed the schools, the colleges, even the base - BEFORE it even started snowing!!! Isn't that crazy?! (At least to those of us who are used to snow, haha!)
Anyway, things are going great! I'm feeling great and just so excited to finally feel like Aydan's mommy! :) Anyway, here are a few "professional" pictures I took of Aydan, seeing as how we have no photos of him on our wall yet! Hope you enjoy!!
Our rings on his toes!
Our sweet handsome boy!
He was watching Ilana
Happy boy! (or is it gas?!)
Just staring at Mommy...
Ilana is doing fabulous with the change, too! She wakes up every morning excited to see her brother. She absolutely loves and adores little Aydan and is Mommy's little helper. So far she's had no jealousy issues at all! We've been doing our best at keeping her involved with Aydan and also allowing her lots of one on one time with Mommy and Daddy, too, which I think has helped a lot.
We got our first "big" snow this past week! This is the only time in the 3 1/2 years that we've lived here where we've gotten snow that was more than a few snowflakes! We got a whopping 4 inches of snow here at our house! And guess what! They closed the schools, the colleges, even the base - BEFORE it even started snowing!!! Isn't that crazy?! (At least to those of us who are used to snow, haha!)
Anyway, things are going great! I'm feeling great and just so excited to finally feel like Aydan's mommy! :) Anyway, here are a few "professional" pictures I took of Aydan, seeing as how we have no photos of him on our wall yet! Hope you enjoy!!
Our rings on his toes!
Our sweet handsome boy!
He was watching Ilana
Happy boy! (or is it gas?!)
Just staring at Mommy...
Friday, January 16, 2009
TODAY IS THE DAY!!!!!!!!!!
Okay, so normally I am still asleep right now, but I just couldn't sleep! BECAUSE AYDAN IS COMING HOME!!!!!!!!!! We get to go get him in just about an hour and a half! YAY!!!!!!!!!! Michael and I are SO excited to finally get to bring him home! For anyone who has been through having a preemie, you know how hard it is to have a baby and then have to leave it at the hospital and not bring it home. It's the hardest thing I've ever done!!!! But now, after one LONG month, he is coming home!!!!!! PRAISE THE LORD! Isn't God good?!? :)
I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has helped us and prayed for us all along the way. We couldn't have done it without your amazing support! We appreciate everyone so much and even though this was a rough journey for us, we feel so blessed to have such amazing family and friends. A lot of people will tell us "Wow, you guys have been through so much! How do you do it?" And the answer really is because of our family and friends and more specifically, our church... So thank you to everyone... We love you all and are so anxious to finally feel like a family of four! :) We will be updating this now with family updates at HOME, instead of hospital updates! YAY!
I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has helped us and prayed for us all along the way. We couldn't have done it without your amazing support! We appreciate everyone so much and even though this was a rough journey for us, we feel so blessed to have such amazing family and friends. A lot of people will tell us "Wow, you guys have been through so much! How do you do it?" And the answer really is because of our family and friends and more specifically, our church... So thank you to everyone... We love you all and are so anxious to finally feel like a family of four! :) We will be updating this now with family updates at HOME, instead of hospital updates! YAY!
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
It's been awhile!
Things have been so hectic lately that I haven't had a chance to update this for awhile! I'm sorry!! Now, for an update on Aydan. He's doing REALLY well! Saturday (the 10th), they switched his feeds to a bottle every feed. They had to supplement him a few times with the feeding tube, but overall did really well over the weekend! By Tuesday, he was off the feeding tube completely! YAY!!!!!!! He had a couple bradycardias (where his heartrate goes down) over the weekend, which pushed him back a couple days from coming home. They think the bradys could be reflux associated, so they put him in a crib where they could bring one end of the bed up and put him in a reflux sling to keep him propped up.
Tuesday he was transferred to our local hospital! Which means no more hour drives to and from the hospital every evening when Michael got off work! That was really wearing on all of us, especially Ilana who has a set bedtime of 8pm, and we weren't getting home until almost 11pm! She was such a trooper through it all, though! We couldn't have asked for a better daughter! She's absolutely in love with Aydan and wakes up in the mornings saying "I wanna go see Aydan, Mommy! I love Aydan!" :) It's just the cutest!!!
Anyway, he's now at Craven Regional, which is just 5 minutes away from us! YAY! As of right now, his date to come home (as long as he has no more bradys) is on FRIDAY!!!!!!!! WAHOO!!!! We are ecstatic! It's hard to believe that he will be one month old tomorrow! I'm SO ready to have my baby home! :) Please pray that he has no more bradys!! :)
Also, we've had some questions for what Aydan's name means because people knew we gave Ilana her name with a special meaning. Ilana (Sunshine) Eve (Life) - both biblical/hebrew names. When she was born, she was the sunshine of our life (and still is!) :). So we wanted to give Aydan a special name, too. Aydan is originally spelled Aiden, and is a biblical name spelled Eden (which obviously pairs with Ilana's middle name Eve). But due to Eden being a girl's name, the name is also spelled Aiden for boys. We wanted to choose another biblical name for our second child, so we chose Aiden, but decided to spell it Aydan, so it'd be different (because Ilana's name is different)! We chose Michael as the middle name, which is also Hebrew, and obviously is his Daddy's name! Michael was such an amazing husband throughout my pregnancy. He was with me through everything and was willing to take his annual leave to stay home and take care of Ilana and I. I just think that with him being such a big part of my pregnancy (other than the obvious) and was an awesome coach during labor, that he deserved to be a part of our son's name, too! So that's the meaning of Aydan's name! :)
Now, for some photos...
Michael and Aydan
Aydan in his reflux sling
Aydan covered up by his blanket I made him (using Daddy's cammies!)
Aydan's in a crib with the end propped up and in a reflux sling
Tuesday he was transferred to our local hospital! Which means no more hour drives to and from the hospital every evening when Michael got off work! That was really wearing on all of us, especially Ilana who has a set bedtime of 8pm, and we weren't getting home until almost 11pm! She was such a trooper through it all, though! We couldn't have asked for a better daughter! She's absolutely in love with Aydan and wakes up in the mornings saying "I wanna go see Aydan, Mommy! I love Aydan!" :) It's just the cutest!!!
Anyway, he's now at Craven Regional, which is just 5 minutes away from us! YAY! As of right now, his date to come home (as long as he has no more bradys) is on FRIDAY!!!!!!!! WAHOO!!!! We are ecstatic! It's hard to believe that he will be one month old tomorrow! I'm SO ready to have my baby home! :) Please pray that he has no more bradys!! :)
Also, we've had some questions for what Aydan's name means because people knew we gave Ilana her name with a special meaning. Ilana (Sunshine) Eve (Life) - both biblical/hebrew names. When she was born, she was the sunshine of our life (and still is!) :). So we wanted to give Aydan a special name, too. Aydan is originally spelled Aiden, and is a biblical name spelled Eden (which obviously pairs with Ilana's middle name Eve). But due to Eden being a girl's name, the name is also spelled Aiden for boys. We wanted to choose another biblical name for our second child, so we chose Aiden, but decided to spell it Aydan, so it'd be different (because Ilana's name is different)! We chose Michael as the middle name, which is also Hebrew, and obviously is his Daddy's name! Michael was such an amazing husband throughout my pregnancy. He was with me through everything and was willing to take his annual leave to stay home and take care of Ilana and I. I just think that with him being such a big part of my pregnancy (other than the obvious) and was an awesome coach during labor, that he deserved to be a part of our son's name, too! So that's the meaning of Aydan's name! :)
Now, for some photos...
Michael and Aydan
Aydan in his reflux sling
Aydan with his blanket I made
Aydan covered up by his blanket I made him (using Daddy's cammies!)
Aydan's in a crib with the end propped up and in a reflux sling
Sunday, January 4, 2009
1/4/09
Aydan is now up to 5 pounds 7 ounces!! He's been having a lot of desats and bradys, but it only happens after he eats (by bottle or through the feeding tube), so they've come to the conclusion that it's most likely reflux that's causing it. They've tried propping his bed and laying him on his tummy and those both have made an improvement on his breathing episodes. If the episodes continue, they may have to put him on some medication. They said that it's completely normal with him being a preemie, because his GI tract wasn't developed.
Other than that he's doing really well! Growing and taking his bottles well!!! He's changing and looking a lot like what Ilana did when she was a baby! Michael said he got jipped in looks again because he's thinking Aydan will look like Mommy, just like Ilana, haha! I think he's got several features like Michael, though. Specifically his complexion, hair, and hairline - even the swirl on the back of his head!
Snuggling with Mommy
Taking a bottle
Mommy, Ilana, and Aydan
Ilana (a VERY proud sister) holding Aydan! She loves him!!
Other than that he's doing really well! Growing and taking his bottles well!!! He's changing and looking a lot like what Ilana did when she was a baby! Michael said he got jipped in looks again because he's thinking Aydan will look like Mommy, just like Ilana, haha! I think he's got several features like Michael, though. Specifically his complexion, hair, and hairline - even the swirl on the back of his head!
Snuggling with Mommy
Taking a bottle
Mommy, Ilana, and Aydan
Ilana (a VERY proud sister) holding Aydan! She loves him!!
Friday, January 2, 2009
1/2/09
Happy New Year!!! I can't believe it's 2009 already! I'm sure this year will go by fast, although right now it seems to be ticking away slowly with Aydan being away... :( We can't wait for him to be home!!!
They decided to change his bottle feeds back to once a shift because even though he was doing so well with them, they think he was just working too hard because he had several desats (where his oxygen level went down) yesterday and had to give him a little oxygen. :( As of 9pm last night, he hasn't had anymore, though, so that was good to hear!
He is now up to 5 pounds 1 ounce! Yay! :) We are planning on going up this afternoon to see him and I'm hoping to get a few new pictures of him and hopefully Ilana, too! Everytime we've gone the past couple days I forget my camera! My mind has just been so scatterbrained lately - wouldn't know why! ;)
They decided to change his bottle feeds back to once a shift because even though he was doing so well with them, they think he was just working too hard because he had several desats (where his oxygen level went down) yesterday and had to give him a little oxygen. :( As of 9pm last night, he hasn't had anymore, though, so that was good to hear!
He is now up to 5 pounds 1 ounce! Yay! :) We are planning on going up this afternoon to see him and I'm hoping to get a few new pictures of him and hopefully Ilana, too! Everytime we've gone the past couple days I forget my camera! My mind has just been so scatterbrained lately - wouldn't know why! ;)
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