Hello world! It has officially been a week and a half since Carter has entered the world and into our lives. We have been incredibly blessed with his arrival and are excited to share with you his update since birth.
The day Carter was born he was put on oxygen because he started life having a small issue with his breathing. He was taken off of the oxygen shortly after though because he began breathing strongly on his own which was great news because he was born so much earlier than we had planned. His breathing continues to get stronger each day and we are thankful for that win. :)
As for Carter's back, I had explained that where his surgery was done in the center of the back had healed completely and there was no fluid leaking from it which was a HUGE sign for success. He did however have a small opening on his right side from the surgery that had not healed and both neuro and plastics had been watching it to see what they wanted to do. Over the last week the FANTASTIC nurses here in the NICU have been doing what they call a "wet to dry" where they place wet gauze on the wound followed by dry gauze to see if the body will heal this on its own. With Carter, it has!!! His wound has been looking so much better from the day he was born and the doctors have decided that they will NOT need to put a graft on it but that they will let Carter's body heal itself. We could not be happier about this because it is one less thing that we need to worry about. We were also told that Carter could be discharged even if that was not completely healed because Mike and I will be taught how to change his gauze pads. He is also cleared to be in the car-seat up to 45 minutes with how his back is looking right now, over time, this amount will lengthen.
There are still two issues that we are always looking at with Carter's Spina Bifida besides his obvious back issues, which don't seem to be an issue right now; his head and his bladder, so let me first talk about the bladder.
Most children with Spina Bifida need to have a catheter input so that they can pee and there can also be issues with bowel movements too. One of two things could happen; these children could either use the bathroom too often and not know how to stop because their nerves aren't telling their brain and they cannot stop themselves from peeing. The other is that the nerves don't tell the body that they need to use the bathroom, so it stays inside of their bladder and it is not released, causing kidney and bladder issues.
Doctors have been wanting to watch to see what Carter's body is doing and has been doing, and we are very happy to announce that Carter has been peeing and pooping on his own and that as of right now it is NOT being blocked up in his bladder. In fact, while he gets his diaper changed Carter really enjoys trying to pee on mom and dad; something neither one of us ever thought we would be excited about. Carter has his diaper weighed every time it is changed to check and see if these are normal amounts or if something is too small or to big. At one point a doctor wanted to try and put in a catheter to see if there was any residual urine but the cath. was too big for his little body so the nurse did not want to attempt it, and for that I am thankful... as should that doctor be too or mama hulk would have woken from her slumber! Another good sign was that when she tried to use the cath. Carter peed around it. ;)
After that small hiccup with one of the doctors "recommendations" we were told that they would NOT try a catheter or put one in him because his diaper weights have been good. If something changes they also said that they could do a bladder scan to see if there is any residual urine, but for now, as we take things day by day, the bladder function is looking good. :) (Again something I never thought I would be so happy about.)
Now onto the brain. Studies have showed that babies who have S.B. need a shunt at some point in their lives, whether it be at birth or later on. About 86% in fact have a shunt input to let the access fluid in their brain be drained. with the in-utero surgery that Carter and I had the possibility of needing a shunt drops from that 86% to about 42% and we liked those odds which is one large reasons why we had the surgery in the first place.
From the day he was born Carter has had his head measured to see if it is growing due to the fluid in his brain and also to check his "soft spot" to make sure that is is still soft so that his skull can continue to grow. So far, his head has measured about the same every day and has not grown to the point where doctors would be worried. This is one of the biggest issues that doctors have been monitoring and something we are always asking about so that fact that his head is still measuring the same and isn't getting too big is a huge sigh of relief.
On Monday's and Thursday's Carter has an ultrasound done on his brain to check the ventricles and the fluid that has been in there since his surgery. Each time they check they are looking to see if the ventricles are getting larger, smaller, or staying the same. If they are getting bigger then it's time to talk about shunting and the process that would follow. If they are stable or decreasing then that means we can go another day without needing a shunt or to have the shunt talk. So far Carter has had four ultrasounds and his ventricles have remained stable so we are a week and a half out from his birth and still no shunt talk. Please continue to keep this in your prayers so that we may continue to not have to have this talk.
On piece of good news with shunting is that if a baby with Spina Bifida does not have a shunt put in after two weeks of being born, the need for ever needed one also decreases. We are taking this day by day and not trying to get too excited but we also know that he will reach this two week mark on Friday... 4 short days away and one more ultrasound to go before we hit that mark.
Carter's Neuro-surgeon also spoke with us to tell us that once he is discharged we will start to decrease the amount of ultrasounds on his brain. Right now he gets them twice a week but once discharged he will need them once a week so Carter and I will go to the hospital on Thursday's for his appointments. Once the doctor feels comfortable with the weekly visits they will eventually drop done to once every other week, once a month, once every three months, once every six months, and finally once a year for his yearly check ups. I was thrilled to speak with the doctor about this because he seems to have very high hopes and doesn't seem too concerned about ventricle growth, but I am taking this one day at a time.
Now onto Carter's preemie issues. There aren't too many and each morning for rounds we are told the biggest issue is Carter eating and taking a bottle. He is only 35 1/2 weeks gestational so his sucking hasn't fully developed yet. There are days when he takes half his bottle and others where he only takes a quarter. Carter won't be able to talk about being discharged until he can routinely take 80% of his bottle at each feeding. We are working with him on this but understand that it will take him some time and we don't want to push him too much on his long days.
Carter's other smaller issues is his breathing and heartbeats. There are times where Carter will hold his breath and his heart-rate will drop a bit but he does fix this on his own and picks up his breathing on his own than needing help. I say this is a small issue because most babies whether they are preemie or "normal" do the same thing. They hold their breath, or forget to breath, and then fix it themselves, the only difference is that with preemie babies they are hooked up to wires so we can see this compared to other babies who go home right away. This only happens with Carter about 3-4 times a day but the doctors don't see concerned about this issue at all. :)
So really, Carter is doing FANTASTIC!!! We continue to pray for his recovery and that he does well every day that we are here. He has had many visitors and we are happy that he has met people who love him already! Thank you all for your thoughts, kind words, prayers, and support. We will continue to update you on Carter's progress as the weeks go by. In the meantime, enjoy some pictures of Carter's room and baby pictures!
The day Carter was born he was put on oxygen because he started life having a small issue with his breathing. He was taken off of the oxygen shortly after though because he began breathing strongly on his own which was great news because he was born so much earlier than we had planned. His breathing continues to get stronger each day and we are thankful for that win. :)
As for Carter's back, I had explained that where his surgery was done in the center of the back had healed completely and there was no fluid leaking from it which was a HUGE sign for success. He did however have a small opening on his right side from the surgery that had not healed and both neuro and plastics had been watching it to see what they wanted to do. Over the last week the FANTASTIC nurses here in the NICU have been doing what they call a "wet to dry" where they place wet gauze on the wound followed by dry gauze to see if the body will heal this on its own. With Carter, it has!!! His wound has been looking so much better from the day he was born and the doctors have decided that they will NOT need to put a graft on it but that they will let Carter's body heal itself. We could not be happier about this because it is one less thing that we need to worry about. We were also told that Carter could be discharged even if that was not completely healed because Mike and I will be taught how to change his gauze pads. He is also cleared to be in the car-seat up to 45 minutes with how his back is looking right now, over time, this amount will lengthen.
There are still two issues that we are always looking at with Carter's Spina Bifida besides his obvious back issues, which don't seem to be an issue right now; his head and his bladder, so let me first talk about the bladder.
Most children with Spina Bifida need to have a catheter input so that they can pee and there can also be issues with bowel movements too. One of two things could happen; these children could either use the bathroom too often and not know how to stop because their nerves aren't telling their brain and they cannot stop themselves from peeing. The other is that the nerves don't tell the body that they need to use the bathroom, so it stays inside of their bladder and it is not released, causing kidney and bladder issues.
Doctors have been wanting to watch to see what Carter's body is doing and has been doing, and we are very happy to announce that Carter has been peeing and pooping on his own and that as of right now it is NOT being blocked up in his bladder. In fact, while he gets his diaper changed Carter really enjoys trying to pee on mom and dad; something neither one of us ever thought we would be excited about. Carter has his diaper weighed every time it is changed to check and see if these are normal amounts or if something is too small or to big. At one point a doctor wanted to try and put in a catheter to see if there was any residual urine but the cath. was too big for his little body so the nurse did not want to attempt it, and for that I am thankful... as should that doctor be too or mama hulk would have woken from her slumber! Another good sign was that when she tried to use the cath. Carter peed around it. ;)
After that small hiccup with one of the doctors "recommendations" we were told that they would NOT try a catheter or put one in him because his diaper weights have been good. If something changes they also said that they could do a bladder scan to see if there is any residual urine, but for now, as we take things day by day, the bladder function is looking good. :) (Again something I never thought I would be so happy about.)
Now onto the brain. Studies have showed that babies who have S.B. need a shunt at some point in their lives, whether it be at birth or later on. About 86% in fact have a shunt input to let the access fluid in their brain be drained. with the in-utero surgery that Carter and I had the possibility of needing a shunt drops from that 86% to about 42% and we liked those odds which is one large reasons why we had the surgery in the first place.
From the day he was born Carter has had his head measured to see if it is growing due to the fluid in his brain and also to check his "soft spot" to make sure that is is still soft so that his skull can continue to grow. So far, his head has measured about the same every day and has not grown to the point where doctors would be worried. This is one of the biggest issues that doctors have been monitoring and something we are always asking about so that fact that his head is still measuring the same and isn't getting too big is a huge sigh of relief.
On Monday's and Thursday's Carter has an ultrasound done on his brain to check the ventricles and the fluid that has been in there since his surgery. Each time they check they are looking to see if the ventricles are getting larger, smaller, or staying the same. If they are getting bigger then it's time to talk about shunting and the process that would follow. If they are stable or decreasing then that means we can go another day without needing a shunt or to have the shunt talk. So far Carter has had four ultrasounds and his ventricles have remained stable so we are a week and a half out from his birth and still no shunt talk. Please continue to keep this in your prayers so that we may continue to not have to have this talk.
On piece of good news with shunting is that if a baby with Spina Bifida does not have a shunt put in after two weeks of being born, the need for ever needed one also decreases. We are taking this day by day and not trying to get too excited but we also know that he will reach this two week mark on Friday... 4 short days away and one more ultrasound to go before we hit that mark.
Carter's Neuro-surgeon also spoke with us to tell us that once he is discharged we will start to decrease the amount of ultrasounds on his brain. Right now he gets them twice a week but once discharged he will need them once a week so Carter and I will go to the hospital on Thursday's for his appointments. Once the doctor feels comfortable with the weekly visits they will eventually drop done to once every other week, once a month, once every three months, once every six months, and finally once a year for his yearly check ups. I was thrilled to speak with the doctor about this because he seems to have very high hopes and doesn't seem too concerned about ventricle growth, but I am taking this one day at a time.
Now onto Carter's preemie issues. There aren't too many and each morning for rounds we are told the biggest issue is Carter eating and taking a bottle. He is only 35 1/2 weeks gestational so his sucking hasn't fully developed yet. There are days when he takes half his bottle and others where he only takes a quarter. Carter won't be able to talk about being discharged until he can routinely take 80% of his bottle at each feeding. We are working with him on this but understand that it will take him some time and we don't want to push him too much on his long days.
Carter's other smaller issues is his breathing and heartbeats. There are times where Carter will hold his breath and his heart-rate will drop a bit but he does fix this on his own and picks up his breathing on his own than needing help. I say this is a small issue because most babies whether they are preemie or "normal" do the same thing. They hold their breath, or forget to breath, and then fix it themselves, the only difference is that with preemie babies they are hooked up to wires so we can see this compared to other babies who go home right away. This only happens with Carter about 3-4 times a day but the doctors don't see concerned about this issue at all. :)
So really, Carter is doing FANTASTIC!!! We continue to pray for his recovery and that he does well every day that we are here. He has had many visitors and we are happy that he has met people who love him already! Thank you all for your thoughts, kind words, prayers, and support. We will continue to update you on Carter's progress as the weeks go by. In the meantime, enjoy some pictures of Carter's room and baby pictures!
What a view Carter has!!
Our wonderful NICU mom's made his name sign :)
Aren't his decorations perfect?! Mike decorated Carter's room after the first day here. I think he did a great job!
Current bed.
Our view from the right....
Carter's room... pretty view, beautifully decorated, and loving our time with this little man :)
Dad, Papa, and Uncle Dylan hanging out with Carter
Hello World!!!
Mike with his son... such good looking guys ;)
Already holding mom's hand
Carter's first picture!!!
All tuckered out from eating and stretching out those arms... already sleeping like dad :)
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