New digs in the NICU

James moved into the NICU last night, which signifies that he no longer needs medication or medical aid for his heart. After a week on IVs and a limited diet, though, he now needs to learn to feed properly. His NICU time, anywhere from a week to a month, will focus on increasing his food dosage to a normal amount for his weight and convincing him to feed from a bottle and/or mom. Cardiac babies like James commonly take some time to acclimate, after nasogastric feedings, to self-feeding and swallowing. We hope though that 1-2 weeks will suffice for James, and that soon he'll be eating enough on his own to lose the nasal tube entirely and come home.

Blue eyes

James is a little unsure about the level of light, but tests out his eyesight nonetheless:

Since this was taken, his breathing tube has been removed - he's breathing on his own now - and thus all the tape around his mouth is gone too. He's been having fun blowing bubbles, exercising his vocal cords, sucking on a giant pacifier, and generally keeping his mouth in constant motion :)

James' PICU journey

It's Wednesday, and after a busy first few days I'm finally finding time to provide a more complete description of baby James and his adventures since Saturday!

James Mathis was born at 5:41 pm on Saturday: 6 lbs 8 oz, 20.5 inches.  He was awake, wiggly, alert and open-eyed. He spent approximately 10 seconds in my arms before being whisked away by his eager pediatric team: at least 14 doctors and nurses witnessed his birth as they waited to meet him.

An hour later, prenatal and cardiac exams performed, James' pediatric cardiologist Dr. Dayton came to find us and update us on his status.  He's healthy and perfect in every way except that his oxygen levels were struggling (as expected) and the medication wasn't kicking in (not expected) - so the surgery planned for day 2 or 3 was moved up to immediately.  His surgical team assembled with amazing speed and took him into the operating room an hour later.  Peter and I got to visit him for a few more minutes before they started.  The goal of this surgery was to insert a plastic tube, a shunt, into his chest to connect his heart and lungs and allow the passage of more oxygen to his heart.

By 3 am, the surgery was complete and he was resting and available for his dad to go visit again.  He spent his first two days attached to a slew of wires and tubes, swelling up from the surgery (a natural and expected side effect) and adapting to life both as a newborn and as a heart surgery survivor!

By yesterday, day 3, James was thriving and had been weaned off a number of the medications and sedatives he'd been given.  For those still being administered, the dosages have been lowered.  He was regaining consciousness, blowing bubbles, opening his eyes, and wiggling his hands and feet.  Today, day 4, he's looking forward to possibly losing the breathing tube and be breathing fully on his own :)

Good Night!

OK, it's time for me to enjoy being a dad :)

Today, I got to check my wife out of the maternity ward, in good health and good spirits, and my only regret is I wasn't able to take her home myself. Grandma C took her home, and I'm under the impression she is now sleeping and enjoying the comforts of her own home after her amazing performance through an epic weekend. My utmost love and respect to the most amazing woman in the world is first and foremost on my mind, especially as I begin to think about little James.

Tonight, after a day of constant weaning off an enormous number of medications and boluses to balance his numbers and all that jazz that makes modern medicine possible, James has made some enormous amounts of progress, and the most visible way I was able to see it -- and feel it -- was in his little fingers and toes. Off the heavy paralytics and sedatives, James still will take a while to metabolize and process these drugs, working his way back to motion like babies should. As these drugs wear off, James makes little moves: knee twitches here, finger flexes there, hiccups and gurgles elsewhere, and most wonderfully of all, responses to the outside world. James, while he still probably doesn't know who I am, does quick work of wrapping his fingers around mine.

James is still a long way away from 5.10's, but in a few short hours he should have at least the baby-style wherewithal to be able to grab mommy's fingers, possibly start breathing all on his own and be extubated tomorrow, and may even start feeding from mommy's milk by the end of the week.

Meanwhile, it's time for sleep. Rest up, mom's and dads, our kids will require every ounce of energy we've got left :)

Good Morning!

It's just about 40 hours since Kirsten gave birth to James Mathis, and 28 hours since James made his way through his first surgery.

Kirsten is sore and tired, but is awesome and did an amazing job during labor, delivery, and now recovery, and I'm sure she'll be happy to update you all with more details as soon as she can get her hands on a computer :)

James has had some major ups and downs in the PICU in the last 28 hours, but has been a major trooper, and is recovering from his first surgery very well, especially considering he wasn't even supposed to have this for a few days. We'll get into some more tech details later, but for now it's just enough to say he's stable, and every minute that goes by is a minute closer to coming off another i.v. drip and a minute closer to being held and fed by mom and dad :)

Thank you all for all of your happy thoughts and prayers and more happy thoughts and calls and texts. It's been a comfort to Kirsten and me to have you all here, even if you're there, and I know James can tell we're all thinking about him.

We reached 38 weeks - officially full term - but with no labor signs, we're expecting to go all the way until the due date, if not beyond.  So 2 (+?) weeks to go!

In addition to our "nursery" nook, baby C now has a newborn bed ready: the cradle made by Great-Grandpa Hoelmer, outfitted with handmade sheets and a crocheted blanket from Great-Grandma Hoelmer.