Something To Smile About

Wyatt looking fine at 8 months old!

My little man has definitely come a long way. He is active, mischievous, and of course CUTE!

God bless all those who helped us get here and for all the prayers. Again, thank you so much Don and Chris Wilson of Wilson Builders LTD. for your continued kindness towards my little boy and family. These men are are truly wonderful! Thank you :)

A Giant Thank You To An Amazing Woman and Friend

I wrote this post over and over in my head for the past few days and I still can't get the words right because it means so much to me. So, I'll just say it straight from the heart.

Donna, thank you. Thank you so much for your gift, for your prayers, and for being in touch when so many were not. Thank you for your wonderful books that helped me to laugh and think of something else for a few precious moments when I desperately needed a break for sanity's sake. Thank you for being a friend. :)

Let me introduce you all to this amazing woman. Donna Alward, born Donna Jones, is a romance writer for Harlequin books. You can visit her at http://www.donnaalward.com and meet her on her blog at http://www.donnaalward.blogspot.com . I grew up with Donna and I can say I've always admired her. (Yes, Donna, it is true!) She was the girl in grade 9 that had the guts to go blond, able to play music and to declare she would one day be a romance writer. I remember her as one of the smart kids with a keen sense of humor, sharp wit, kind heart and being passionate about everything she did. A kind of kid a parent would be proud to have! LOL

Donna writes with all of these qualities and more. Her books can and will make you laugh, cry and fall in love all over again. So for all you moms and dads (yes, dads too!) that need a break, I'd definitely say look for Donna's books. Lord knows how nutty the NICU, Peds ward, and doctor offices can make us. You can find a list of her work with excerpts here. My favorite? Hmmm. They are all fantastic, but Hired By The Cowboy has a soft spot in my heart. :)

Thank you so much Donna!

Free Feeding Diary to print or download

Feeding times and amounts. Soiled diapers and how much. Medications given, how much and when.

Yikes! Almost all moms suffer from "Mommy Brain" at some point. These important facts can fly right out the window when we need them the most. So, here is a journal I made to help me remember, when asked by the many medical professionals.

Another big plus: Helps to give you piece of mind when you are sleep deprived! :)

It is a pdf file you can save and print. I cut mine to size of a coiled notebook and glued it in on each right hand page. That way I could write notes about how Wyatt was doing that day on the lined backside. The nurses and doctors really loved it because it gave them very clear information to work with.

Enjoy!

Breastfeeding/Formula Feeding/Diaper/Medication Journal

Update

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!


Hope you had very happy holidays! It was a whirlwind for my little family. Stressful, but every mom and dad experiences that! LOL


Lots has happened with Wyatt, some good, some disappointing, but over all, I feel very blessed. I'll give you a quick update:


Wyatt was in and out of the hospital twice for colds. Normally, an infant with a cold is a concern but something we parents take in stride. You can't give much to a baby to relieve the symptoms. Good old fashioned rest, fluids and a watchful eye is about all you can do. But when a baby is on oxygen for a time period, their lungs are very fragile and a cold could be the worst thing for them. So Wyatt and I got to hang out at the hospital for a few days. He loved the attention from the nurses and Dr. S.


Wyatt was denied the special needle that really sick babies get during the winter months to boost their respiratory systems. It is frightfully expensive; approx. $1000.00 CND per shot. It is a controlled drug by the government; only few babies can have it and they must meet a criteria. Under a certain weight, had oxygen therapy for a period of time and under 6mths. Dr. B, who was one of the doctors I witnessed save Wyatt's life on a few occasions, was pushing to get Wyatt on the list but he was denied. Too big, too heavy and already 5 months old. RATS. But Dr. S said he feels Wyatt will be fine without it. I just am super cautious of taking him around people with colds.


And to all the parents that contacted me, yes Wyatt is meeting some of his milestones but he is not meeting others. I've got a special post coming with more details. Wyatt and I go to a NICU Follow Up Rehab. Center to work on his physical, mental, and emotional development. A team is following him until he is three. We also have a nurse from Early Intervention visit us at home to show Wyatt and I some play therapy exercises we can do to encourage Wyatt in meeting his milestones. Wyatt LOVES theses "play dates." A nurse from New Brunswick Public Health checks in with us from time to time to see if Wyatt is growing and eating properly.


Speaking of that, he has not been eating and growing very well. It is really stressful. Wyatt was breastfeeding for maybe 30 seconds at a time. Dehydration was and still is a constant problem. He is now up to a 5-10 minute feed at a time, but it is a lot of hard work that gets us there. Sometimes he will eat for more than 20 minutes! That is rare, but when it happens, it is like gold! I still have to top him up with an extra feed of a high calorie bottle (8 oz.) once a day.

At last weigh in, Wyatt was almost 21 pounds and gained in length for his 6 month birthday.
YAY!!! GO TEAM WYATT!!!!! :)

CBC RADIO interveiw on Nov. 12, 2008

This was really unexpected! I came home from a doctor's appointment and my husband said Paul Castle who hosts "Shift" on CBC Radio wanted to do a telephone interview with me about Wyatt. CBC said I could share it with you on my blog. A big thanks to CBC!

Note: this audio is approx. 12 minutes long. There is a 10 second pause at the start before it starts.

Intubated, Ventilated, and Drug Induced Paralysis

This picture is hard to look at.
To save Wyatt, he had to be intubated. A tube was inserted into his mouth and down past his larynx so he could be ventilated. A machine now controlled his breathing. Precious oxygen and nitrate were forced into his lungs at a controlled rate. My poor little guy.

These machines were frightening. Constant graphs, charts, ominous beeping, warning tones and numbers that fluctuated on monitors, making you grip the armrests on your chair as numbers rose and fell. Once, in the early days, while I was silently bawling my eyes out next to Wyatt as I watched helplessly as the number representing his oxygen levels dropped, a NICU nurse told me to stop fixating on the machines. Concentrate on your little guy and let them worry about the numbers. At the time I thought she was crazy. How could a parent not worry? But she was right. I had to see Wyatt. Not the tubes, pipes and wires. It took a long time for both my husband and I to learn this.

Wyatt had to be paralyzed by drugs to keep him from ripping tubes, wires and pipes from his body. A NICU nurse had mentioned to me he was a fighter though extremely weak; he was attempting to pull the tapes and wires off as fast as Dr. S was putting them on during those first few crucial hours. He needed to be paralyzed but I think that was what really scared me the most. He didn't look real. No moment. No sound. Like a really large baby doll. It frightened me to sit beside him at first. I wanted to touch him, to pick him up and squeeze him to my chest to feel his little heart beat to reassure myself that he wasn't dead. But I couldn't touch him, or hold him or even talk to him. I was torn; I wanted to run away and hide in my hospital room and I wanted to stay. If he was going to die, I wanted to be there to hold him in my arms at least once and kiss him and tell him I loved him before he left me. I didn't want to be robbed of that.

So, I stayed by his side for hours, barely eating and definitely not sleeping. Already suffering from post traumatic stress and anxiety from the accident, I was primed for postpartum depression.

Many Thanks From Wyatt and Family

Prayers. Support. Kindness. Compassion.

To have members of your community extend these precious gifts to you unexpectedly, well, it is truly amazing. As a parent of a sick child you are so full of worry, so full of anxiety that you can loose touch with your community. Drugs, hospitals, doctors, specialist and health professionals become your world. It's a lonely, frightening place. But to have a helping hand to come out of the blue in these trying times, it's like a ray of light bursting through a dark sky. Uplifting and fills you with hope.

Thank you so much Don and Chris Wilson of Wilson Builders LTD. for your kindness towards my little boy and family.

And to Father John Jennings and Father Monte Peters and all the members of St. Theresa's Parish and St. Anthony's Roman Catholic Church Parish, thank you. Up at the NICU, they were calling Wyatt the "miracle baby" and I know it was the power of prayer that guided the doctors and nurses hands. Thank you, thank you for your prayers!!

Melissa