New routines

We are getting settled and working out new routines. We have had lots of visitors and enjoyed every one.
I can tell you that I won't be as diligent as I'd like with keeping updated. As you can see, it is almost 2 am and I haven't been to sleep yet.
Evan is doing wonderfully but the pediatrician prescribed an Apnea monitor to track his heart and respiration for a while to see if she can find any reason for his episodes from when he was in the hospital. I hate it. It is programmed to alarm if his heart rate drops below 80 bpm or above 200 bpm. It goes off all the time for the over 200 pbm, any time he's mad and crying hard. It's ridiculous, I'll have to ask the doctor to change the threshold. It has not alarmed once for a low heart rate or respiration.
Ok, gotta go to sleep now.

We are HOME!

Home, home, home.  A word never sounded sweeter!

I will elaborate tomorrow, but we are home together as a family tonight.

Thank you all  for your prayers and thoughts.  It helped us through this week.

NICU...Day 4

I decided to enlist the assistance of Evan's pediatrician today.  The on call doctor was in the hospital and came to see me.  I explained what was happening and asked her to see what she could find out.

Half an hour later she came back and said that she had talked to the cardiologist and he was ready and willing to look at the report, if it were available to him.

Long story short, there is some black hole that the test results slip into between the time they take the monitor off him and when there is something that the doctor can look at.  He explained that the office that handles this transaction is not open on the weekends, there is no one to call. This seems to be a known issue and he said that they are hoping it will be resolved.  That is where I come in.  I will be addressing personally, once my son is home.

In the mean time, we stay another night.  

I came home at 6:30 to have dinner with Darryl and Austin.  Then, Darryl went in to spend some time with Evan.  He will be able to feed him for the first time since I was able to pump today.

I'm going in early tomorrow so I can try to be there for rounds.  I want to see the pediatrician myself.

We will update once we have any news.

Also, I spend most of my day in the NICU and since I can't make phone calls from there, I don't have a lot of time to call and update people.  I will try to put something on here every night and my Mom is always updated.  Please forgive us if we don't get to call everyone.  We love you and appreciate all the prayers and support you have given to us.  I don't know where we would be without you.

Still waiting

I spent all day at the hospital with Evan today. 9:30am to 11:00 pm. Momma was with me and Darryl got to come in for a while too. It's really been hard on Austin. I am missing him so much.
The Cardiologist ordered the repeat test to run for the entire 24 hours. By the time it was done there was no one available to interpret the results. IF a pediatric cardiologist is available tomorrow, we can get the results. If not, then Monday. Keeping in mind that Monday is a holiday. I have been warned that it could be as late as Tuesday.

I may have to break him out, Alcatraz style.

We are proud to introduce...

Mr. Evan Michael McKinney.
Born at 2:51 am on Tuesday, January 15th. Weighing in at 5 pounds and 12 ounces and 19 inches long. He is PERFECT!!
I promise to go into great detail on the events of that day but right now, I am tired.
It is bittersweet because Evan is still at the hospital. Due to some mysterious random heart rate and oxygen decelerations, the doctors thought it was best to keep him for observation on Thursday night. There was a monitor that he had to wear for about 14 hours. When it was done they found that there was an electrical problem with one of the leads and the results were not conclusive. So, he ordered the test be repeated to day. Again, I had to go home without him. I spent most of today at the hospital and he is doing marvelously. It's just red tape keeping him there. Part of my brain understands, the other part is angry, sad and broken.
Please keep us in your prayers that everything goes well tomorrow and we get to bring him home.
In the mean time... here are some of my favorite pictures.

Who does this little guy look like?

Daddy's little man

A very proud Big Brother!

Evan's first Smile

At last! Mimi gets her new man.

Eyes, bikes and football fun

So, things are not going as well as we hoped with Darryl's eye surgery. The doctor said that it appears that his eyes are reverting back to their previous ailment. Not anywhere as severely but enough that he can't see clearly without correction. His vision diopter pre surgery was about -7. Now it is -.75. The prognosis is that we will have to wait up to 4 months to be sure that the eyes are healed and are not going to change further before we will know if he can have a corrective surgery. If he doesn't have enough cornea left he cannot have further surgery. In the mean time, we had to fill another glasses prescription so that he can go back to work. He's been out since the surgery. This has been a little disappointing for him to find that in this instance, we are in the minority for Lasik results. Please say a prayer that we will have a good final outcome and he doesn't need to continue to wear glasses forever.

Switching gears. We took Austin to the park with Mimi and Papa on Thursday to practice riding his bike without training wheels. Daddy really got involved.  Austin really is doing great at it and soon he will be riding his new Christmas bike without the training wheels too.

They also practiced a little football punting.

Enjoy...

Our Family

Short update.  We had a family portrait taken today.  First one in a while.  Darryl's boss is a photographer too and met us at a nice park to take it.    What a beautiful family I have.

No More Glasses, No More Contacts!!

Yup, Darryl had his Lasik procedure done on Thursday.  He has waited to do this for 10 years. At almost 3 days post-op, his vision is still a little cloudy but improves each day.

Shirley was there to wait with me while the procedure was done.  We were so excited when he came out.  He was pretty happy too!  

On the Baby front, we are still waiting...and waiting.  Evan's due date is still 10 days away but I just don't feel like it will take that long.  Wishful thinking?  Maybe...

We had a nice evening with our friends the Zepeda's last night.  Yummy dinner Melissa!  We also played Tri-ominos.  Anyone else remember that game?  I think it was original too.  The box looked really old.  Our boys played and we got to visit.  Nice.

If the weather clears up a little we are going to have our pictures taken today.  I really want one last portrait of us while we are still a family of 3.  Once Evan is born we can take an update.

I fully recognize that I may not look my best but memories are what they are.

Darryl's boss is going to take the pictures so that we can include Tio.  It's not like we can take him into Sears or anything.  We need the weather to clear because we are taking the pictures at a park.  Should be really nice.

I promise that as soon as Evan is born we will send out the announcement and pictures via email.  I have created a distribution list and will have Darryl send them out when he comes home from the hospital.

Gonna take a nap now.  More later.

Happy New Year!!

Welcome 2008!  Just as I thought, being 33 feels a lot like being 32.  Happy Birthday to me. 

It was a mild transition into the new year.  Darryl had to work, as usual.  Mom, Dad and Carrie came over for dinner and the countdown.  We watched a movie to pass some of the time.  The Bourne Ultimatum.  It was a good story but the cinematography made me dizzy.  

Just before midnight we tuned into the Dick Clark New Year's Rockin' Eve.  It is so nice to see that Dick Clark is still able to do the show with everything he has overcome.  

The performers however were almost too much to stomach.  I must be getting old, I don't even recognize most of them.

Sweet Austin let me sleep until 9:30 this morning.  Darryl didn't get home until after 6 am so he stayed in bed a little longer than usual.  We spent the day together just being lazy and then when he went to work, Austin and I went to Mimi and Papa's for dinner.  Austin is staying the night again so I can go to work while school is closed.

I can't keep my eyes open any longer so I will sign off now...