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Arrangements

A Funeral Mass will be held for Carter on Friday Feb. 15th at 5:30 pm at St Henry on Dixie Hwy in Elsmere.
Family will attend his burial on Saturday morning.

Goodbye Sweet Boy

It is with a tearful heart that I have to tell you that our beautiful son Carter passed away last night in our arms. We know he is in a better place and pray that the angels take care of our little man. I will post information about his services when they are arranged.

Still waiting for a wet diaper

We are still waiting for pee. To be honest with you he looks awful right now. The Drs say if he doesn't pee today or tomorrow that will be it. We are going to camp out up at the hospital for now. We pray the next post will be good news.

He's hanging in there

Carter is trying to hang in there. He is having blood pressure problems again so yet again he isn't peeing. He REALLY needs to pee. He is very puffy again. He can't even open his eyes his face is so swollen. His blood pressure has been rising slightly (with help from meds) so we are getting some drops of pee. Hopefully by the morning we will have some full on wet diapers. They are still treating him with an anitbiotic and antifungal. He has the fungal infection in his blood now too so they are working to get that wiped out.

When it's bad it's bad, and this is worse

Carter is having a really rough time right now. He had a total of 3 times yesterday (one I told you about early in the morning) where he dropped his heartrate and had to have CPR. Luke and I went in to see him about 5:00 pm after he'd had his second episode. The Dr's were very concerned but we still were very postive. When he did it again at 7pm and the Drs came to talk to us again, it finally hit us that our beautiful little boy might not make it through the night. We had the Chaplin come visit and she baptised him for us. It was the hardest thing we've ever done. We spent the night there with him and thankfully he had no more episodes. His ventinlator settings are still very high but he seems to be doing ok. He is trying so hard to hang in there. His little body is just tired from fighting off infection after infection.

There is good news. Daddy got to hold Carter late last night. I have a ton of pictures and I will post them as soon as I have time. "Aunt" Danielle and Lauren also got to sneak in about midnight. They'd brought us some clean clothes and against NICU policy were allowed back to see him. I guess when your child is that fragile they let you do whatever you want.

Thank you too to Micah and Kate who helped with letting Danielle in the house and taking Nacho over to his Grandma and Grandpa's. Thank you everyone who reads this blog. If it weren't for your love and support I think we'd have had a mental breakdown last night. Please keep praying for Carter. One of our friends said "There are a lot of people praying for Carter and God wouldn't let that many people down." I pray they are right.

Still infected...with something

They took him off of one of his antibiotics yesterday and today his white blood cell count shot up, so he is back on a new antibiotic along with an antifungal. (preemies are prone to getting infections easily) He is also back on his blood pressure medicine b/c he was dropping his blood pressure and starting to take on fluid again last night. This morning he is succuessfully peeing again. He looks great, but you can tell he is pretty sick. He just lays there and looks around when he is awake, but most of the time he just sleeps. It's been a few weeks since i've seen him really active, probably b/c of all the crap he's been going through.

Carter Likes to lay on his back now

Well I just spoke with his nurse and he hasn't had one of his "episodes" since I left this afternoon around 12:30. She thinks with his new tube that he just prefers to lay on his back for breathing ease. YAY CARTER! Keep it up buddy!

About last night..

Carter is trying to give mommy and daddy heart attacks at a very early age. We got a call from the resident on duty at 1 am this morning. Carter's breathing tube had some how come loose and it caused him to have low heart rates/breathing. They had to re-intabate him (don't know how to spell that sorry it means put a new tube in). They had to give him breathes and some chest compressions b/c his heartrate got so low (baby CPR). This morning he is still dropping his heartrate, although not as low. Sometimes it comes back up on his own sometimes they have to give him extra breaths to bring him back up. The Dr said he is "very fragile" today and we are hoping he snaps out of it soon.

Belly full of gas = no milk for Carter

:( Carter is off the feeds again. His belly appears to be just full of gas so they are trying a couple of things to clean that out (his belly is still the same size it was when he was retaining all that fluid) Hopefully in a few days he'll start back on milk again. They changed his respirator settings to a higher setting. This has kept him from "riding the vent" which is what was causing his spells. Other than that he is looking good.

Can the kid catch a break?

Carter did really well today. He was having "spells" with his respirator where he would decide to stop breathing over it so his respitory rate would go down along with his heart rate. This in turn would scare the bageezus out of his mommy. He recovers usually on his own, but still, it's no fun to watch. Carter is off his blood pressure meds and is doing well on his own. He had his feedings increased earlier today but tonight they decided to stop his feeds again. His belly is still swolen to the same size it was when he was retaining all the fluid. They didn't say they saw something in his belly xray but they said they were stopping and would repeat the xray in the morning. I guess they know what they are doing so whatever. Now we can't help but wonder if there is something wrong with his belly now. Poor guy, he can't catch a break here lately.

Sorry about all the spelling errors the last few days. This thing is refusing to spellcheck for me and I refuse to spellcheck myself :)

Happy Monday

Carter had a very happy Monday today. He got his catheter removed and his giant tube down in his belly. He now has a regular feeding tube and a good old fashioned diaper. He was very active today, opening his eyes and flailing about. It was good to see him acting more like himself. He lost weight again today,which is good, b/c that means he is loosing his water weight. He looks soooooo good. You can tell he's lost a lot of the water weight already. He is still holding some fluid in his middle so hopefully that will be gone asap.

Guess who peed?

:) CARTER DID! He is producing all kinds of urine. I never imagined in my life I'd be so excited about some pee! They increased his dose of blood pressure medicine and appartantly that is what it took to get that little man a flowing. His oxygen levels are down (which is good) He is still puffy but I think he's starting to feel better. You can tell he still feels sick. He sleeps more than normal when we're there and when he does open his eyes he just stares instead of wiggling and looking around. Hopefully in a few days he will be back to his old self.

Well we have drops...

...of urine! He has some urine in his catheter FINALLY. It isn't much, but it's a start. He needs to keep it up. He is still very puffy. They have diagnosed his mystery illness as pneumonia. They aren't changing his treatment b/c they've already been treating him for everything under the sun. It breaks our hearts to see him so sick.

Keep praying that Carter will pee and pull out of his funk.

Still puffy

Carter isn't doing quite as well today but he is still hanging in there. He still isn't peeing so he is even way more puffy than he was before. He doesn't even look like himself anymore. The Drs are trying a few different things but so far nothing is working. His daddy and I keep telling him to pee but he is his father's son and refuses to listen. They've changed up his antibiotics and have ordered blood and urine cultures to try to find the cause of the fluid retention. He also had an ultrasound on his kidneys today. We will find out the results tomorrow. Thank you for your prayers for Carter and us. It means so much to us that there are so many people checking up on Carter daily.

Pee Carter Pee!

Carter is puffy

:) That just sounds funny. He has been retaining fluid yesterday and today so he is looking very puffy. His little feet look like Fred Flinstone feet! Poor little guy. They are tweaking his fluids but it appears they will have to give him something to help flush the fluids out, but first he needs to stop holding it in his soft tissue. Tonight he is getting some more blood. This is his fourth transfusion. He had a good IV line in his arm, but of course it went bad last night so they had to stick him again in his foot. He will get platelettes tonight also. He is so little it is hard to get IVs in him and we just hate that they have to stick him all the time.

As for the house. It seems that God has sent us two angels in our lives to watch over us. We will be moving after all. It is truly a miracle.

You've got to be kidding me

I'll start out with telling you about Carter today. He looked really good. He was very tired, but he had a busy day. He had a belly xray, a visit from the physical therapist and of course they poked on him during rounds so by the time I saw him this morning/afternoon he was tuckered out. He slept most of the time I was there. He did give me some eyeballs, well mainly just one. (When he opens his eyes I say his giving me eyeballs) He didn't flip out quite as much when we were changing his diaper and stuff. They've decided to keep treating him for NEC just in case. He'll stay on antibiotics and off feeds for 4 more days. He won't be gaining as much weight so I'll update you on that in about a week or so.

As for us, our buyer backed out of the contract today. It was for something totally stupid but there isn't really anything we can do. I am devestated. I had found my true dream house, bid and got an amazing deal and now we are back at square one. Our house has been on the market since July and I am starting to think I am going to have to live here for the rest of my life :(

Tuesday

Carter had a pretty good day today. His belly xrays are still coming back good and they don't think he has NEC. (a nasty infection in preemies) He is still off feeds and just recieving IV fluid but HOPEFULLY since he most likely doesn't have NEC he'll get back on the feedings soon. Carter was showing off again today. He was wide awake while Mom and Grandma were visiting. He has a new attending Dr. now who he apparantly likes b/c he gave him a thumbs up while he was talking about Carter!

Another day of up and down.

"They" say that having a baby in the NICU is like being on a roller coaster. It's all ups and downs. That couldn't be more true. Today Carter was doing ok. He is still having trouble with his glucose but nothing too bad. Then tonight he has a problem with a bloody stool. They did a film and so far nothing to cause alarm. They are checking blood cultures and have started antibiotics just to be safe. They've stopped his feeds and he is now only on IV fluid. It is so hard for us to watch these ups and downs.

Sunday

Well, what a day. Carter got to meet his Great Grandma and Grandpa today. He was very excited to meet them. I think he might have been shy b/c he started showing off for Grandma and Grandpa after they left! He had a good day today. They are trying to get him totally off the IV fluids. He is still having issues with his glucose levels (sugar). They are trying to add calories to his breastmilk to help make up the difference so they don't have to give him the extra sugar through the IV. Hopefully his little body will get the hang of it soon and he can be totally off the IV> They also did an xray of his belly to make sure everything was looking good, it was. :)

The Results Are In...

and no real change from last week. That is good and bad, good b/c he brain isn't swelling, bad, b/c he still has a level four bleed on his brain (the highest classification). To be honest I don't think we've completely internalized the results. There is always the chance that he will be perfectly fine, babies are very resilient and find ways to heal themselves. The reality is that with this level of bleeding it is higly likely he will have some form of Cerbreal Palsy. How bad, we won't know until he starts missing milestons like sitting up, crawling, walking. Keep praying for Carter. God works in mysterious ways.

Carter is big stuff!

Tonight Carter weighed in at 606 grams. That is 1lb 5.5 ounces. He was doing great tonight. He had to have another blood transfusion earlier today. He is doing well with his feedings. He is at something crazy like 3.4 mls or something. It's on odd number on account of the IV fluids he is getting to help regulate his sodium and glucose levels. He is getting the equivalant of like one teaspoon every two hours. We won't get the result of his ultrasound until tomorrow. I'll keep you posted.

Carter busted out!

:) Carter busted out of his isollette today! I got to take him out and hold him for he first time. He looks a lot larger in this picture than he really is. Trust me, it's all blanket! It was so fun to hold him. We had to take all his wires, tubes, and respirator with me but it was awesome!

Thursday

Carter had a great day today. Nothing really changed. He is back up to every two hours of the milk again. They are still watching his levels to make sure he doesn't have anything funky again. They are watching his sodium still and his glucose. Hopefully he'll be stable and he can keep up with the milk. Carter is 582 grams today. I didn't check but I think that still keeps him at 1 lb 4 ounces. Tomorrow is the big day. I'm not sure we'll get the results tomorrow or on Saturday. I'll let you know as soon as I know. We are praying that he'll have downgraded or even better it will disapear alltogether. I know that is pretty unrealistic but if there was ever a time to dream big I think today is the day.

Wednesday January 23rd...i think :)

Carter had a pretty good day today. His echo came back and he does have a couple small little holes in his heart but nothing big enough for them to worry about. They described them as "miniscule" so that is good! He doesn't have to go back on that medicine to close the holes so he can have milk again. The big man is up to 578 grams or 1 lb 4 ounces. He is looking better and better everyday. He was looking nice and pink today. I think the blood he recieved last night made a HUGE difference. I took some new pictures today but I still need to load them on to the computer. Carter's big day is Friday. They are doing a repeat head ultrasound. We are crossing our fingers and praying so hard that it will come back better than last week.

Tuesday Night

Carter is getting his second blood transfusion tonight. They put an IV in his arm and so he has a big splint on it to keep it in place. I don't think he likes it. He slept the entire time we were there. He opened his eyes for us a few times. We left before they weighed him tonight. He is retaining fluids and looking puffy anyway so I'm sure his weight would be a little high b/c of all the water weight.

Tuesday

Carter is doing ok today. He seems to have stablalized a little with his breathing, which is good. It is so scary to be sitting there with him and have his alarms go off all the time. He is off the milk for now. His sodium is going up but it is still down overall, the best way to fix it is through IV Fluid only. He will also probably start a medicine they gave him his first three days of life to close a hole in his heart. It seems to have opened again. (the murmur) We are awaiting his echo results to know for sure but they think that is what it is. When he takes that medcine he can't have any milk, so doubtful the our little man will be packing on the ounces as he has been. They've ordered a repeat brain ultrasound for Friday. We are PRAYING so hard that it will come back with better results than the first one.

Monday

Today was about the same. They had to decrease his feeds to 2 mls every two hours, not b/c he wasn't tolerating the milk, but b/c he had low sodium levels today. They increased his IV Fluids with sodium so they decreased the milk to allow his fluid intake to stay the same. He had the same fluctuations on his respirator again today. They also noticed a heart murmur which they think probably is what is causing the respirator issues. They will do an echocardiogram tomorrow with hopefully results back the same day. (They are going to take pictures of his ticker)

Carter is 564 grams today! Special shout out to Danielle, Becky, and Nate for helping out with the conversions. You all know it would have taken me another week to look that up! :) Tpday he is almost 1 lb 4 ounces.

Thank you to everyone who is checking up on Carter and praying for him. Luke and I are so thankful for all of you. As hard as this is on us, it would be much worse without the love and support from all of you.

oh yeah, and we sold our house today. It's funny how things happen the way they do. The same people have been putting in offers over the past week, the first of which we got the night Carter was born. Needless to say this hasn't been the best of timing, but hey, take what you can get right? We don't exactly know where we will be moving to. We've got until the end of Feb. to figure it out.

Sunday

Well, Carter is doing about the same today. They've up'd his feeds again to 4 mls every two hours. He is now getting more breastmilk than IV fluid so that is a good thing! He is still having trouble on his respirator. His settings are still good and low, but he has had a lot of secretions in his lungs that they've had to suck out. He is blowing lots of bubbles too. He opened his eyes a lot for us this evening which is good and bad. Good, b/c we love seeing our little man, bad b/c it is so hard to leave for the night when he is looking at us. His weight is now 529 grams. I promise I'll convert these to pounds/ounces here soon.

We are still really scared about what his future will bring. Please keep praying for him every day as hard as you can.

One more post today, just for good measure

In case you haven've figured it out yet this blog is kind of like therapy for me. I'll be using it to not only update you on Carter, but to help gather my thoughts and feelings on the day. Today pretty much just sucked. That is the only way I can describe it. Luke and I went back up to see our little man this evening and I just sat there and cried in disbelief about him being born so soon, so little, and now that he could have developmental delays/impairments. When you have a child you have so many hopes and dreams for them, to have them come crashing down in such a short time is devastating. Luke and I have chosen to believe that Carter is going to be ok. We've decided that he is going to come through this with flying colors and no one will be any the wiser of what he dealt with in the begining stages of life. We pray to God to help for all the above things and know that he will see Carter through this.

Carter's weight today 510 grams. Don't ask me to convert that b/c I have no clue. I also do not remember how much he weighed yesterday BUT it was like 4oo something so whatever, he is gaining big time! :) He is up to 3 mls every 2 hours now...soon I won't be able to keep up!

With the good comes the bad...

Well we got the results of his ultrasound today and they were not good. He has bleeding in the area of his brain that controls motor function. This will affect his ability to walk, and feed himself among other things. This is a wait and see thing so we don't have any other information right now. Please pray for Carter.

Day of Life Seven!

That is how the Carter's Doctors refer to today so I will use that and call it a medical term. Carter is doing good today! We are awaiting results of his head ultrasound that was done yesterday. We were worried his billi levels were going back up and he'd be back under the lights sporting his shades BUT his levels went back down so no more sunglasses for now at least!

Carter has a feeding tube that leads straight to his belly. He is now geting 2mls every 2 hours. He is big stuff! They've doubled his feedings the last three days in a row b/c he has been tolerating the breastmilk so well.

They had to turn up the settings on his vent today. (how he breathes) The numbers are still low and they aren't concerend. The little guy just needed a little more help breathing last night/today. The nurses told me usually they have to up the settings on day 3 or 4 so since he made it until day seven that is good.

Carter is a little fighter. We love him so much already. I'm on my way to visit him here in about an hour and then Luke and I will go up and see him later on tonight. We like to visit him when they do his "care" b/c we get to change his diaper and help with changing his linens etc. Ok that's all for now! I'll try to update daily...no promises. My little guy is keeping me busy and he isn't even home yet!

Introduction

Luke and I thought we would start this blog to keep everyone updated on Carter. We are so fortunate to have so many friends and family who care about us and we want to make sure you all are up to date on how he is doing. Love, Tiffany and Luke