Settling In

We are settling in to life at home with two children and all seem to be adjusting really well. Brian very much enjoyed creating his own black and gold moment on the couch for the Iowa game tonight. After a week in the NICU, sitting on the couch, watching football, and holding your child is an absolutely perfect Saturday night.

Homecoming King

There's a chill in the air, and the calendar reads October, so that means one thing: Homecoming. As schools in the area have their homecoming festivities on this Friday, we are excited to report that the Bunch family is doing the same. That's right, Conner has chosen to participate in the bi-annual Bunch family tradition of taking a kid home from the NICU in early October. He's following in his sister's footsteps in that regard, and we couldn't be happier about it.

There's still a little concern about his oxygen de-saturations and irregular breathing episodes, but they are very infrequent in nature (twice in the last four days combined), and he appears healthy in every other regard. In fact, for the last couple of days, he has not had any oxygen or IV support, and he was just getting some nasal drops and acid reflux meds a couple times per day. Basically every wire sneaking out of his one-sies were for monitoring purposes and not treatment purposes. So, the decision was made to send him home with us on a vitals monitoring system that he will wear 24 hrs per day in the near term, with the hope to use only at night in the very near future.

So, we took some infant CPR classes, were trained on the medical equipment we went home with, passed a car seat inspection, filled out some paperwork, and then were good to go. Early this afternoon, we loaded the little guy into his car seat and headed for home. He still will be plugged into heart and respiratory monitoring equipment for the near term, but the equipment is easy to use (or perhaps we just qualify for honorary nursing degrees at this point), and it is absolutely wonderful to be home again.

All told, it was exactly 7 days in the NICU for our little man. Towards the early part of the week, the deja vu experiences were unwanted, as we struggled to adjust to the prospect of having another NICU baby, and then went through another stressful round of organ tests & genetic disorder fears. Towards the end, though, the experiences turned largely positive, as we reconnected with our St John's Mercy friends, and gained comfort that Conner ultimately would be fine, just like his big sister.

So yes... we might be 0-for-2 in bringing home kids from the hospital on time.

And yes... we might have our family faces on a dartboard in the claims processing room of our insurance company.

And yes... we might be the only people in the history of St John's Mercy to attend an every-other-year NICU reunion (held last Sunday) with a NICU alum in tow & a NICU current attendee back inside.

However, provided our feisty 2-year old Lex and strong 1-week old Con-man continue to thrive going forward, we're probably stronger for the experiences and couldn't feel more blessed with the outcomes.

Holding Conner

Lexi and Grandma Phyllis came up to the hospital for a little while today to visit Conner, who is doing well. Both got to hold Conner. Grandma was excited from the beginning. Lexi took a little more warming up to the idea, but managed to like it in the end.

Hmm...this is interesting


















I'm not so certain about this...

Okay, maybe he isn't so bad...

NICU Rollercoaster

We were all set to pick Conner up today, when we were awakened by the dreaded phone call at 6:30 am saying he had a couple breathing episodes in the middle of the night. So, we still have not been able to take him home with us. Having experienced the NICU, we were almost just waiting for the roller coaster drop, as things had been going too well. It indeed came as expected.

Brian hung out with Conner in the morning, while Laura spent some much needed one-on-one time with Lexi at home, and then did a little retail therapy. Both kids seemed to benefit from the interaction, and Laura was uplifted by finding a couple pajamas with snaps and a really cute baseball nightlight for the nursery. Then, both of us accompanied Conner to his first barium upper GI screening, something that Lexi knows plenty about. It revealed that Conner probably has acid reflux, like big sister Lexi. So, we have started him on Zantac. We are going to watch for a couple days and confirm this is what caused his little saturation drop episodes during the night by milk being forced up into the breathing area and compromising that momentarily. We're hoping it is something as simple as this, as it is easily treated with medicine. If that's the case, there's a chance this is just a couple day hiccup, after which he can join us at home. If not, it's anybody's guess where the NICU rollercoaster is headed next.

Sunday: Extubation and Day of Rest

Yesterday's good vibes and positive momentum carried into today, as Conner is now off the ventilator and appears to be thriving. Our little man (okay, big man) was extubated early this morning, shortly before we headed down to the NICU for the day. After going off the ventilator, he progressed quickly from a little oxygen support and humid air, to just breathing room air, and all indications are that he appears to be doing great.

One of our favorite neo-natologists is on this weekend, and he has been willing to push Conner to recover quickly in hopes of his getting out of the hospital sooner rather than later. He authorized a closely monitored bottle feeding with our nurse at 11:30am, and a bottle feeding by Dad at 2:30. Not surprisingly, our 10 pound bundle of joy passed those tests with flying colors, knocking down a bottle with a premie nipple in 2-3 minutes and then a bottle with a regular nipple in what seemed like 2-3 seconds. Quantities are being monitored closely right now, which seems to disappoint Conner, who has been gnawing on his hand, blankets, arm board, and anything in sight waiting for his next allotment. We're interpreting that as a pretty good sign, and we're also thankful he doesn't appear to have his sister's hatred of the bottle!

It's unlikely that Conner will be able to go home from the hospital with us, but frankly we don't care. We're still flying high that he escaped a scary diagnosis, and there even is a pretty big silver lining in that we now know his brain, heart, lungs, and kidneys all look normal. Given the original condition with which he was diagnosed is associated with syndromes, heart, brain, and kidney issues, he's already been through the ringer of tests, and all appears normal. Now, we just need to exercise patience as we monitor him to ensure he continues to thrive and is ready to go home for good.