Carter is Awake

As the days have gone on, Carter has been spending more time in the alert awake phase. The first few weeks, he woke up when he was hungry or needed a diaper change. Now he will wake up and just look around for about 30 minutes several times a day.

Here is a good visual for those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about =)

This means mom and dad have been able to start to break out some of the baby toys we have been dying to try out. Here are a few pictures of Carter testing out his goodies.

Holding his rattle from Aunt Bailie

Staring at the monkey and parrot on his activity gym

Great reaction while laying on his tummy time mat!

Visitors from the Great White North

When we just got Carter home his second week, he had some special visitors from the Great White North...


No... not Bob and Doug... but Carter's Grandparent's.


It was a rather exhausting time as we were just getting adjusted to parenthood without help from the nurses (life is a little different when we have to attend to his every need as opposed to a nurse coming in every two hours and getting him on a feed/changing schedule). Not to mention that Carter was pretty worn out with all the attention.


Overall we had a real good weekend and look forward to return visits and a few trips up north (we will need to get Carter some warmer clothes first).

Sleep

Not surprising, sleep is at a premium in the Holden house these days. Luckily for me, Colin took over night time duty Friday so I could get more than a 1 hour stretch of sleep. Thanks dad!

Carter's New Toy

When the photographer came by yesterday she brought a bean bag and Carter curled right up in it. Since he has started rolling from side to side and we have several 4 legged creatures running around, it was nice to have something to keep him secure. So mommy and Carter went to Target today and he picked out his own bean bag.

I think he is happy with the purchase... from playing to out in under 5 minutes!

3 Week Update

Time sure flies, Carter is 3 weeks old today. In order to celebrate, Carter planned a big day. First he had a photographer come to take his baby pictures (he waited until after his pricks from the hospital had healed). He even let his big sister Madie get in on some of the shots. We'll post a link to the pictures in a few weeks.

Then he had mom take him out for his first non-medical trips. We hit up all the baby hot spots... the bank, Baby Depot, Babies R' Us and Chick-fil-A. Carter was very well behaved, especially since he was the one getting all the swag.

He then spent the afternoon showing of his new skills to mom. He can roll over on his side from his back, he is able to lift up his head while on his tummy and he can hold his head up while sitting up. Not bad for three weeks worth of work!

Busy Weekend

Carter was thrilled that his Aunt Bailie came all the way from Colorado to visit for the weekend. This meant lots of time with the Scott side of the family.

Carter has been acting more like a "normal" baby every day as evidenced by his lung power he showed off to Aunt Bailie.

The dogs have continued to warm up to Carter. Madie loves sleeping on the couch with him and giving him frequent "tongue baths".

Carter (and his parents) was very surprised when a box from Barnsley Gardens showed up with some baby stuff for him. Below is a pick of Carter with his goodies.

Carter's busy weekend also included his first bath in his new bath lounger. He handled the experience fairly well....

but he was definitely happier when he was wrapped up in his comfy towel at the end.

Overall it was a fun, busy weekend so Carter spent his Monday afternoon recovering by snoozing on the couch.

Today is also Carter's official due date. It has definitely been a fun and exciting extra 3 weeks that we have gotten to spend with our little man!

Happy Anniversary

May 21, 2005, Colin and I were married. 5 years later our family has expanded by 2 and 4 legged creatures and we are thrilled. It has been a wonderful 5 years. Thank you for all being part of it and we're excited about what the next 5 will bring!

More Carter Pics

So Mommy being home all alone with Carter means lots of diaper changes, feedings and picture taking. Here are a few of pics from the last few days.

Carter has been opening his eyes more each day. Currently they are a beautiful deep blue. He also has a nice head of dark brown hair. You can see the birth mark in the center of his forehead pretty well in this picture. It turns bright red when he gets upset.

He looks so peaceful when he sleeps!

We went on our first "outing". The whole family took a walk around the neighborhood. I loved getting to see the sun!

The dogs are doing better with Carter each day. Madie likes to sniff his head and his crying doesn't bother them at all. They are not fans when the apnea monitor goes off but hopefully we won't have that forever.

Carter is 2 Weeks Old

It has been a busy 1st two weeks for the Holden family but we are finally starting to settle into family life. Carter is home, he had a follow up doctor appointment yesterday and got a clean bill of health. His temp is good and he hasn't had any apnea episodes. We go back in 2 weeks and hopefully we can ditch the monitor then.

In addition to Carter coming home last Friday, Madie and Brie finally came home as well. They are more curious about Carter than they were a week ago. Brie seems to be having a harder time than Madie but I'm sure everyone would have guessed that one.

Colin's parents were down for the weekend and Carter was thrilled to meet his grandparents from the North. They also did some serious work on the front yard now we just have to attack the jungle that is the backyard =)

Today is my first day home alone with little man, so wish me luck!

Here are a few pics from the weekend...

Colin has started working on Carter's tummy time. He does well on dad's belly but he hasn't taken to the floor mat yet.

Dad loves feeding his son

Carter loves to sleep all day, too bad his parents prefer to sleep at night. You can see his apnea wires at the bottom of the pic.

Carter loves to raise and strech his arms out like a zombie or over his head while he sleeps. I can now picture what caused all those pokes in my bell!

Going Home from the Hospital (take 2)...

Hopefully this is the last time we are in a hospital for a while! The Dr just gave us the official OK to take Carter home today. We have an Apnea monitor that will be on him 24/7 for a while that will let us know if we have any heart rate/breathing issues. He has started eating like a champ over the past 24 hours and his weight is up to 6lbs 4oz. And he is waking up several time throughout the day and looking around.

Mom and Dad are thrilled and so if Carter. Here is the play by play of his reaction....

Still sleepy.... what did the Dr say?

Shocked... I have been here forever, it can't be true!

Concerned... do I trust mom and dad to care for me all alone?

No more picture... I know I'm cute but this is ridiculous!

Stop it... seriously mom, enough with the flash!

Content... I have my paci and I'm going home!

Just Like Dad

Colin's mom send us a pic of Colin as a baby so we could figure out who Carter looks like. I definitely think he looks like Colin.

Other than that, things have been stable here for the last few days. The Dr is still thinking things there is good potential for us being able to go home this weekend. Carter has 3 jobs to do to make that happen:

1) Keep up his eating

2) Keep up his body temp

3) Don't have any more Apnea episodes (where he stops breathing)

They are going to try him off the warmer and oxygen today and see how he does for a while. We did this once before and he did well for 24 hours before relapsing which is what got us back in the ICU. Hopefully he is stronger this time and can keep everything up.

They weighed him this morning and he was at 6lb 6oz (birth weight was 6lb 1.5oz). Since he was at 5lb 9oz at the pediatrician office last Friday, this is quite a jump! He has been a little bloated from all the IV fluids so that number is probably inflated but I still think it is a good sign that he is getting healthier.

Carter is 1 Week Old

Carter is officially 1 week old today. It has been a more dramatic week than his parents would have liked but we're sure it will all be worth it when he is finally home.

The Dr's have run every possible test to determine what is causing Carter's issues (this is him getting an ECHO).

So far everything has come back in the "normal" range. The only thing the Dr's can come up with is that he was potentially a bit more premature than his gestational age and his system just needs some more time to get acclimated to the real world.

They are going to keep him in ICU until at least Friday so they can monitor him since they aren't sure what is causing his issues. Hopefully Carter's stats will improve over this week so we can definitely go home Friday!

Until then we will be hanging out at the hospital watching the little guy sleep.He has also become quite taken with his pacifier. This has turned into a "must have" item especially when the Dr's won't let him have food or he is getting poked and prodded. A little sugar water on that paci can do miracles.

Like Father...like Son

Carter's first Mother's Day started out great, we were eating well:
This got us a little milk drunk:
We had a bath to look good for Mom:
and did some serious sleeping waiting to go home...
Unfortunately, Carter seems to have started his life out following his father a bit to literally, and a bit too early. His dad was born 6 weeks early and had to stay in the hospital for 11 days post birth getting over his jaundice and premature issues. Like his dad, Carter arrived to us about 3 weeks early and had been measuring about a week small during his gestation. This has caused Carter to struggle maintaining his internal body temp and has a slight irregular breathing rhythm. So, back to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. To make sure we know exactly what is going on, we had a fun afternoon of CAT Scans, ultra sounds, etc...
The good news is all Carter's tests have come back either negative, or normal... He just was so excited to see Mom for Mother's Day that he came to meet us all a bit early. Hopefully we can go home in the next few days which will make Mom a much happier lady.

Back to the Hospital...Boo =(

So we spent our first night at home Thursday and it went fairly well. Carter slept most of the day which meant he decided he wanted to hang out around 10:30 at night. Dad stayed up and entertained him for an hour until Carter fell asleep. He woke back up around 12:30 when mom took over until he passed out after finally having a good feeding at 2:00. He slept until 5:00, got another feeding and went back to bed until 8:00.

We then cleaned up the house a bit and took Carter to the pediatrician's office for his first visit. Unfortunately, he body temp was fairly low so the pediatrician sent us to Children's Healthcare to spend the weekend getting it checked out.

We got here around noon on Friday and spent a few hours in the emergency room while Carter got poked and prodded. He was a real trouper! We then got moved to the Pediatric Intensive Care unit for the night. They put him in a warmer to get his body temp up and hooked him up to monitors since his respiratory and heart rate were low. They started Carter on antibiotics while they tried to figure out what was going on. It was a very long night for mom and dad as the events of the week were a bit much to handle. Luckily, by morning Carter was off the warmer and oxygen.

This is a picture of him in his warming bed on Saturday morning.

And he was maintaining all his vitals. All the tests the doctors ran looking for an infection or defect came back negative after 24 hours. The Dr.s decided most likely Carter was just having trouble maintaining his body temperature do to his small size and early delivery. They decided this meant Carter could move to the regular Pediatric floor (dad was really excited that this also meant he was no longer considered to be in "critical" condition). The Dr said this could continue to be an issue for the first month, but as long as he is breathing normally, not blue and eating well, he should be fine at home.

Below is a picture of Carter being moved.

Once on the pediatric floor, the doctors let us know they still wanted to watch Carter on antibiotics for another 24 hours and then keep him here for an additional 24 hours without any medications. This is overly cautious but given his size/gestational week/mom's Group B strep status (I was positive but due to the extra-modal delivery neither Carter nor I got the standard antibiotics) they feel it is the best course of action.

So we will be at Children's until Monday afternoon. Hopefully we will be able to go home then and stay there this time! Carter has been great ever since we moved. He wakes up every few hours when he wants his diaper changed or is hungry and other than that he is sleeping like a champ. His vitals are doing well so we are optimistic that things are looking up!

Here is a picture of my precious, little boy. I might be biased but I think he is adorable!

Here is a picture of Carter with the balloon dad got for him (did I mention my husband is an amazing father?). If you can't tell it is a Monkey hanging upside down and the bottom says "Hang in There" - too cute!