Ambrose to Come Home Tomorrow!

Finally! After 5 months Ambrose will be discharged Friday. Ryan and I will be at the hospital most of the day learning how to properly use all his gear. He will be discharged on 1/8L oxygen, nasal canula. He can take thickened milk orally, but the bulk of his feeds will be administered by the g-tube with a kangaroo pump.

Here's what Ambrose's new belly button looks like:

Ambrose Post-Op

Ambrose came out of surgery about 11am and returned to the NurseryICU alert and sucking on his pacifier. The surgeon was able to do his circumcision and correct his "outie" belly button while she was at it. He was extubated in the OR and returned to the same oxygen flow as before the operation, so that was a relief. He will resume feeds tomorrow morning, starting out small, but increasing the amount quickly. The doctor says he should be able to come home by the weekend ...we'll see.

Ambrose Procedure on Monday Morning

Yes...Ambrose will have a G-tube placement surgery on Monday morning at 9am PST. The procedure will require him to be intubated again. We hope that he will be able to be weaned off the vent very quickly.

The only issue keeping him in the hospital now is his feeding issues. He is not able to bottle-feed all of his feedings and uses a pump for whatever milk he is not able to consume. He will, hopefully, be discharged within a couple weeks. He'll be on oxygen at 1/8 liter per minute and have a G-tube with a Mic-key button in place. He will probably also need a Pulse Oximeter. We'll be trained on the use of all these in the next week. Right now we're very concerned with the procedure and the idea of him being reintubated.

Ambrose looks very good now. He's awake most mornings and enjoys visitors. He really enjoys when we bring the other kids with us to the hospital. The chaos keeps him pretty occupied! He recognizes our faces and has even produced some smiles and cooing. You can bet we're really excited to get him home. We think he'll do much better in a home environment.

Please keep us all in your prayers, especially little Ambrose. It's a very stressful time, but I know everything will work out for the best. Also, since neither of us are able to support the family alone, we're desperately looking for a nanny to come watch the kids beginning in August. Gina has to return to work on August 10th (she hasn't worked since December). Let us know if you have any advice or connections or know of any agencies where we can hire a nanny.

Thanks for all the prayers and support. We're so close to discharge and we are really excited. The boys will be 5 months on Wednesday! Wow!

Ryan & Gina

California Trip

We took a little family vacation to southern California (thank you to Mama Iker for visiting poor baby Ambrose who didn't get to come). We packed a lot into the few days we were gone (Wed-Sun) including Legoland, Sea World, the Huntington Library and Gardens, playing at the beach, and watching container ships come into San Pedro. Our main reason for going was to attend and celebrate the ordination of frater Benedict to the diaconate - congratulations Deacon Benedict!

Feeding Update

Ambrose did repeat the barium swallow study last week along with an upper GI study. The swallow study showed that he does aspirate on the liquid and "nectar thick" consistency, but not the "honey thick" and the GI test did not reveal any refluxing. Monday he began bottle feeding again (with the honey thick milk plus calories) and has been doing quite well showing no aversion. He takes up to half of each feeding from the bottle, with the rest pumped through his feeding tube. He gets 80cc every four hours. His O2 flow is at .5L and his FIO2 around 40%, so he has weaned significantly in the past couple of weeks and is tolerating it very well. He weighs 7lbs 4 oz and is getting his 4 month immunizations this week. We are looking forward to him coming home very soon, maybe in the next few weeks!

4 Months Old