Hello everybody, Landon here, Parker has made it to four pounds. This is a big achievement for him which means he will be moving to an open crib tonight as long as he can maintain his temperature on his own. He no longer has any oxygen or respiratory help of any kind. He is now taking all of his feedings from a bottle and has breast fed twice. He is really looking good. We are so proud of him. The doctors and nurses say he should be going home within a week if all goes well. We are excited to be taking him home and nervous at the same time. Crystal has had a rough couple of weeks with kidney stones. She has been back and forth to the doctors over the past three weeks and after passing one stone on her own she had to have surgery to remove the second one. She is still recovering from that and will go back to the doctor to have a stent removed from her ureter that was inserted during surgery this week. So hopefully by the middle to the end of next week both of them will be fixed and ready to go home. Thank you all for your continued prayers, thoughts and concerns. We should be seeing you all soon.

Hi Guys,
What a wonderful few days we have had. Parker is doing very well, other than the dilated ventricles, he doesn't have anything going on right now, and we will have another head ultrasound on Tuesday to keep a check on that. On Thursday, his picc line stopped working and so they had to take it out and start another iv in his head to finish his antibiotics. They gave his last dose of antibiotics this morning and then took that iv out. So now he is free of any iv's, and not getting any more medicine except for the caffeine and vitamins that all preemies get. He has also gotten his weight to 1540 grams, that is 3lb 61/2oz, and after 1500grams, they can regulate their own temperature so he got to have his skin temp probe removed. That also means he can start wearing clothes!! He looks so precious in his little clothes! Kathy came up on Thursday evening to stay a couple of nights with me. Yesterday we went to the Baby Depot and just went crazy buying stuff for him. We had so much fun. Also in the past week he has started drinking out of a bottle some. They start him out on just one a day, the gradually go from there, he is taking 2 at the moment and doing great, so tomorrow they may try 3. He now wakes up on his own every 21/2-3 hours hungry and wants to suck. He has the urge, but just doesn't have the strength yet to suck a bottle every time. It really wears him out, when I'm giving him a bottle, he gets down to about 10cc of milk and he starts getting this glazed over look in his eyes, then falls asleep shortly thereafter. It just makes him exhausted. But feeding him is the most rewarding feeling ever. He just stared up at me with those big eyes and my heart just melts. I love him more than I can even describe. He is a lot more alert and loves to be talked to. After I feed him, I just sit and talk to him for a while, then we snuggle up together. He's so precious. Well that is about all that is new with us. Please keep on praying that things continue to go as they are. We definitely still need lots of prayers. I will update again soon. Thanks everyone.
Crystal

Hi Everyone,
Crystal here, sorry we haven't updated the blog in what seems like forever, I know, but things have been very busy as usual for us here. I'm trying to remember all that has happened since I last updated, Parker is still on antibiotics, he will finish those up this coming Saturday, October 10 and will get his picc line out, after that he will be iv free. On last Tuesday we got somewhat bad news about a head ultrasound, apparently due to the infection, there was some swelling of the brain, this has caused the ventricles in the brain to have an increased amount of spinal fluid. This problem they hope will clear up on its on, today we had another ultrasound, and it was about the same, maybe a small amount more. The good thing about this is is that skull of babies is not fused together yet like ours, so they have room for swelling. The Dr. said even though this is a problem, they can however correct it if it doesn't correct itself. If it gets a significant amount worse then he would have to have a shunt, but that is not the case at this point. So we will just wait and see about next weeks ultrasound. Other than that last week was pretty quiet, Parker looks so much better and is gaining weight. He had been swelling all of his body some, but that seems to be getting better also. He is back up on his feedings and doing great. On Thursday of last week Landon went back to work, it was hard at first thinking about having to be here by myself. But once it happened I actually enjoyed the alone time. So Thursday was the first day since July that I had been alone. I did just fine with it. He worked Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. On Saturday night, Parker took his first bottle feeding. He had started getting fussy and pulling out his feeding tube and pushing his food up when they tried to feed him through the tube. They thought that since he had been sucking his paci so well we might could start to bottle feed. He did great. Since that time he has taken 3 more and done just fine. On Saturday night I left the nicu around midnight and went back to the apt, I talked to Landon for a little while and then went to bed around 2am. Around 4am I woke up with the most horrible pain in my back, I stayed in the bed very restless for about 45 min until finally I called Landon, after taking my blood pressure and seeing that it was very high, and after I started feeling very dizzy, Landon talked me into going to the ER. After several hours in the ER and a cat scan later, they came and told me I had a 4mm kidney stone. I'm still hoping to pass it, it hasn't happened yet. I am not in pain anymore though so that's a good thing. Landon drove on back up here Sunday morning after working off and he picked me up from the ER and took me back to the apt. We were both sleepy from being up all night and so we went to sleep and believe it or not we both slept for 16 hours straight, I guess not sleeping and being stressed had finally caught up with us. Today we went back to the nicu and fed Parker another bottle, and while that was going on, he got a visit from the Tennessee Titans, they came and had a visit with Parker and we got our picture made with them, it was very sweet. We are back in the nicu now, I am updating while waiting for time to feed him again. We are going to try bottle number 4. Then we are gonna go get some sleep b/c we are exhausted. Parker is doing extremely well to have been as sick as he was. I hate to even say that, b/c it seems every time that he does well, something happens. So just keep praying. Tonight Parker weighed 1500 grams, that is 3lb 5oz. He is so precious, he is getting chubby little cheeks. Please keep us in your prayers, maybe we will be home before too long. I sure hope so. Thanks everyone for all you continue to do for us, it is much appreciated.
Goodnight!

Hi, Crystal here, today has been a good day. Parker looks so much better, they increased his breast milk to 10cc every 3 hours, and so far he is tolerating his feedings. They also turned his vapotherm down to 4 liters, this is the machine they put him on after they removed the ventilator, it just provides continual airflow in case he needs it. He has been very awake and alert today, he just looks around like he's curious about what in the world has been done to him this week :) The only problem we had today is that he is still somewhat puffy from too much fluid. They gave him some lasix, which is to help him pee some of that off hopefully. He is still having some crying spells every so often, but seems to get happy again pretty quick. Dr. Papp seemed very positive so that made us feel better. He will continue on antibiotics for the next 2 weeks, the second blood culture and spinal fluid culture still has not shown any growth so that is good, that means that they are pretty sure the infection is gone, but he will remain on the antibiotics just to be sure there isn't some bacteria hiding somewhere in his body. I tell you, this week has been so so horrible, it is so wonderful to finally be hearing some good news. This week I have definately questioned my sanity. I told Landon that I felt crazy, like I just wanted to start screaming, and crash into another car like Kathy Bates in Fried Green Tomatoes.....and I meant it :) I am feeling much more sane now, but I really had about all I could stand. It is so hard seeing this little person you love so much go through all this horrible stuff. But yesterday when we got to go back and see him after they took the vent out, he looked like my sweet baby again, just laying there looking around, it was wonderful. Landon is probably going back to work on Thursday, granted Parker is still doing ok. So pray that I can make it without him, I rely on him soooo much. But also pray that Parker continues to do well, b/c we really need him to go back to work. Well we are about to go back for the 8pm visiting so I will go now, but I will update as things change. Thanks to everyone for all you have done, please keep praying for us.

They took Parker off of the vent today. He looks so much better today. His color is much better and his swelling is down. He is resting good and when he is awake he seems more responsive to touch, sound and sight like he did before he got this infection. There has been no seizure activity for several days now. The skin breakdown on his neck is healing. The are slowly increasing his feedings. He is also gaining weight. Tonight he weighed in at 2lbs 15oz. He will continue to get antibiotics for a few more weeks. We want to thank all of you for your prayers and support. It's great to know we have so many friends and family willing to step up during times like these. This boy is going to make it and each of you are playing a bigger part than you may think. Landon R.

Today Parker is doing a little better, he is not so touchy today. Over the past few days he had started to have some fluid retention, he looked very puffy from the excess fluid. Today that looked a lot better. We had another small problem to occur, yesterday he started to get some skin breakdown under his chin, we aren't really sure why but it is being treated. He has still been dropping his heart rate, but they started him back on some medicine that is like an iv form of caffeine, so maybe that will help that. Today when we would talk to him, he didn't cry, that's a good thing b/c that's what he has been doing. There is technically no sound coming out b/c he is still on the ventilator but he still cries, you can tell. His weight has increased, but we aren't sure if it's because he's really gained or because of the excess fluid. They have started him back on breast milk but only a very small amount right now. Just enough to get his gut working again. They finally figured out what the infection specifically was, it's called streptococcus bovis, this doesn't mean much since they are already treating him with the right antibiotic for this infection. They tried another spinal tap today and were successful, so we will wait and see if that culture shows anymore infection. Hopefully it wont. The Dr. talked about possibly trying to take him off the ventilator tomorrow, we will see. This week has been very emotionally draining, sorry I havn't written on here more, but we are just so exhausted. Parker also had another head ultrasound, and it showed no change, so that is a good thing, the small bleeds are still small and haven't gotten any bigger. He looks better to me, that's a relief, but I'm scared to say anything positive b/c everytime I do, something happens. Just everyone please keep on praying for our sweet baby, he still needs lots and lots of them, and so do we. Thanks everyone for all you have done, it is greatly appreciated. Have a good night.

Not many changes today, Parker is still about the same. He did have a few more seizures today, and one was really bad where he dropped his heart rate and his oxygen saturation. He has been very very irritable and touchy today. Landon and I had to take turns just sitting there touching him, b/c every time we let go he would start crying and get all upset again. I would keep my hands on him until my arms started falling asleep and then Landon would take over until his fell asleep and so on and so on. He's in an incubator so we only have these small portal holes to put our hand in so it's difficult when you have your arm in there for an extended period of time. It's strange how he seems to know we are his parents, and how he wants us constantly touching him or he gets upset. It's so nice to able to do something for him though. It's hard for any mother I'm sure, but it's especially hard for me, b/c number one...I'm a nurse, and number two...I'm a control freak(yes I'll admit it), and I have absolutely no control over anything in this situation. I just have this overwhelming feeling to just "fix" him or "make it better", but I can't. And it's just so hard watching all of this and not being able to do anything about it. It's like being in a straight jacket!! But all I can do it pray, and boy have I been doing a lot of that. Parker also looked a little pale today, I presume he will probably need some more blood in the next day or so. Tomorrow they will be doing another head ultrasound and also a test called an EEG, it measures electrical activity in the brain, so they will know for sure if these "spells" he is having are seizures. Kathy(my mother in law) came back up here tonight, she is going to stay with us for a while. She just feels more worried and anxious at home so she decided just to come on back and stay. Landon will be soon going back to work so that is good b/c I'm not going to be able to ride out this storm by myself I'm afraid. She also helps to take care of things that we can't because we are in the nicu all day and half the night. We left the nicu early tonight. Rachel his primary nurse had him all comfortable and lights out when we got there, she wanted us to whisper and just let him rest, so we very much agreed and just left him be b/c he had had such a rough day, so we peeked in on him briefly, told him we loved him and came on back to just let him rest. He needs lots of rest right now so he can fight this stuff. They also found out for sure what infection it is, it is called Alpha Streptococcus, which doesn't mean much, they will continue to do what they are doing. Please keep on praying, we need lots and lots of it. Thanks everyone for all the emails, calls, texts, messages on facebook etc. I'm so sorry that I can't respond all the time. There are so many people contacting us and we so very much appreciate it, but I just can't physically respond to everyone. I do however read all of it, and it really does give us hope and encouragement and helps so much. So keep it coming, I just don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. But we do appreciate all everyone is doing. Well that is pretty much our day today. I'll update as I know more and have some time. Goodnight.