Eyes wide open

Brett caught Sylas with his eyes wide open during our afternoon visit. We were told that the oxygen unit for use during travel and at home has been ordered. Hopefully they can train us tomorrow(Wednesday). Tonight Sylas will be moved out of NICU into a transitional unit. Hurray!
We went out to a nice dinner tonight with Grandma Kathy. I am guessing this will be the last quiet dinner out for a long time.

Tuesday 4/28: Sylas is almost a week old!

It has been a busy week. Sam and Sophie returned home yesterday. Grandma Annie has things under control and the kids are back in school today. We already miss them. Soon enough we will all be together. Brett's mom unexpectedly decided to fly out to visit Sylas and the kids. She arrived on Saturday and was able to spend a few days with Sam and Sophie. This morning she was up early and traveled to the hospital alone to hold Sylas for an hour prior to us arriving. He is sure a lucky little guy to have already met his loving grandmas.

This past week, Sylas has slowly improved. He has tolerated a decrease in his glucose drip and supplemental oxygen every day. Yesterday he was able to be completely weaned off the glucose! Today the doctors informed us that the cardiologist has ok'd Sylas to be discharged in the next few days. Although he will continue to be on oxygen, hopefully we will be able to successfully wean him off of it at home. We will be taught how to manage and monitor the oxygen. This is very exciting news!!

As for his heart condition, the cardiologist is concerned only about the VSD which stands for Ventricular Septal Defect. A septum is a wall that separates the right and left sides of the heart. The two lower chambers of the heart are called ventricles. A defect in the wall between the left and right ventricles is called a VSD. Sylas has a "moderate" VSD which may close on it's own or if not, it may need to be surgically repaired. However, for now it is best to follow up on it in a few months as it may not cause any impairments with his development.

Today Sylas was alert with eyes open for a majority of his feeding. He is latching on with nursing and also takes breast milk from a bottle. He smiled at Brett today when Brett kissed him on the nose. He also smiled at Grandma Kathy when she was talking to him.

Thank you to all who have sent prayers and sweet messages to us, we love and cherish you all!

Welcome Sylas, a new beginning..

The following slideshow includes pictures from a few days prior to delivery up to the arrival of Sylas. Sylas has an IV for the glucose drip and a nasal cannula for his oxygen. He is also hooked up to monitors to keep track of his oxygen levels, heart rate, and respiratory rate.

Hello everyone- you are not going to believe this but I spelled my son's name wrong!!! Can I blame it on "pregnancy brain"? No I guess I can't plead that excuse anymore! So it is SYLAS not Silas. I posted this morning and I checked my blog this afternoon and saw my mistake. How embarrassing!

Sylas Matthew is here!

Fresh out of the oven! Sylas Matthew born Wednesday 4/22/09 at 3:30am. 6 lbs 5.5oz, 20 in length.


THANK YOU to all of your wonderful emails and messages! We love you all! I am sorry that I have not been able to personally respond, things have been pretty busy. We have a ton more pictures, but this is all I can upload right now. Shortly after Sylas was born, he was found to have low oxygen and glucose levels. He was transferred to the NICU and has remained there since. Unfortunately, a heart defect was found which was not detected on the u/s. At this point, it is unknown how this will impact things. I will update on that later. Overall, it looks like he just needs more time to adjust to being on the outside. Hopefully he will not be in the hospital any longer than a week, but they are not really confirming anything at this point. I am doing great and had an epidural during labor, so I don't need to say much more!
I was discharged yesterday from the hospital. We are heading out to visit Sylas now, so I will finish all of this later!

Visiting Sylas in NICU

"Before" shot of baby (about 8 hours before)

Sylas 1 day old

Almost there! 38 Weeks and a bit of drama

Yesterday we arrived in Oahu and checked into our hotel. We got to the hospital just in time for my non-stress test. They decided to do the quick ultrasound first to check the level of amniotic fluid. The u/s technician found that my fluid level had dropped from a 19 to a 9 from last week. She did the test a second time and then seemed to become more concerned about something else she found. She told me that I would probably have to go to a different room for another u/s and that she would show these results to the doctor. No other information and she was gone. I started to freak out but kept under control. Then guess who comes in.... the radiology doctor from the original 20 week u/s who found the markers! Remember the one with the not so positive bedside manners? Brett's face turned red and I think steam started coming out of his ears. Well to make a long story a bit shorter, this doctor ended up asking me if I knew the baby had chromosomal anomalies and if I could tell him what they were! AHHHH! After a few emotional words, it was determined that he had been called in prematurely. The technician must have gotten all excited that she had seen something on the u/s and that I needed to be told that there was something wrong with my baby. I guess no one bothered to check my handy dandy medical chart. Professionalism at its best!
After seeing my OB, the conclusion was that my amniotic sac may be slowly leaking but has not broken, fluid levels are ok, dilated to about 3cm, and contracting irregularly. An emotionally charged morning, but as Brett said "now you have something to write in your blog"!
Last night we went out for Indian food. It was really weird not having the kiddos around. I must take advantage of that "weird" feeling because soon I will have 3 kiddos around! It is about 4:30am right now and I have been up multiple times during the night. The contractions must be getting stronger or maybe I want to "nest". Thank goodness I am not at home or I would probably be down on the floor scrubbing it.

37 weeks and tired!

I am worn out! I am either sugar crashing from the jellybeans or this pregnancy is catching up to me. Today we flew over to Honolulu for another doctor's appointment. I was hooked up to all the monitering equipment and they noted a few contractions. Now I can really feel the tightening during contractions, but there is no pain. Hopefully, the pain will hold off for a few more weeks! The fetal monitering doctor wanted me to come back in a few days to be monitered again. Good grief, no thank you! Fortunately for me, my OB felt it was unnecessary. Next week I have another appointment, then we will be renting a place to stay in Oahu until the baby is born so they can moniter me as much as their hearts desire.

Happy Easter! I hope everyone enjoyed the day. We all had a joyous day that included brunch, Sam leading an Easter "church service" in our front yard, an egg hunt, and an afternoon party at a neighbor's house. I feel fortunate to be having a baby soon, it kind of goes with this holiday of rebirth and new life.

2 cm and new visitors..

My mom arrived last week and will be staying until after baby is due. She offered to get up every morning early and walk the dog. I could not argue with that! It has been a bit tough to walk Lola lately, so she has been neglected. The kids also are enjoying the extra attention.

We made the trip over to Oahu yesterday for my 36 week appointment. I had a non-stress test to moniter the baby's heartbeat/movements and quick u/s to check on the fluid level. Both tests showed baby to be in good health. My OB did a cervix check and found that I am 2 cm dilated. I thought something was happening down there, because a few days ago I could feel a lot of pressure and I was pretty sure baby's head was pushing down. Now that my shirts don't cover my abdomen, it is obvious that baby has dropped a bit. Now don't be concerned that I am dilating early, because my pregnancy history has proven that this only means that I will not deliver until my due date! My body has a terribly poor sense of humor.

We also had a new house guest yesterday. My sister arrived for a week long visit. Lola is loving the new visitors as now she has two friends to walk and feed her cheese. We are so fortunate to have both of them here.