Magic Hat

Here is junior wearing his new hat. He is not particularly thrilled with it, but he will get used to it. Heidi is ready to go so we will have to get her to the park.

After The Storm

After an exciting evening watching the weather closely, we now have a beautiful day. Caleb continues to do well and seems to be putting on weight. He is a genius, beginning to notice things and look around. We are very thankful. Grandparents are here making our life so much easier. Best wishes to the Greek side of the family and welcome Owen. Andrew, be a great big brother.

Our Family is Home!

Captions for Pictures (across then down):
1) We came home to a nice welcome for Caleb, thanks to I think the Sprinks (they are the only ones we know who could make artistic things from pool noodles).
2) Heidi is excited to have us home and seems somewhat oblivious. She is more interested in the sandwich she stole from me when I got home than Caleb. I think when he starts dropping things on the floor they will make fast friends, like Zach and Lauren's dog Rusty and their son Cole.
3) Little Britches matches his crib, who could have coordinated that? Kelly, perhaps!
4) Smiley looks pretty good in his old lady hat
5) A satisfied eater
6) Proud Mother and sacked out son at home
7) Caleb and Dad's matching hairdo's
8) Car Rides make Caleb sleeeeepyyyyy (or Caleb's impression of Jeff Durand)
9) Caleb prior to his release in his plastic tobaggon, yearning for freedom and home

I guess the only important news is in the title. We spent the night, it went well, we didn't sleep much but I think we ought to start getting used to that. Caleb is doing great, as is the rest of the family. I am excited about spending more time with him as I have been still sort of working during this time since there was only so much you could do while he was in the hospital. The team will travel this weekend and I will stay with the fam.

Hospital Lock In

Kelly and I are hanging out at the hospital tonight. Caleb is about ready to go home but they said we could stay with him. I thought maybe there was going to be a pop quiz on a baby care, and if I didn't pass ??

So it seems that everything is going great and we will get to go home the same time as his new cousin. If if you missed that news check out the socal caprons link to see pictures of Owen Capron Caleb's new cousin who was supposed to be older than him.

Caleb Unplugged

The wonderful news is that Caleb did well enough today that they went ahead and took him off of the the C-PAP, took the line out of his belly button, and he has long since ditched the respirator. He is breathing on his own, and doing a great job unplugged. We thank God, and thank you for your prayers, and the staff at Hillcrest regarding this. They haven't even given him supplemental oxygen. He rests even more peacefully than before as he was getting very tired of the tubes, belts, and hoses. He demonstrated this on often as he attempted to extubate himself multiple times. His only remaining remnant of his "frankenbaby" look is the IV that still remains in his head (note the hat). It will unfortunately stay in until they stop giving him antibiotics and anything else he may need. Hopefully this too will soon prove unnecessary.
Next on the list of goals is eating. For some reason we just feel confident that he will have this down. Sounds like a fun goal to me. Perhaps it's just because he has acted so hungry as of late. The poor kid hasn't "eaten" for 4 days. Dextrose and Glucose only go so far. He needs to not only eat, but keep it down, supposedly a problem with the early ones. After that it's just up to him to maintain that appetite and start packing on the pounds so he can hibernate through the night later.
As far as the pictures, don't worry now that he isn't so scary looking, we'll keep them coming. I told you he was cute. As far as who he looks like, we will play that game a little later, maybe after he has his first bath.
Once again thank you for your prayers and support.


jon

Trees and Lungs

Spring has sprung in Waco, and probably where you are too as I believe the first official day of Spring was yesterday. I like to think that this tree is a good springtime analogy for our little one's lungs. As I drive through all the neighborhoods and see all the trees I think our little guy and how his lungs are still developing. I am encouraged by the fact that each day another tree seems like it has blossomed overnight. Lungs are supposed to have a myriad of branches, fleshy pink instead of green, networks of alveoli working together in separate chambers for proper gas exchange. I see these trees that have begun to welcome in Spring with buds, flowers, or more precisely their own bright green newly sprouted leaves and I pray that Caleb's lungs are going through the exact same transformation. If a tree can go from a spindly group of upright twigs to a vibrant green maze of branches that symbolizes a new season, surely my son's lungs do a little sprouting of their own. So if you see a good tree, one that has just started to bud, take a little time to track it over the next few days. I think that you will find the drastic change that God orchestrates to be quite special, it is one that occurs frequently but is no less amazing. We are seeing Caleb's first hand, instead of just seeing the finished product. He continues to make progress and show signs that he is ready to be "sprung" out of there himself.

Caleb is making progress!!!

We are praising God because we just called the hospital, and Caleb was extubated (they took out the breathing tubes). He is now mostly breathing on his own. He has something called c-pap in his nose helping to keep his lungs wide open. At least that is what I think it is doing. Either way, we are very happy that he is not intubated anymore.

Our current prayer requests:
That Caleb will be a strong heathly breather on his own
That the doctors will be able to take out the UAL (catheter in his umbilical cord)
That everything will work out so I can breastfeed Caleb when the time comes

Thanks for all of your support and prayers! Kelly

Stable and holding

Basically Caleb is holding steady where he is at. He has made it past the 72 hour benchmark in good shape. They are going to let him continue to adjust and slowly ween him off the oxygen and maybe if everything is going as well tomorrow possibly take him off of the respirator and let him have a go on his own or maybe with just some supplemental oxygen. They are playing it pretty safe not pushing him to fast and erring on the side of caution. His breathing rate was good and he was taking nice deep breaths the last time I checked on him. The only rough thing is the IV in his arm closed off so the had to start a new one. They chose a spot where babies apparently have good veins and don't mess with as much, his head. Its a little gruesome looking but I guess when they "feed" he'll have some brain food. Thanks for checking in, he's doing well.

Late Evening Update 3.20

Not much of an update but he has continued with Status Quo, we are calling that a success. Kelly and I are assuming that he is resting up for a big day of progress tomorrow. Kelly got to hold his hand for a while today, sort of our only way to bond right now, he has a pretty good little grip too. His blood gas levels have been climbing and they have to continue to go up before they lower O2 levels and ultimate take out the breathing tube. So far his cultures came up negative for any type of infection so it seems he is in no way sick, just early. They say that the 72 hour mark is key, a milestone he will reach Wed at 12:30

goodnight again.

Caleb tells a joke

So the other day I told Caleb that if he would hurry up and mature his lungs faster I would increase his allowance, he looked at me and said, "Does it look like I was born yesterday?"

Caleb 3.20.07 afternoon

if you think they are cute, you should see Caleb!

Ok, here is the update. This morning they took another Xray and his Pneumothorax, (air bubble to the lay person) had switched sides, so they placed him on his other side for a few hours to see if it would go away/shrink. This has been working. It did again but it shrunk and moved to the other side, which is a good thing, sort of. The NICU doctor was joking about if we just had a rotisserie contraption we might be get over them quicker : ) I was thinking maybe one of those hot dog rollers like at 7-11. Basically they keep reappearing. From what I have heard of these things are very common with Preemies. Another thing is the respirators have a tendency to both help and cause these things. There should be no long term problems whatsoever as a result of his early arrival. I keep telling myself, he's not sick he's just early. Other than that his heart rate is normal, respiration rate is normal, and he is on about 40% oxygen. This has to go down and he has to get rid of his "air bubbles" to make progress. He is still a little sedated so he is sleeping comfortably. So basically the good news is, no real steps backwards today and if he keeps it up, you may even call it progress.

jon

Baby Caleb Update

If you don't mind we will probably spare you the pictures. He is darling but it hurts our hearts to look at them when he is hooked up to so many contraptions. He's doing a little better but had some trouble today getting enough oxygen into his little self. They turned up the juice (extra 0xygen) for a little while but he wasn't really responding. They did a chest Xray and found a Pneumothorax, basically air leaking out of lungs into his chest cavity restricting full inflation of the lungs, similar to what happens with a small collapsed lung. This was causing him to work a little too hard. This is typical to Preemies, and especially white boys unfortunately. Usually having a lot to with a) not fully developed lungs b) more specifically lack of enough surfactant (that gives lungs their amazing properties) within the lung itself. For this reason our little guy was intubated and put on a breathing machine. As tough as this was to see he labored in his breathing much less, and after being sedated a little seemed to be recovering and making progress instead of just treading water and fighting against everything. He was also given a little man made "surfactant" that seemed to do his lungs very well. All this with the typical jaundice so he has to hang out under the lights and wear goofy "sun glasses" that are far from cool.

As far as the family update, Kelly and I are doing as well as anyone who just left their firstborn in the hands of thankfully very capable nursing staff at the Hillcrest Newborn ICU. Leaving the hospital was definitely not how you always picture it. It was correct except for one thing, we had to leave our most precious cargo. You can imagine walking past the waiting area missing what you came in to take home. It was in a word, gut wrenching. Physically speaking Kelly is up and walking around and doing great but somewhat tear filled. Kelly's mother made it here and she has been a big help in juggling all of the things we thought we had another month to get done.

Thank you for your prayers, well wishes, congratulations and calls. We are truly blessed to have Caleb, friends that are praying for him, and we know he will be "full strength" very soon. Kelly will be available for visits as she is already home, just know there will be significant ferrying to and from the NICU so we may miss you. Feel free to call the house if you want to drop by.
As far as seeing Caleb himself, you may have to rely on the world wide web. As his immune system may be a little depressed even after he comes home, we may be more reluctant than typical to share him with the world. There will be a good healthy time to meet him in the future. Trust me, when this is all over and he emerges unscathed I will probably be calling people at random in order to show him off. I will update the pictures when I have some time and they aren't quite so gruesome. Until then you will have to take my word that he is beautiful.

Sorry for the mass update via the web, it saves us a little time, tears, and kleenex.
We promise to catch up in person over time. We'll keep you posted.

Goodnight All, goodnight Baby Caleb.

jon

kelly's belly 34.5

Not much of an update on the belly, since it's gone.

Caleb Capron was born at 12:27 he was a little early but he's doing good. He weighed 5lbs 12.8 oz and was 18.5 in. Kelly did awesome and only pushed for an hour, her water broke early this morning and so I reluctantly began this day at about 4am. She went through labor pretty quickly, started at the more serious labor at about 9:30 and was pushing by about 11:30. She is feeling great but little britches might have to stay in the hospital for a few extra days. Come visit if you want but you may have to wait to see bubble boy. Kelly may not be at the hospital long as a patient, but I expect her to be close by until they release our son.

Pray for his little lungs to be healthy
for him to be free of infection.
for him to be able to nurse soon.
for him to be able to gain weight.

He has all his toes, fingers, two ears and unfortunately for him a hairline very similar to my own.

wow, what a blessing, he's amazing in so many ways and I haven't even come out of being sort of shock that he is already here. Either way, God is good. All the time.

Caleb about 12:29
I'll post some more pictures when has less tubes and wires sticking on/in him.
He's pretty cute, though I am admittedly biased.

Jon

Can you tell what this is a picture of? Jon's ideas: lunar landscape, eclipse, or Kelly trying to take a picture of her feet. So you probably guessed C, and you are correct. We went to the doctor today, and he guessed that our little one weighs about 6 lbs- which is a lb. more than all the pregnancy books say for 34 weeks. He did say that he has been half a pound off when he is holding a baby in his hands, so it is just an estimate. Usually babies gain 1/2 a pound a week at this point. 6 weeks to go= a 9 lb. baby! I am hoping for an early delivery! April 12 is my vote! Please add a comment about when you think Baby Capron will come- Jon says that the winner gets a prize. I am not sure what that will be- but with Jon it could be interesting!

Baby Proofing the Living Room

The nesting is definitely setting in. While Jon was out of town this weekend, I decided it would be a good time to look for different coffee and end tables. The ones that we had were really wobbly- which has been an issue when our baby friends come to visit. So we really won't have a baby pulling up on those wobbly tables for awhile (not sure how long- haven't gotten that far in baby books). Still I figured I would just go around and look at what some options would be. Of course I found and bought two new tables. I seem to have a bad habit of buying furniture while Jon is out of town. I also have a tendency to rearrange furniture in our house while he is gone. The good news is that the coffee table is really quite heavy, so I will have to break the habit of rearranging things. I guess that when the baby is born, that will probably be the last thing on my mind anyways. So here is a pick of our new side and coffee tables.

Kelly's Belly w33.5 and Swollen Feet

Do you think that the pink nail polish draws attention to my swollen feet or distracts from them? I've been trying all of the remedies- feet up, less salt, lots of water, walks, ect..... They don't seem to improve all that much. Any shoes other than flip-flops just won't fit anymore. It really doesn't hurt that much- just looks really funny!

2 Vomit Clean ups, 1 Broken Tea Cup, 1 Broken Spoon Rest, 2 Almost broken Mugs, and 1 Rabbit Head

That was my morning between 6:45 and 7:45 this morning. It started when I threw up for no apparent reason. I didn't make it to the bathroom and decided to use my hand as a blocker as I raced toward the toilet. I wouldn't recommend doing this as it causes the throw-up to go everywhere: all over the dresser, all over the floor, down your leg, on your pajamas, all over the toilet (when you finally reach it), all over your face, and worst of all- up your nose. I didn't know what to clean up first!

After finally cleaning up everything, I continued getting ready. When I was about to leave, I noticed that Heidi had also thrown up in the living room. Actually I wasn't sure which end the mess had come from because it was bloody and brown. I was sure that she was eating it! I always think of the verse in Proverbs that compares a man returning to sin to a dog returning to vomit. YUCK! Quickly I pulled Heidi away and put her out. Then upon further inspection, I realized that the mess was indeed throw-up- furry, fleshy throw-up. It was definitely from some type of rodent that Heidi had apparently eaten during the night. It actually didn't smell as bad as I thought that it would, but it was very disgusting to clean up.

At this point I was rushing to get out the door to work on time. I opened one of our upper cabinets upon which three mugs/teacups fell out on my head. Actually only one broke- along with the spoon holder that it fell on.

When I returned home from work, I decided to inspect the yard for the remains of whatever Heidi had eaten. I didn't have to look for long as she instantly ran and retrieved a rabbit head. She ran to the gate with it in her mouth- ready to go inside like she was just holding a stuffed animal. Eventually I did get her to drop it, and I put her inside so that I could remove it from the yard. Sorry I didn't take a picture to post- I am sure that Jon would have.

I am amazed that the head was all that remained of the poor rabbit. Hopefully the rest of the day will be uneventful! Although I am little unsure as I think about all of the parts of the rabbit that I didn't find in the yard- which are now in Heidi's stomach!

Kelly's Belly w32.5

All is going well as my pregnancy continues. I am going to the doctor every 2 weeks now, which brings a certain sense of accomplishment. Jon and I are trying to get as ready as we can for our little baby boy. Yesterday Jon hung a fan in the nursery while I went through all of the baby clothes. Somehow he didn't want to discuss each outfit with me while he was hanging the fan! Jon is also doing a great job reading up on parenthood. He has already completed The Happiest Baby on the Block and is currently reading a rather large book that Focus on the Family put out about Babies and Children. He is ahead of me in that regard as I haven't really read too much yet. We started our childbirth classes last week. They are good so far, but this next week is the video week. I am pretty much not looking forward to that. Then two weeks from now we get to go on a tour of the hospital. That should be fun. I figure if anything, the classes are good for us because we will be able to nail down our route from our house to the hospital as we are going to class there once a week for five weeks. Hard to believe there's only 7 and 1/2 weeks to go- we can't wait!