2012, you better be good to me!

Well, things have been moving so fast, that I haven't been able to update my blog as much as I would have liked. So I figured that I better get one in before January was over so I could at least have one a month.


As of today, Colin is doing FANTASTIC! He is finally off the breathing tube and is down to just using a nasal cannula. Here is one of my favorite pics taken last week:

So as long as he keeps it up, hopefully in a few weeks he could be off the nasal cannula altogether. Crazy! Since he is now off the nasal cannula, we are now starting to try to teach him how to breastfeed. While breastfeeding in general is hard for mothers of newborns, it is especially precarious when you are a preemie like Colin.


Because he is just now learning to breathe on his own without the breathing tube, we have to be careful that when he takes in breast milk, that he doesn't aspirate (breathe) it into his lungs. Even just a tiny spray of fluid could cause MAJOR lung damage. Of course this terrifies me, and each day that we try, I try to stay calm. At the moment, he hasn't quite remembered how to latch onto me the way he did a few days ago. This could take weeks, if not months. However, I am patient with him, and seeing how far we have come, I am pleased.


As for his medical issues, we are still dealing with them as new information is presented. Preemies are at risk of having ROP, an eye disease that can cause blindness. Here is a great 3 min video about how it is identified and treated:




In Colin's case, we decided to go with a new procedure that puts a medicine in his eye to enable the blood vessels there to develop like they should. As of right now, it seems to have worked, however, he is still showing signs of being on the cusp of it MIGHT returning. Ugh! So for the next 5 months, he has to have a weekly eye exam to make sure it doesn't come back. If it does, then they will give him more of the medicine or perform laser surgery on him.


As for his brain bleed, he still has the reservoir that is in his head and they use it to drain the brain fluid that accumulates. Here is a pic where you can see the reservoir on his left side:

We are still not sure if he is going to get the permanent shunt that can manage this better, but my mommy intuition says we might get this soon. We just need to make sure he is SUPER strong breathing on his own, so that when he recovers from the shunt surgery, he can go back to breathing on his own.


Which brings me to my other "mommy intuition". For some reason, it is telling me that we might be able to bring him home in March. However, no doctor at CHLA has even HINTED as that as a possibility. But I will continue to pray and hope it comes true.


2012 has a lot riding on it. So far it has seen my baby come so far. Look at this contrast from his birthday, 1 month birthday, and 2 month birthday:

I'm so proud of him!